Dolfan Radio | Week 1 Preview
By Brad Michaels • September 11, 2026
We already wrote the year. This is just Sunday. Allegiant, 1:25 Pacific, FOX, two first-year staffs, and a total still hanging at 40.5 because neither building has given anyone a reason to expect a track meet.
If Miami cannot even compete here, the floor is real. I said that on September 2 and I still believe it. This is not San Francisco next week and it is not Mahomes walking into Hard Rock the week after. It is Las Vegas, at home, with Kirk Cousins under center and Ashton Jeanty back on the practice field. It is also a game without Brock Bowers. That last part is the one that actually changed the week.
Sunday, Sept. 13. Allegiant Stadium. 4:25 p.m. ET / 1:25 p.m. PT. FOX.
Raiders −3 to −3.5. Total 40.5. Miami moneyline around +145. Still one of the lowest totals on the Sunday card.
Dolphins 20, Raiders 17. Bowers is out. Jeanty is in. That is the trade the week made.
Klint Kubiak confirmed it this morning: Bowers will not play. The meniscus trim was Tuesday in Dallas. He did not practice Wednesday or Thursday. Michael Mayer is the tight end Las Vegas will dress, with Ian Thomas in the mix and the wideouts asked to be something they have not had to be. Schefter has already started walking back the “one or two weeks” timeline as optimistic. For our purposes, Sunday is enough. The All-Pro is not on the field.
Jeanty is. Full participant Wednesday and Thursday after missing everything since August 23. He told people the ankle feels really good. Schefter says he plays. That does not mean 22 carries. It means Vegas has a run game again, and Mike Washington is the second voice instead of the first.
On the Miami side, Jeff Hafley said this morning he expects every player on the 53 to be available. Will Kacmarek (calf) and Ronnie Harrison Jr. (hamstring) were limited all week. Hafley still has them in the building Sunday. Seydou Traore practiced in full. Kenneth Grant is still on IR. Storm Duck and Darrell Baker Jr. are still on PUP. Those three were never part of this week. Chris Bell will not be on a pitch count. That is the room.
Kubiak’s first game as a head coach. Cousins is starting. Fernando Mendoza, the No. 1 pick, is not. That was the plan in July, and it is still the plan. Write about Mendoza when he is in the game.
Without Bowers, the passing game has to become Cousins to Mayer and whoever wins the one-on-ones outside. Last year’s Raiders scored 14.2 points a game. Dead last. That is why the total is sitting down there with the furniture. Jeanty can lift it a little. Mayer is not going to lift it the way Bowers would have. The hole on the other side of the ball is still the edge: Keyron Crawford, the third-rounder, is done for the year.
Jeff Hafley. Bobby Slowik. Malik Willis. De’Von Achane as the offense. I keep writing that sentence because the building keeps living it.
Jaylen Wright is the listed No. 2. Ollie Gordon II is past the red jersey. Kacmarek — the third-round tight end they took to help the run game — is the one Hafley is telling you will play through a calf. Believe him until he sits. The line is Paul, Proctor, Brewer, Savaiinaea, Jackson. Caedan Wallace is the swing. That is the protection Willis is living in, and the preseason did not exactly write a love letter to it.
The secondary you take to Allegiant is the one on the depth chart: Chris Johnson in the slot, JuJu Brents and Jason Marshall Jr. outside, Zayne Anderson and Dante Trader Jr. at safety. We spent two weeks talking about what Bowers was going to do to that room. He is not dressing. Mayer is a problem. He is not that problem.
Jacob Rodriguez is the starting ILB next to Jordyn Brooks. The thought earlier this week was putting him on Bowers. That is a Week 2 sentence now. Sunday he is a linebacker in a first-year defense that still has to tackle, which Hafley admitted Friday is the thing that usually looks sloppy in Week 1.
The preseason was 0–3. That tape is a warning about the offensive line and the young receivers. It is not a scouting report on Willis. He did not play enough in those games for anyone to pretend they learned something profound. You learn it when the clock is real.
| Miami | Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Coach | Jeff Hafley, Year 1 | Klint Kubiak, Year 1 |
| QB1 | Malik Willis | Kirk Cousins |
| QB2 | Kyle McCord | Fernando Mendoza |
| Feature back | Achane. Wright next. Gordon available. | Jeanty expected to play. Washington next. |
| Tight end | Dulcich. Kacmarek expected to go. | Mayer. Bowers out (knee). |
| The problem | The line. Young receivers. Tackling in Week 1. | No Bowers. Edge without Crawford. A managed Jeanty. |
Miami’s path is still the run and the edges. Slowik wants a run game that is not a suggestion you make on first down and abandon on second. Achane has to touch the ball until somebody in silver actually stops him. Willis’s legs are part of that, not a gadget they pull out when the script dies. If the first two drives go nowhere and Willis is throwing from a pocket that is shrinking in real time, the afternoon gets small in a hurry. We have all sat through that movie.
Chop Robinson is the other half. Year 3. Sunday is not a scheme seminar. Sunday is whether he wrecks a protection Cousins is trying to time up with Mayer instead of Bowers. If he does it once, you will feel the building lean. If he never gets home, Cousins will dink this thing into the fourth quarter and we will all pretend we saw it coming.
Vegas’s path got narrower and, in a way, simpler. Jeanty has to be the offense. Cousins has to be careful. Mayer has to be more than a name on a depth chart. If Jeanty is on a pitch count after three weeks off an ankle, the 40.5 starts to look like the most honest number on the board. If he is himself, Miami’s front has a long day.
Dolphins 20, Raiders 17. I waited until Friday to write that sentence because the week kept moving. Bowers sitting is the bigger of the two stamps. Jeanty playing keeps Vegas from being a complete gift. Home field is still home field. A field goal is still a field goal.
I think Miami can take this one. Not because the rebuild is ahead of schedule. Because the one player who was going to expose that young secondary is in street clothes, and Achane against a first-year staff in September is still a real idea. If Willis turns it over twice, tear this up. If Chop never gets home, tear this up. If Jeanty looks like July, we will talk about it after the game instead of before it.
A win on the 13th would be the first chance to take 1993 out of the featured slot, and I would be happy to do that work. A competitive loss does not change the 4–13 weather report. A collapse would. Watch the first two drives before you watch the box score. That is where this team usually tells you what kind of day you are in for.
Friday, Sept. 11. Kubiak: Bowers will not play. Schefter: Jeanty will. Hafley: the 53 is available. That is the sheet this pick is sitting on.
Where do you have it? Leave it in the comments. I will be there after the game.