The Miami Dolphins' season-opening loss to the Las Vegas Raiders was a sobering reminder of the growing pains that come with a full organizational rebuild.
The Dolphins are carrying roughly $183 million in dead cap money this year, and absorbing that hit means that in addition to leaning on young players — 10 starters on Sunday were in their first or second NFL season — a lot of their depth will come from players with little proven NFL production.
That makes Sunday's 27-13 loss somewhat expected.
Miami's young secondary was exploited by veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins, both lines were overmatched physically, and the offense was inconsistent. But coach Jeff Hafley said he was encouraged by his team's effort.
“Disappointing because we lost. I’m not going to sit here and tell you I walked off the field happy,” Hafley said. “The fight was there. I mean, that game could have gotten out of hand with some of the mistakes we made, some of the points that happened, and it didn’t.”
Malik Willis showed promise in just the seventh start of his career. The former Green Bay backup finished 15 of 27 for 220 yards and an interception, showing his arm talent with a couple of deep passes to rookie receivers Caleb Douglas and Chris Bell.
Willis was under pressure from the Raiders' pass rush for much of the game but showed his athleticism and scrambling ability, finishing with a team-high 39 yards rushing.
“You never want to go out and lose a game, not the first one, but we can’t let it dictate our whole season,” Willis said. “If seasons were meant to be dictated by one game, they’d call it the playoffs. We've just got to continue to learn from it. We've got a lot of young guys, and even the vets — we've got to continue to get better.”
Miami's defense was gashed on the ground by second-year running back Ashton Jeanty, but the Dolphins got a couple of impressive debuts from rookies.
Linebacker Jacob Rodriguez was everywhere on the field and only allowed 5 yards in coverage. Safety Michael Taaffe had an interception.
Rookie cornerback Chris Johnson played every defensive snap and finished with 11 tackles. He was the nearest defender on two of the Raiders' touchdowns, which Hafley said was a result of the safety help not being in position.
“The thing that I’ll say is all those guys, they just stayed so engaged and so positive, and were so locked in,” Hafley said. “They didn’t get down on themselves, they just kept swinging. I think that says that it’s not too big for a lot of those rookies, which is important to see. We’re going to need them to play better football so we can keep going.”
Hafley has said one of the statistics he pays attention to most is turnovers. His defense failed to get pressure on Cousins, with no sacks and just two hits on the veteran, but the secondary managed to intercept Cousins twice in the second half.
The Dolphins gave running back De'Von Achane — arguably their best player — a four-year, $64 million extension this offseason, yet he had just 11 carries. That's not nearly enough, given that the strength of the Dolphins' offense is supposed to be the run game. Achane, who led the NFL with 5.7 yards per carry last season, finished with 36 yards, averaging 3.3 yards per carry.
WR Caleb Douglas. The rookie receiver finished with five catches on seven targets for 94 yards.
Offensive line. The entire unit struggled both in run blocking and pass protection. Willis was sacked five times, Achane barely had running lanes and captains Patrick Paul and Aaron Brewer committed back-to-back holding penalties in the second quarter.
Safety Kyle Louis will miss Week 2 after suffering a knee injury in the third quarter.
14 — Tackles by Rodriguez, the most by a Dolphins rookie since Hall of Famer Zach Thomas had 16 against Arizona in the second game of his career.
The Dolphins will not return to Florida this week ahead of Sunday's game at San Francisco, instead practicing in Napa, California.
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