NFL Week 1 Roundup Through a Dolphins Lens: Tough Start for Waddle, Bad Day for Bain, More

Week 1 of the 2026 NFL season was not, to put it very politely, very kind to the high-profile former Miami Dolphins players now spread out across the league.

The last and most glaring illustration came Monday night when Jaylen Waddle's debut with the Denver Broncos became an absolute dud.

It was bad enough that Waddle finished with a microscopic 2 receiving yards on one catch, but what made it worse was a bad third-down drop in the third quarter of the Broncos' 31-10 loss against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Jaylen Waddle drop on 3rd downpic.twitter.com/zutoYiHHvZ
— Underdog NFL (@UnderdogNFL) September 15, 2026

For those wondering, the one catch matched Waddle's career low for games when he played at least 30 offensive snaps.

This clearly is not what anyone saw coming after the trade that sent Waddle to Denver for a first-round pick, along with a swap of third- and fourth-round selections.

But Waddle wasn't alone.

Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, who we ranked as the 2025 Dolphins starter now gone the team figured to miss the most, played six snaps for the New York Jets in their opener against the Tennessee Titans before he left the game with a groin injury.

He never returned to the game and now is considered unlikely to be in the lineup when the Jets face the Green Bay Packers in Week 2.

Elsewhere, cornerbacks Jack Jones and Rasul Douglas both got limited snaps as backups for the San Francisco 49ers and Washington Commanders, respectively.

Edge defenders Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb both started, and Phillips did get a sack in his Carolina Panthers debut, but the defense gave up 552 yards and 59 points against the Chicago Bears. Chubb, meanwhile, had two QB hits and four assists, but wasn't a major factor in the Buffalo Bills' victory against the Houston Texans.

And then, of course, there was the group of former Dolphins players and coaches with the L.A. Chargers featuring Mike McDaniel, Butch Barry, Alec Ingold and Cole Strange, and what happened in perhaps the biggest upset of Week 1.

It was a flop for all four as the Chargers offense, expected to take off with McDaniel being able to work with big-armed QB Justin Herbert, instead sputtered all game in a loss against the Arizona Cardinals. And Strange, who strangely (pardon the pun) got a big free agent contract with the Chargers after an uneven performance with Miami in 2025, was among the lowest-graded guards by Pro Football Focus for Week 1.

RUEBEN BAIN JR. BLANKED

There's a segment of Dolphins fans and even media members who bemoaned the Dolphins bypassing Rueben Bain Jr. with the 11th (or even 12th pick after the trade down) in favor of Kadyn Proctor, and the sentiment grew stronger after all the social media highlights of Bain wreaking havoc in training camp and joint practices.

But the regular season is a different animal, and in Week 1 at least the concerns over Bain's arm length — concerns often ridiculed during the summer — most definitely materialized against the Cincinnati Bengals and right tackle Amarius Mims.

Granted, this was only one game and things change quickly in the NFL, but let's just say that after Week 1 the Dolphins made the right call with Kadyn Proctor.

And for those who might have wanted Penn State guard Vega Ioane, PFF graded him and Proctor about the same in Week 1, which is favorable for Proctor given the better talent on the Baltimore offense.

If we're talking about past drafts, though, it's always painful to watch T.J. Watt go off like he did for the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Atlanta Falcons when he had two sacks and a pick-six in a 20-13 victory and remember the 2017 draft when he was selected 30th overall, eight spots after the Dolphins drafted another pass rusher, Charles Harris.

OPPONENT OUTLOOK

If the Dolphins' performance in Week 1 was somewhat disappointing and made it difficult to see a win over the first month of the season, the performance of the next three opponents sure didn't help in that regard.

The San Francisco 49ers, Kansas City Chiefs and Minnesota Vikings not only all won in Week 1, they did so by 20, 21 and 17 points — and in Minnesota's case, it happened while scoring the last 29 points of the game.

Yeesh.

And for those who didn't see that stat, Brian Flores had his Minnesota defense blitz an astounding 85 percent of the snaps, resulting in four sacks and a whopping 15 QB hits. Former Dolphins linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel led the team with 1.5 sacks to kick off a contract year, but former first-round pick Dallas Turner had an astounding seven QB hits.

And, yes, Van Ginkel is somebody the Dolphins never should have let go when he was a free agent in 2024.

Excluding the Raiders, Dolphins opponents were 9-4 in Week 1, and two of the losses came in matchups between two teams the Dolphins will face (Denver-KC, Green Bay-Minnesota). The other two losses were by the Chargers and by the New England Patriots.

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