Dolfan Radio | Week 4 Preview
By Brad Michaels • October 2, 2026
Minnesota is 3–0. We are 0–3. Sunday we play them at U.S. Bank Stadium. That is the job this week. Not a speech about the last twenty years.
4:05 p.m. Eastern, Fox. Kevin Kugler, Daryl Johnston, Allison Williams. Indoors. I have been a Dolphins fan since 1970, and I still like a road game when the other fellow has to be good for sixty minutes. This other fellow has been good for three weeks. They beat Green Bay 39–22, Chicago 9–3, and Tampa 23–16. I wrote 4–13 before a snap was played. I have not moved off it. That does not mean I am staying home.
Dolphins 0–3 at Vikings 3–0. U.S. Bank Stadium. Sunday, October 4, 4:05 p.m. ET, Fox.
De’Von Achane, ACL, done for the year. Caleb Douglas out, ankle. Rob Beal out, hamstring. Justin Jefferson out, ankle.
Vikings 24, Dolphins 13. Brewer plays. Wright plays. Jefferson does not.
The Tampa game is the one that set this. Justin Jefferson left with an ankle sprain on his seventh snap. He did not practice all week. Friday, Kevin O’Connell ruled him out. He could not get there. Jordan Addison is the receiver. Malik Willis is still throwing in a dome against Kyler Murray, and Murray is back from the concussion. I am not going to pretend Jefferson sitting makes this easy. You prepare for the man who is on the field. Addison is on the field.
Brian Flores is their defensive coordinator. Their blitz rate is at the top of the league. We have not sacked a quarterback in three weeks. I can hold both of those in my head. One is their problem to keep. One is ours to fix. A coach I watched for years would not have stood at a board and called that a philosophy. He would have asked who was supposed to be there, and then he would have asked why he was not.
Achane tore his ACL against Kansas City. He is out for the year. That is a bad break for a good player, and it does not change Sunday. Jaylen Wright was full Thursday and Friday. No designation. He plays. Ollie Gordon carried it 17 times for 41 yards and the touchdown last week. Seventeen for 41. I am glad he scored. I am not going to clap for 2.4 yards a carry and call it a run game. Wright has to be ready. The line has to give him a lane. If the lane is not there, we are asking Willis to win it by himself against a defense that wants to live in the backfield.
Aaron Brewer plays. Hafley said the hand is not keeping him out. He was full Friday. He is the center. Flores is going to come inside and outside. I have watched this long enough to know the order of the failure. The center misses the pressure, the quarterback is on the ground, and then the building wants to talk about the quarterback. Brewer is in. He has to identify it.
Caleb Douglas is out. Ankle. Second game in a row. Chris Bell was full Friday and has no designation. He caught four balls for 67 yards against the Chiefs. Bell, Malik Washington, and Greg Dulcich are the group. That is not a star board. It is a board. Use it.
Rob Beal is out. Hamstring. Second game. We were already thin rushing the passer. You cannot rush four and hope. You also cannot abandon the rush because one man is out. Somebody has to get Murray on the ground. Twice would be a start. We have had zero in three weeks. That is not a scheme argument. That is a result.
A coach I knew did not allow a player to take his helmet off in practice, or take a knee, or get a drink of water before the period was over. He was a friendly man on his show. On the field the standard was the standard. I am not asking these kids to practice in 1976. I am asking them to know the call. We jumped the boot and the play-action in Santa Clara and gave up the second half. We were better against Kansas City and still lost 24–10, and we went for it on fourth down from our own 45 with six minutes left, down seven, after the defense had been the best thing on the field. Punt. Trust the defense. Get the ball back. That was the play. I have not changed my mind.
I can live with a loss in Minneapolis. I cannot live with a busted coverage we already said we were going to fix.
Vikings 24, Dolphins 13. I am not picking a moral victory. Brewer plays. Wright plays. Jefferson does not. The number stays. 1993 stays in the featured slot. We have not won one.
Friday, Oct. 2 final. Minnesota: Jefferson Out (ankle), Demmings Out (hamstring), Thorson Out (hamstring). Cashman cleared. Miami: Douglas Out (ankle), Beal Out (hamstring), Duck Out (still on PUP, practiced, not playing). Achane on IR, ACL, out for the year. Brewer plays. Wright plays. Bell no designation. Hafley said Kenneth Grant looks good and can practice next week, when he is eligible. Not Sunday.