The 60th season of Miami Dolphins football begins this week. Everything this team hopes to accomplish is out in front of them and it all starts Sunday in Indianapolis.
The first week of any NFL season is the peak of unpredictability. In a league of mass parity and surprise stories, nothing delivers shock value quite like the first weekend of games. Here's what the players and coaches are saying ahead of the trip to Indianapolis
Week 1 Anticipation
Head Coach Mike McDaniel - "Week 1 is always fun because have you guys ever noticed that the results don't match preseason predictions? That's because a bunch of people working in the offseason. It's fun to see how that shapes out Week 1 specifically."
Offensive Tackle Austin Jackson – "I'm very excited. Glad to have another opportunity to go out here and represent the Dolphins and do my job well. I'm really excited to be healthy."
Wide Receiver Jaylen Waddle - "It's special. Week 1 is always special coming off training camp. It's exciting, exciting."
The standard, the bond
Offensive Tackle Austin Jackson - "Confidence is high. Our confidence is high. Our head coach has done a good job of holding us accountable in every situation where we need to do our job. Our confidence is pretty high. We're just excited to go showcase what we're doing."
Wide Receiver Jaylen Waddle – "I think we got great people here, great coaching staff. Everyone is bought in, so when you have that type of team chemistry on and off the field that makes for a great team."
Outsider Linebacker Jaelan Phillips – "It's cool to see what's being cultivated in this team and to be able to show that to everybody, I think is going to be really fun. Our team is focused on all the right things. We're focused on getting better. We're focused on what's important. I love our team. I love the culture that we have."
The Colts
Wide Receiver Tyreek Hill on Facing Colts CB Xavien Howard - "'X, he's a great player, man. Me and him came in together, he's on Year 10. He's one of those guys who understands coverages, who understands certain routes, so we've got to be on top of our game. He's definitely a playmaker. For me, I think they've got a real good secondary. They've got 'X' on one side, they've got my former teammate at Kansas City, Charvarius Ward, and a guy I grew up playing against, Kenny Moore II, so those guys are loaded."
McDaniel on Colts QB Daniel Jones - "I think you're expecting to see someone's best. Nothing was handed to him, he earned his job. You know on the horizon you're going to get his best foot forward. They're excited to do things tailored to his skill set, I'm sure, and some things we've seen him do, some things we haven't seen him do."
Defensive Coordinator Anthony Weaver on Colts RB Jonathan Taylor – "God bless him. He is a stud. He is a stud. He can dip in and out of gaps and make you look foolish if you tried to do more than your job and he can run behind his pads. If he needs to run with physicality and break tackles, he can do that, too. We're obviously cognizant of all of those guys and know it's going to take all 11 to have success in the run game."
For more on Dolphins-Colts, download the Drive Time Podcast with Travis Wingfield, available wherever you get your podcasts.
