The Dolphins remain undefeated. But they don’t want to be ‘short-sighted’ vs. 0-2 Broncos

There will be no shortage of ties with the Denver Broncos for the Miami Dolphins on Sunday.

Head coach Mike McDaniel, a native of Greeley, Colorado, grew up a devoted Broncos fan and cited the franchise as the foundation for his love of football.

Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio got his first head coaching opportunity in Denver, leading the team from 2019 until his firing in 2021.

And outside linebacker Bradley Chubb was drafted by the Broncos with the fifth overall pick in 2018, spending his first four-and-half season in Denver until he was sent to Miami at the trade deadline last year.

But outside of the close familiarity with the team, there’s a sharp focus on preventing nostalgia and sentiments cloud the Dolphins’ first home game of the 2023 NFL season.

“If you get too worked up in that stuff, you’ll just get twisted,” Fangio said. “You just treat it like any other game, do the things you think you have to do to win schematically, and you go at it. Those story lines, they’re juicy, but they’re not as effective as you think they are.”

After opening the season with two road wins, the Dolphins return to Hard Rock Stadium for their home opener against the Broncos.

“We feel that the city of Miami has been waiting, and they’re ready for a championship,” quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said. “You look at the Heat, you look at the Florida Panthers, I mean, all those guys were able to make it to the final dance. They were able to do special things throughout their seasons. We’re kind of trying to trot along that line and sort of follow the lead of those guys.”

While it’s still the nascent part of the season, Miami has made an early statement with its performance in the first two weeks. The Dolphins began with a thrilling two-point win over the Los Angeles Chargers before defeating the New England Patriots by seven in front of a nationally televised audience.

The manner in which the Dolphins have started has brought national recognition. Tagovailoa, who leads the NFL with 715 passing yards, has vaulted to the early favorite to win MVP. Miami is also the favorite to win the AFC East and among the front-runners to represent the conference in the Super Bowl in early February.

The Dolphins are one of just two remaining undefeated teams in the AFC, with the Baltimore Ravens, and one of nine unblemished squads across the NFL.

If the Dolphins defeat the Broncos (0-2), it will mark the first time the franchise has started 3-0 in consecutive seasons since the 1994 and 1995 seasons. And as Miami sits at 2-0, the team has done so in a similar fashion to the 2022 season, with an offense as dynamic as any in the league and an opportunistic defense making timely stops late in games.

“I think that just kind of is a sneak peek in what the rest of the season is going to be,” fullback Alec Ingold said of the team’s first two games. “We’re going to have to win a lot of games a lot of different ways — good weather, bad weather, road games, home games, whatever that is. We have to have the guys in the room to have a chance at the end of the game to have the talent, the closers across the field — offense, defense, special teams — to make those plays in the key moments to win games. So if we know that we’re going to be in the games that we want to be in, we’re going to have to win a lot of different ways and I think that’s where the confidence really has to be put in that preparation, that process.”

Miami’s efforts to remain undefeated could be a bit complicated, though. Wide receiver Jaylen Waddle was ruled out after spending the week in concussion protocol. Since McDaniel’s arrival last season, Tagovailoa has not played a game without the duo of Waddle and Tyreek Hill. But McDaniel and various players expressed confidence in the fill-ins — Braxton Berrios and River Cracraft, among them — that would called upon if Waddle is sidelined.

Miami could also see positive injury developments with a pair of starters, left tackle Terron Armstead and outside linebacker Jaelan Phillips, nearing returns from injuries. For Armstead, he could be making his season debut after missing the first two games because of various ailments.

While the Broncos are 0-2, several members of the Dolphins noted how their defeats have come by a total of three points, which underscores the close week-to-week margins across the league.

And there’s a feeling that, while undefeated, they haven’t scratched the surface of their potential yet. Coupled with a reminder of last season, a journey filled with streaks in both directions, from McDaniel’s perspective it’s not hard to view the Dolphins’ start as nothing more than a pair of wins, a minuscule portion of a long season.

“For anyone to have a visceral opinion of themselves after two games is short-sighted,” he said. “It’s easy for me because I think this way, but it’s also my job to make sure that the team is seeing it that same way. I’m confident ... that our team understands that it’s about us developing and continuing to get better and hopefully winning games in the process to position ourselves where we can best make a push at the end of the season.”