The Dolphins (0-3) travel to “The Land of 10,000 Lakes” to take on the (3-0) Minnesota Vikings. This will be only the 2nd time in NFL History that a team will have faced undefeated teams in their first 4 games of the season. The only other team to have done that was the 1986 Philadelphia Eagles. If you’re curious, the Eagles lost their first 3 games but upset the Los Angeles Rams at home 34-20 in Week 4. The Vikings defense has been an NFL best in points allowed through 3 games, allowing only 13.7 PPG. In contrast, the Dolphins have allowed 28.7 PPG and is 31st in the NFL. To make it worse, the Dolphins on offense are scoring 2nd to last at 12.0 PPG. The over/under is 38 points and unless you think the Dolphins are going to find themselves on offense, without RB De’Von Achane who is OUT for the season with a torn ACL, I’d bet the UNDER.
RB Jaylen Wright is trending towards healthy, and he will share the carries with RB Ollie Gordon. Gordon is averaging a paltry 2.4 YPC with 48 yards on 20 carries and 1 TD. Wright has yet to show the explosiveness and speed that was the allure that former GM Chris Grier couldn’t resist in the 2024 NFL Draft, Grier traded a 2025 3rd RD pick to get a 4th RD selection and take RB Jaylen Wright.Wright has not shown he was worth that trade, which is no surprise considering it was Chris Grier who traded up to get him. Grier might have the worst WIN percentage on Draft Trade Ups in the history of the league. I’m not going to bore you or anger you by citing each and every failure, you know them all too well. Wright will once again though have a chance to make Grier look better since RB De’Von Achane is OUT, and RB Ollie Gordon hasn’t done anything to solidify a starting spot. Let’s all hope Wright makes the best of the situation.
If you want to look at two units on the opposite end of the spectrum, focus on the Miami Dolphins defense and the Minnesota Vikings defense. As the broadcast team made quite clear last week against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Dolphins defense has yet to register a sack during the 2026 season. The Vikings, on the other hand, have 14 sacks already in the young season. OLB Dallas Turner leads the Vikings with 3.5 sacks, and here’s the thing that angers so many Dolphins including myself, OLB Andrew Van Ginkel is next with 3. Vikes have 8 players with at least 1/2 a sack, which is a stark contrast with a team who has no one. Hopefully that changes this weekend with a healthy Chop Robinson, yes that dirty, mean Chop Robinson who dared to touch Superstar QB Patrick Mahomes. DE Robert Beal has a hamstring injury and is likely OUT. DE Josh Uche or DE Malik Herring are going to need to give Chop some help to free him up to make a play or two. In addition to not having a sack, the Dolphins have also yet to force a fumble on defense. ILB Jacob Rodriguez would be the most likely guy to start the wave with his remarkable 7 FF’s last season at Texas Tech.
Despite the 0-3 record, we have seen some improvement. Besides the obvious lack of sacks on defense, and the generosity of the defense to opposing offenses, at times the offense has resembled a functional NFL unit. That will be tested heavily without RB De’Von Achane, but maybe RB Jaylen Wright finally comes of age. It’s a shame that WR Caleb Douglas is OUT, he brought some explosiveness to the offense, and Chris Bell, who is clearly not right yet physically has also shown promise, and I believe that if/when both of these players are healthy, our offense will be that much better. OC Aaron Brewer is dealing with a finger injury but my guess is he will suit up and play. The rest of the line is healthy, and RT Austin Jackson had a better game last week compared to his difficult showing 2 weeks ago. Rookie LG Kadyn Proctor continues to progress, and his pass blocking is a tremendous upgrade to what we had last season in LG Jonah Savaiinaea, who BTW has held his own at RG this season. LT Patrick Paul hasn’t been awesome, basically playing like an average LT, which is a bit disappointing because I think we all hoped he could be elite.
The Dolphins made some roster moves to try and improve the Special teams unit, they signed Cincinnati Bengals LB Shaka Heyward 6’3 238. Glad they recognize that the ST’s unit needs help and are addressing that. K Riley Patterson is 5-7 on FGA’s, and P Bradley Pinion has been worse. He had an awful fumble 2 weeks ago against the Niners when he dropped the ball when attempting to punt, and overall his work has been underwhelming. I’d say both the K and P are on thin ice and in danger of losing their jobs. On the bright side, Malik Washington has been very good both returning kickoffs and punts, and now that Jaylen Wright looks to be back, he will help on KR’s as well. The game of field position has been one we are losing, and when you have a young team that isn’t thriving on either side of the ball, it’s amazing how much a little boost from special teams can give the team. We have sustained some long drives on offense, but the points just aren’t there. Better field position can help there.
GO DOLPHINS!!!
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