Are the Dolphins an 'Aimless Program'?

As the Miami Dolphins' 2025 season has continued to go sideways, every NFL analyst with a platform has come up with his or her theory as to what's wrong with the organization.

But there was a new take revealed in a story in The Athletic on Saturday that deserved attention because it came from an NFL general manager.

That GM, speaking to Diana Russini anonymously (because no NFL executive would publicly criticize an opposing team) had this to say of the 1-6 Dolphins: “Miami needs a fresh start. 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.”

WHAT TO MAKE OF THE COMMENT

"Mike," of course, is head coach Mike McDaniel, whose job security has been an ongoing focal point, to the extent that not a week goes by these days where he's not asked about his conversations with team owner Stephen Ross.

As the GM points out, it would be absurd to suggest the Dolphins are in the mess they're in strictly because of McDaniel.

Regardless of McDaniel strengths and shortcomings, he still guided the Dolphins to playoff appearances in 2022 and 2023 and turned around the career of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa after he had mediocre seasons with Brian Flores as head coach.

We also would take exception to the idea of the Dolphins being "aimless" because GM Chris Grier laid out the direction of the organization during his annual post-53 cuts press conference.

This was what he said when he was asked in late August whether Ross had given him a mandate to not spend much in free agency after consistently adding big-name veterans in previous offseasons.

"When you go and you make aggressive moves like we had made for a few years, you have to reset again and start it over because it’s just not sustainable the way the contracts are with players and what they’re making now," Grier said. "So in terms of directive, no; for us, it was just good business sense working through it and trying to find value, but we also had to get younger, so we added younger players. Like a year ago we were one of a couple teams with all the one-year vet contracts and stuff, so we’re in a different spot now adding the young players. That’s the direction we’re going right now and we’ve been very happy so far.”

Obviously, that last part "we've been very happy so far" hasn't held up very well.

So basically the problem wasn't so much that the Dolphins didn't have direction or were "aimless," but rather that maybe they didn't get the right players or maybe they just haven't coached them up properly.

And that applies not only to the Dolphins' 2025 free agent class, which has been massively underwhelming and also hurt by injuries (mainly James Daniels), but to a draft class that hasn't produced much impact.

It could be that the team's top two picks, Kenneth Grant and Jonah Savaiinaea, become long-time quality starters in the NFL, but the growing pains they've experienced so far has been detrimental to a team that's been short of difference-makers.

This absolutely meshes with the idea that Dolphins "never really developed and draft well enough."

It also should be mentioned that the Dolphins also surrendered a lot of draft capital while they were "going for it" in those 2022-23 seasons and brought in big-name veterans like Tyreek Hill, Terron Armstead, Bradley Chubb and Jalen Ramsey, to name just four.

That's why they needed a higher hit rate than normal, and it's just the opposite that's happened.

In the past four drafts — from 2022 to this year — the only two hits the Dolphins have had in the draft right now are De'Von Achane and Patrick Paul. Channing Tindall, Cam Smith and Erik Ezukanma didn't pan out, we already discussed Grant and Savaiinaea, and Chop Robinson is off to a very disappointing start in 2025 in his second season after showing so much promise in the second half of his rookie season.

THE SUSTAINABILITY POINT

With the Dolphins heading to Atlanta as a clear underdog, there absolutely appears little hope in sight barring a "fresh start," but how much of the issues could be fixed — or at least minimized — if some of the high-end players starting performing to their expected leve.

That obviously starts with QB Tua Tagovailoa, who's coming off a dreadful performance at Cleveland, but also includes players like Zach Sieler, Bradley Chubb and Minkah Fitzpatrick.

And then how much of a difference could Daniels and Austin Jackson make for the offensive line once they're finally able to return from their Week 1 injuries?

Let's also not forget that the Dolphins did have a chance to win in four of their six losses — against the Patriots, Bills, Panthers and Chargers — and the conversation would be much different had they been able to pull out one or two of those.

But the Dolphins didn't win those games because bad teams don't win close games.

And the Dolphins right now are a bad team.

We can quibble whether or not they're "aimless," but what's clear is there are major issues.

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