Part 1 of a pre-Falcons game Miami Dolphins On SI mailbag:

From Mike Marchese:

Give me a positive for this game, or ANY game, Alain!!

Hey Mike, well, I could start by saying the Dolphins can’t play any worse than they did against the Browns. I could say that maybe they find a way to make the plays at the end to close out a win the next time they get the chance, such as the Chargers, Panthers and Patriots games. I get the doom and gloom, but I also refuse to believe the Dolphins are as bad as the team we saw last Sunday.

From Ed Helinski:

Have the Dolphins hit rock bottom yet? Or might the depth be deeper?

Hey Ed, I’m sensing a theme here. Truthfully, I’m not sure how you can get lower than a 25-point loss against a Cleveland team that’s about as bad as any in the entire NFL offensively. That had to be rock bottom, no?

From Jayco:

Have you started working on potential HC and GM candidates?

Hey Jayco, not a deep dive, no, though I’m aware of the names mentioned as potential head coach candidates, like Chargers DC Greg Minter, Rams DC Chris Shula, Bills OC Joe Brady and Jaguars DC Anthony Campanile. But the deep research will come when a move is made.

From Sean Beachem:

How will in-season trades impact this year’s cap vs next year? Is there carryover to ‘26?

Hey Sean, when it comes to trades, future cap obligations (such as prorated bonuses) considerations get moved to 2025 immediately. So, yes, there can be a negative impact if large bonuses are involved, but base salary (prorated remaining portion for 2025 and all future years) come off the books with a player traded.

From chris:

When will it stop?

Hey Chris, that’s a great question right there and nobody knows the answer. It could be as soon as Sunday, it could take another month, maybe it never ends and the Dolphins go 1-16 or 2-15.

From Mike Jones:

More of a venting, less of a question. All of Miami’s hurt offensive linemen…not ONE of them is ready to help out this poor unit? I would settle for Meyer or Eichenberg at this point. Grrr! 2nd question…Jason Sanders was supposed to miss 4-6 weeks. What gives? Are players on IR seen in the building. I assume they rebah at the training center or is that not true?

Hey Mike, don’t know what to tell you regarding Meyer, Eichenberg or Sanders still not being ready other than Mike McDaniel’s comments regarding Eichenberg sounding ominous from the start. The Dolphins are not required to provide updates or progress reports, but McDaniel informs the media every week whether the IR players are ready to return. And, yes, players generally rehab at the facility.

From Charles Boyd:

Alain, I believe that it is time for Chris Grier to go. I think he has been unsuccessful at the draft for too long. Which of the big 4 do you put the most blame on? Grier, McDaniel, Tua, or Ross?

Hey Charles, first off, I’d have to know the blame for what? For this season? For the long stretch without a playoff win? Ross isn’t involved in the day-to-day operations, so he gets a bit a pass in that sense other than he’s the one putting the people in charge. And everything starts at the very top. And Grier and McDaniel have collaborated on a lot of decisions, so it’s tough to separate one from the other. And since my stance on Tua always has been that he’s a facilitator more than a difference-maker, then I’m not going to rag on him because he never should be or have been expected to carry a team if there are too many issues around him. It’s always why it didn’t make sense to pay him a top-of-the-market salary. So my ranking, I guess, would be Ross first, Grier and McDaniel tied for second, and Tua a distant fourth.

From Mark Malbeck:

Hey Alain, appreciate you doing this Q&A. I was 12 when I started following Miami (1970) and was born and raised in Florida. So I’m a diehard fan. My question is this, could the elevation of Ewers to QB2 be a situation where they may try and trade Wilson for a late-rounder?

Hey Mark, yeah, I understand the question, but I have a hard time coming up with a team that would be willing to give up anything at all for Wilson considering he hasn’t playing in a real game since late in the 2023 season and he didn’t look much like an NFL quarterback at that time.

From ross maclochness:

You are probably only seeking serious question, so “Do I need to watch this game?” probably won’t make the cut.

Hey Ross, you’d be surprised at my tolerance for all types of questions. LOL. And this answer is you should want to watch the game if a true, diehard fan to see what’s going on with the team.

From Prince-Bishop Militantly Aardvark:

Hi, Alain. Do you think it’s possible that the Dolphins switched strategies after the defense was so consistently poor and Hill went down and are now embracing a full-on tank with the plan being to get a top pick, clear out some of the costlier errors of recent years and return to glory?

Hey PBMA, no, I can’t envision the Dolphins adopting a tanking strategy after the fiasco of 2019/20 and with a QB who limits what you can do because of the cap commitment to him. And if the Dolphins were tanking, would that mean that Mike McDaniel has been assured he’d be back in 2026? If not, why would he want to be a party to hurting his won-loss record at a time when the thought is he’s on his way out? So, no.

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