No one would be foolhardy enough to call the Week 7 clash between the Miami Dolphins and Cleveland Browns must-see TV in a vacuum. Tua Tagovailoa and the Dolphins are crumbling from within and seemingly don't have a route to be saved, while the Browns are still in the midst of their latest rebuild with rookie third-rounder Dillon Gabriel now helming the offense. However, this Dolphins-Browns matchup might quickly be turning into can't-miss action in the way of sick fascination thanks to Mother Nature.
Miami insider Andy Slater noted that the weather for Dolphins-Browns in Week 7 figures to be some of the worst we've seen in the NFL in some time. While it might be a nice October 65 degrees in Cleveland, the forecast is already currently calling for 36 mph wind gusts with a 94 percent chance of rain on Sunday around kickoff at 1 p.m. ET.
If that wasn't bad enough, though, Slater also noted that the National Weather Service indicates that the storm could get even stronger by game time, pushing the gusts up to anywhere from 50-60 mph.
NEW: Dolphins-Browns game in Cleveland could have 50-60 mph wind gusts.
— Andy Slater (@AndySlater) October 16, 2025
The National Weather Service says this is “certainly a system worth keeping an eye on” as a stronger storm may materialize.
The current forecast: 94% chance of rain, 36 mph gusts, and 65 degrees.
Considering that we're talking about Tua Tagovailoa and Dillon Gabriel here on top of that, this is a recipe for an all-time unwatchable game — that's almost so unwatchable that you have to watch it.
Tua Tagovailoa and Dillon Gabriel aren't built to weather this storm
Despite the past pedigree of Mike McDaniel and the Miami offense, neither the Dolphins or Browns have what you'd call an explosive passing offense at this current juncture. Both Tagovailoa and Gabriel have their strengths, but their arm strength is not included in that.
Tua's lack of arm strength has been a subject of debate/controversy/frustration/etc. for several years at this point, while one could argue that the same issue is almost chief among the reasons why a quarterback as prolific as Gabriel was in college fell to the third round (along with his size, among other things, of course).
Against the speed of the NFL, the lack of arm strength can be a limiting factor in normal weather conditions. In conditions like the ones forecasted for Sunday in Cleveland, though, it could be a true nightmare. There's a legitimate chance we might not need a full hand's worth of fingers to be able to count the number of passes that go 10 or more yards down the field in this game. Quinshon Judkins and De'Von Achane might look like exhausted horses in the Arabian deserts by the third quarter.
Hell, with some of the weak-armed throws we've seen from these quarterbacks, we could see the ball carried by the wind worse than the white feather in Forrest Gump, maybe even ending up down the road at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. All bets are off with this type of wind in any NFL game, but especially with Tagovailoa and Gabriel being at the center of it.
Dolphins-Browns quickly becoming a car crash you can't look away from
The Week 7 slate in the NFL is littered with legitimately great matchups that football fans should be salivating to get their eyes on. And yet, it's going to be hard to talk anyone out of rubber-necking to see what's happening in Cleveland with the weather that's in store for this matchup.
Again, these teams are really damn bad when they aren't seeing warning signs of the apocalypse on the Doppler. Miami and Cleveland have one win apiece at this point while combining for 10 losses. They are beelining for the top of the 2026 NFL Draft order with no signs of deviating from that course any time soon. And now you're putting these teams in the most demanding and damaging possible conditions for football imaginable. It's disgusting, and you're not going to be able to look away!
What only adds to that is, while I can optimistically say that this game will be predictably ugly in these ridiculous winds and with driving rain in it, the real reason to tune in will be to see which coach and team ultimately cracks first. Neither McDaniel nor Kevin Stefanski have really shown of late to be level-headed craftsmen on the sidelines, which could lead to one of them going full-on galaxy brain and start trying to chuck it around, a la Brian Kelly at Notre Dame in 2016 while playing in the outskirts of a legitimate hurricane in North Carolina.
This weather is enough to break any man's wits and spirit — but especially when those men have already spent six weeks patrolling the sidelines in Miami and Cleveland.