MIAMI — This 61st Miami Dolphins season that kicked off Sunday is going to be all about seeing the positives, and sometimes having to look hard for them. It will be about divining hope that may not be obviously there.
This will not come in winning streaks, or playoff hunts. It will come in plays, in moments.
Up here, there are no 77-7 games, no Miami Hurricanes naming their score against Florida A&M.
In the NFL, where parity is legislated and there is no transfer portal through which to buy other teams’ best players, bad teams playing bad games looks just like this:
It looks like the Dolphins, losing their season opener 27-13 at the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday evening. A reasonable score. Not outright embarrassing. But a game that gave a Dolphins fan little belief, start to finish, that their team would win. And, keep in mind, Vegas is bottom-tier, too.
“Nobody is siting here feeling good right now,” said new Miami coach Jeff Hafley. “I am proud of the way our guys fought. We had opportunities. There’s some [positive] stuff. Lot of guys were out there for the first time. Penalties killed us. “
The young Fins had eight penalties — one a costly taunting call. Malik Willis threw a pick. Team lost a fumble. Missed a short field goal. Gave up five sacks. But what did you expect out the gate?
In a rebuilding, start-over season that has Miami the youngest team in the league and right now the betting favorite to win only one game all year, this was one of the games a Fins optimist circled as a possible win — optimist defined here as someone who thinks Miami might win, what, three or four games? Five tops?
So where were those plays in the opener? Those moments? Those signs of hope in a season hopeless by consensus?
Rookie receiver Caleb Douglas emerging, rising, with five catches for 94 yards.
Rookie linebacker Jacob Rodriguez with 14 tackles.
Willis with a 14-yard scoring run that Tua Tagovailoa would never have made. Willis might have dodged out of bounds at the 2. Instead, Willis went straight ahead and trucked a defender into the end zone.
The Fins defense intercepted Kirk Cousins twice.
Miami led in total yards per play, 5.2 to Vegas’ 4.3.
There were signs. Granted, against a bad team. But there were positives to glean.
Like I said, parity rules here. Elsewhere in Week 1 on Sunday — Arizona, supposedly as bad or worse than Miami — pulled off a huge upset over Justin Herbert and the Chargers. The supposedly lowly New York Jets won, too. Even the meek can rise.
And there’s this: Miami cannot lose for losing this season. They are expected to be bad. They should be bad. They are starting over under the new coach Hafley and new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan.
And the worse they are, the more likely to get the No. 1 draft pick in 2027 or very close to it and take another shot at “The Franchise Quarterback” they really haven’t had since Dan Marino.
The Dolphins can’t lose in ‘26.
They can be better than expected ... or as bad as they should be.
Plenty of reason to hope for both?