Here we go, the season is finally upon us! The final injury repot will be out later today and I’m sure someone here will give us that update. The good news is it appears as if starting RT Austin Jackson will be starting, giving us our absolute best O-line possible. LT Patrick Paul – LG Jonah Savaiinaea – C Aaron Brewer – RG James Daniels – RT Austin Jackson. The one thing I can say is I feel at the very least, if everyone on this line can stay healthy, is that the O-line won’t be the biggest problem on the team, and that means a lot. I think Patrick Paul is ready to be a better than average left tackle. I think rookie LG Jonah Savaiinaea will be competent enough, making mistakes at times, but should be average. C Aaron Brewer is a good move center and while he might struggle some against much larger powerful interior defensive linemen, he’s a good player. James Daniels is a solid run blocker throughout his career but I do worry about him coming back from a torn achilles. Being in the trenches is a bad place for that kind of injury. RT Austin Jackson has become a competent right tackle, but he has had trouble staying healthy and the depth, as we all know is less than stellar. Bears FA RT Larry Borom would be next up there, or possibly Kendall Lamm or Kion Smith if Borom struggled. We need Jackson healthy.
The defense is what could be extremely interesting. That front seven and the different iterations could be exciting. It looks like they’re going to try to get as many of our pass rushers on the field as possible in certain formations, so instead of the usual 3-4 alignment, we might see some more 4-3, featuring a defensive line of the following,
LDE Chop Robinson
LDT Zach Sieler
RDT Benito Jones
RDE Bradley Chubb
and then have a linebacker unit of this,
WLB Jordyn Brooks
MLB Tyrel Dodson
SLB Jaelan Phillips
That’s a lot of pass rush talent on the field in that base defense featuring Chop and Chubb on the D-line, and then Jaelan Phillips at strong linebacker. Of course there’s Zach Sieler too, who has been a double digit sack man the last 2 seasons. This doesn’t mean we won’t be playing the 3-4 alignment as well, we will for sure, because the glaring omission here is our #1 draft pick DT Kenneth Grant, who will be playing 3-4 END opposite Sieler and next to NT Benito Jones. Grant wasn’t forgotten or skipped by any means, but the allure of having Chop, Chubb and Phillips all on the field is understandable.
The secondary is one place I honestly have no idea what to expect at all, I mean literally zero expectations for better or for worse. Will FS Minkah Fitzpatrick resemble the Pittsburgh Steelers safety from the last 2 seasons which was underwhelming and no resemblance to his former All Pro career, or will the change back to FS bring him back to where he was in 2023? It appears as if Ify Melfinonwu has taken a seat and now former Jet safety Ashtyn Davis will be given the nod at SS. Davis hasn’t been healthy and not sure how he could be ready at this point, but it’s happening regardless. At CB, Jack Jones will play LCB with Storm Duck at RCB and rookie Jason Marshall will be the nickel back. Rasul Douglas will be available if either of these guys struggle. To be fair though, Rasul Douglas had admitted that he doesn’t quite understand where and what he’s supposed to be doing yet, so Jones gets the nod for now.
On offense, we have to hope De’Von Achane is truly healthy and able to stay that way. He’s going to get a lot of touches if we go by last season, but rookie RB Ollie Gordon is just rearing to go and I like what I’ve seen him from him. I like the physicality of his game and welcome it. He’s more suited to getting a lot of carries. Then there’s RB Jaylen Wright who will not play this week due to injury. I won’t be surprised if Jaylen Wright takes a back seat on the depth chart behind Ollie Gordon, and stays there. If Ollie runs like I expect, there’s no reason for Wright who showed little last season to jump ahead. WR’s Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle seem healthy and slot WR Malik Washington looks great, so looking forward to his game this season. At TE, who the hell knows, and it’s the one thing that still has me wondering if these guys actually know what they’re doing. Apparently, TE Darren Waller will be starting, despite logging 3 minutes of practice, followed by Julian Hill and Tanner Conner. There’s also the wild card at wide receiver, WR Nick Westbrook-Ikhine who really failed to turn heads so far, but he’s a bigger bodied receiver coming off a nice season last year, so hopefully we can work him in for some big plays.
Special Teams has looked better than ever, with the exception of the K Jason Sanders injury which will keep him OUT for weeks. That sucks, because Sanders can bang them in from the high 50’s, and that aspect of our game went out the window. Mike McDaniel loves to gamble though, so I would imagine he’ll be doing just that and more often than you would expect. I love the return game which will be handled by WR Malik Washington. He looks as good or better in the return game as he does running routes, and that’s great. Our defensive special teams seems significantly better on kick return and punt return coverage, and that’s also a huge improvement from last season.
I expect QB Tua to feast on Sunday, he loves Game 1, the season opener. We look like Super Bowl contenders in Week 1, and I expect that trend to continue. WR Jaylen Waddle failed to reach 1000 yards for the first time last season and I hope the Dolphins look to remedy this. Waddle is the team’s heir apparent to #1 WR after this season, so they better find a way to get him more involved and keep him happy. I think the offense will be very good this week, with contributions of course from De’Von Achane and WR’s Hill, Waddle and Washington, and I think RB Ollie Gordon may get a decent workload, although MM and his trust issues with rookies concerns me. I’d love to see up a couple of TD’s and feeding Ollie Gordon in a RB Lamar Smith type game to close it out and maybe break off a big run here and there. We can only hope, right?
GO DOLPHINS!!!
Finsmob Unleashed 
I’m going to watch the game tomorrow more out of curiosity than actual excitement. I wish I felt good about this team, I just can’t
I EXPECT a win tomorrow.. I am hoping they totally dominate on both sides of the ball , but not holding my breath
I think they’ll squeak by, hence my prediction. I’m hoping the D can carry the load.
Dolphins @ Colts Predictions (Howie’s list)
🏈 37-17 🐬
🐷 40–6 🐬
🦍 27-24 🐬
🐘 18-15 🐬
🇨🇦 31-13 🐬
Mateer doesn’t throw with touch. Throws a pretty flat ball
Yeah, that last ball that almost got picked needed some air.
all of them could use a little air, before this last drive I thought he was horrible, Tannehillesque his first 2 years
Nice throw on the run by Mateer.
he definitely has the arm talent, just needs to work on some touch. He’s worth monitoring this season.
Mike E,
Like you’ve recently stated, I expect game 1 tomorrow to be like we’re shot out of a cannon on Offense. September Tua is the hottest Tua we’ve known.
And on Defense, our pass-rush should be most formidable.
My expectation is 🔥for us tomorrow. Anything less than that will be a major letdown for me.
My greatest concern, of course, is going to Indy with only 2 TEs.
Perhaps Coach McD got the memo from Warren Sharp: we run better without in-line TEs blocking. Who knows…
Yet by the same token, if we try that too much, it will easily be shut down.
Mateer is a guy who can get better. He’s a target for the 3rd round as of now.
he’s going to fly up the draft boards, a lot to work with there.
I’m not concerned about tomorrow. I expect early season Dolphin magic. That magic will likely disappear as soon as we play a legit team
While Mateer’s accuracy and mechanics may need some work his athleticism is undeniable
I expect us to come out like we did against the Jags 2 weeks ago and last season opener, like someone stuck their foot in MMs arse and he’s more worried about getting it out than coaching
hope in the end we can pull it out, the game not the foot
Tomorrow’s game will soon be afoot.
why do we need more than 2 TEs active tomorrow?
Because if one gets injured (knock on wood!), we’ll become much more 1-dimensional.
how so?
if Hill goes down we use Ingold or even Kion
if Conner goes down we use NWI or Ingold
I don’t see a problem, just more catches for Tyreek and Waddle
You’d think either Conner makes some plays tomorrow or they swap him for Dulcich for week 2 on 53
Waller can be a beast inside the 10, especially pairing with NWI, at least we’ll have NWI, that isn’t so bad, Jonnu doesn’t have that skill
That was another throw Mateer needed to put some air under.
He has done that a few times tonight. I think the talent is there in him but he is raw he needs work
he needs to lose the I have a strong arm mentality
can OU make any more STs mistakes?
Terrible
guess not
Some big college games next weekend.
USF is at Miami next weekend. Can they make it 3 upsets in a row?
no
how was that for touch
I don’t understand the concern about TE. If that is all we have to worry about we are in great shape. To me TE is somewhat of an overrated position because it means different things to different offenses and teams.
I’m worried about not only the TE position, but also the CB position, the kicker, and OL ( depth). That OL worry can also quickly lead to Tua worry.
Oklahoma ST’s failing in every facet.
Did they hire Crossman?
MM has taken over playcalling for Michigan
he’s on the blower to the QB, uh duh duh 47 wide ah duh right
speaking of MM, not sure, if its him or the questions our beatoff writers ask, seems all the interviews with coaches and players are boring, especially Omar and Chris Perkins Qs
Mateer needs to show accuracy throughout the season, if he does he’ll be a 1st rder
because his intangibles are off the chart
20 of 33 for 60%, he’ll need to be a little better, but considering the competition…
OU keeps running for 9 yards, 1 more and it wouldn’t count 😜
LOL, I remember that one.
I just realized who Mateer reminds me of, a Josh Allen (lite) coming out of college.
that’s where I was going with the accuracy and intangibles
There you go. 👊
I have been thinking the same thing.
he sure keeps plays alive
For this being only his second game playing TE, Oklahoma’s Jaren Kanak played well, blocking and receiving. Was a LB the previous 3 seasons.
He was #12
I did see that, that’s pretty impressive imo.
it was a lot to ask a true freshman starting this early to go into Oklahoma against this much improved team.
IT’S GAME DAY BITCHES!!!
Go Dolphins!!
Dolphins @ Colts Predictions (Howie’s list)
🏈 37-17 🐬
🐷 40–6 🐬
🦍 27-24 🐬
🐘 18-15 🐬
🇨🇦 31-13 🐬
🗿24-17🐎
Dolphins @ Colts Predictions (Howie’s list)
37-17 
40–6 
27-24 
18-15 
31-13 
24-17 🐎 🇬🇧
31 – 24 🐬
admins – season prediction gone to spam.
formatting above gone to sh1t 😞
Bookman – The position doesn’t matter, but it’s pretty clear that Grier and MM don’t really run things well. Do you honestly think any other team in the league was going to pull Darren Waller out of retirement? Why did we have to trade a 6th RD pick for a guy who wasn’t going to play for the team he was on? Why do you excuse the madness? Y’all are creaming over Ollie Gordon and Zeek Biggers and Quinn Ewers and we traded a draft pick for a TE with a bad hip and no real desire to play the game because our OC was his TE Coach 5 years ago, and then to add insult to injury, they put him as the #1 TE on the depth chart without a single practice. I know you’re “Dolphins tolerant”, but c’mon, that’s fucking ridiculous!
BRAVO 👏 👏👏
I just meant I don’t think the TE is our biggest worry, wasn’t really meant to be a comment about the current regime.
so I made the mistake of showing out $65 for Madden 26 the day before yesterday
piggy must be a madden virtuoso because I can’t complete a pass or run for more than a yard. Three and out is our new shout
at least on madden 26
Aren’t the Dolphins a top team in Madden ’26?
LOL yeah right
their opinion is approximate the same as the national media’s opinion
it’s a little harder than the last few years I’ve played
I’ve only been able to get big runs out of the no huddle offense
Happy Birthday Captain Stubbs!
Riley Patterson and Jeff Wilson elevated from practice squad this week. so we are going to see a lot of Tanner Connor today
Dolphins @ Colts Predictions (Howie’s list)
🏈 37-17 🐬
🐷 40–6 🐬
🦍 27-24 🐬
🐘 18-15 🐬
🇨🇦 31-13 🐬
🗿24-17🐎
🇬🇧 31 – 24 🐬
thanks Mike and for the on going articles
Rock – I wasn’t kidding – I thought I saw the Dolphins team had like an 89 rating or something like that. Not the case?
yeah, that is not the case they’re ranked 81 The Colts are ranked Higher
M – don’t know if u got fixed up with streams, but if you are interested, I paid a nominal subscription until I signed up for a lifetime membership for a streaming service.
It literally has everything. All live sports, PPV events and if you want, a service with VOD fir films and series.
No pop ups, HD and 4k feeds and I can even watch CBS Miami so listened to the local comms in preseason.
If u or any1 else is interested, send MikeE a mail and he’ll forward to me or ask him to send me your mail.
It’s an android App and there’s a nominal charge for ios for Apple if you are unfortunate enough to have an iphone of ipad.
I brought my Firestick to Skiathos wondering if I’d have a TV with an HDMI port. No TV in the room. Lmao. Fortunately I have laptop and downloaded Bluestacks (more for game boys than lobster boys – 🤣) and now have Apps on phone and laptop. Download of 45 megs – watched my hometown soccer team yesterday and will be tuning into Fins tonight at 8pm here. No matter what platform the game is shown on, it will be on this streaming service. It is obviously not legit. It also is not 100% reliable – servers can crash. For the money it’s a steal. I cut the chord 4 yrs ago now and pay nothing for TV anymore.
M and Star Wars fans.
Film memorabilia auction sale this month.
Vader’s light sabre goes under the hammer. Expected to fetch £2m 😱
Added the last compiled list of season predictions to the sidebar…
Nice! Thanks Twice!
looks good. Can’t wait until everyone begins to thank me for predicting the season correctly…
🐖💨💨💨💨💨💨
Ha! That’s awesome twice that’s awesome twice Ha!
Doctor some Prozac stat
Happy BDay Stubbs. Hope you doing well..
happy birthday Stubbs
when it’s game day and you are playing the Colts
https://www.longrangehunting.com/attachments/img_8895-gif.684386/
I uh am uh watching um the uh coach um Mike uh McDaniel um show um but not uh for many um more uh seconds. I can’t uh take uh it.
17-0 starts today! Let’s fucking go.
I totally believe it can happen 😀
Until we lose today? 😧
That um should um Not um Been Been been um a um reply
I almost always end up getting Colts games here. Browns and Bengals too when the Vikes aren’t the only game on. But, today for some damn reason the games I get are both NY teams. This East coast bias sucks ass.
Inactives
RB Jaylen Wright
QB Quinn Ewers (emergency third QB)
CB Ethan Bonner
OT Kendall Lamm
TE Darren Waller
WR Tahj Washington
DT Zeek Biggers
about as expected
Yup
I thought there was a shot Biggers would play
glad Daniels is active
who could you be talking about
Lets go Dolphins!!!!
Fins Up!!!
I hope Rookies Kenneth Grant and Jordan Phillips are up for the task today
shutting down the run on early downs will lead to a great defensive game
Twice – my prediction was 9-8.
Icons were massive – don’t know if that’s why my post went to spam folder?
Ahhh, thanks – updated with your pick
thanks thanks 😉
Piggy when 14-3 is no longer possible
https://x.com/buitengebieden/status/1955146939109941390
Let’s Go Dolphins!!!
❤️🐬🏈
Go Fins!
UK,
Thanks for the posts earlier, man. I’ll see how this week goes with the Firestick then assess.
👍
GO PHINS!!!
HELL YEAH!!!
The Dolphins are averaging giving up 27 yards per return so far……
🤣
I have Tyler Warren, Jonathan Taylor and Michael Pittman in FF. 🤣
nah, we don’t need Tyler Warren…
Certainly not when we could get Darren Waller!
Ouch
😂
O-line 5 intact
Oops! Too soon?
3 plays
Net +10 on returns
Off goes James Daniels… SMMFH
2 injuries on offense out the gate. WTF
Daniel’s going out with an ankle was pretty much inevitable
that was 100% on Tua
Oh, we are gong to get that Tua today
LOL
less than sizzling start
that was pretty good vision by Grant dropping off the pass rush to make the tackle on the dump off pass
great play
Daniel’s injury was a pec. Lovely.
Look at that, a TE blocking downfield. Yeah, we got that. We have a TE blocking a roster spot!
Why were they playing 30 yards off Taylor on that pass play?
Indy offense is heavy on the TE and RB. This is the type of offense I like, not that WR finesse crap.
Hey look, a QB diving for a first down. Our QB can do that . . . Once
why didn’t he dive headfirst into the safety’s chest? 🤔
BBM working 12 hour nights. Got a 3 hour nap. Going to try and get another 3 hour nap after the game before his 12 hour shift tonight. Hope I didn’t sacrifice my sleep for some bullshit.
Duck got burned
Roasted Duck.
Roasted duck anyone?
BEER!!! Great minds!!!
Indy just out walking the dog today.
Let’s see if they wake up or turtle up.
this season is going to be painful to watch.
On a side note, it looks like our kickoff returns are much better. LOL
haha! That’s about the only thing thus far
Too-ugh!
How the fuck does Tua not see that coming?!!!!!!
unbelievable, another turnover!!!
🐢
OMFG
Good grief.
YEP, we got that Tua today
Go to bed BBM
both of these turnovers are on Tua and Tua alone
that was just a DB blitz. Gotta see her the ball and feel tht coming. He moved up so I know he felt it – but wow secure the ball
At this rate, we may be taking phone calls for Tyreek at halftime.
Maybe we can get the 6th rounder back that we wasted on Waller 😒
so after 1:
our pass rush isn’t unstoppable
our secondary plays with a huge cushion
our offense is still inept.
They say, we do-do (slang for dog shit here)
Looks like I’m going back to yard work earlier than expected today
And my Sunday ticket is working as well as the fins …. Stuttering, stalling , blacking out ….
14 points off Tua turnovers
Man, this team really sucks. So far, it Looks like all the pundits were right.
soft
Trying 1 more time
Indy just out walking the dog today.Let’s see if they wake up or turtle up
Brian, I am thinking about it
The rest of the games in the NFL are all close games
Tua looks awful
Too-ugh was very close to his 3rd turnover
now the playcalling is matching Tua’s play
I guess they didn’t prepare for the DB blitz at all
Can I change my prediction?