The final two games of the 2024 regular season will send the Dolphins on the road to Cleveland and New York, meaning Sunday's game against the 49ers will be the last Dolphins home game until the preseason in August 2025.
Here's what players and coaches are saying ahead of this inter-conference showdown between Miami and San Francisco:
The Task at Hand
Head Coach Mike McDaniel on the 49ers – "When you're a good team especially for as long as the San Francisco 49ers have been good, there's not one team that lines up on Sunday taking them lightly. It's a litmus test of sorts for every team that plays. I know one thing about the San Francisco 49ers, having worked there for five years and knowing the coaching staff and a good amount of the core players there, is they are a very, very prideful team in playing good football … I think they're certainly frustrated as we are. It's been a trying year, but in no way, shape or form do I expect anything but their best."
Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa on 49ers' defense – "They have a lot of good guys on their team – a lot of playmakers, a lot of guys that you can see they've played in the league for some time. So I think it's going to be a tough challenge for us going against those guys with Fred (Warner) leading the charge. In my opinion probably one of the best linebackers that I've gotten to play against when we played them in 2022. I've got a lot of respect for him and got a lot of respect for those guys on that side."
Defensive Coordinator Anthony Weaver on familiarity with 49ers offense – "It's like every team you face nowadays is this scheme. Me and Mike (McDaniel) spend an awful lot of time, talking all the time about ball, about life, about a number of things. So I think we're all very familiar with this system. We faced it all offseason and now it's just a matter of going out there and executing, trying to take away what they do best."
December Mindset
Running back De'Von Achane – "We take each game one at a time. We're playing the game that we love so we're going to play each game at 110 percent. It ain't like, okay, our playoff chances are down a little bit, but we've still got a game to play. It ain't like our season is over. We've still got three or four more games so we're going to go out and play each one like it's our last."
Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman – "Everybody's individual is motivated by different things; certain guys, how you approach them. It's all different. I look at it strictly like we are all professionals. I am paid to coach and teach, and I'm going to coach and I'm going to teach every single day the same way I have my entire career. Every single day I'm trying to get players better, more knowledgeable to extend their career and win games. So it doesn't matter – I'm just trying to go 1-0 every week. It doesn't matter what our record is, I'm just trying to win the current game."
For more on the Dolphins-49ers, download the Drive Time Podcast with Travis Wingfield, available wherever you get your podcasts.
