Dolphins Sunday Mailbag: Explaining Robinson and Sieler's Stat Slide

Part 2 of a Thanksgiving weekend Miami Dolphins on SI mailbag:

From Colin Crabb:

Hi Alain, what has Champ done since he arrived to warrant his current position? My fear is Ross will be happy with the current setup. What's your opinion on what needs to be done as we are currently treading water year after year? Thanks for all your great work and podcasts.

Hey Colin, Champ’s role upon being hired in March was to assist Chris Grier and, perhaps more importantly, he was a fresh set of eyes on a group that included some scouts who had been around for a very, very long time.

From Common Reader:

Similar to the Peter Principle, the NFL has a principle where a player achieves success and then pushes for bigger and bigger contracts until inevitably the player underperforms his pay. Is it called the Sieler Principle this year?

Hey CR, I’m going to disagree with you about the word “inevitably,” though it obviously does happen quite a bit. And there can be several different reasons for that happening, whether it be worsening injury luck, maybe a bit of a letdown or a different set of circumstances. With Sieler, I think a factor that can’t be dismissed is the fact he’s surrounded on the defensive line by rookies who have gone through some growing pains, as opposed to playing alongside Christian Wilkins and Calais Campbell the past several years. This isn’t to suggest that Sieler’s success came because of those guys, but it doesn’t make a big difference. But the numbers truly are startling, with Sieler going from 10 sacks, 13 tackles for loss and 19 QB hits in 2024 to 1 sack, 5 tackles for loss and 4 QB hits through 11 games in 2025.

From Olive Grove Jon:

Hey Alain. A lot of fans question whether the Fins will ever be SB contenders while Ross is the owner. What’s the one move he could make in the offseason that would offer hope to the fan base? Experienced HC, talented GM or a big-time trade?

Hey OGJ, this is a very good question, and I’m debating between head coach and GM because the Dolphins have gone the trading for a big name with Tyreek Hill and Jalen Ramsey and it didn’t even produce a playoff win. I could be wrong, but my feeling is the fan base would be more jazzed up about a big-name head coach than a talented GM because chances are the GM would be somebody on the rise and it would take some time to see his work pay off.

From 26QBsandCounting:

Alain, with Christmas just around the corner, what was your favorite Christmas gift you received as a kid?

I appreciate the off-the-field question … The one gift I remember most was a bowling game, with strings holding up the pins and a handle where you released the ball, though the name escapes me. That goes back a, ahem, few years.

From S.Jackson:

How many teams have to lose in order for the Miami Dolphins to get in the playoffs??

The Dolphins currently are 11th in the AFC standings, which means they have to jump four teams in the standings to get into a playoff spot. And that means at least two losses from those teams just ahead of them in the standings and more for the rest.

From J Reynolds:

Has anyone asked coach about Brandon Staley’s D? Staley had his number year the team stumbled down the stretch.

The subject of what Brandon Staley’s defense did to the Dolphins in that December 2022 game against the Chargers came up quite a bit a couple of years back, even after the Dolphins offense demolished the L.A. defense nine months later in the 2023 season opener. What the Chargers did in 2022 was get in the face of Dolphins receivers at the line and jam the middle of the field, which has been copied many times since then.

From Thee Dolphins Dum Dum:

Why have Sieler and Robinson been so ineffective this season?

Hey Dana, I addressed Sieler’s situation a bit in the mailbag Saturday, and I think a clear factor has been the absence of a Christian Wilkins or Calais Campbell next to him. As for Robinson, I think maybe some folks expected too much from him based on his second half of the 2024 season. But let’s not forget his production at Penn State was nothing special, so why are we expecting big sack numbers in the NFL? And there’s still an issue with his run defense. That said, he still hasn’t made many as plays as expected or hoped.

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