The Miami Dolphins opted not to get their starters any work in Saturday's humiliating 26-3 loss to the New York Giants. Based on the strategy by head coach Jeff Hafley and his staff to play only backups, the lopsided outcome isn't surprising.
Hafley knows the score. He's up against it. If he doesn't have his starters on the field, darn near any NFL team will just roll over this 2026 Dolphins team. The back end of the roster is not strong, to put it kindly. That showed up in a big way versus the Giants.
But because Miami was scrambling to find players who could actually play with some pride in Week 2 of the preseason, a man who was figuratively signed off the street seized the moment. It's a narrative so bizarre it's impossible to make up.
Jeff Hafley drops details on Miami Dolphins LB Stephen Dix Jr.'s stunning story
During his postgame press conference, Jeff Hafley spoke about how linebacker Stephen Dix Jr. was claimed off waivers just recently. How recently? Get a load of this...
It took a while for the transaction to go through, so Dix wasn't awarded to Miami until Friday evening. Hafley was notified, but he didn't get to meet Dix until game day. All this background info was relayed via Dolphins senior VP of communications and marketing Anne Noland.
Here's how Hafley described the initial encounter and how Dix proceeded to play despite not knowing the playbook whatsoever:
"Steve came in, met him, and he started the whole second half, where we had to tell him the call, he had to give the call, and then we had to tell him what to do on every single play. So we were able to play like two calls in the second half, which has never happened to me in my life, so I just give him credit for going out and fighting. And that's what the preseason is all about, to find out who those guys are. [...] That's how our league works. It's like calling in the linebacker walking in my office saying. "Hey, how you doing? My name’s Jeff, and you’re going to play real football for us today. Where else in the world has that happened?"
My main takeaway here: I love that Hafley channeled his inner 22 Jump Street Channing Tatum. I hope he introduced himself to Stevie in Chan's voice.
In all seriousness, what a job by Dix to step out there and jump into the fire headfirst. This is the sort of underdog journey fans should live for in the preseason.
Does Dix have a snowball's chance in all the rings of Dante's Inferno to make the 53-man roster? No! Might he carve out a temporary spot on the practice squad? I mean, shoot, if he can fare as well as he did while learning on the fly the day of, who's to deny him?
Hafley's green-dot MIKE linebacker and two calls limited Giants to 6 second-half points
Jeff Hafley's presser was about as fiery as I recall seeing him since he took the Dolphins job. He wasn't pleased with the missed assignments, mental miscues, and overall poor execution from his team.
There's clearly a no-nonsense, high-standard Hafley is trying to establish. Whether he has the personnel to do that this season is another matter.
But the silver lining is that the G-Men only managed two field goals after halftime despite seeing only two different calls from Miami. This reflects very well on Hafley and how much sounder the team played upon digging a 20-3 hole at the midway point.
Hafley is getting buy-in from his players. And while that's easy to take for granted in the early going, the perception, fair or not, is that Mike McDaniel couldn't get his players to really respect him.
Digging more into the silver lining here: If Hafley and the rest of the Dolphins can get a fringe roster guy up to speed so quickly to play well in a live game situation, imagine what Hafley and his staff might be able to do for the starting defense.
And I can't leave you without sharing Dix's comments and what he experienced from his perspective, courtesy of the Sun Sentinel's David Furones:
"I think I had a quick 30-minute meeting with (linebackers coach Al) Washington. They told me, ‘Look bro, just go out there run sideline to sideline. I’m going to be in your ear and I’m going to tell you the call and tell you what to do.’ And I was like, ‘bet.’ Like, that’s literally any football player’s dream: Get told what to do and just go play ball. It was exciting. It was so fun out there."
The rookie undrafted free agent out of Arkansas sounds like an absolute gem. Please save him a spot on the taxi squad, Jon-Eric Sullivan! Not sure how the lowly Arizona Cardinals of all teams decided to waive Dix back in June. He seems like an asset to me, and he's, what, a little more than 24 hours into his time with the Dolphins?
What a story. It's a crowded linebacker room, but Dix will be a fun guy to watch in the preseason finale against the Falcons this Friday.
PS, can't tell you how many times I had to double back over this article and Find+Replace so that I wasn't calling this dude Stevie Nix.
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