The Dolphins are fresh off a road win over the Jets and now return to Hard Rock Stadium in search of a second straight victory over a division rival with the Patriots coming to town.

Over the past three months, the Dolphins have built an identity around toughness and togetherness, fueled in large part by an impressive rookie class.

Establishing an identity

The 2026 Dolphins wasted no time establishing what kind of football team they wanted to be: a tough, resilient group that plays for one another and is powered by a physical running game. It's a new brand of Dolphins football.

Running back Ollie Gordon II – "I get to run behind a great o-line I have and those guys up front, you know what I'm saying? Those front seven, front eight, it doesn't matter how many we put up there, we're going to run behind them the whole time, we trust them. They've been doing great. They've been re-establishing the line of scrimmage and I feel like we got to have that in the run game. I feel like I don't have to think twice back there behind them. It's just, I'm out there playing."

Head Coach Jeff Hafley on the value of the run game – "I do believe that having a good run game opens up the pass game and from a defensive play caller standpoint, sometimes you have to take a deep breath and not be over-aggressive because when you get over-aggressive to try to stop the run, the ball usually goes over your head. And most points are scored on drives because of explosive plays."

On to New England

The Dolphins earned their first win of the season Sunday over the rival Jets. Now, another AFC East opponent comes to town in the defending conference champion New England Patriots. Miami was thrilled to get over the hump at the Meadowlands, but its focus has quickly shifted to the challenge ahead.

Jeff Hafley – "Division games are important, and I think it's important for a young team to understand that. And I think it's important for a young team to understand, one, our division, two, the importance of division games as we grow. So I have spoken about that. The thing will always be about us. The main thing has got to be for us this year, our team, our development, trying to go 1-0 and try to be better today than we were yesterday. But I'd be lying to you if I didn't feel like I had to teach them about division play and the division."

Quarterback Malik Willis – "The totality of things, we're 1-5. So it's not like, we won the Super Bowl. We got to continue to get better and continue to work. We want to obviously stack more of those and to do that, we got to continue to get better from what we put on tape this past week and the weeks before that. And I think that's what's important, keeping it in a focus on, let's try to go 1-0 this week. That's what it's about now."

Edge Chop Robinson on New England QB Drake Maye – "He's a great quarterback. Like he could use his feet, he could throw the ball, he could throw on the run. So it's kind of keeping him in that pocket. Can't have him scramble because I think he's leading in scramble yards for quarterbacks right now or something like that. But just got to keep him in the pocket and do our job with the edges and containment."

Taaffe takes his chance

The Dolphins have a young roster filled with rookies who are quickly making their mark in the NFL. Fifth-round pick Michael Taaffe became the first player with two interceptions in his first six games as a Dolphin since Patrick Surtain in 1998. It's still early, but Taaffe is showing signs of becoming a good player in this league.

Linebacker Jacob Rodriguez – "He's doing his job. I mean, he works as hard as anybody and he's always trying to do the right thing. He's communicating loud and he's exuding confidence back there with preparation. It's great to root for a guy like that who can play well and elevate everybody's game around him. It was nice to see him have another interception and we needed it. It's one of those where I was talking about throughout the entire season, if you can win the turnover battle, your percentage of winning the game, no matter what happens, goes through the roof, so that was really nice.

Jeff Hafley – "You get a lot of information in all these meetings that we have. And it's just how much can each player take in? And I always say to the DBs, try to take a couple things where you feel like when you see them in the game and it's like crystal clear and it's happening in slow motion, at that point you got to take your shot. And that might happen once, it might happen twice a game, it might not happen in a game. In those instances, I want them to take a shot. That's why you study, that's why you put in all the work and when you get that opportunity in the game, you need to have the confidence and take the shot. And he did."

For more on Dolphins-Patriots, download the Drive Time Podcast with Travis Wingfield, available wherever you get your podcasts.