The Phinsider
The Miami Dolphins saw their four-game winning streak snapped on Monday when they failed to compete meaningfully against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Dolphins were run out of the building early in the game, then threw up some garbage-time stats and points near the end of the contest. The loss ended the team’s already minuscule playoff chances and may have ended quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s tenure with the team.
Miami announced this week that they were benching Tagovailoa, dropping their 2020 first-round pick from the starting position to third string as rookie Quinn Ewers moved into the top spot. Heading into Week 16 of the NFL season has been just another trip around on the roller coaster that has been the Dolphins’ 2025 season.
The Dolphins took a 3-0 lead on the Steelers in the second quarter, but that was about as good as it got for Miami until the fourth quarter, when the game was out of hand. The defense struggled to slow the Steelers once Pittsburgh found its rhythm, but a lot of the focus for this game should fall on the shoulder of Tagovailoa, with the offense looking out of rhythm throughout the entire game.
Benching him was the only option available to head coach Mike McDaniel, likely ending the one-time NFL passing yardage and passer rating leader’s time as Miami’s starting quarterback. A lot of work has to be done if the Dolphins are to move on completely from Tagovailoa, with a lot of guaranteed money still built into his contract, but that is a problem for 2026. Right now, the Dolphins are on to the Ewers era, and the move may have saved the fan-confidence rating for this week.
Heading into Monday Night Football, our weekly SB Nation Reacts poll had reached a season-high, with 65 percent of the fans trusting the Dolphins. This week, after a miserable loss, it likely was going to collapse, maybe not reaching our season- and all-time low of three percent, but likely headed that direction. The change to Ewers likely stabilized the drop.
Coming into Week 16, 44 percent of Dolphins fans are confident the team is headed in the right direction. While that means we are back to a majority of fans not trusting the team’s direction, the fact that it is that high is actually surprising.
We will be back next week to see how fans react to the team’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals later today.
Week 1 – 45%
Week 2 – 5%
Week 3 – 3%
Week 4 – 9%
Week 5 – 32%
Week 6 – 5%
Week 7 – 3%
Week 8 – 6%
Week 9 – 16%
Week 10 – 12%
Week 11 – 43%
Week 12 – 41%
Week 13 – 34%
Week 14 – 50%
Week 15 – 65%
Week 16 – 44%
This week, we asked a...
