The Miami Dolphins of 2024 need to make a few adjustments if they genuinely hope for a different outcome.
The Miami Dolphins need to somehow morph into a physical team.
I’m not 100% sure how this can get done, but if the Miami Dolphins are going to beat the elite, the big boys, or the better teams in the AFC, they need to become a much more physical team.
Think of all the teams in the AFC who are the best teams. The Bills, Ravens, Chiefs, to a smaller extent the Browns, Steelers, and Bengals are all teams that play in cold weather in December and January. They all can muddy up a game and can win in low-scoring affairs where their guys just out-physical their opponent.
Unless the Miami Dolphins can start hosting playoff games, something they hate to do, they need to become much more physical across the board.
Well, how do you become physical when you’re located in South Beach and your offense is based on speed and precision? I guess changing up the offensive philosophy a little bit would be the first thing that has to happen. Does Mike McDaniel, the guy who was dubbed the run-game-guru in San Francisco, have it in him to unleash an offense that is much tougher at the point of attack? I don’t know is my answer.
Bringing in players that have track records of playing tough football will also naturally help to do this.
That’s much easier said than done but something has to change in Miami. They can’t rule September, October, and half of November and then just become some ordinary team because the rest of the league woke up and know it’s time to play big boy football once the temperature gets to 40.
The Dolphins need to have a brand of football that travels to these cold weather places because we’ve seen so many times what happens when they can’t play physically. They go three and out and the other teams simply lean on them and the game gets out of hand.
Tua somehow needs to become the leader of the offense for the Miami Dolphins.
I don’t think Tua can lead this team to the promised land. I’ve seen enough. I’ve backed this guy a good amount but enough is enough. I think he has peaked and there isn’t much more room for improvement. He’s not magically going to have a stronger arm and be able to ad-lib when the situation calls for it and the team isn’t going to suddenly be okay with him running more and potentially getting hurt.
That said, I would be shocked if he isn’t the starting quarterback next year for the Miami Dolphins.
Since I expect him to be the quarterback, I might as well accept it.
Tua needs to become the leader of the offense and not just the guy Tyreek Hill and others say he is when things are going great in September and October. Tua needs to be the vocal leader and not just one of these quiet lead by example players.
This means he can’t go ask for Patrick Mahomes jersey immediately after getting embarrassed and playing terribly in a playoff game.
If you’re a player on the Dolphins how do you not see that and shake your head and be draped in 2nd hand embarrassment? Why does Tua have to be told this is the wrong thing to do?
Though I don’t have much hope that Tua can be the leader of the offense, it still has to happen. That means he does have to raise his game because guys don’t listen to the guys who aren’t playing well. That’s how sports and life works.
Tua needs to do more than have passing workouts in the offseason to be thought of as a leader. How about doing everything you can such as not sliding three yards short of first downs when the team needs it? That kind of stuff can easily be changed if you want to change it.
In so many words, Tua needs to go back to playing like this. He needs to just play and not think about injury. If that can’t happen due to all the circumstances and risks surrounding him, what are we doing here?
A serious conversation about whether Mike McDaniel should relinquish playcalling needs to be had.
Mike McDaniel alluded to this when he and Chris Grier had their end-of-the-year press conference where they didn’t say anything at all. He said that all options are on the table in trying to make the Miami Dolphins better which includes play-calling.
I think we have tons of evidence that Mike McDaniel is very good at play design but he isn’t that good at play-calling and managing the team on game day at the same time. We’ve seen him mess up obvious game management-type moments whether it’s having communication issues or just doing the opposite of what everyone in the world would do at a given moment.
I also think if you were to give McDaniel truth serum he would tell you some of his play calls such as the lack of downfield passing against the Chiefs had more to do with him knowing Tua couldn’t do what he ultimately would want. rather than the weather or what the Chiefs were presenting to him on defense.
I don’t 100% know if McDaneil should give up play-calling. I’m learning that he should because I’ve seen what it looks like when he’s doing both in the biggest of games. This means that Frank Smith, who is interviewing for head coaching jobs, would be next in line to call the plays. I think I would like to see what that would look like.
All options are on the table so seeing how something looks that could help, I think, at the very least needs to be discussed and possibly implemented.
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