Kelly: Stop all the doom and gloom about the 2025 Dolphins

Miami Herald

10-07-2025

The Miami Dolphins had a disastrous 2024 season, one where nearly everything that could go wrong did.
The Pro Bowl tailback (Raheem Mostert) and fullback (Alec Ingold) both sustained injuries that hindered their contribution levels.
The starting quarterback (Tua Tagovailoa) began the season shelved by a concussion, and then ended it sidelined by a hip injury.
The No. 2 quarterback (Skylar Thompson, who beat out Mike White for the job) breaks his ribs in his first start replacing Tagovailoa, and his backup (Tyler 'Snoop' Huntley) had only been with the team a week prior to being elevated into a starting role, which forced the coaching staff to eventually simplify the offense to make it less putrid.
The top two pass rushers — Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips — were sidelined by a pair of knee injuries, and the top defensive lineman (Zach Sieler) is shelved a couple weeks after being poked in the eye during practice.
I have left plenty of important things out like losing Austin Jackson to a knee injury at midseason, which extinguished the run game, or having both Tyreek Hill (wrists) and Jaylen Waddle (knee) play through troublesome medical issues.
But you get the point. The Dolphins had nonstop drama (some call them excuses) last year.
Still, the 2024 Dolphins were a win against the New York Jets in the season finale, and a Denver Broncos loss away from advancing to the postseason in the final week of the season, and finished last year 8-9.
Say whatever you want about last year's team, but they didn't quit on themselves, and their coaches, rallying back from a 2-6 start to finish 6-3.
When others would have thrown in the towel, Mike McDaniel's third rendition of a Dolphins team kept fighting.
That type of resiliency is an admirable trait that McDaniel needs to find a way to carry over to the 2025 Dolphins, which are younger, less experienced, and has a leadership void to fill.
Even though Mostert, Jalen Ramsey, Jonnu Smith, Calais Campbell, Terron Armstead, five former Pro Bowl talents, are gone, along with Jevon Holland, Durham Smythe, Robert Jones, Anthony Walker, Kendall Fuller and others, it's difficult for me to conclude that Miami doesn't have the talent, or resiliency to exceed what was achieved last season.
For starters, a season with a healthy Tagovailoa has a ton of hope in it considering he's one of the NFL's most efficient quarterbacks (he's the only QB in the NFL to produce three consecutive 100 passer-rated seasons the past three years), and has never produced a losing record as a starter (38-24 as an NFL starter, which means he wins 63 percent of the games he's started).
And this year Tagovailoa's entering his third season in the same offense, which is unprecedented territory for the 2023 Pro Bowler, who has been in the MVP conversation heading into the final month of the season twice in his young career.
What Tagovailoa needs outside of his health is more help.
Miami wisely rebuilt the interior of the offensive line this offseason, and if youngsters such as Patrick Paul and Jonah Savaiinaea are capable, and James Daniels, and Jackson get healthy and become the NFL players they once were, the offensive line should improve.
That unit's struggles handcuffed the team more than anything outside of Tagovailoa's absence, and McDaniel admitted he was calling plays last season with the awareness that his team struggled to run the ball efficiently, or protect its quarterback in the moments that mattered most.
Hopefully that changes, and can subsequently help the Dolphins offense get back to being dynamic, which is how most people who can honest would describe it as in 2022, when it ranked sixth, and 2023, when it ranked first in the NFL.
Miami's pass rushing should improve if Phillips and Chubb can stay healthy, and pick up where they left off in 2023. If Chop Robinson continues to progress that trio of edge rushers could form a forceful defensive front with Zach Sieler and 2025 first-round pick Kenneth Grant.
They will likely serve as the backbone for the Dolphins' defense, especially considering how inexperienced Miami's secondary seems to be entering training camp since general manager Chris Grier hasn't added a veteran cornerback yet.
While losing Ramsey wasn't ideal, the Dolphins did re-acquire Pro Bowl safety Minkah Fitzpatrick in the recent trade with Pittsburgh, and he should provide Miami's young secondary a stabilizing presence, which is needed while young cornerbacks begin to learn about the NFL game in their first stint real stint as starters and contributing players.
It's fair to say Miami's inexperience at that position should create some concern about Anthony Weaver's defense. But the 2025 defense should has a couple more playmakers on it than year's unit did, and Weaver produced a top-10 unit in 2024.
And let's not forget that Weaver entering his second season with Miami having a greater mastery of his personnel.
That's is one of the many reasons the Dolphins have a chance to produce a winning record in 2025.
A healthy Waddle and Hill provides another, and pair that with the continued growth and development of De'Von Achane, and the NFL return of Darren Waller, who was viewed as one of the NFL's elite tight ends before he surprisingly retired last season, and Miami has a chance to be dynamic if everyone can stay healthy.
Nobody knows what to expect from Waller, but the same can, and should be said about this Dolphins team, which has labored all offseason to course correct the team's culture.
If they can hold the locker room together, and don't get decimated by injuries, what they have given themselves is a chance.
If McDaniel can hold it all together, and keep this team focused and driven, the Dolphins could exceed expectation, making some noise in the AFC.