The Phinsider
The Miami Dolphins were dressed for success in their brand new pitch black — errr, I mean, pitch blue — Rivalries Uniform under the bright lights of Hard Rock Stadium for Monday Night Football in a contest against their AFC East division rivals, the New York Jets.
Look good, play good, right?
The Dolphins finally got off the schneid and picked up their first victory of the 2025 season by outlasting the New York Jets at home by a score of 27-21. It wasn’t a perfect game, but it sure felt good to watch the boys in aqua and orange (and black… or blue?) finally pick up a win.
Head coach Mike McDaniel called a beautiful game — allowing the team to run for 123 yards on 31 carries, while throwing for just 177 yards and asking Tua Tagovailoa to manage the game instead of imploring him to be a hero. The quarterback rewarded that decision by finishing with two touchdown throws and a 114.9 passer rating.
While winning is certainly better than losing, it wasn’t all good on the night for Miami. With that being said, let’s take a look back at the good, bad and ugly from Miami’s Monday Night Football victory over the New York Jets.
The Miami Dolphins raised a lot of eyebrows when they traded for tight end Darren Waller — who sat out the entire 2024 season after retiring — this offseason after sending their 2024 Pro Bowl tight end Darren Waller to the Pittsburgh Steelers in a trade.
That decision was deemed even more curious when Waller barely practiced for the Dolphins and missed the team’s entire preseason and first three regular season contests.
Well, on Monday night, Waller returned to action — and he did so with a bang!
Waller only had three catches on the night, but two of them went for touchdowns as quarterback Tua Tagovailoa found the 6’6” pass catcher for a 4-yard touchdown on 4th and goal in the second quarter, while also hitting Waller for a 9-yard score early in the third quarter as well.
Waller’s impact on just three catches already makes him Miami’s most successful tight end this season. The veteran will look to build on an impressive Dolphins debut in order to help Miami’s offense — especially now that the club will be without Tyreek Hill for the remainder of the season.
The Dolphins remade the interior of their defensive line this offseason, adding rookie defensive tackles Kenneth Grant (1st round), Jordan Phillips (5th round) and Zeek Biggers (7th round) to the club. They hoped the trio would learn quickly from veteran Zach Sieler.
Well, that hasn’t happened as quickly as the Dolphins would have liked.
Miami’s defense cannot stop the run to save their lives. On Monday against New York, they allowed the Jets to run for 197 yards on 28 attempts. That’s a whopping 7.0...
