Armstead feels pain of Dolphins fans. And Dolphins personnel notes
A six-pack of Dolphins notes on a Friday:
▪ In terms of years since a playoff victory, nobody has it worse than Dolphins fans. Miami hasn’t won a postseason game since 2000, the longest ongoing streak in the NFL.
Left tackle Terron Armstead wants you to know that’s not something overlooked, or shrugged off, by players.
He suggested players now feel the pain of long-suffering Dolphins fans.
“I’ve been here two years and I still carry that burden of the 23-year drought because I care so much,” he said. “Everyone in this locker room, we understand the hardship from the fan base and not seeing success, not seeing those big victories.
“We wear that, too. I don’t want fans to think we’re oblivious to it. We want them to get bragging rights and talk [expletive] to co-workers or friends across the league. I love that part of it. We carry that burden too.”
What went wrong in the final month?
“We struggled on the scoreboard,” he said. “We were able to move the ball pretty much on anybody. Red zone was a big-time problem for us. You get in those games against good opponents,.. not coming away with touchdowns will hurt you.”
So was the season a success or failure?
“We had a memorable year,” Armstead said. “It was not a successful year in its totality. We had Super Bowl dreams. It was Super Bowl or bust. That was my mind-set for the entire time. But when you look and find silver linings,.. there are a lot of them.”
Armstead, who has three years remaining on his contract, said Monday that he still loves playing the game but wouldn’t completely rule out retirement.
▪ After adding nine players to future contracts this week, the Dolphins are now $49.3 million over the projected 2024 salary, per overthecap.com.
General manager Chris Grier said this week he’s not concerned about that and there are creative ways to create enough flexibility for the Dolphins to do their offseason business.
Per overthecap.com, the Dolphins have a $10 million dead money 2024 cap hit on cornerback Byron Jones, who was released last year, and a $131,910 dead money 2024 cap hit on 2023 sixth-round pick Elijah Higgins, who was released last August. Arizona claimed Higgins off waivers, and he caught 14 passes for 163 yards and a touchdown this season.
▪ Two players dealt away by Miami ended up barely playing: Center Dan Feeney, dealt by Miami to Chicago in August for a 2024 sixth-round pick, played just 91 offensive snaps for the Bears.
Noah Igbinoghene played just 25 snaps on defense for Dallas, down from 238 with Miami in 2022. Kelvin Joseph, the cornerback acquired by Miami for Igbinoghene, played 21 defensive snaps for the Dolphins, was cut and played special teams in one game for Seattle.
Ultimately, the Dolphins got a far superior player with the 39th pick in 2020 (Robert Hunt) than the 30th pick (Igbinoghene); in a redraft, Miami presumably would taken Hunt and Colts running back Jonathan Taylor with those picks.
▪ Though his workload was a modest 19 carries, Dolphins undrafted rookie running back Chris Brooks had the league’s second-highest yards after contact rushing average at 5.6, behind only Baltimore back Keaton Mitchell’s 5.68, per Pro Football Focus.
Brooks, who averaged 5.6 yards per carry overall, was pleased to see he can play successfully at this level.
“Very exciting,” Brooks said. “I want to continue improving and continue to grow in all aspects I can in my game.”
Has he proven he is NFL back in his view?
“I have, but I have such a long journey, such a long road to go,” he said.
▪ NFL ratings in South Florida traditionally are among the worst for any of the league’s 32 teams.
An example: The Dolphins-Chiefs playoff game was viewed on NBC 6 in 14.5 percent of Miami-Fort Lauderdale homes with TV sets, compared with 45.1 percent in Kansas City, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Nationally, about 22 million streamed the game on Peacock, making it easily the most-streamed sporting event in history. NBC Universal, which owns Peacock, determined that because of the Dolphins-Chiefs game, Saturday had the highest-day Internet usage in U.S. history.
Dolphins early round and Heat late-round postseason games get comparable ratings. The 14.6 rating for Game 7 of the Heat-Celtics Eastern Conference finals last year was virtually identical to Saturday’s Dolphins rating, though that NBA game — on TNT — was available in fewer South Florida homes than the Dolphins-Chiefs game was.
▪ Final word today from former Dolphins fullback Rob Konrad, on social media: “Having been a member and around the Miami Dolphins the last 25 years, competing in the AFC East, we have issues being a smaller speed-based team, playing important late-season games against physical opponents in inclement weather.
“They need to get better (home field through playoffs) or bigger (physics seems to matter in inclement weather), to have an opportunity to get to the show. Hopefully 2024 will be the year.”
The Dolphins have never publicly discussed the need to build a roster better equipped to play rugged January football, against good team, in cold weather cities. It has been a shortcoming throughout this century, but one that has not been sufficiently addressed.
This story was originally published January 19, 2024 at 12:23 PM.
