An optimist's guide to the 2025 Miami Dolphins

This offseason, the Dolphins are looking to rebuild the team’s culture with players expected to hold each other responsible for their actions on and off the field. When asked to elaborate on what that would look like, McDaniels didn’t mince words after recent OTA practices:

“Feeling very open as a team that, ‘Hey, it’s okay to call someone out when they deserve to be called out.’ And for those people … it’s okay to be called out as long as you change your (expletive) behavior, okay?”

Of course, discipline only works when all parties are on board, something linebacker Bradley Chubb thinks will be different this year.

“I’m going to say last year, we were lying honestly,” Chubb told reporters. “It’s not necessarily him changing, it’s more about us, man, about how we accept what he’s telling us.”

Assuming last year’s 8-9 finish served as a wake-up call for Dolphins players, McDaniel should have the team’s full attention next season.

2. Healthy linebackers

Miami allowed the fourth-fewest yards (313.8) and 10th-fewest points (21.4) per game last season without two of its best defensive players. Chubb led Miami with 11 sacks in 2023, but a torn ACL, meniscus, and patellar tendon in Week 17 cost him the entire 2024 season.

Fellow linebacker Jaelan Phillips had a team-high seven sacks in 2022 but managed only 6.5 sacks after tearing his ACL and appearing in only 12 games over the past two seasons. He, Chubb and Chop Robinson, the team’s first-round pick in 2024, give the Dolphins three of the most talented linebackers in the NFL, when healthy, which all should be when the team opens the 2025 season against the Colts.

3. Tua Tagovailoa

Last season went so poorly for the Dolphins quarterback that it’s easy to forget he led the NFL with 4,624 yards in 2023. Head and hip injuries limited the 27-year-old quarterback to 11 games in 2024, but he still finished with the second-best quarterback rating (101.4) of his career.

When healthy, Tagovailoa is one of the most talented quarterbacks in the NFL and is working on ways to protect himself and stay on the field.

“Doing everything I can to stay available for the guys,” Tagovailoa told reporters after minicamp practice. “It’s knowing when is the time to give up on a play, and I would say the longevity for me to be on the field with my guys is more important than whatever that one play is.”

Tagovailoa and his guys will travel to Indianapolis on Sept. 7 to open the 2025 regular season against the Colts.