This season will prove the Phins are being built right… or not!
I’m an old-school football guy and I mostly believe in tried and tested team-building formulas: build inside out, build tough with a nice helping of skills, and be able to punch opposition in the face and also carve them up with talent. Some of my beloved models for team design are 70’s Dolphins, 80’s 49ers, 90’s Cowboys, 20’s Steelers, and the Patriots of the last decade (I want to gag for saying it). So I’ve been torn between evaluator and fan by the Dolphins building their roster for years in strong contrast to my tastes with an all-in focus on offensive and defensive skills, lackluster focus on tight end and OL, and now letting the defensive interior lag. I’ve never wanted to be this 100% wrong because the Dolphins rising to the top of the league matters way more to me than getting the evaluation right. Crow would never taste so good as seeing the Phins win a Super Bowl and having to admit it I didn’t see the brilliance. This is why this schedule is the perfect test for this franchise and this season will be riveting Dolphins football.
2024 is the perfect test for the Phins team design!
It’s a fact that this franchise fades year after year.
While it would take a load of unflinching fandom to say the team’s design model isn’t even a small part of the formula, injuries are also a legitimate ingredient for the Phins’ collapses along with other issues such as critical coaching mistakes, player performance in clutch moments, and major turnover on the staff every season. You can apply the values to all the reasons for these end-of-the-season collapses as you see fit because that’s your evaluation.
Whatever that evaluation, it doesn’t take the best football software to recognize the good news that this team is now seasoned, has a load of talent, and has been transformed into the roster design envisioned by Chris Grier and Mike McDaniel. So, whatever comes, good and bad, it won’t be half-baked. Say what you want, but this is their baby, and with four winning seasons and two playoff appearances you can’t say they’ll certainly repeat the previous collapses. So, maybe they have a visionary design? Of course, the lengthy history can’t be discounted either.
That’s the beauty of this schedule and this season: either the Phins will repeat history (and confirm it?) or they will flip the script and prove to have been brilliant all along.
This season can’t come fast enough and I can’t wait to see the big reveal!
A ton has been done to set a different course, how we finish is the litmus test
So, here we are, at the tail end of a brilliant offseason that started with a gut-wrenching loss of key free agents. Chris Grier leaned into his team-building formula by adding excellent skill talents of Odell Beckhall Junior, Kendall Fuller, Jordan Poyer, Shaq Barrett, and Chop Robinson, while letting trench players Chrisitan Wilkins, Robert Hunt, and Connor Williams go–although, Williams’ injury forced that one. Thankfully, Grier did bring in Free Agents center Arron Brewer and tight end Johnnu Smith and drafted offensive tackle Patrick Paul to bolster the physicality. Still, while the skills were upped on both sides of the ball tremendously, we also lowered our talent and physicality in the trenches from 2023. Whatever you think, this is exactly what Grier and Mike McDaniel want for their vision of this team! Again, when you look over the schedule especially the end of the season starting in Week 13, this team design will either prove revolutionary or sorely lacking.
So many critical keys will be tested this year and no one knows what it all amounts to until at least mid-season…
…No matter how loud someone says they have the answers!
I don’t know how it will turn out, but at least we’ll be VERY clear
- Will Tua stay healthy? If he stays healthy this season then that knock should die.
- Can a passing and edge running team win in the cold AFCE?
- Was it wise to invest so much in speedy offensive skills, defensive backs, and edge rushers at the cost of the offensive line and defensive interior talent?
- Is Mike McDaniel able to take this team to the next level?
- Will Anthony Weaver lead this Dolphins defense back to the top of the NFL?
- Can the Dolphins beat good teams?
- Can we stay healthy?
- Can Tua take what’s here and drive this offense to carry a defense in personnel and philosophical transition?
I have my tastes, evaluations, hopes, dreams, and opinions, but the truth will only be realized on the field. Until the games are played, the luck or bad luck injuries handed out, and the fat lady sings I won’t know where my beliefs and the truth meet… and neither will you! That’s the beauty of each NFL season: While anything is possible in the offseason, the endings are rarely pleasant and mostly full of anguish, but always riveting from start to finish! Let’s hope that 2024 is our year Dolphins Fans to prove we are back on top for sure!! Go Phins!!!