Pro Bowl selections omit Dolphins, make statement about team no one can like | Opinion
The Pro Bowl was announced Tuesday evening and you didn’t miss anything if you’re a Dolphins fan.
And the Dolphins don’t have any Pro Bowl players this year — at least not at this point before 25 guys bag out of the game and are replaced with Pro Bowl alternates. The Dolphins were the only AFC team without a player on the Pro Bowl squad.
The Dolphins were only one of two NFL teams not to have a player on the Pro Bowl squad, with the New York Giants being the other. The Giants, by the way, beat the Dolphins 36-20 last weekend.
And none of that is really surprising because the 3-11 Dolphins haven’t really gotten consistent great play from anyone this season.
Some fans will push DeVante Parker forward as a Pro Bowl candidate. And Parker has had a good season with 59 catches for 954 yards with eight touchdowns. He’s averaging 16.2 yards per catch.
But here’s truth:
The 59 catches rank Parker 39th in the league.
The 954 yards rank Parker 21st in the league.
The 16.2 yards per catch rank Parker 11th in the league.
The eight TDs rank Parker eighth in the league.
So that’s why the numbers don’t qualify him for Pro Bowl status. It’s not that the numbers aren’t good. It’s because others simply have better numbers. Dolphins coach Brian Flores agrees with that, although his interest in Pro Bowl honors is admittedly not keen.
“DeVante, I thought, he’s had a good season,” Flores said Wednesday. “But there’s a lot of other players who have had a good season as well. Not everybody makes it. My thoughts on the Pro Bowl are very minimal, to be honest with you.
“I’m focused on the Bengals and helping this team improve this week, build, get better. Hopefully we’re prepared to win a football game next Sunday.”
While the Dolphins currently have no representatives in the Pro Bowl, there are players with Dolphins ties who will be there.
Laremy Tunsil, traded to the Houston Texans before this season began, was elected as a starter at left tackle.
Minkah Fitzpatrick, traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers one week into the season, was elected as a starter at free safety.
T.J. Watt, on whom the Dolphins whiffed during the 2017 draft, was elected as a starter at outside linebacker.
And now you’re wondering how T.J. Watt has any tie to the Dolphins. Well, he doesn’t. And that’s the problem.
In the first round of the 2017 draft, the Dolphins did a lot of work on adding a pass rusher. That was the priority. And they selected Charles Harris with the 22nd overall pick.
And with the 26th pick the Atlanta Falcons selected Takkarist McKinley.
And with the 28th pick the Dallas Cowboys selected Taco Charlton.
And with the 30th pick the Pittsburgh Steelers selected T.J. Watt.
And all three of those players have been better pass rushers than Harris. And Watt, with 33 sacks in 45 games including 13 sacks this season, has been markedly better than Harris.
And the Dolphins, in a season they drilled down on finding the best possible pass rusher, picked Harris, who has 3.5 sacks in 40 games. Harris has been a disappointment so far. And he added to that fact when he was a healthy scratch last week.
He has been good enough to start only eight games in his three seasons, thus making him a rotational player at best.
Flores, however, was not eager to address those misses and flubs and failures by his team on Wednesday.
“I just worry about the guys we got on our team,” he said. “I don’t worry about anyone else. Those guys are deserving and congrats to them. But I’ve got a group I enjoy coaching. That’s where my thoughts are, not on what-ifs and what-coulda-beens.
“I personally don’t think you get much out of that.”
Here’s what you get: Accountability.
Someone paid to make these decisions made them. And so far, they look bad. That has to be said. Someone needs to take responsibility for that.
That is what accountability is about.
And that history is what suggests the Dolphins are likely to get in the future when they again decide they need to draft a pass rusher or trade a player.
The fact is the Dolphins didn’t have to trade Fitzpatrick. The team could have decided to stick him at free safety — much the same way the Steelers did — and the result could have been having a Pro Bowl talent on the team.
But Flores and his coaching staff wanted Fitzpatrick to play several positions. Something the player didn’t wish to do. So that led to Fitzpatrick requesting, and getting, a trade.
Now here’s the next step: The Dolphins got a 2020 first-round and fifth-round pick and 2021 seventh-round pick from the Pittsburgh Steelers for Fitzpatrick, a 2020 fourth-round and a ‘21 sixth-round pick.
To make that an equitable trade for the Dolphins they have to somehow, from somewhere get a Pro Bowl player out of the deal. Otherwise, well, bad deal.
This story was originally published December 18, 2019 at 12:50 PM.
