Omar Kelly: Let's hope these early Dolphins losses don't leave a scar

Omar Kelly, Miami Herald on Oct 12, 2026

Published in Football

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MIAMI — Everyone has guilty pleasures.

I have recently developed this unhealthy obsession with watching doctors, estheticians and dermatologists remove blackheads from people’s faces.

Any time one of those videos appears on my social media pages I’m frozen, staring at the screen until I see how much puss, oil and dead skin gets removed from the patients pours.

It’s disgusting, but a guilty pleasure.

Kind of like watching this 2026 Miami Dolphins season play out.

We very well know that what we’re watching from the Dolphins on Sundays this season will be gross, disgusting and probably painful.

It will likely be filled with shaky play on offense, defense and special teams, which Miami got in Sunday’s 31-24 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.

It will feature a sprinkling of mistakes made by veterans and youngsters that often cost the team in critical moments. But nobody’s looking away.

We’re all watching this first phase of the rebuild, which includes Miami eating a record-setting $179 million in dead cap from mistakes made by the past regime, to see what oozes out.

We know this roster’s paper thin, and when starters such as Jordyn Brooks get injured, which he did in the second quarter hurting his foot — but eventually returned in the third — the talent disparity Miami faces against every opponent will get worse.

We know this year’s Dolphins can’t cover tight ends, so nobody should be surprised that Miami’s opponents create game plans to attack those glaring voids in Jeff Hafley’s defense, and it resulted in two touchdowns from Cincinnati’s tight ends.

We know the Dolphins offense will get to the red zone, if not the goal line, but will struggle to punch it in.

The 3-yard touchdown pass Malik Willis threw to Kevin Coleman Jr. midway through the fourth quarter, and the two-point conversion Greg Dulcich produced, scooping up a low pass in the back of the end zone, was the exception to this on Sunday.

That score allowed the Dolphins to score more than 13 points for the first time all season.

We know that Willis will struggle to operate the offense, especially in critical situations like third downs and red zone. Yet we keep waiting, watching to see if Miami’s new starting quarterback, the player this franchise has invested $45 million in guaranteed money to — will improve.

He hasn’t. Not yet.

But this is what happens when Miami’s opponents creating a book on how to play Willis, who made his 11th NFL start on Sunday against the Bengals.

“Turnovers, MA’s [mental assignments], all the same stuff,” said Willis, who owns a 68.4 passer rating from his five starts. You’re inspired by the fight, but let down by the results.”

Bengals safety Jordan Battle announced to the world earlier this week that Willis tapped the ball before he threw it, and wouldn’t you know Battle picked off Willis twice in the first half.

We know that Miami’s special teams unit will allow one return, or have at least one mistake that makes us hold our breath for a second, or 10, like the first kickoff of the game, which went for 81 yards, setting up the game’s first score.

None of these issues are easy fixes, and the truth is that much like a blackhead, the longer they sit unaddressed the more embedded they become.

That’s why the frustration is growing inside the team because the same kind of mistakes, issues, concerns, penalties surface every game day.

“It’s a team game in all three phases: offense, defense and special teams, and we’ve got to play better,” Dolphins defensive lineman Zach Sieler said.

“You’re probably tired of hearing it, but I think we’re a team that plays hard,” Hafley said when asked about the Dolphins’ identity. “We’ve got to execute better.”

Maybe it’s time to realize these problems aren’t going anywhere, anytime soon because the Dolphins don’t have the necessary tools to remove them.

The Dolphins are a flawed team as constructed, and nobody’s showing up to save the day.

At this point all we can hope for is constant, consistent player development. The type of forward progress that helps this team heal in time.

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