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\u201cEven though the New England Patriots and New York Jets have new coaching staffs, which always brings a level of uncertainty, the Miami Dolphins have glaring question marks that could become flaws in a bottom-out year,\u201d Moton wrote.<\/p>\n
Among those concerns: the secondary.<\/p>\n
\u201cMiami acquired three-time All-Pro Minkah Fitzpatrick from the Pittsburgh Steelers in the blockbuster trade that involved cornerback Jalen Ramsey and tight end Jonnu Smith. Fitzpatrick can play both safety positions and slot cornerback, but the secondary is vulnerable on the boundaries without clear-cut starters on the perimeter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Injuries up front don\u2019t help either.<\/p>\n
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\u201cEdge-rushers Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb are working their way back from significant injuries. The former partially tore his ACL last September, and the latter missed the 2024 season because of a torn ACL, meniscus and patellar tendon,\u201d Moton continued. \u201cDefensive lineman Zach Sieler has recorded 10 sacks in back-to-back campaigns. As he\u2019s made a name for himself in the pass rush, though, opposing offensive linemen may double-team him until Chop Robinson consistently wins one-on-one matchups on the outside.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s just the defense. The offense has its own major issue: the health of Tua Tagovailoa.<\/p>\n
His ability to stay on the field could determine the Dolphins\u2019 fate. If he can\u2019t, the job falls to free-agent signing and former No. 2 overall pick Zach Wilson, whose career has been defined by inaccuracy and inconsistency.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis availability could be the difference between a 10-win season and a team that finishes with a sub-.500 record in back-to-back years,\u201d Moton wrote. \u201cBased on Tagovailoa\u2019s injury history, backup Zach Wilson could start in multiple games, and his poor accuracy (57 percent career completion rate) would hinder the Dolphins\u2019 aerial attack.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Moton\u2019s prediction: Miami finishes with just seven or eight wins, and Mike McDaniel\u2019s job security is in serious jeopardy.<\/p>\n
The Dolphins have finished second in the AFC East all three years under McDaniel. They haven’t finished last in the division since 2019.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no question McDaniel enters the 2025 season on the hot seat<\/a>. Whether he can cool it down may depend on how quickly the Dolphins find answers to some of the league\u2019s most glaring questions\u2014starting in Week 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To say it\u2019s been an eventful offseason for the Miami Dolphins would be a massive understatement. But the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[18700,11227,4540,217,7,519,16251,1815,7470,251,7583,1167,249,255,2326,2094,6,208,57,426,3235,3452,23816,1733],"class_list":{"0":"post-188808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-bradley-chubb","9":"tag-chop-robinson","10":"tag-darren-waller","11":"tag-dolphins","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-giants","14":"tag-jaelan-phillips","15":"tag-jalen-ramsey","16":"tag-jonnu-smith","17":"tag-miami-dolphins","18":"tag-minkah-fitzpatrick","19":"tag-new-england","20":"tag-new-england-patriots","21":"tag-new-york-jets","22":"tag-newengland","23":"tag-newenglandpatriots","24":"tag-nfl","25":"tag-patriots","26":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","27":"tag-steelers","28":"tag-the-dolphins","29":"tag-tua-tagovailoa","30":"tag-zach-sieler","31":"tag-zach-wilson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}