Dolphins season preview: 10 questions — from Achane to Tagovailoa — that will define season

The Miami Dolphins ended a five-year postseason drought last season — and even nearly upset the Bills in Round 1 without Tua Tagovailoa — and now expectations are at a new level.

It’s time for the Dolphins to finally really contend, and the pieces are in place for it to happen. There are, however, 10 major questions surrounding the team this year and they’ll determine just how far Miami can go in the 2023-24 NFL season.

1. Can Tagovailoa make it through a full season (or at least come close)?

The Dolphins went 8-4 last year when Tagovailoa started and ended games, and then nearly knocked off Buffalo in the opening round of the 2023 NFL playoffs with fellow quarterback Skylar Thompson playing in his place. Tagovailoa knows how good Miami can be if he stays healthy, so he spent the summer trying to make sure he can stay on the field as much as possible this year after sustaining multiple concussions last season. As long as Tagovailoa’s on the field, the Dolphins will be fine — and they did add fellow quarterback Mike White, who averaged nearly 300 yards per game in four games last year for the Jets, as some insurance. If Tagovailoa’s not, Miami’s situation becomes much more complicated.

2. Is De’Von Achane the game-breaking running back the Dolphins have been looking for?

Miami has plenty of solid options in the backfield. Raheem Mostert ran for 891 yards last season and fellow running back Jeff Wilson Jr. had 860. Running backs Myles Gaskin and Salvon Ahmed both have plenty of NFL experience. Even rookie running back Chris Brooks had some good moments in the preseason. No one’s ceiling is quite as high as De’Von Achane’s, though. The rookie running back ran for more than 2,000 yards in his last two seasons at Texas A&M and then ran his 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine in 4.32 seconds. He fits right into coach Mike McDaniel’s speed-first philosophy and, as a third-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, could be the answer the Dolphins have long been looking for at running back.

3. Are Miami’s wide receivers the best in the league?

The strength of this roster is its offensive speed, and particularly its speed at wide receiver. The Dolphins’ wideouts might be the best in the league — at least their top two. Tyreek Hill was second in the NFL with 1,710 receiving yards last year — and he’s openly questing for the league’s first 2,000-yard season this year — and fellow wide receiver Jaylen Waddle was seventh with 1,356. They’re great and Miami needs them to be because no one else on the roster had even 300 receiving yards last season.

4. Is the offensive line good enough?

The Dolphins’ new-look offensive line never really got a chance last year. Pro Bowl tackle Terron Armstead, one of Miami’s big offseason acquisitions, missed four games due to injury and Miami’s offense typically fell apart when he was out. As much as their line has struggled in recent years, the Dolphins actually have some pretty decent players with Armstead, and fellow offensive linemen Connor Williams and Robert Hunt. Miami just finally needs some other offensive lineman — maybe Liam Eichenberg, maybe Austin Jackson, maybe even Robert Hunt — to step up.

5. Is Jaelan Phillips ready to take a leap?

Even though Phillips only had seven sacks last season, all the peripheral numbers indicate the linebacker is one of the best edge rushers in the NFL. Last season, his 70 pressures ranked in the top 10 in the NFL last season, as did his pass-rush win rate, and Pro Football Focus graded him as the fifth best edge defender in the league. Year 3 could be a breakout season for Phillips.

6. How big of a difference will David Long Jr. make?

The Dolphins’ biggest offseason addition will miss most of the year — he’ll come up again soon — which leaves Long as Miami’s most important new addition. The linebacker quietly put together a breakout season last year with 86 tackles, seven tackles for loss and two interceptions in 12 games for the Titans, and it earned him a two-year, $11 million deal from the Dolphins. He gives Miami a high-upside anchor in the middle of the defense.

7. How will the Dolphins replace Jalen Ramsey?

Ramsey was supposed to be a game-changer on defense. Instead, the Dolphins will have until December to see how big a difference he can make. In the meantime, Miami needs to find a replacement, someone to play opposite Xavien Howard after the Dolphins cut fellow cornerback Byron Jones in March. A lot is tied up in rookie cornerback Cam Smith, who was Miami’s top pick in the NFL Draft and has all the physical tools to be a starter. It just might have to start sooner than the Dolphins intended.

8. If and when he gets healthy, how much will Ramsey fix Miami’s defense?

The Dolphins slipped from 16th in scoring defense during the 2021 NFL season all the way to 24th last year, even without much of a change to personnel. The one key absence was Jones and Miami tried to fix the hole by adding Ramsey. In the modern NFL, teams need as many capable cornerbacks as possible and the Dolphins simply didn’t have enough last year. They won’t for most of this year, either, but will certainly be transformed once Ramsey is back.

9. How much will Vic Fangio fix Miami’s defense himself?

Until Ramsey returns, the Dolphins will be relying on Fangio to be the difference for this defense. After firing former coach Brian Flores, Miami retained most of his defensive staff to try to ease the transition and it didn’t work, so McDaniel went out and got his own, big-name guy. Fangio, who was the AP Assistant Coach of the Year in 2018 as the defensive coordinator for the Bears and worked as a consultant for the Eagles on their run to Super Bowl 57 last season, has a good collection of talent to work with, as evidenced by the defensive performance the Dolphins put together two years ago.

10. Which Jason Sanders is Miami getting?

The last few seasons have been a roller coaster for Sanders. The kicker was a first-team All-Pro selection during 2020 NFL season, then made just 74.2 percent of his field goals in 2021 and then had a slight uptick to 81.3 percent last year. He did, however, make just 2 of 6 from 50 yards or longer last season, for the second straight year, and needs to get back to his previous long-range prowess — he went 8 of 9 in the 2020 season — to get back to being a true weapon for the Dolphins.