Five Biggest Reasons for Concern for Dolphins Heading into 2025 Regular Season

Major changes on defense, a nasty late-season recent history and the offensive line lead the list

Miami Dolphins tackle Austin Jackson (73) enters the field to take on the New York Jets at Hard Rock Stadium. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The start of the 2025 NFL regular season is now a week away, and there's a lot of mystery surrounding the Miami Dolphins.

The national expectations are pretty low, especially for a team that made the playoffs in 2022 and 2023 and were in contention until the final week of 2024 despite QB Tua Tagovailoa missing six starts.

Heading into the Sept. 7 season opener against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium, there several reasons for optimism and we examined those in an earlier story.

Now it's time to look at five reasons for concern:

1. ARE THE DOLPHINS BUILT TO LAST?

We hate to keep harping on injuries, but it's a sad fact of life when it comes to the Dolphins because every team's season can get derailed by injuries, it's just that Miami goes into the season with more durability concerns than most. We don't really need to go over the list of front-end players with durability concerns, but for thoroughness' sake, we've got Tua, Tyreek Hill, Austin Jackson, Jaelan Phillips, Bradley Chubb, and that's not mentioning James Daniels coming off a torn Achilles tendon. That's a lot of important players, with the starting quarterback right at the top, and not necessarily ideal for a team with questionable depth.

Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Danny Striggow (92) tackles Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (1) during the first quarter at Hard Rock Stadium in the 2025 preseason finale. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

2. THE OBLIGATORY OFFENSIVE LINE QUESTIONS

Yep, this was one of the concerns last year as well. There's absolutely reason to believe the 2025 offensive line can take a major step up, but it's going to depend on Jackson and Daniels staying healthy (see concern 1), as well as Patrick Paul taking his strong preseason and training camp work into the regular season as he replaces Terron Armstead at left tackle. Oh, and there's also the issue of whether Jonah Savaiinaea can get the job done as a rookie. So, yes, there are a lot of question marks on the offensive line, and that's even before discussing the issue of depth.

3. THE CORNERBACK CONCERNS

For the past decade, the Dolphins secondary has featured at least one Pro Bowl cornerback, whether it be Brent Grimes, Xavien Howard or Jalen Ramsey, but the 2025 group doesn't feature that kind of player. The most proven player in the position group is Rasul Douglas, but he's 30, coming off a sub-par season and was signed just days ago. The Dolphins are hoping that young players like Storm Duck, Jason Marshall Jr. and Jack Jones Jr. can deliver in pass defense, but the lack of track record makes this group a clear question mark.

Miami Dolphins CB Storm Duck is heading into his second NFL season. | Alain Poupart - Miami Dolphins On SI

4. CAN THE BIG PLAYS RETURN?

There are several reasons the Dolphins failed to make the playoffs in 2024, and one that stand at or near the top was the lack of explosive plays on offense, which forced the offense into long drives, which always leads to more opportunities for offensive mistakes. Yes, not having Tagovailoa at quarterback for six-plus games hurt in that department, but even after he returned the big plays still weren't there. We heard time and time again the reason being that defenses were backing off the line with their safeties, except defenses didn't do much differently than they did in 2022 and 2023 and getting explosive plays wasn't as much an issue then. Being able to get those scores or big plays would be a major help for the Dolphins offense since it's still not built to grind it out for 60 minutes.

5. TOO MUCH OF A YOUTH MOVEMENT?

The Dolphins absolutely did the right thing in shifting their focus this year from high-priced veterans to a young nucleus that could become the foundation of the team for years to come. And the early returns indeed are very promising when it comes to rookies like Kenneth Grant, Jonah Savaiinaea, Ollie Gordon II, Jason Marshall Jr., Jordan Phillips and new starters like Patrick Paul and Storm Duck. But the Dolphins look like they're going to be relying on an awful lot of young players to play key roles, and the reality is we just don't know what things will look like in the regular season because that's a whole different ballgame from the preseason.