The Miami Dolphins season hit perhaps the lowest point of the season, losing to the Jacksonville Jaguars in London 23-20. The Jaguars came into this game losing 20 games in a row, so one would figure the Dolphins should have the upper hand in this game, but that wasn’t the case as the Dolphins lost in heartbreaking fashion on a last-second 53-yard field goal as time expired. The season can’t get much worse, losing to arguably the worst team in the NFL. The Dolphins were outplayed and outcoached in this game. I realize the Dolphins were down their starting corners in Xavien Howard, and Byron Jones, and receivers DeVante Parker and Preston Williams, but the Dolphins have more talent and should be head and shoulders better than the Jaguars.

The way the season has gone as a fan, I’m disappointed, angry, frustrated, and after today depressed how the team has quickly regressed after being one win away from the playoffs a year ago. I came into this season with high expectations for this team to compete for the playoffs, and after the team won their season opener against the New England Patriots, things seemed to be going in the right direction. However, since the season opener, the Dolphins have lost five games in a row, and the team looks lost and doesn’t look anything like the team from a year ago that seemed to be heading in the right direction. Now I realize there are 11 games left in the season, and things could turn around, but what could possibly give me any hope moving forward? The Dolphins are getting outplayed. They aren’t making any plays on either side of the ball when the team needs it most. On top of that, they are getting outcoached.

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The biggest issue I have had lately has been coaching. In the 4th quarter, head coach Brian Flores used his two challenges on plays he wasn’t going to win. Then he decided to go for it on 4th and one from his own 46-yard line with less than 2 minutes to go. I didn’t mind necessarily that he went for it, but that he let his offensive coordinators run the ball when they weren’t running the ball all game long or even commit to the running game all game. Then with 5 seconds to go and the Jaguars elected to go for it rather than kick a 60-yard field goal. The Jaguars still had a time-out left, and the Dolphins defense played for a hail mary rather than being more aggressive with their receivers. It resulted in a quick pass, and the receiver gave himself up with 1 sec left to call a time out and kick the game-winning field goal. Flores defense looked unprepared for that, and it came back to bite them in the end. On top of that, his team is getting more penalized and not being as disciplined as they have been in the two previous seasons. At the end of the day, the team’s performance falls on him. I’m not saying I’m ready to make a change at coach, but it’s something that concerns me right now, and I wouldn’t have said that before the season.

My biggest concern during this season has been how a lot of the teams’ young players have regressed badly. Offensive lineman Austin Jackson looks so overmatched each game that passes this season, and he was one of the team’s first-round picks a year ago. Noah Igbinoghene was also a first-round pick a year ago, and he has been inactive for most of the games this year and today struggled. I realize both players were considered projects when they were drafted at the age of 20, but at some point, they need to start playing better. Andrew Van Ginkel has taken a step back as well after progressing so well last year and making plays week in and week out. He’s been invisible this year; you forget he’s on the team. The Dolphins released Kyle Van Noy in the off-season because of his development, and so far, it’s not looking good. These are just a few examples.

The Dolphins are a bad football right now. It seems like the last two decades, every time they look like things are going in the right direction, they take ten steps back, and it’s very frustrating as a fan. The biggest area they haven’t solved is a franchise quarterback. I’m not trying to pick on Tua Tagovailoa, but the bottom line is Justin Herbert is looking like the far better quarterback at this time. It’s a big frustration as a fan that we can’t get it right. Whether it be not drafting Drew Brees in 2001 or taking Daunte Culpepper over Brees in 2006, the Dolphins can’t get it right. They had chances to take other quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson, Matt Ryan, Herbert, Russell Wilson, and others, but they found a way to screw things up. The Dolphins have also had a lot of free agents that don’t pan out. The latest example has been Byron Jones because he hasn’t lived up to his contract. The Dolphins gave a 1-year contract to Will Fuller with an injury history, and sure enough, so far, this season has only played in not even two games. In fact, the Dolphins receivers as a whole have one thing in common, and that’s durability issues, and the Dolphins need to stop depending on players that can’t be relied on the week in and week out. Your great ability is your availability, and that’s not this receiving core. The Dolphins have had other free agents that have been busts like Mike Wallace, Ndamukong Suh, Danelle Ellerbe, and others who get big contracts and don’t live up to the hype.

This rebuild has been about building through the draft, and that falls on general manager Chris Grier, who has been with the team for two decades in various capacities. The last 5 Grier has been in charge of the draft, and let’s be honest, his drafts have been underwhelming. He took Charles Harris in 2017, who was a bust, over TJ Watt. Tagovailoa over Herbert is the one he is going to have to live with more than anything unless Tagovailoa can get things turned around, but unfortunately, things look totally against him. Grier has had nine picks between rounds one and two the last few years, and the performance of those players has been underwhelming, to say the least. The way things are going, it should be his job on the line for his drafting and the way he has spent on free agents.

The Dolphins have regressed, and there is still time to try to salvage this season. This season can’t get worse than the loss today to the lowly Jags, can it?