The worst injury of the NFL weekend did not involve a hit. De’Von Achane planted his left leg to cut right in the first quarter of Miami’s Week 3 loss to Kansas City, the leg gave out under him, and by Monday NFL Network was reporting a torn ACL that ends his 2026 season.
Miami lost the game 24-10, fell to 0-3, and lost the one player the offense was built around. Head coach Jeff Hafley said after the game that it did not sound optimistic. He was right.
Miami paid him in May and got three games
The Dolphins signed Achane to a four-year, $64 million extension in May, and that deal was defensible at the time. He had just put up a career-high 1,838 yards from scrimmage and 12 touchdowns over 16 starts on his way to a first Pro Bowl, and he had missed exactly one game across the previous two seasons. Durability was supposed to be the thing everyone had wrong about him.
The 2026 version never got going. Achane carried 34 times for 117 yards and caught seven passes for 49 more through three weeks, with no touchdowns. That is 3.4 yards a carry behind an offensive line that has been overwhelmed since Week 1, and it is worth saying plainly: Achane was not the problem in Miami, and his absence will not fix anything that was already broken.
There is no plan behind him
This is where the front office deserves the blame. When Achane went down Sunday, Ollie Gordon II took over and produced 55 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown on 20 touches, then left the game at one point with cramps. Jaylen Wright was inactive with a stinger and a foot injury. At one stage the Dolphins were lining up wide receiver Malik Washington in the backfield.
A team that just guaranteed real money to a 200-pound back with a slashing running style built nothing behind him. Calling that bad luck lets the front office off the hook. It is a roster construction failure that was always going to be exposed the first time Achane missed time.
The season is already gone
Miami is 0-3 and travels to face the 3-0 Vikings on Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis. The schedule does not soften after that, and Hafley’s first year as head coach is now about evaluation rather than contention. Anybody selling a comeback should be ignored.
The useful version of the next 14 games is straightforward. Find out whether Gordon can carry a real workload, get Wright healthy and on the field, and let the offensive line either develop or disqualify itself. Miami needs answers more than it needs to chase a 7-10 finish that changes nothing.
What it means for Achane
The good news for him is timing. He tore the ACL in September, which gives him close to a full calendar year before Week 1 of 2027, and the extension he signed in May means he is not rehabbing with his next contract hanging over him. Backs have returned from this and been fine.
The harder question is whether Miami will look anything like a team worth returning to. Achane will be 25 and healthy next fall. The rest of this roster is a much bigger project.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.