Omar Kelly: Dolphins need team's veterans to carry their weight

Omar Kelly, Miami Herald on Oct 8, 2026

Published in Football

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MIAMI — Zach Sieler played one of the best games of his nine-year NFL career on Sunday, delivering his seventh multi-sack game.

Chop Robinson finally flashed the talent and edge rushing that made him the Miami Dolphins’ 2024 first-round pick, producing 10 pressures and one sack in Miami’s 15-10 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

“I was happy to see the power rush come to life for [Chop],” said Josh Uche, a seven-year veteran who has had three of his seven career starts occur in Miami this season.

Uche played like his hair was on fire on Sunday, also recording one of Miami’s four sacks on Sunday, proving that he has the makeup to be an NFL starter in his South Florida homecoming.

Those three veteran defensive linemen were major contributors to Miami’s most impressive defensive performance of the season.

Turning up the volume on their performance made Miami’s defense respectable for three quarters of Sunday’s loss to the Vikings.

On the flip side, Austin Jackson has been a turnstile for all but one game this season, which is his seventh season as an NFL starter.

And Patrick Paul, who was flagged for holding three times last week, has struggled adjusting to Miami’s new blocking technique and needs to tighten up the seams on his performance.

“I got to be better,” Paul said. “It’s time to clean it up.”

Jordyn Brooks openly admits he has also been off his game, and was a factor in Minnesota tight end T.J. Hockenson pulling down all 13 of the passes thrown his way in the loss to the Vikings.

“That’s one area of my game I feel like I can fix, be better with my technique,” Brooks said, referring to Miami’s struggles defending tight ends this season, which has been consistent in the first four games.

We have seen plenty of development from the Dolphins’ first- and second-year players, which is what this 2026 season is about considering the scorched-earth rebuild the franchise began this past offseason.

Just imagine what this team could look like, how it might perform, if the Dolphins veterans got their act together.

This matters because plenty of the team’s errors, penalties, broken assignments, fumbles are coming from players who should be setting a better example. Players who should know and do better.

Mistakes happen in football, especially when a team’s adjusting to a new coaching staff, new technique, hasn’t carved out an identity yet, and is working toward creating culture.

But the players that should be setting the standard are the veterans.

What if Malik Willis, who will start his 11th NFL game on Sunday at home against the Cincinnati Bengals, didn’t have these built-in excuses for his 73.0 passer rating, which makes him the 29th-best starting quarterback in the NFL heading into this week’s games?

“We can’t keep blaming stuff on us being young, and everybody being new,” Willis said. “Yeah, that’s cool to say when we’re in the offseason building and growing.

“We’ve done a great job continuing to grow each week,” Willis continued. “We have to continue to grow in these situations we find ourselves in.”

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and Willis’ crown is worth $45 million, which is the guaranteed money the Dolphins gave the quarterback this offseason.

It sure would be nice to see Willis justify the team’s biggest paycheck with better play on third downs and in the red zone, helping to raise the team’s level of execution in the game’s critical moments.

What if tight end Greg Dulcich, the second-highest-paid free agent signing (a re-signing actually) Miami made last offseason, was viewed as something more than a decoy, and actually became a safety valve for Willis. That’s what the good tight ends are.

Say whatever you like about the weaponry Willis is working with, but this team lacks a veteran presence at receiver. Wasn’t that what Jalen Tolbert, another free agent signee, was supposed to be.

He has been active for two of four games this season and has one target in the 18 offensive snaps he received during the past two games.

The Dolphins need more from the team’s mature players if the 2026 team plans to produce a win in the second quarter of the season, which is filled with winnable games considering Miami’s next four opponents — the Bengals, New York Jets on the road, and New England and Detroit at home — all struggled in the first quarter of the season.

“We’re one block away here,” head coach Jeff Hafley said, referring to Miami’s fourth-quarter losses to the Kansas City Chiefs and Vikings. “It’s just efficiency over and over and over again. It’s just the limited opportunities, some missed opportunities to be very honest with you, but that’s on everybody. That’s everybody doing their one-eleventh and getting the execution down.”

And it should start with the veterans, the pros who already know what the NFL is about, and should be doing better at leading the way.

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