*(same intro every day) Right before the new preseason starts, I like to go back and re-read our Week 1 reports from the prior season...just for fun and for seeing what our first reactions to the new season were--what did we see that we would soon regret, what was revealed that we were wrong about all preseason (last preseason), and where we were on the money for the season about to unfold...were we more right than wrong about the first reactions to 2025 going into it.
So, I'm going to post one a day for 16 days leading right up to the 2026 HOF game that kicks off the preseason. I'm not adding any notes or trying to explain or make excuses or let you know we figured it out the next week. It's just here to read...open source, not behind the paywall. Judge it how you like to judge it if you're a nonsubscriber--I'm not going to try to whitewash anything or give extra explanations. This just some reading material from what is the single most important thing we do each year--watch and scout the games each week and report out our findings and make FF reactions to them. Every week, it's a new week to make adjustments to. This is just every team's Week 1 as we wrote it. Enjoy...or don't.
What I like is some of the memories of Week 1 that comes rushing back when I'm reading these a year later...on top of seeing what we were seeing right off the bat.
.
========
.
I thought it was bad when I watched it live, but after re-watching it for research purposes, it was worse than I thought… The Miami Dolphins are not good...not good at all.
Some of the Week 1 teams that played bad are not really bad teams and they’ll probably turn it around in Week 2 and change the narrative/trajectory. In the same manner teams that looked really good, like the Colts, could have a big comeuppance in Week 2. What happens in Week 1 does not set in stone what’s gonna happen for the rest of the year or even what’s gonna happen in Week 2. However, I got a bad feeling about this Miami Dolphins team. They may spring back for a better Week 2, in part because they’re playing the other terrible team from Week 1, the New England Patriots, but what I just saw in Week 1 was a total calamity by Miami.
The Dolphins have no defense. They had a bad secondary going into the game, and then what they consider their #1 corner (Storm Duck) got hurt and was gone from the game early. They can’t cover anything. They barely ever made Daniel Jones feel any pressure on a pass rush. They wandered around the field like a team that didn’t wanna be there. It was a mess. But don’t be surprised if they snap back for a decent Week 2 coming off of a Week 1 embarrassment, as NFL teams tend to do. But I can’t bet on it because what I saw on tape was so porous.
And then I’m listening to Mike McDaniel’s press conference and he’s unfazed, not angry, he still ‘too cool for school’ and he’s preaching that everything‘s gonna be OK. It was just a little blip. He is not a leader of men…and everybody knows it and it couldn’t have been more glaring here. I don’t know how many coaches are gonna get fired this season in the NFL, but Mike McDaniel is a virtual lock to get fired this season.
How much credit do the Indianapolis Colts deserve in all of this? I don’t know. This game was so easy for them. No real pressure on Daniel Jones. No ability to cover the pass by Miami. Tua making mistakes caused by slick defensive play calls by new defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo…so, I can’t say if it was a heroic performance by the Colts defense or just slick play calling against arguably the worst team in the NFL.
I leave this game study open to the notion of the Colts being OK, but let’s see what happens if they get crushed by Denver this week.
Player Notes...
-- I didn’t see anything special with Dan Jones (22-29 for 272 yards, 1 TD/0 INTs, 7-26-2) in this game...he looked no different than normal except for two things...
1) The Dolphins could not put any pressure on him/he has all day to do whatever he wanted most drop backs.
2) Miami’s CBs are terrible and then their ‘#1’ got hurt early (Storm Duck) and was gone, and things got worse.
Kudos for beating up the Dolphins...I’ll need to see you do it vs. Denver this week before I become a believer.
-- Colts WR report...
Michael Pittman (6-80-1/8) was who Jones was working as his primary WR, and no other WR was even close...so let’s assume that’s real for this season and it means Josh Downs (2-12-0/3) is very droppable, as we discussed at length on the Video Show last night.
Downs got 3 junk targets and played just 49.3% of the snaps. From last year’s #1 WR to part-time #3 WR this year.
-- D.J. Giddens (12-41-0) got a ton of work in this game, but don’t read anything into it. The game was out of hand so fast that the backups were playing and Giddens was just running the clock out.
For the record, he did look good with his late game garbage work...because he is good.
-- Tyler Warren (7-76-0/9, 1-3-0) was arguably Dan Jones’s top target over everyone...even Pittman. Warren looked fine. He looked like he’d been in the NFL for the past 3-4 years. He didn’t look elite or special, just quite good...especially for a rookie debut. He just missed out on 1-2 more catches and a TD.
-- Tua Tagovailoa (14-23 for 114 yards, 1 TD/ 2 INTs) was pretty bad here...whether it was just the bad O-Line allowing too much pressure or surprise blitzes rocking Tua for sacks, and a lost fumble, or just Tua seeing ghosts and throwing bad balls -- it was a mess.
Tua is not usually this bad. Indy didn’t overwhelm him with talent...they just did a lot of smart blitzes and fake blitzes and totally out-coached ‘dead man walking’ Mike McDaniel.
It’s possible everything ‘Miami’ is worth half of what we thought it was.
-- Dolphins WR report...
Tyreek Hill (4-40-0/6) looked fine and was the top target, but not exciting plays to him...no exciting plays to any of the WRs.
Malik Washington (2-20-0/5) could’ve helped more but many of his targets were thrown off the mark and he couldn’t make the plays. He had another 2 catches for 30+ yards taken away from him by bad throws...blowing my 25+ yard OVER prop bets on him.
And Jaylen Waddle is just a joke of a #2 WR...always doing Waddle-things, which is mild outputs and getting hurt/looking like he gets hit with a sniper rifle on a basic tackle, but then coming back to the game to be his inconsequential self.
But also note, this WR trio played approx.. 30 snaps because Miami only had 47 offensive plays total and they benched the 1st-team in the 4th-quarter. So, these guys only played half-a-game’s worth of snaps here.
-- Dolphins RB report...
DeVon Achane (7-55-0, 3-20-1/4) had a decent FF output, but low touch counts and little room to operate. He’s gonna be hard-pressed to be a high-end RB1 this year in that mess of an offense, but it's not impossible he gets there via heavy short passes in PPR.
Ollie Gordon (2-4-0, 1-0-0/1) got some touches and looked really good, hammering tacklers on short yardage conversion plays...but Miami isn’t taking him more seriously yet.
-- A note about the Dolphins IDPers... If Miami is gonna get so outplayed and so out-snapped, etc., in games...then their IDP guys are gonna have big tackle counts this year. Both linebackers had double-digit tackle counts: Brooks (14) and Dodson (13).
-- Laiatu Latu (1 tackle, 1 PD/1 INT) has more interceptions than sacks to start the year. Where are the sacks with this guy?
Snap Counts of Interest:
60 = Pittman
58 = Pierce
53 = T Warren
36 = Downs
15 = Adonai
35 = Achane
12 = Gordon
31 = Waddle
30 = Tyreek
28 = M Washington
