The NFL season is underway, and the Dolphins are preparing for Game No. 2 of the 2026 campaign. Miami remains on the West Coast for a second consecutive road game as it travels to San Francisco to face the 49ers on Sunday at 4:25 p.m. ET. The young Dolphins spent the week self-scouting, making corrections and continuing to build chemistry while staying out west.

Bonding opportunity

For travel reasons, it's commonplace for cross-country treks to get stacked back-to-back in the NFL. The 2026 Dolphins season opens with the two westernmost road games geographically on the schedule, which creates an opportunity. Departing Saturday before the game in Las Vegas, Miami will have spent eight days on the road together before returning home ahead of the Week 3 home opener vs. Kansas City.

Head Coach Jeff Hafley – "Our operations staff has done a great job, it is outstanding. There's a big courtyard with a pool, there's games set up, there's fire pits. All the meeting spaces are tight. So guys are spending extra time with their coaches and then they're sitting out by the fire talking, they're playing ping pong. It's like being on a college campus and everybody's kind of going back to their dorms at the end of the night – certainly they're a lot nicer than dorm rooms. Guys are sitting and playing cards at 8 o'clock when I'm walking out, sitting in the meal room for longer and just spending more time together. I think for a young team this week is very important. I think it's a big connection piece, getting to know their teammates, getting to know some of the new guys that we brought in. But I'm really happy with the decision."

Lessons from Week 1

The saying goes: you either win in the NFL or you learn. The Dolphins know the corrections that must be made before Week 2, and they're excited about the opportunity to apply them in another test Sunday in San Francisco.

Quarterback Malik Willis – "Situational awareness as far as just making critical mistakes and whatever situation we're in, whether it was me taking a sack or somebody else and me in there or whatever, it doesn't matter, we're all one team. But at the same time, we got to understand that's how people get beat, and I think taking care of the ball, obviously.

Defensive lineman Zach Sieler – "It's exactly doing those little things right that take no talent. We got to be right in all those aspects. We got to make sure that we are locked in and focused, and we don't beat ourselves with stupid penalties or decisions or mistakes out there. So, we got to be able to kind of hone in on that and obviously got to be better there to move forward to next week and get a W."

Center Aaron Brewer – "Just eliminate the bad. You can't win when you have that many penalties and sacks and turnovers at that point in time. Those are the things we need to be better on. That's literally kind of the message that we're going into. It was a close game; it was a winnable game. Even with all the mistakes we had, it was still a winnable game."

Rookie progress

Dolphins rookies played 27.2 percent of the total offensive and defensive Week 1 snaps. That number led the NFL by greater than 10 percent (Cleveland, 16.7 percent). Tracking the progress of the youth on this team, which hopes to become established pillars of the franchise, will be a weekly focus in Miami. Add in second-year players and the total number of snaps from players with one-year experience or fewer was 610.

Safety Dante Trader on what the interceptions from him and rookie safety Michael Taaffe means – "That we have the potential. Just speaking for myself, I haven't done anything in this league. So being able to make plays and get some more popping plays on tape and just allow the coaches to get more confidence that we can do more things in the back end and they can trust us more in that sense."

Hafley – "I got to stay in the moment. Easier said than done, right? Today's about today. Today's about our preparation. I know that's a whole bunch of coach talk, but at the same time, just even meeting with the players last night, being around them today, I love the guys that we have and I love their attitude and I love their ownership and I love how much they want to grow and get better. We've got the right people in the building right now and that really excites me, but we have to get better today."

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