Jordyn Brooks has seen this before. The Miami Dolphins linebacker came back from the bye on Monday with his team at 0-5, and he answered a question about slow starts by pointing to the last two seasons, both of which Miami began badly and then fought its way back into.
“Like the last two years has kind of been that way since I’ve been here,” Brooks said. “Being able to kind of gather the troops and, you know, close the gap and have a fighting chance at the end of the season. Third time having to do that.” Then he went further. He said he had heard someone talk about the Dolphins going 12-0 the rest of the way. “I’m right there with him. Why not? You know what I mean?” Brooks said. “It’s one week at a time, one play at a time.”
Miami has 12 games left, starting Sunday at the New York Jets. Brooks arrived in 2024, when the Dolphins started 2-6 and finished 8-9. Last season they were 1-6 before winning six of their last 10 to end at 7-10. Neither team made the playoffs. His message to the players who have not been through a start like this, he said, is “to keep going. You never know how this season is going to end up.”
“Sometimes what stops you from playing free is losing”
One reporter told Brooks that the Dolphins looked like they had been playing tight, afraid to make mistakes, and said head coach Jeff Hafley had disagreed when asked the same thing. Brooks did not take sides, but he did not dismiss the idea either.
“I can’t say that somebody’s playing tight. I can’t say he’s not,” he said. “You do want to see guys play free. Sometimes what stops you from playing free is losing, honestly. When one loss carries into another, so you kind of want to play perfect. You don’t want to take a chance.” That, he said, is why the bye came at a good time: “You just get your chance to reset, kind of just throw everything out the window that’s happening and go out there and play loose, play free.”
Left tackle Patrick Paul, asked the same question, sided with his coach. “I don’t think we did. No, I think we have a confident group,” Paul said. “I think it’s just a lot of these games are really close, and each week we got better.”
Back from a rough Week 5
Brooks left the 31-24 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals for part of the game before returning. “You never want to come out of the game, you know what I mean? And that’s never been my mindset. Anything I can play through, I play through,” he said. “It was tough, had to come out a couple drives. But thankfully, I was able to come back and finish the game.”
He admitted he had been unhappy to see the bye so early on the schedule. “It honestly came right on time,” he said. “And not just for me, a lot of other guys banged up a little bit.” Brooks has 43 tackles in five games. Rookie linebacker Jacob Rodriguez, who plays next to him, has 57, which led the league going into the Dolphins’ bye.
He wants more turnovers from the defense and praised rookie cornerback Chris Johnson, who punched the ball out of Chase Brown’s hands at the Miami 7 against Cincinnati. “It was nice, man. It was clean,” Brooks said. “It was exactly what he’s been doing in practice.” He also welcomed back second-year defensive tackle Kenneth Grant, calling him “just a big, strong body out there in the middle of the D-line, somebody that we were really counting on.”
Sieler: “I want to win here as a Dolphin”
Defensive lineman Zach Sieler, who also spoke on Monday, was asked about the trade deadline on Tuesday, November 10, and whether he would prefer to stay or join a contender. “I know people say rumors or talk, whatever, this time of year, but you know, I’m here focused playing games here,” he said. “I love it here. I want to win here as a Dolphin.”
Miami has four sacks this season, all of them in the 15-10 loss at Minnesota on October 4, when Sieler had two. “It’s a week-to-week league,” Sieler said. “We got to keep working, keep doing our thing, make the adjustments.” He spent part of the bye sitting in a tree stand on his land in Missouri, “just kind of quiet, no service,” reflecting on the season, and helping teach conservation to children from his foundation during bow season.
Up next: the Jets
The Dolphins visit the 2-4 Jets at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, October 25, at 1 p.m. ET. Running back Breece Hall is listed as questionable for New York. Brooks, who played his college football at Texas Tech, said division games have “a little bit more meaning to it. Those are the guys that you see twice a year.” Miami then hosts the New England Patriots on November 1.
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