It would be easy to simply blame terrible quarterback luck for the Miami Dolphins‘ embarrassing 24-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.
Tua Tagovailoa was out, which meant first Skylar Thompson, and then Tim Boyle, were in. And that was certainly a contributing factor in arguably the Dolphins’ worst offensive game under Mike McDaniel.
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But here’s a cold blast of reality: The Minnesota Vikings, Pittsburgh Steelers, Green Bay Packers, and Carolina Panthers all won Sunday.
All but the Steelers scored 30 or more points.
And they all started backups and/or re-treads at quarterback.
Put another way: Yes, the Dolphins have a QB problem. But that problem is the symptom of a more serious malady. The Dolphins aren’t one of the NFL‘s worst teams right now because they’re unlucky. They’re “unlucky” because they constructed a fundamentally flawed roster.
“I’m not looking for excuses,” McDaniel said after Sunday’s bludgeoning, his eighth loss by 14 or more points in his 39 games as Dolphins coach. “I don’t think anybody in the locker room is.”
In lieu of excuses, here’s an explanation.
Everything that doomed them Sunday — unacceptable quarterback and offensive line play, mental errors, injuries to key players, and too many special teams gaffes to count — was completely foreseeable for the past six months.
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McDaniel and Chris Grier knew the criticisms about Liam Eichenberg and Robert Jones when mulling offensive line moves during the offseason.
They knew that going into the training camp with Thompson and Mike White as their QB2 options was a big risk, considering Tagovailoa’s injury history.
They knew they were bringing back the core of a team that lost all five of its road games against playoff teams last year.
They knew that Terron Armstead, Odell Beckham Jr., Bradley Chubb, Raheem Mostert, and Isaiah Wynn also cannot stay healthy.
And they knew it was Danny Crossman in charge of the NFL’s 31st-ranked special teams unit (according to expert Rick Gosselin) in 2023.
So they couldn’t have been surprised that:
- An offense led by Thompson and then (after he got hurt) Boyle managed just three points, 205 yards, and 13 first downs.
- An offensive line that lost Armstead again (this time to a head injury) allowed six sacks and 12 quarterback hits.
- They committed 11 penalties (for 85 yards), including four on four consecutive plays in the second half.
- And the Dolphins kicking teams — with Crossman back for a sixth season — missed a long field goal and kept killing Miami’s chances with critical penalties.
“We have to handle the road better,” McDaniel said, who has now lost 11 of his last 15 games away from Hard Rock Stadium. “And that starts with me. That continues throughout everyone. The crowd was rocking and we looked as though it was the first time in a hostile environment.”
A reminder: Grier and McDaniel would chuckle when members of the media would point out glaring roster weaknesses during the offseason.
No one is laughing now.
Smart teams in the NFL spend money in the trenches and give contract extensions to reliably available quarterbacks. The Dolphins signed or retained a bunch of borderline starters on the offensive and defensive lines and spent their money on either aging (Armstead, Mostert, Tyreek Hill, and Jalen Ramsey, among others) or chronically injured (Tagovailoa) players.
The Chiefs traded Hill to the Dolphins and went on to win consecutive Super Bowls. The Dolphins are staring at a 24th-straight year without a playoff win despite having more stars than the Milky Way.
Moving forward, that fundamental reality will not change — no matter where the game is played or who is under center.