A hopeful and cautious start for the NFL and Miami Dolphins as 2020 training camps open
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell wrote a note to fans on Monday: “This week training camps across the country are starting,” he said, “and before we know it, the NFL season will be here.”
I’m so glad.
Welcome back, old friend. You’ve been gone only a while but you’ve been greatly missed.
With football on the horizon, the Miami Dolphins opened their training camp to rookies and some assorted veterans, including all their quarterbacks, on Monday. On Tuesday, the rest of the veterans are scheduled to report.
Despite this hopeful start, we all know the world’s health crisis has changed things and our friend professional football looks different as a result.
Those players that reported to Dolphins camp on Monday? They did so wearing masks. And after all of them pulled the same handle on the door that led them inside the facility, they were encouraged to use the hand sanitizer that greeted them in that hallway.
Those players had already been tested multiple times for COVID-19 and were negative. The hope is as they begin their meetings and interactions with each other, they will remain healthy and strong, even as positive tests seem inevitable.
The rest of the vets reporting Tuesday will be there merely to be tested for the virus. They will not be allowed in the facility but rather will be in a trailer for the test and then must immediately leave.
Then they’ll return another day. And be tested again. And if all those tests are negative, then they’ll finally be allowed in the facility Aug. 1 to actually get to work.
About that work: We’re not going to see anything closely resembling football until Aug. 17.
That’s when practice will begin after the Dolphins go through the next few weeks of strength and conditioning, meetings, walk-thru practices and OTA (organized team activities) that are something akin to flag football.
So, old friend, as you celebrate your 101th anniversary, you seem to be acting your age. Because you’re taking quite some time to get moving around.
I am optimistic the NFL season will begin and end as currently scheduled because this league is about adjusting and improvising and finding alternate plans when initial ones fail.
“Adaptability and flexibility will be needed for the foreseeable future,” Goodell said. “After all, even the best game plan changes as new challenges arise. This year’s NFL Draft is a good example that embracing change can still deliver the fun and excitement we all crave.”
Now, about the Dolphins: We all want to be optimistic. How else to approach a team that spent more money in free agency and selected more high picks in the draft than anyone else in the offseason?
But I’m going to be cautious with proclamations of looming 2020 success. (Hey look, we’re actually talking about prospects for a season now!)
My caution is based on the idea there’s been no offseason other than through virtual video meetings and there will be no preseason. So the bond, chemisty — in short, the culture — successful teams establish over the span of that time and sometimes over seasons, will be absent from the Dolphins — at least initially.
Said another way, the young Dolphins, a team whose roster is being aggressively remade, trail teams that have been generally together for a while, have established veteran leadership and a coaching staff that knows each and their players.
None of this means the Dolphins won’t win in 2020. The whole point of that forgettable 2019 flop was to win starting in 2020 and beyond. I’m just saying it might take longer than anyone wants to admit.
So what will the 2020 season be about for the Dolphins?
At its core it will be about two people.
Tua Tagovailoa.
And Brian Flores.
That’s it. That’s all.
We must, at the end of 2020, have a feeling that both men are it. That both me are indeed the right men to manifest the franchise’s hopes for a grand future.
And immediately you’re probably understanding that point about Tagovailoa because he was drafted to be a franchise quarterback and nothing else will suffice. But maybe you’re not feeling the question about Flores because, like Dolphins owner Stephen Ross told the Herald last year, you believe the Dolphins found their coach — and he’s a keeper.
And you might trust Ross because Flores took a sub-standard roster and won five of the team’s final nine games to finish 5-11. So if he can win some with that group, he certainly can do much greater things with the new, stoutly reinforced depth chart, right?
Except this is where uncle Mando, hoping to shield you from any pain or diappointment, reminds you about the three Dolphins head coaches before Flores.
All three seemed keepers after one year, too. And then they didn’t.
Tony Sparano won the AFC East his first season in Miami. And couldn’t reach .500 again afterward.
Joe Philbin seemed on the right track with a rookie quarterback his first season in 2012. And he did too many disappointing things to recount here in the years that followed.
Adam Gase won 10 games and took the Dolphins to the playoffs his first year. Then he flamed out the next couple of seasons.
All three seemed like the answer after one season. Just like Flores seems like the answer after one season. So let’s see what this second offers.
Let’s see what this season offers — even as we’re thrilled that there will be a this season.
“This is always the most optimistic time of year for our fans, and for all 32 teams,” Goodell said. “In a year that has been extraordinarily difficult for our country and the world, we hope the energy of this moment will provide some much-needed optimism.”
This story was originally published July 27, 2020 at 3:57 PM.
