Lack of Toughness and Leadership

[Shouright]

...is what I think this team is really suffering from. We have very few players who exude toughness and inspire it in other players, and we have few if any leaders among the players.

This is especially a problem on offense -- our offensive line gets pushed around because it has no leader who sets a tone and an example of toughness and aggressiveness.

And we've seen what the defense has become without Junior Seau, who is arguably the only player on defense who is an aggressive leader in the traditional sense (i.e., Ray Lewis). Zach is aggressive and leads by example, but I question whether he's a leader in the other players' minds. Same thing for Jason Taylor.

So when you watch Saban's introduction on the "Insider" page of the Dolphins' website ("we want the other team to HATE playing us"), please understand that we just don't have the players right now to create that kind of team. Jason Cole has been referring to us as a "mentally weak" team for years, and I think it's coming to a head right now.

This will be Saban's main job in the offseason I believe -- creating a new team identity and mentality. He just didn't inherit the players he could do it with this year.

 

[ohall]

I agree the on the field leadership is not there yet on the offensive side of the ball yet. Then again this offense has not played a lot of football with each other.

I'm confident that leadership will eventually grow within the offense.

 

[Caps]

Saban definitely has his hands full. It's disgusting how incomplete and depleted Wanny left this team. RB is the only position we have with high quality starters and backups. We have aging or inept players at just about every other position. We have no leaders on offense or defense. Everything you need to have a great football team... we don't.

 

[Shamboubou]

I agree that we are weak in some area's but you can not expect us to turn into a superbowl team over night. We have added a lot of new players and coach's. It takes teams years and years get get together and somehow we expect it to happen over night.

I dont think we have a great team with the players that we have right now even if they have played together for a while, but I think they will be better than what they are now. We need a QB and WR relationship where we know who the starting QB is going into the season. Let him, Chambers and Booker work
together during the offseason.

Give this team some time to develop leaders and trust.