There’s no preseason to prove it, but these are the reasons the Miami Dolphins are better
The Miami Dolphins have a long way to go before anyone, least of all the scoreboard, crowns them in any significant fashion. But step back for one minute and consider how far this club has already come.
Think about how much further they are to where they want to be. Because it’s kind of refreshing.
A year ago, you’ll recall, the Dolphins were preparing for the 2019 regular-season opener and three weeks before that first game we were already talking about veterans such Kiko Alonso wanting out. We were on the cusp of Minkah Fitzpatrick and Kenny Stills being unhappy with their role or with the coach.
We were about to hear whispers of extensive trade discussions with the Houston Texans -- talks that ultimately led to the Laremy Tunsil trade.
It was an uncertain and tumultuous time for what was shaping up as a team lacking in talent or hope for success.
The 2020 Dolphins are very, very, very far removed from that one year later.
We still don’t know what the regular-season will bring. Frankly, some people aren’t even willing to guarantee the regular season will happen.
But the team that coach Brian Flores is cobbling together with the talent general manager Chris Grier supplied seems headed in the right direction. Because everywhere you look there are good possibilities where last year only offered impossibilities.
The quarterback position is the same, folks. Ryan Fitzpatrick was the starter last year and remains that to start this year. But unlike last year, there’s a plan beyond Fitz. There’s an heir waiting in the wings in Tua Tagovailoa.
There are possibilities for the present and the future.
Then look at the offense beyond Fitzpatrick’s lease on the quarterback job. Even in uncertain times, there’s optimism.
“There’s a lot of things we’re still working at,” Fitzpatrick said Monday. “With no preseason games, not going up against any other teams, we’re going to have to try to figure out early on in the season what our identity is going to be and the strengths and weaknesses of the football team and what we can lean on.
“But we know that we’ve got two good guys on the outside. We’ve got a great [offensive line] competition going on – guys on the inside right now fighting for playing time – and our backs are doing a great job as well.
“So as the season goes on, we’re going to figure out who we are and play to our strengths and I think that’s something that’ll be constantly evolving early on, just as we figure out where we are as a team.”
Goodness, that almost sounds like a plan.
Last year, there was no plan. It was, “We’ve got Tunsil as part of the future.’ And then, ‘We traded Tunsil for two first-round picks in the future.”
Last year it was haphazard. The Dolphins would fill big voids with used up veterans and rejects such as Dwayne Allen, Robert Nkemdiche, Jordan Mills, Nate Orchard, Tank Carradine, J’Marcus Webb and others -- with none really solving anything.
This year it’s draft talent with a future and free agent veterans of value -- that actually cost money because other teams wanted them -- that are expected to fill voids.
The draft talent is now showing up most obviously on the offensive line where two rookies -- right guard Solomon Kindley and left tackle Austin Jackson -- have latched on to starting jobs and have so far refused to let go.
By the way, there’s no telling what the Dolphins offensive line will play like this season. I suppose the ceiling is wherever Jackson and Kindley and newcomers Ted Karras and Ereck Flowers rise.
But so far, this offensive line, bigger and stronger than past units. And it seems to have the makings of a good run-blocking unit.
The beneficiaries of that blocking up front will be running backs Jordan Howard and Matt Breida and perhaps Patrick Laird, who early on has impressed coaches with his ability to catch passes out of the backfield.
Notice I didn’t mention Kalen Ballage? Last year, he was the big, shiny prospect the team believed might develop into something special -- until he averaged 1.8 yards per carry.
Now Ballage is log-jammed in among other running backs, none of which are guaranteed of even making the team.
And for the uninitiated: When last year’s starter might not be good enough to make this year’s team, that heavily suggests improvement at the position. It’s progress.
It’s too early for someone as guarded as Flores to admit any of this. He said before last season began that he had a good team, and he didn’t.
Betcha he won’t say anything like that this year while probably thinking his deck is much better.
Instead Flores is careful not to tell anyone where his team’s strengths and weaknesses are. Even when it was clear last week the team was diminished the one day Fitzpatrick missed practice, the idea of discussing that makes the coach uncomfortable.
“I don’t want to dive too deep into the one day that Fitz wasn’t here and what it looks like with or without a guy,” Flores said. “I think there’s 11 guys on the field – that’s something we talk about is you need 11 guys taking care of their responsibilities, communicating, trying to execute at a high level, not dropping the football, making sure we get our quarterback/center exchange.
“Regardless of who the quarterback is, whether it’ ‘Fitz, whether it’s Josh (Rosen), whether it’s Tua (Tagovailoa), there’s 10 other guys on the field who have to handle their responsibility
“This isn’t a one man show.“
The show for the passing game much of this season is expected to look like Fitzpatrick firing passes to 6-foot-3 DeVante Parker, 6-5 Preston Williams, and 6-6 tight end Mike Gesicki and give them a chance to come down with it.
Throw it up there and see what happens may be simplistic as strategies go, but it might be some of that.
“Everywhere is a little bit different, but having two big guys on the outside with those qualities – they can go up and get the ball, they’re good route-runners, they’re smart players – I think that makes it difficult for a defense not just being able to key in on one guy,” Fitzpatrick said.
“The way that we’re working right now, the way that those guys are showing up every day, it’s given our offense and I think our team a lot of confidence going forward.”
You can be confident the Dolphins defense will be better this year. It certainly cannot get worse after allowing more points than anyone else last season.
The good news is the players the team added in the offseason -- Kyle Van Noy, Shaq Lawson, Byron Jones, Emmanuel Ogbah, Elandon Roberts and others -- all fill a specific role that seems to have logic and thought behind it.
Even now, when there’s experimentation afoot in training camp, the situations each player is utilized in is a situation in which they’ve had past NFL success. So there’s confidence that success can continue.
And like the offense, players on defense that were once expected to be the answer but haven’t yet arrived are getting left back. We saw that with former first-round pick Charles Harris and former third-round pick Cordrea Tankersley.
We’re seeing it to a lesser degree with former second-round pick Raekwon McMillan.
So there’s positive change afoot. It’s obvious even if there’s no preseason to prove it. It obvious even if no scoreboard is saying it.
It’s obvious to anyone watching them practice. The Dolphins are improved.
This story was originally published August 24, 2020 at 3:19 PM.
