Dolphins’ first joint practice with the Lions was ‘very frustrating’
The Miami Dolphins’ first joint practice against the Detroit Lions couldn’t have gone any worse.
Not only did the Lions dominate the Dolphins offensively and defensively, promising edge rusher Chop Robinson was carted off with an undisclosed injury, though the second-year player later posted that he was “good” via Instagram.
Still, following a rather disappointing outing vs. the Lions, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa expressed his frustration.
“Offensively it was a very frustrating day in regards to what we wanted to do, what we said we wanted to do,” Tagovailoa said. “We just weren’t able to get things jump-started.”
Asked what exactly frustrated him and the Dolphins franchise quarterback pointed to a lack of energy.
“We couldn’t gain that momentum to where, OK, all we needed was one play and then jump-start the offense whether it was move the ball, whether it was one of the third-down team periods, another team period, red zone,” Tagovailoa said. “It just felt like we didn’t have the energy that we’re used to when we practice and when we play against opponents, so that’s what I’m talking about when I talk about it was frustrating today.”
Although the return of Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill, the latter of whom has dealt with an oblique injury, should have bolstered the offense, the star receiver duo was virtually nonexistent. Hill, specifically, didn’t take part in anything competitive while Waddle had a limited snap count.
Waddle agreed with Tagovailoa’s assessment that the joint practice was rather frustrating, though he pointed to a lack of execution.
“If you don’t execute against a good team, good defense like that, then that’s what it’s going to look like,” Waddle said.
And while the Dolphins defense usually fares better, the unit definitely got outplayed. The corners — specifically Jack Jones — were targeted at a high rate as Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown proved why he has made back-to-back All-Pro teams since 2023.
Jones “is from California so me and him go way back,” St. Brown said. “They moved a lot of guys so they have a bunch of new guys on defense, younger guys and what not. They competed. They played hard. But for us as an offense, we just want to go out there and do what we do.”
What made Wednesday’s showing particularly worrisome was that it seemingly illustrated the gap between the two teams. Think about it: the Dolphins are coming off of their first sub-.500 season in coach Mike McDaniel’s tenure meanwhile the Lions still come into 2025 as the reigning No. 1 seed in the NFC despite an early playoff exit to the Washington Commanders.
“They’ve made it deep into the playoffs,” Tagovailoa said. “They made it to the NFC Championship, not just one time, so they’ve got something good going on. When you face an opponent like that in practice and you get to see some of those looks early on, that’s good for a lot of our younger guys. That’s good for our guys up front to see with how different games can look, where they bring guys from inside, outside and present their different looks within their pressure. I definitely think it helps in challenging us early on for those looks when we get to later December and January.”
Luckily, the Dolphins won’t have a long time to wait if they intend to enact revenge as they will once again make the trek to Allen Park on Thursday for a second joint practice.
“This is a game of learning,” Tagovailoa said. “This isn’t a game of, ‘OK, I’m satisfied and I’m going to be good.’ Everybody can learn from something in this game and we take a lot of what they did today; we’re going to go look at the film, we’re going to go watch it, see what we can correct and learn from that.”
This story was originally published August 13, 2025 at 4:36 PM.
