The Dolphins' Pass Rush Was Supposed to Carry This Defense. It Vanished in Week 1.
Miami's rebuild opened with a 27-13 loss in Las Vegas, and the most alarming part wasn't the score. It was that Chop Robinson, the one proven difference-maker on defense, didn't show up at all.
The Dolphins entered the season with modest goals and an even more modest roster. Losing to the Raiders 27-13 on Sunday wasn’t going to shock anybody. What should worry Miami is how it happened.
This was supposed to be the year Chop Robinson turned speed off the edge into production. Instead, in the first real test of Jeff Hafley’s defense, Robinson was invisible and didn’t get onto the stat sheet until the fourth quarter when he assisted on a stop on a running play. As for actually rushing the passer, one recap put it bluntly: in terms of pass rush, zip, zilch, nothing. Another count had him finishing the day without recording a single tackle in run defense either, getting no push against either Raiders tackle all afternoon.
The collective damage was stark. Everyone knew the Dolphins’ pass rush was going to be a problem this year, and without someone opposite Robinson, Las Vegas was able to negate him, and Kirk Cousins wasn’t sacked at all. Cousins finished the day comfortable enough to throw three touchdowns while offsetting two interceptions, with Ashton Jeanty carrying the offense with 147 total yards. Jeanty alone ran for 102 yards rushing at 4.4 yards a carry, and it wasn’t just the star back — backup Mike Washington averaged nearly six yards a carry behind him.
A defense with no answers, and special teams that made it worse
Robinson’s absence from the box score wasn’t an isolated problem. The interior of Miami’s line, which was supposed to be a strength, got pushed around too, and the whole unit compounded its issues by missing tackles in the open field. Beyond scheme, this was about players not making plays — cornerback Chris Johnson was targeted repeatedly as Cousins picked apart Miami’s young secondary.
Then there was special teams, which turned a competitive game into a track meet in the wrong direction. On drives that started after a Dolphins kickoff, the Raiders’ average starting field position was their own 44-yard line — by far the best mark of any team in Week 1. Las Vegas cashed in with returns of 45 and 50 yards on kickoffs and a 23-yard punt return, constantly handing Cousins a short field. Kicker Riley Patterson, who’d been reliable a year ago, missed a 41-yard field goal that would have kept things closer.
Miami’s offense had its own version of the same story: flashes, then nothing. Malik Willis, making his first career start as a full-time starter, scored Miami’s only touchdown on a 14-yard scramble that briefly cut the deficit to four points in the third quarter after safety Michael Taaffe intercepted Cousins to set up the drive. It didn’t last. The Raiders answered with the long kickoff return, scored again, then picked off Willis two plays into Miami’s next possession. Willis finished the day getting sacked five times behind an offensive line that struggled once the game script forced Miami to throw. De’Von Achane, the Pro Bowl running back this offense is built around, was held to 36 yards on 11 carries and finished with just 66 yards from scrimmage on 15 total touches — a rate that won’t move the needle against anyone.
Why this matters more than the loss itself
Nobody in Miami expected a Super Bowl run this year. Hafley’s rebuild was always going to be measured in developmental steps, not standings. But those steps require certain building blocks to hold, and Robinson was supposed to be one of them — a former first-round pick entering a contract year with something to prove, the one player the front office was counting on to make life easier for a patchwork secondary.
Instead, Week 1 showed exactly the version of this defense that should scare Dolphins fans: no pressure up front, no answer for a power run game, and special teams breakdowns turning bad quarters into blowout ones. Willis’s mobility and the flashes from rookies like receiver Caleb Douglas and linebacker Jacob Rodriguez are the kind of things a rebuilding team can point to. A completely dormant pass rush is not. Miami gets the 49ers at home in Week 2, and if Robinson doesn’t look different, the conversation stops being about development and starts being about whether the Dolphins misjudged their most important defender.