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Dolphins GM Chris Grier and coach Mike McDaniel on Stephen Ross’ reaction to the season
Dolphins GM Chris Grier and coach Mike McDaniel on Stephen Ross’ reaction to the season
An offense that underperformed. Stars who collected millions but didn’t deliver. Players who spent more time in the trainer’s room than on the field. An aging roster. Basic mistakes that kept getting repeated.
If you’re looking for a framework on why the Miami Dolphins had a losing record and missed the playoffs in 2024, there it is. Those forces were powerful enough to offset what went right. For that list, start with first-year coordinator Anthony Weaver’s defense, which outperformed Vic Fangio’s despite playing virtually the entire season without its top two pass rushers. Zach Sieler ascended to the level of team MVP as a more-than-capable replacement for Christian Wilkins on the defensive line. Running back De’Von Achane and tight end Jonnu Smith stood out for setting team records but also as outliers to an otherwise forgettable season in which the offense took a major step backward.
Put it all together – as we did in a statistical analysis of the 2024 Miami Dolphins – and it adds up to an 8-9 season that general manager Chris Grier labeled “unacceptable.”
Behind the scenes, the operation was just as rough. Players and coaches lamented as the locker room was cleared out that a crackdown is in order on a lax atmosphere that condoned basic disciplinary issues such as players being late to meetings. Hard-line coaches will tell you that manifests itself in the on-field product, so perhaps it’s no coincidence that only eight NFL teams were penalized more than the Dolphins in 2024. For an offense that struggled to score, penalties didn’t just put the Dolphins “behind the sticks,” as players like to say, it put them behind the eight ball.
Tua Tagovailoa. Any explanation of what went right or wrong for this team naturally revolves around its franchise player. It’s no coincidence the Dolphins were one team with him at quarterback, a different team with a cast of unqualified backups filling in for him, which ranks as the most crippling miscalculation by Grier and coach Mike McDaniel in 2024. The Dolphins were forced to play 6½ games without Tagovailoa due to another concussion and a hip injury. What ensued was ugly football even by preseason standards. The Dolphins went 1-6 in the seven games he either didn’t play or didn’t finish, with their scoring rate hacked in half, down to 12.9 points per game. Thanks to Jason Sanders that it wasn’t even lower than that.
Lack of dependable backup QB crippled this team
Grier said the Dolphins were runners-up for more proven backup QBs but the Dolphins’ salary cap constraints got in the way. Of course, as head of football operations, Grier is the one slicing up the pie, so he’s the one who put those constraints in place to begin with. Had backup quarterback been a higher priority, the Dolphins wouldn’t have been left to hope an answer would emerge from among Mike White, Skylar Thompson, Tim Boyle and Tyler “Snoop” Huntley.
“It will be a position that we will focus on this offseason,” Grier said in what likely were words he had to repeat to owner Stephen Ross before getting word he’d be back next season. It’s paramount given Tagovailoa’s injury history. So is Tagovailoa doing all he can to avoid injuries to begin with.
“He needs to be available,” Grier said. “He needs to know how to protect himself. You’re going to get hit at times, it’s always going to happen, but he needs to control what he can control. He understands that. Not being available for taking chances and risk is unacceptable to us, and he knows that.”
It was back in August that Ross famously said during a preseason telecast that if the Dolphins stayed healthy, they should be Super Bowl contenders. They didn’t stay healthy. Was that truly a surprise? These Dolphins finished the season with 15 players on various injured lists, mimicking the past couple of seasons. They include edge rushers Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips for the second consecutive year, plus starting right tackle Austin Jackson, whose season-ending knee injury crippled a rushing attack whose production plummeted by 52.6 yards per game without him.
While it’s true all teams have injuries – just look at the Detroit Lions – some teams are built to deal with them better than others. Just look at the Detroit Lions.
A team built on star power is shut out of Pro Bowl
In the case of the Dolphins, their 2025 salary cap is top-heavy, with five of the top 12 moneymakers having spent significant time on injured lists this season. One could argue that of the dozen, the only players coming off seasons that were commensurate with performance were cornerback Jalen Ramsey, Sieler, linebacker Jordyn Brooks and center Aaron Brewer. Certainly, though, no one begrudges left tackle Terron Armstead for soldiering through another injury-plagued season. If anything, he’s highly respected for not throwing in the towel, unlike a certain star receiver.
But when a team built around star power fails to land a single player in the Pro Bowl, that’s a serious problem. So, too, a roster that as of today includes 11 players 30 or older.
So much of this team was to revolve around Tagovailoa throwing to receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. Instead, Hill failed to make the Pro Bowl or the playoffs for the first time – which he loudly announced to the world – and Waddle also failed to top 1,000 yards for the first time in his four seasons.
Put it together and what do you have? A whopping 1,110 fewer combined yards for Hill and Waddle. Achane rewrote records for a Dolphins all-purpose back, as did Smith establishing himself as the most prolific receiving tight end in Dolphins history, but that wasn’t enough.
Ball security was another matter. The Dolphins finished with a minus-5 turnover differential. How much did it sting? They were 5-1 when they won the turnover battle, 1-5 when they didn’t.
Will Anthony Weaver be one and done?
The Dolphins now hold their breath that Weaver will be back for a second season as defensive coordinator while also recognizing that if he doesn’t get a head coaching job this season, he’ll surely land one next. “Will not be surprised,” McDaniel said.
Weaver won over players and staff alike to the extent that Grier can’t help but tout his presence even though he knows the Dolphins could selfishly benefit if he did.
“You can tell when he walks into a room, he just commands respect,” Grier said. “ … I think any organization would benefit tremendously from him. I would hate for him to leave us because then that’s possibly a fourth defensive scheme for the defensive guys to go through. But I highly recommend him for anyone. He’s a tremendous human being and football coach.”
There were ample reasons the defense could have taken a step back this season: new coordinator whose system might take a year to take root. A lack of sacks and takeaways. Injuries. Too many newcomers. None of it could wreck the bottom line. The Dolphins moved up six places over last season in total defense (up to No. 4) and 12 places in fewest points allowed (to 10th).
All of it adds up to an 8-9 season and a fifth consecutive AFC East title for the Buffalo Bills in what supposedly was a tear-it-down-build-it-up year in western New York. The Dolphins know part of that routine well, having swum upstream for the better part of the 24 seasons they’ve gone without a playoff win, 19 of which didn’t even involve a playoff appearance.
Will the wrap-up on the 2025 season take on – at last – a different tone? Will the Dolphins not have to hear a word about a playoff-win drought lasting 26, 27 or more years? Will Hard Rock Stadium host its first playoff game since Jan. 4, 2009?
Grier knows something has to change. Before anyone could ask the first question, he began the wrap-up news conference with a statement.
“First I’d like to say, disappointed – 8-9, that’s not the standard here,” he said. “It hasn’t been and it won’t be. We will be better and that includes everyone from myself to Mike, coaching staff, players. We had expectations which we were created by the excitement of the last couple years and we had hoped to continue it and for various circumstances, didn’t happen this year and it was unacceptable. No one is happy and we will get this fixed.”
The NFL Combine, a chance to get an up-close look at fresh talent, is around the corner at the end of February. It’ll be followed by free agency, the draft and offseason programs. Training camp is more than six months away.
You could say that sounds like a lot of time.
You can’t help but conclude it sounds like a lot of work to be done.
Dolphins reporter Hal Habib can be reached at hhabib@pbpost.com. Follow him on social media @gunnerhal.
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