Let’s be clear about something…2024 was the down year for the Dolphins.
I said it going in and it’s worth reminding people that having just lost two $100M trench players, having lost our two premiere edge players to IR, having replaced our experienced DC with a younger coach (someone who was bringing an entirely new scheme), having entered the season with a host of short-term stop-gap players all across the roster…2024 was not a season to get your hopes up about.
2024 was a season for low expectations, time away and discussions about the long-term potential of this team and where it ought to go based on the failure(s) of ’22 and ‘23.
So here we are.
We’ve had our moment to breathe and self-assess.
Since our last Playoff failure, we’ve seen 2 offseasons in which the team signed a slew of players to various mid-tier deals including Zach Sieler, Austin Jackson, Jaylen Waddle, Jordyn Brooks, Aaron Brewer, Jonnu Smith, James Daniels and others. Nobody’s complaining. These aren’t bad players.
We’ve also seen 2 drafts in which the team has invested in DL, Edge, LT, IOL, RB, WR and other important positions. At this point—fingers crossed—we aren’t expecting any of those prominent picks to be busts.
Meanwhile, the team has tied itself to a QB who (when healthy) is above average and whose availability ought to be largely controllable with a little bit of good decision-making.
Regardless of where your expectations are at given the youth on this team, this is a season worth monitoring. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you’re making a run come Playoff time. I’m saying this season means everything about your future.
If this roster were being led by any one of the NFL’s prolific HCs like Tomlin or Harbaugh we wouldn’t be questioning whether we were going to get the most out of these units. We wouldn’t be questioning the preparation being put in or the overall focus of the team as a whole.
For instance, the OL features 3 veterans on team-friendly deals paired with 2 high picks, at least 1 of whom spent all of last year getting himself ready and ought to be able to step in and contribute at a respectable level. We shouldn’t really be worrying about the OL…
…or what the expectation is for these players.
…or whether they’re going to grow and develop over the course of the season.
…or whether this newly revamped unit will help rejuvenate our lack of a run game.
You have a clear need to take pressure off the QB.
You’ve drafted OL highly in the last 2 drafts.
You’ve made a point to pull in RBs in each of the last 3 drafts.
You’ve also reached out in FA to strengthen those positions each year.
I’m not waiting to see what develops. I’m not stupid. There’s clearly need for expectation here.
If this unit doesn’t succeed and the offense doesn’t thrive with all its weaponry, that’s on Mike McDaniel. While Anthony Weaver is barely getting by with his patchwork roster, McDaniel’s cupboards are full.
Whatever the explanation might be if/when things fail, I don’t care. This season is on Mike McDaniel and for that matter, it’s the 3rd attempt at finding a HC in the Chris Grier era, the last two attempts having both ended in the firing of HCs who had issues with players. If McDaniel cannot motivate and lead this roster (which on paper looks very solid outside of the secondary) there are no meaningful excuses.
2025 is not supposed to be a “down” season.
It’ll only become a down season if we take what should by all accounts be a strong team filled with reasonable FA acquisitions and high-upside rookie-contract assets and do nothing with it. It’s only a down season if the team loses faith in its leadership and the veterans do nothing to act as a bulwark against that skepticism taking hold.
2025 is a year in which this team must take steps forward. At season’s end, we must conclude with the belief that the foundation we’ve establish through the last 2 offseasons is enough to blossom into something special.
If this regime (with its QB and its rebuilt roster) are to win Playoff games in ’26 and ’27 we cannot reach the end of this year making excuses. We must be seeing good things at that point…
…which means this season should be a gradual, upward trend towards highly-competitive games in Nov & Dec. Regardless of whether we make a Playoff run, we must be a transformed football team by the 2nd half of the ’25 season.
If by the end of the season we’re not confident in this new OL, if the offense isn’t embracing the run, if we’re not impressed with the new-found physicality of the team, if we’re still bad on special teams, if we’re still losing in-game challenges like they mean nothing and we’re still giving our opponents great field position because of our bad decisions, then this experiment is over.
Every complaint we’re hearing now—every pessimistic doubt—is something that people starting bringing up back in ’23.
We’ve now had 2 full offseasons to get this back on track and to evolve. ’22 was great and ’23 was a chance to run it back. But that’s now ancient history.
Our darkest hour was yesterday. 2024 was the moment to make difficult decisions, suffer through unfair injuries and slog through a schedule you knew wasn’t leading anywhere but to the couch in January.
You got through 2024 so you could get to 2025…and now we’ve been through FA and the Draft.
There’s either an answer among this group or there isn’t...just don't tell me 2025 is a "down year." No, sir. You don't get to call this a lost season. It means everything.
