The 2025 season has turned into a disaster for the Miami Dolphins. Miami is just 1-6 heading into Week 8 after an embarrassing loss against Cleveland last week. Now the narratives are beginning to spin about a potential rebuild for the Dolphins being the only real path forward.
The Athletic's Dianna Russini dropped some interesting reporting surrounding the Dolphins ahead of Week 8.
“I’m told that embattled Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel has not lost the vast majority of Miami’s locker room despite a 1-6 start,” Russini wrote on Saturday. “However, as we have seen play out in press conferences, his relationship with QB Tua Tagovailoa needs work if the Dolphins hope to right the ship Sunday in Atlanta — and beyond.”
Tua made waves earlier this month when talking about his teammates showing up late for player-only meetings. That is just one more symptom of the dysfunction within the Dolphins organization.
One NFL general manager had a blunt assessment of the situation in Miami.
“Miami needs a fresh start,” the source told Russini. “They never really developed and drafted well enough. They put Band-Aids on the roster and no progress. Mike’s not a bad coach. It’s just an aimless program … not a program that can be sustained.”
Unfortunately, it seems like the worst is yet to come for the Dolphins.
Russini observed Mike McDaniel has checked out nightmare season
Russini also observed on Monday that McDaniel did not look locked in after Miami's latest defeat.
“Yeah, I think we all saw it. I don’t think anyone watched that game and thought that Mike McDaniel even wanted to be out there in the rain and in the cold,” said Russini. “He looked miserable just being the head coach. So, we'll just start with him on the sideline and obviously the ridiculous sunglasses and he just looks like, for a coach that I think had so much potential and is still a really bright guy, he just looks like it's spinning a little bit out of his control.”
But Miami's leadership is still confident in McDaniel, despite all of the narratives flying around in the media.
“I talked to some people on Monday after that game about, alright making changes, right? What do we got? When are you guys going to fire Mike? Just give us a heads up. And they continue to say the same thing, which is, we’re not doing it because ownership believes that he can still continue to turn this around. That’s obviously Stephen Ross’ opinion,” Russini added.
Perhaps getting a win in Week 8 can calm some of the uneasiness surrounding the Dolphins this season.
Dolphins at Falcons kicks off at 1PM ET on Sunday.
