Dolphins Held Players-Only Meeting After Blowout Week 1 Loss to Daniel Jones, Colts

It took one game for the Miami Dolphins to stage their first players-only meeting of the 2025 NFL season.

"I think it's just good to reaffirm what our goals are and hear that coming from the leadership in the locker room as opposed to the coaches," linebacker Jaelan Phillips said, per the Palm Beach Post's Joe Schad. "Obviously, we have utmost respect for the coaches, but at the end of the day, we're the ones on the field playing. So it's important for us to all be on the same accord and for us all to be intentional about what our goals are for the week."

Fellow linebacker Jordyn Brooks similarly thought it was important to have the locker room on the same page following a 33-8 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Week 1:

Players-only meetings make intuitive sense. Sometimes, members of a team may need to clear the air and hold one another accountable, and removing coaches from the room could help to facilitate that process.

But NFL legend Cris Carter summed up why the benefits from these can be negligible.

"Typically, you're not in a good situation as a team to begin with if you're having one of those players-only meetings," he told ESPN's Johnette Howard in 2015. "They can be destructive as often as it can be constructive. You have to be careful."

Look no further than the 2024 Dolphins as evidence.

Miami held multiple players-only gatherings last year. Perhaps some healthy discussion resulted, yet that didn't stop the team from finishing 8-9 and missing the playoffs.

There's no sugarcoating how bad the Dolphins were in Week 1.

Colts quarterback Daniel Jones shredded the secondary to the tune of 272 yards and a touchdown on 29 attempts, while Jonathan Taylor and DJ Giddens combined to run for 112 yards. On offense, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had 114 passing yards, two interceptions and a lost fumble.

▶️ Full Dolphins-Colts Recap

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Miami slipped from 26th to 29th in Bleacher Report's NFL power rankings.

"No team provided a worse Week 1 performance than the Dolphins," B/R's Brent Sobleski wrote. "Mike McDaniel's squad looked completely unprepared and inept, even against a Colts team that hadn't won a regular-season opener since 2013."

This franchise might have bigger issues than any amount of players-only meetings can solve.