The Miami Dolphins completed their second season under head coach Mike McDaniel with an 11-6 regular-season record and a wild-card loss to the Kansas City Chiefs to end their playoff hopes.
While Miami may have accomplished a lot of impressive things in 2023, they still did have some disappointing things happen up and down the roster.
As we reflect on the year that was, let’s take a quick look at four things that went wrong for the Dolphins during their 2023 campaign.
Injuries everywhere
Miami has had some bad luck in recent years when it comes to injuries, but this year seemed like one of the worst.
For their final game against the Chiefs, the Dolphins were without Bradley Chubb, Jaelan Phillips, Jevon Holland, Jerome Baker, Xavien Howard, Andrew Van Ginkel, Connor Williams, Isaiah Wynn, Salvon Ahmed and Cameron Goode.
That’s a good chunk of their defense and two starting offensive linemen.
Switching punters
During the offseason, the Dolphins opted to move on from veteran Thomas Morstead and bring in Jake Bailey, who had been released by the New England Patriots.
Bailey struggled to find consistency throughout the season, hitting the ball poorly with some frequency.
Meanwhile, Morstead was, once again, one of the best punters in the league despite his advanced age.
Backup OL options
Due to all of the injuries along the offensive line, Miami was forced to play a number of backups throughout the season.
Robert Jones, Liam Eichenberg and Lester Cotton all filled in at guard at one point while Eichenberg was also asked to play center for the first time in his career. All three of them had a hard time keeping up with their responsibilities in these roles.
Offensive tackle Kendall Lamm, who filled in for Terron Armstead and Austin Jackson, was the only backup who did an above average job filling in.
Development of young defenders
The Dolphins, over the last two years, used their top draft selections on defenders – linebacker Channing Tindall and cornerback Cam Smith.
While the defense was reeling due to injuries, neither could find the field with any regularity.
Smith was even being passed over by undrafted rookie Ethan Bonner at the end of the year.
Whether that was a Vic Fangio problem or not remains to be seen, but it still doesn’t feel good to see the young players not getting opportunities.
