After adding stars this offseason, Dolphins excited to lay down new ‘foundation’
Before Mike McDaniel sat at his assigned table to speak to reporters at the NFL’s annual owners meeting Monday morning, he had a brief chat with what has long been the standard of the AFC East, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick.
“I feel like I’m a couple of wins behind him in the win-loss column,” McDaniel later deadpanned.
McDaniel is the eighth head coach the Dolphins have hired since Belichick joined the Patriots in 2000, and the two coaches standing side-by-side was maybe a reminder of how far the franchise has to go to garner respect similar to that of New England.
The Dolphins have taken steps this offseason to close the gap between them and the AFC’s elite, though, by signing left tackle Terron Armstead and trading for wide receiver Tyreek Hill.
As McDaniel, general manager Chris Grier and other members of the Dolphins brass gathered with various league personnel at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, the first-year head coach acknowledged the Dolphins have made a series of eye-catching moves since the start of free agency two weeks ago. He also knows it doesn’t mean much until it all comes together on the field.
“Last year is completely irrelevant,” McDaniel said. “We can call it PMM: Pre-Mike McDaniel. It’s about how good can we get with the people in front of us and the people that are sacrificing and investing in the football team, the players and the coaches, what can we best become? That’s the directive. That’s the motivation. And we won’t lose sight of that for a minute.”
Speaking hours after McDaniel, Grier gave more insight into the team’s biggest acquisition: trading for Hill, a six-time Pro Bowler. Grier said he found out about Hill’s availability on March 18 and didn’t think a deal was possible but after looking into it with top decision-makers, they realized it could be feasible. After amassing massive draft capital in recent years, the Dolphins ended up giving the Kansas City Chiefs five picks in the next two years, including their top two picks in the 2022 NFL Draft.
“We had been building here for a while since we took over, acquiring picks and cleaning up the salary cap and stuff,” Grier said. “It was the opportunity to add a good player, a very dynamic player, one that we feel is one of the best players in the league. When those opportunities come, we just felt like we can’t pass on it. We spent the last three years building and getting the roster to the point where we can start competing and at the end of the day being able to add a player of his caliber, we felt like he was too good to pass on.”
Grier also pointed to bringing in Hill and Armstead as further confirmation of the team’s belief that it is close to contending.
“This was finding the right players, right pieces, right time,” he said. “And I think we’ve acquired a lot of young talent coming in, but if you find good, veteran players who are not only good players but leaders as well — people talked about Tyreek’s leadership there in Kansas City. The Saints, you hear [general manager] Mickey Loomis say [Armstead is] one of the best human beings you’ll ever be around. So I think for our roster, if we’re going to add, however many players, those top players in their positions in the league, especially if they’re great leaders and veterans, it’s a great opportunity for us so we just felt it was the right time to really be aggressive.”
For his approximately 30-minute session, McDaniel spoke in definite terms about few things. He shot down rumors of Tom Brady joining the Dolphins. He reaffirmed Tua Tagovailoa as the starting quarterback amid questions about Teddy Bridgewater’s role and confirmed Armstead will be the team’s left tackle, as expected.
Otherwise, McDaniel left no indication of what his team will look like in 2022 and how certain players will specifically fit his new scheme.
What will Hill’s role be after McDaniel turned Deebo Samuel into a multihyphenate playmaker? Hill will have some “overlap,” McDaniel said, but it will ultimately be rooted in his individual skill set.
“You’ve got to start with a foundation,” he said. “Much like building a house, you’ve got to build a football team, and we’ve got to start with how to line up and what cadences are and how to come off the ball and utilize every single asset that he has in his body.”
How will the positions along the offensive line sort themselves out? McDaniel wouldn’t pencil in Connor Williams at left guard, where he said he’s most comfortable, and declined to divulge in-house candidates at right tackle (Grier did say there would be competition for Michael Deiter at center).
Instead, McDaniel said the “nuts and bolts” will start to form April 4, with the beginning of the offseason workout program.
“It wouldn’t be fair to the process or to the players to say, ‘OK this guy is going to be here exactly at this point,’” McDaniel said. “Because it is a different scheme. We ask people to do different things. But excited about all those players. Each and every draft pick that we’ve had up front were guys that in a different city when I was working with a different team, were looking at targets for ourselves. Excited about those type of players. And starting in a week we’ll decide that process to decide exactly where they’re at.”
One thing is certain: the team’s moves this offseason have been a concerted effort to surround Tagovailoa with more talent.
“I know quarterbacks need players and players need quarterbacks,” McDaniel said. “The exact formula of how you go about doing that is, honestly, we have player X and, “What’s the best player who can give to complement player X? Oh, That’s player Z.’ And you go to some consonants. The best formula is a formula that’s adapting to the people around them. I think having an identity you’re trying to find and committing to that vision with an ultimate purpose is important. Having a vision and going about it conclusively and one direction, to me that’s the most important part. There is a lot of different ways to skin a cat.”
After being the talk of the NFL for the past week, there is a feeling of excitement and expectations being attached to the Dolphins, and it’s welcomed by McDaniel.
“Out of all the players, in the whole process, the person that played out the best was the Miami Dolphins organization,” he said. “... I think there was a buzz that the Miami Dolphins organization and the city of Miami very much deserved.”
This story was originally published March 28, 2022 at 5:19 PM.
