After a tumultuous offseason, it’s time for Dolphins to prove they have the fortitude of a real contender

The Miami Dolphins would seem to be a hot destination in the NFL, both literally and figuratively. Players get to bask in the Florida sun. They get to enjoy heartier salaries without state-income taxes. They get to represent the storied franchise that boasts the only undefeated season in league history. Who wouldn’t want to play for the Dolphins?

A lot of people, apparently. All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey is the latest to jump ship, all but advertising his availability for weeks before his official trade to the Pittsburgh Steelers. And Ramsey didn’t leave before “constantly undermining” the Dolphins’ staff, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. But was Ramsey the issue? Or was it Miami’s utter lack of stability?

Former Pro Bowler Asante Samuel, whose son, Asante Jr., had recently been on the Dolphins’ radar as a free agent, suggested in unsubtle terms that it’s the latter. Miami’s leadership has “no backbone,” Samuel argued this week on his podcast, claiming McDaniel is a “pushover” along with general manager Chris Grier: “They’re terrified of their own players.”

Some might counter that McDaniel’s sensitivity is precisely what made him the right hire in 2022, when the coach’s admittedly nerdy energy proved a quick balm after Miami’s rigid run under Brian Flores. Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa would certainly make that case; he’s openly blamed Flores for ruining his early-career confidence, and he played with newfound authority as soon as McDaniel took over. Yet it’s fair to wonder, three years later, if McDaniel’s touch now enables rather than improves the men under his watch.

Take McDaniel at his own words: After an ugly 2024 finish that saw the Dolphins miss the playoffs, the frazzled head man admitted he needed to get a better grip on team discipline, revealing that multiple players had repeatedly been late for meetings throughout the season. Tight end Jonnu Smith, who just left for the Steelers with Ramsey, may have affirmed as much when he recently alluded to “locker-room issues” that plagued the Dolphins last season.

Except this isn’t a one-year issue with Miami. Set aside the iffy football decisions, like Grier’s inability to field a stable offensive line or properly manage high-profile salaries over the course of a nine-year tenure featuring exactly zero playoff victories. Just from a culture perspective, Miami has been the NFL equivalent of an accident — a controversy, a feud, a drama — waiting to happen.

Longest active NFL playoff-win droughts

The list of examples just during McDaniel’s three-year reign is already fairly thick. There was the Tua talk (and prolonged contract negotiations, during which the quarterback openly lamented the club’s slowness to extend him). There have been at least four different off-field incidents and/or lawsuits involving star wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who also ignited trade speculation with his own frustrations after the 2024 season. There was the defense’s vocal opposition to former coordinator Vic Fangio, who went from disdained Miami outcast to beloved Super Bowl-winning commander of the Philadelphia Eagles defense in a span of a year.

Maybe Fangio wasn’t a “bad person,” as former safety Jevon Holland implied, but instead just demanded more of the Dolphins than, well, the Miami culture had taught them to expect. Maybe there was a reason former Buffalo Bills safety Jordan Poyer, who spent one year with the Dolphins, trying to reverse the club’s reputation for “folding” in adverse circumstances, admitted after 2024 that he would’ve “never” gone above and beyond for the teammates he had in Miami.

“We were lying, honestly,” pass rusher Bradley Chubb recently told reporters of the team’s supposed culture shift in 2024. “Point blank, period. … We weren’t making the effort to go the extra mile.”

Is anyone surprised that McDaniel, when asked about Chubb’s comments, downplayed the notion and suggested disappointment over the fact he and Chubb hadn’t spoken about it first? This is a common practice with McDaniel, whose authenticity is refreshing in the land of stoic NFL coaches but often reveals just how often he and his players seem to be on different pages.

It’d be downright unfair to paint McDaniel as an aloof leader; in fact, he appears quite the opposite, so thoroughly invested in the people around him that he often takes the podium looking drained on behalf of his players. He may be so far down the rabbit hole of trying to uplift and elevate, however, that he’s missed the chance to correct and refine. This manifests not only in the locker room but on the gridiron, where his Dolphins have been highly explosive but also highly combustible — a video-game attack without a killer instinct, a splashy and colorful assortment of playmakers without the discipline, grit and resolve of a contender.

Dolphins under Mike McDaniel

Does it help that he’s been without Tagovailoa for hefty chunks of two seasons? Of course not. But even navigating the quarterback’s medical issues has been a hairy ordeal. McDaniel’s heart has no doubt been in the right place when he’s refused to speculate on Tagovailoa’s future after each of the signal-caller’s scary concussions (he’s officially up to three at the NFL level). Still, it’s hard not to see where McDaniel’s player-appeasing priorities could also still go wayward here: Even as plenty of medical experts and NFL greats cautioned that Tagovailoa’s latest head trauma should’ve warranted retirement consideration, McDaniel was primarily concerned with adding anxiety to Tua’s plate by even acknowledging the possibility of hanging up the cleats.

Certainly Tagovailoa’s availability to the Dolphins is key for McDaniel and the rest of the franchise moving forward. The real question is, will that be enough? It’s clear everyone in the building is aware of persistent culture problems. It’s not so clear that everyone agrees on how to fix them. In the NFL, of course, winning cures everything (at least for a while), but that’s part of the problem: Despite instant chemistry to open their marriage, McDaniel and Tagovailoa are no longer known for their dynamic partnership as much as their reputation for sinking under bright lights, entering 2025 winless in the postseason.

This is still just Year 4 for the McDaniel-Tagovailoa regime. This is an outfit that’s gone 25-16 when Tua is healthy. But Grier, the man who assembles the rest of the squad, sits even higher up beneath owner Stephen Ross, the same man who in 2022 was sued by Flores for allegedly offering money to tank for better draft positioning and was separately suspended by the NFL for tampering with Tom Brady, the one quarterback who might’ve saved the Dolphins from their drudgery. In other words, the stink runs deep. The success has been lacking for a while. And thus, the pressure is on the current setup to right the ship in a hurry. Or so you’d think.

What, exactly, does Ross expect of the 2025 Dolphins? You don’t often unload salary and veterans like Smith and Ramsey and let other cornerstones like Christian Wilkins and Holland walk in consecutive years, then bank on a deep playoff run. Yet a winning record would seem to be a base-level goal, given McDaniel has done that twice already. A playoff appearance might also be required, though Ross has tended to give his coaches three strikes in terms of consecutive seasons without a postseason bid. We know Dolphins fans are itching for a big turnaround, but the Dolphins’ own history suggests they’re OK treading water for a bit.

Grier can at least be credited for prioritizing the trenches this offseason, adding beef on both sides in the form of first- and second-round draft picks Kenneth Grant and Jonah Savaiinaea, respectively. Reuniting with Minkah Fitzpatrick in the secondary could be another win. Asking two rookies and a Mike Tomlin castoff to completely remake your identity is still a gamble. At the end of the day, the Dolphins will go as their quarterback goes, and that starts with Tagovailoa and his injury-riddled weapons (i.e. De’Von Achane, Hill, Jaylen Waddle) staying healthy. A lighter 2025 schedule may well help the group surge back into big-play production. But seasons are decided in December and January, and that’s where we’ve truly yet to see the sun shine in Miami.

The AFC East is all over the place. The Bills are a perennial title hopeful thanks to the superhuman efforts of Josh Allen, plus the balanced lineup that surrounds him. The New England Patriots are a popular breakout pick thanks to Mike Vrabel bringing what the Dolphins so often lack — fortitude — to a young roster with a promising young quarterback of their own. Even the New York Jets, derided for their own dysfunction, have the benefit of fresh upside, welcoming Aaron Glenn as a new boss with a low bar to clear.

Are the Dolphins more talented than any of those teams? You can make that case. Are they more volatile? You can also make that case. Which means Miami doesn’t just need pretty statistics or win streaks to prove worthwhile in 2025; it needs to play like a team — a roster, a staff, a franchise, a city —  with something finally worth fighting for.

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Author: Cody Benjamin
July 8, 2025 | 12:15 pm