De'Von Achane out for season: After losing best player, are Dolphins bound to go 0-17?
Achane's torn ACL could be a death blow for a dreadful roster
• 3 min read
The 2026 season was always going to be a slog for the Miami Dolphins. A miserable 0-3 start with all three losses coming by double digits cemented that outlook. The Dolphins were non-competitive at full strength, and now they will reportedly be without star running back De'Von Achane for the rest of the year after he sustained a torn ACL in the Week 3 defeat against the Kansas City Chiefs. This campaign could go from terrible to abysmal.
Achane is the most talented player on the Dolphins' roster, and it is not particularly close. The versatile back led the NFL last season in yards per carry and is among the league's most prolific pass-catchers out of the backfield. He was set to be the lifeblood of a young and inexperienced offense. Without him, Miami will find it dreadfully difficult to move the ball.
The Dolphins had a rough go offensively even with Achane in the lineup. They have yet to score more than 13 points in a game, their leading rusher in each contest managed no more than 74 yards, quarterback Malik Willis does not have a game above 220 passing yards and no receiver owns a 100-yard outing. This franchise is in the midst of a talent drain, and Achane's injury exacerbates the issue.
Entering the year, there was a strong argument to be made that this Miami roster is the worst collection of talent the NFL has ever seen. Now it lacks its best player.
The chances of Miami going winless in 2026 are modest simply because it is incredibly difficult to lose 17 games. No team has gone 0-17 since the NFL expanded its regular season in 2021. Before that, the Cleveland Browns were the last squad to lose every contest, and that came in the 16-game 2017 campaign. But if any franchise can be the first to drop every matchup on a 17-game schedule, it is this one.
De'Von Achane absence emphasizes roster holes
Severe financial strain prevented the Dolphins from constructing a competitive roster in the offseason. The dead money tied to the contracts of Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle and myriad other departed stars totals $183 million, which is by far the largest sum in NFL history. Miami allocated a whopping 60% of its salary cap space to dead money. No team had ever before even gone above the 45% mark.
With so little money to go around, the Dolphins scoured the scrap heap in free agency and allocated its spending to an NFL-leading 13 draft picks. In turn, this is the least experienced team in the league, the youngest roster and the squad with the fewest Pro Bowlers. Achane was the only player to earn a Pro Bowl selection, and now he is unavailable. High-end talent is nonexistent without him.
Brutal schedule limits winning opportunities
Based on 2025 win totals, the Dolphins drew the second-toughest schedule in the NFL with an opponent win percentage of .054. It is still early enough in the season that records have not yet normalized, but Miami faces the 11th-toughest remaining schedule by this year's win percentages. Two matchups with the Buffalo Bills are the most daunting games that lie ahead, and contests against the Denver Broncos, Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions are also formidable, to name just a few.
The first game without Achane lines up to be a potential disaster, too. The Dolphins hit the road in Week 4 to take on the Minnesota Vikings, who lead the league in EPA per play allowed and quarterback pressure rate. Willis will be under duress all game against Brian Flores' blitz-happy unit and will not have his Pro Bowl running back to alleviate that stress.
Miami may not be favored in a single game this year. In fact, it will likely be a multi-score underdog in nearly all of them. It faces a 10-point spread against Minnesota this week.
These games project as the most winnable opportunities on the gauntlet:
| Week | Opponent | Home/Away |
|---|---|---|
Week 7 | Away | |
Week 10 | Away | |
Week 12 | New York Jets | Home |
Week 15 | Away | |
Week 16 | Home |
DraftKings still lists the Dolphins' season win total at 3.5, but to get to four, they would need to reign victorious in all but one of the games above or steal at least one against a postseason hopeful. The best opportunity to pull off a surprise arguably comes in the Week 8 home date with the New England Patriots, who are off to a slow start of their own.
Even flirting with the projected win total is a tall ask for a team that invested so little in its roster. It has to win one before it dreams of winning three or four, and even that seems like a stretch.
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