The plan better work, or the Miami Dolphins front office will be fired. Yet Miami has little choice but to tank the upcoming season. Rebuilding starts with tearing things down.
If you can’t beat them, join them. This overused expression usually applies to winning, but it’s also appropriate for losing. The Miami Dolphins will not be winners unless they successfully rebuild their team. Over the last few seasons, they have been agonizingly average, meaning it’s time to join the ranks of teams completely cleaning house. Good thing they are doing just that.
Miami should, and likely will be, tanking the upcoming 2019 season. There is no other conclusion to draw, but this plan better work, or everyone will lose their jobs. Thankfully for the Dolphins, starting over was the only option.
Below is a snapshot of the Miami Dolphins’ offseason in four parts:
1. A somewhat surprising second-place finish in the AFC East pushed Miami into the middle of the 2019 NFL Draft. It wasn’t good enough for the playoffs but also not bad enough to garner a top pick and potential difference-maker in April.
2. According to the NFL Network, the Dolphins are just the second team since 1982 to lose its starting quarterback, leading rusher, leading receiver, leader in sacks and starting right tackle in one offseason.
3. According to the Palm Beach Post, the Dolphins have a plan for this tear down that hopefully results in a rebuild. The plan is to sign zero notable free agents. The article begins by claiming this is a strategic rebuild. Our minds made us think the article said “strange rebuild.” Either one fits. First-year head coach Brian Flores was quoted as saying the team is looking towards the draft.
4. According to the Miami Herald, the Dolphins will not fill their roster with the draft and will instead add talent through other avenues, mainly undrafted free agents. We’re not saying these two courses of action are mutually exclusive. The headlines say that by themselves.
Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem, debate the Miami Dolphins in today’s NFL Sports Debate.
Todd Salem:
In actuality, the Miami Herald article is being a bit tongue-in-cheek or purposefully misleading. The reason the Dolphins will not fill their roster through the draft is because they don’t have enough draft picks and have too many holes to mathematically do so. Ignoring the heavy hitters in free agency means the team will be forced to sign a lot of undrafted players to reach its offseason 90-man roster.
Either way, this is an interesting offseason for Miami. It will likely be one of the worst teams in the sport. I like its secondary talent, tight end depth and not much else. There is no current plan for quarterback to boot. But a tanked season can be turned around quickly in this sport if quarterback is settled.
Look how high folks are about the Cleveland Browns and New York Jets right now, two franchises barely removed from being the laughing stocks of the league.
I suppose a smart first step in a rebuild is to go fullly into it and clean out the locker room. Many teams continue to attempt to toe the line between plans and end up messing up both. But if the Dolphins don’t find a quarterback to lead them on the other side of a potential tank, where do they go? That seems like the only way to begin to turn things back in the proper direction. The rebuild will last indefinitely if quarterback is still unsettled.
Then again, isn’t this still better than the Ryan Tannehill era?
Dan Salem:
No one wants to acknowledge a tanking team, but I’m bold enough to do so. The Miami Dolphins seem to be legitimately tanking the 2019 season. There are several quarterbacks of note in the 2020 NFL Draft, and Miami wants to ensure a top five selection. This is not a new strategy. Their AFC East contemporaries, the New York Jets, “Sucked for Sam” just two seasons ago and successfully positioned themselves to draft Sam Darnold at quarterback. Bottoming out certainly has its advantages.
The issue I have with the Dolphins is bigger than quarterback. Miami muddled in the middle for years, but consistently exceeded expectations. They have felt like a dysfunctional organization that was winning in spite of themselves. There’s a new head coach in town, but the front office has not changed.
Will a rookie head coach be able to shift the culture surrounding this football team? Can he usher in a positive energy, when it’s painfully obvious his team is actively trying to lose?
The New York Jets were able to tank because they played with a lame-duck head coach who was gifted another year on the job, mainly to finish off the losing before a new guy was hired to start winning. Miami hired their new guy as they begin tanking.
How did that work out for Arizona? Not so good. They managed to pair their rookie head coach with a new quarterback, yet still fired the man in charge. The Cardinals are still rebuilding. Cleveland was rebuilding for years straight. Its safe to say the plan did not work, because no one plans to rebuild for as long as the Browns did.
The Miami Dolphins must rebuild and took the necessary first steps to do so, cleaning out the locker room of expensive contracts and getting whatever they can for their talented veterans. Miami appears to be heading towards tanking, which is smart. If they are committed to their new head coach, then allowing him to work the rebuild is also smart.
Fans down in South Beach aren’t known for being vocal, but it will be interesting to see how they tolerate this lost season. It will be even more interesting to see how the team handles being awful. A quarterback alone in the 2020 draft won’t suddenly make the Miami Dolphins a contender.