The Miami Dolphins begin their season against the Indianapolis Colts on the road Sunday, and we’re here to make three bold predictions for the contest.
This will be a new weekly series we’ll be doing for our hottest takes heading into every Dolphins game. The Dolphins and Colts are both coming off disappointing seasons, but there’s no shortage of opportunities for bold predictions in this contest.
Dolphins Defense Records 4 Takeaways
The Colts are set to start Daniel Jones at quarterback on Sunday, and although he’s cut down on the turnovers through the years, he’s still prone to giving the ball to the wrong team.
Jones had seven interceptions in just 10 games last season and was a fumbling machine early in his career, but he does deserve credit for cutting those out of his game in recent years.
However, we think the Dolphins’ new-look defense has a good chance to force a fumble or two Sunday. A four-headed monster leads Miami’s pass-rush unit in Bradley Chubb, Jaelan Phillips, Chop Robinson and Matthew Judon.
In the secondary, it’s fair to question Miami’s overall talent, but they’ve added some legitimate ball hawks to the back end. Minkah Fitzpatrick, Ashtyn Davis, Jack Jones and Rasul Douglas are all players known for their ball production.
Fitzpatrick and Douglas took a step back in terms of ball production last season, but playing against Jones, who is in a new offense, is a good opportunity to change that.
Our official bold prediction is that the Dolphins get three interceptions and one fumble recovery Sunday.
Miami’s Offensive Line Allows 0 Sacks and Less Than 3 Pressures
The Dolphins’ offensive line is always a hot topic, and the team will have three new starters this season — James Daniels, Jonah Savaiinaea and Patrick Paul. Daniels is questionable for this game, but we’re assuming he’s playing for the sake of this prediction.
While that might be a recipe for some mistakes, the Colts don’t have an overly threatening pass-rush unit. The Colts were 26th in sacks last season (the Dolphins were 27th, ironically) and didn’t make any big additions at edge this offseason.
The team does have DeForest Buckner, but is mostly relying on young players like Laiatu Latu, Kwity Paye and JT Tuimoloau to generate pass rush off the edge. We’ve gotten nothing but positive reports about Miami’s starting offensive line, so this feels like a good chance for them to get off to a good start. If Kion Smith replaces Daniels at guard, our confidence in this prediction will drop, but it also makes it more bold, so that’s worth something.
Of course, sacks are also a quarterback stat, and nobody gets the ball out of his hand faster than Tua Tagovailoa. Pair that with the Colts’ banged-up cornerback room, and it’s easy to see a path for Tua to get the ball out consistently before the Colts’ pass rush can touch him.
The Dolphins only had two games with zero sacks allowed last season, so getting their first in Week 1 would show that some of the camp reports are for real.
Jaylen Waddle has 2+ Touchdowns, 120 yards
One of our bold predictions for the 2025 season was that Waddle would become Miami’s de facto top receiver, so why not double down on that?
The Colts have Charvarius Ward as one outside starter and an excellent slot cornerback in Kenny Moore II. Still, their CB2 spot is likely to be occupied by former Miami Dolphins star Xavien Howard.
Howard didn’t play football last season and hasn’t had much of a ramp-up period since signing late this summer. If Ward takes Tyreek Hill and Moore sticks to the slot, Waddle should have a pretty favorable matchup Sunday.
Even if the Colts rotate Howard, their other options are Jaylon Jones, who missed most of camp with an injury, and the recently acquired Mekhi Blackmon. Jones was solid as a rookie, but covering Waddle after so much time off is no easy task.
While this might not seem like an overly bold prediction, Waddle has never had more than two receiving touchdowns in a game before.
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