QB Clash, Phillips, Weather Biggest Storylines for Dolphins-Browns Week 7 Matchup

The Miami Dolphins will look for get back on track against the Cleveland Browns

Miami Dolphins linebacker Jaelan Phillips (15) works during training camp at Baptist Health Training Complex. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The Miami Dolphins will look to get back on track when they face the Cleveland Browns at Huntington Bank Field on Sunday.

The teams will go in with identical 1-5 records, the Browns coming off a loss against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Ahead of this Week 7 matchup, we analyze the five biggest storylines:

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THE QB CLASH

This is the obvious biggest angle, with Tua Tagovailoa and Dillon Gabriel both left-handed quarterbacks from Hawaii. It will be the first lefty QB matchup in the NFL in about 20 years, since Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons and Chris Simms of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers met up. Interestingly, there will be another lefty-vs.-lefty matchup next week when Tua and the Dolphins face Michael Penix Jr. and the Atlanta Falcons. Speaking about Gabriel, Tua said: “Smooth thrower. I knew of him as he was growing up, and then I think I might have played one year as he was maybe a freshman or something playing varsity. Knew about him then and as he went into college and did his thing. Smooth thrower, can run, sees the field really well, and he’s a Hawaii boy, so you always got to support the guys from back home.”    

WEATHER WATCH

Exactly how much Tagovailoa and Gabriel will be able to get done in the passing game is uncertain because the weather conditions were expected to be rough once kickoff arrived at 1 p.m. With gusts up to 40 mph in the forecast along with steady rain, this might be a sloppy game where each team decides the best course of action is running the ball or throwing short.

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THE PATTERSON POSSIBILITY

The Dolphins once again will be without kicker Jason Sanders, who was coming off a great 2024 season when he landed on IR because of a hip injury. Riley Patterson has proven a solid replacement, but he did have a key 57-yard miss in the two-point loss against the Los Angeles Chargers last Sunday. It's almost inconceivable that either team will try a kick that long in this game, but the outcome still could come down to a last-second field goal. And this is where Patterson will need to come through in the clutch.

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PHILLIPS FOLLOW-UP

Fair or not — and it's probably not — Jaelan Phillips was in the spotlight last week after being unable to bring down Justin Herbert on the play that set up the game-winning field goal. The fact remains that Phillips has applied more pressure on quarterbacks than any player on the Dolphins roster, and it's not even close. Maybe this is the week he gets rewarded for his efforts.

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CONTAINTING QUINSHON

After facing backup running backs the past two weeks and failiing to keep them under 100 yards — or 200 yards in the case of Rico Dowdle — the Dolphins actually will be facing a better player this week in rookie Quinshon Judkins. Given the state of the Browns passing game, the Dolphins could ensure a good outcome defensively if they can somehow find a way to tighten up their run defense. “Obviously, it's not good enough," Phillips said. "That’s something that pisses us all off because we know that we're better than that, so it's just a matter of staying together, not pointing fingers, being accountable. At the end of the day, I think that's important, whether that's me working on improvement – my biggest thing this year obviously has been finishing tackles. I think I'm doing a great job putting myself in position to make plays, but I'm just not finishing them, so that's something I got to do better on. Other people on our team I'm sure have things that they got to work on, improve on. I think at the end of the day, we just got to be accountable, work on what we need to work on and ultimately, that'll lead to us getting better.”

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