Frustrations and poor play have outweighed the positives for the Miami Dolphins so far in 2025 as their 4-7 record can attest.

While back-to-back wins to begin November have the team feeling a little less hopeless during a Week 12 bye, the playoffs are still a significant long shot for the Dolphins with six games left to play.

But it hasn’t all been bad.

With 11 games in the books, here’s who has stood out positively for the Dolphins so far this season and who has been a disappointment:

Stud: RB De’Von Achane

It hasn’t mattered if the Dolphins offense as a whole is having a good day or a terrible one, Achane has been productive, regardless. He’s averaged at least five yards per carry in seven of Miami’s 11 games and has reached at least 90 yards of offense in all but two performances.

The third-year running back is at 900 rushing yards and 370 receiving yards through the first 11 weeks. That puts him fourth in the NFL in yards from scrimmage behind only Christian McCaffrey, Jonathan Taylor, and Bijan Robinson.

It’s become increasingly clear that the Miami offense goes through Achane and he has a real chance at joining Ricky Williams as the only other Dolphins player to record 2,000 yards of offense in a single season.

Dud: Dolphins pass rush

When the Dolphins constructed their defensive roster in the 2025 offseason, it seemed the philosophy was to create a front seven so destructive and disruptive that it wouldn’t matter much who was playing in the secondary.

Surging 2024 draft pick Chop Robinson was finally going to team up with veterans Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips. Reliable veteran Zach Sieler was given a monstrous running mate in 2025 first-round pick Kenneth Grant. The Dolphins even added four-time Pro Bowl pass rusher Matthew Judon to the mix.

So it’s pretty surprising that only eight teams have fewer sacks than the Dolphins at this point in the season.

Robinson and Sieler, who were the Dolphins’ two leaders in sacks last season, have just one each. Judon is still at zero and has a grand total of one quarterback hit.

Stud: WR Jaylen Waddle

When Tyreek Hill suffered a season-ending in Week 4, the Dolphins got to see the answer to a question they probably weren’t planning on learning until 2026. Can Jaylen Waddle be their No. 1 receiver after Hill’s time in Miami is over?

The answer, it seems, is a resounding yes.

In seven games without Hill in the lineup, Waddle has recorded 32 receptions for 537 yards and three touchdowns. Those averages extrapolated over a 17-game schedule would leave him with 78 receptions, 1304 yards, and seven touchdowns. Only two receivers — Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase — eclipsed the 1,300-yard mark last season.

Waddle is putting up No. 1 receiver numbers and inspiring hope for the Dolphins that they’ll be able to keep finding explosive plays after Hill is no longer on the roster.

Dud: QB Tua Tagovailoa

For most of Tagovailoa’s career, the issue has been injuries. He dealt with multiple concussions in 2022, but bounced back to lead the NFL in passing yards in 2023. Tagovailoa missed six games last year, but had the league’s best completion percentage and the Dolphins had a 6-5 record with him in the starting lineup.

This year has been different.

Tagovailoa is healthy, but has simply struggled to be an efficient and winning starter. He leads the NFL in interceptions, isn’t far from the league lead in fumbles, and has blown opportunities to win games late.

The Dolphins had two chances to take the lead in the final minutes against the Patriots, but Tagovailoa was intercepted on one drive and sacked on both third and fourth down on the next. A week later, he was picked deep in Buffalo territory with three minutes left and the Dolphins trailing by seven points.

While he’s had some good performances, Tagovailoa ranks near the bottom of the league in just about every quarterback metric and the Dolphins are a few games below .500, in part, because of that.

Dud: 2025 rookie class

A week before the 2025 NFL draft, then-general manager Chris Grier told reporters that the Dolphins had to pick players who would be immediate contributors.

“We’re going to need NFL-ready players,” Grier said. “There’s no like, ‘Hey, let’s hope this guy is ready.’ These guys are going to be forced into play, and that’s a good thing.”

Expecting those draft picks to be Pro Bowlers would’ve been unfair. But the Dolphins’ rookies haven’t just been below average, they’ve been some of the NFL’s most ineffective players.

With six games left to play, first-round pick Kenneth Grant’s 41.7 grade from PFF ranks 180th out of 207 NFL defensive linemen. Second-round pick Jonah Savaiinaea’s 28.8 grade ranks 296 out of 297 offensive linemen.

The good news is that both Grant and Savaiinaea are showing signs of improvement. And it’s a positive that all eight of Miami’s draft picks have earned play time. But the Dolphins didn’t find the instant impact and NFL-readiness that would’ve helped them win in the trenches earlier this year.

Stud: LB Jordyn Brooks

With the 49ers’ Fred Warner out for the year, there’s an argument to be made that the league’s current best inside linebacker is suiting up in Miami.

Brooks has done it all for the Dolphins this season. He’s been a force against the run with a league-leading 125 tackles. Brooks also has eight tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks.

Not only has he been impossible to ignore on the field, his voice has increasingly become one that the Dolphins rally around. When the Pop-A-Shot game disappeared from the Miami locker room, it was revealed that it was Brooks who made the call to make the building a more serious place.

When the Pro Bowl rosters are announced near the end of the season, it’d be a shock if Brooks didn’t earn a spot.

Stud: C Aaron Brewer

Brewer’s path to a Pro Bowl nod is probably tougher, but it wouldn’t be undeserved. With inexperienced players to his left and backups to his right, Brewer has anchored a Dolphins offensive line that has managed to create running room anyway.

Miami puts Brewer out in space as much as any center in the league and he’s thrived in the role.

His 89.5 run blocking grade from PFF leads all centers in the NFL and he hasn’t been credited with allowing any sacks through 11 games.

Dud: DL Zach Sieler

Back-to-back 10 sack seasons earned Sieler a hefty raise from the Dolphins a month before the 2025 season began. It’s safe to say at this point that he won’t be extending that streak to three straight double-digit sack years.

Through 11 games, Sieler has one sack and four quarterback hits. In the 2023 and 2024 seasons, he had a combined 41 quarterback hits.

The issue, according to coaches, is a lack of cohesion with his new teammates on the Dolphins defensive line and Sieler’s attempts to overcompensate for the rookie linemen.

Steady improvements from Kenneth Grant have led to better play from Sieler in recent weeks. But the Dolphins didn’t give him $64 million just to not be a liability. Sieler needs to get back to making the kind of plays that swing games in the Dolphins’ favor.