Let’s be painfully honest, OK?
Let’s not sugarcoat anything. Let’s not be homers or dug-in defenders as the Miami Dolphins start training camp Wednesday.
Let’s tell it like it critically is:
This is the best overall Dolphins roster since they went to the AFC Championship Game in 1993.
That statement come with asterisks, plural, as I’ll get to. But it stands on its own, too. This roster has experience in good places. It filled big holes with big money for the likes of receiver Tyreek Hill and tackle Terron Armstead.
How many times in this long, long — so very long offseason did you look at all the Dolphins speed on offense and rising talent on defense and think this is the season they spent the three previous years to have?
If it’s under a dozen times, it’s only because you were busy engaged in nonsensical debates about quarterback Tua Tagovailoa or were clicking on purposeless polls. You know who you are. The overreaching and overreaction to this Dolphins era on both sides — good and bad, believers and non-believers — defies any point in team history.
The latest example was a whimsical poll by NBC Sports’ Ahmed Fareed. He seeded the coach-quarterback tandems in a battle royale brawl to pass the time to training camp.
Mike McDaniel and Tagovailoa were seeded 32nd. That’s last. That’s based on their lack of size and purported punching power compared to, say the top see of Tennessee’s Mike Vrabel and Ryan Tannehill. Goliath doesn’t always beat David, but it’s how you’d bet, right?
In a selfless act of team pride Dolphins fans stormed the ballot box with torches, pitchforks and endless mouse clicks. McDaniel and Tagovailoa won each of their online bouts and were voted the top battle royale tandem in the league. Take that, doubters.
That’s the Dolphins fan base, 2022. They’re loud. They’re online. And they’re desperate to make this all work out, meaning McDaniel and Tagovailoa don’t just succeed but become stars. The opportunity is there for each. The supporting cast is, too.
Are they up for it? Those are where you put the asterisks. They’re married to each other in the manner most coaches and quarterbacks are (ex-Dolphins coach Brian Flores and Tagovailoa being an exception). They have enough surrounding talent to make it work, assuming they can make it work.
There’s no need to debate if they will. The answer won’t come with a deep pass in June or the opening of camp Wednesday. Sit back and trust the process of 17 coming Sundays this season.
If you pick the Dolphins second in the AFC East, as many are doing, that means they’re a good break here or timely injury there from nudging ahead of Super Bowl-favorite Buffalo. Right?
Well, right?
That gets to the next issue and the new word for this franchise: Expectations. For the past three years, no one expected anything at all except some improvement. That’s the beauty of being in tanking-not-tanking mode.
Now the Dolphins assemble for training camp with the expectation to at least make the playoffs. Why else spend big on Hill and Armstead? Why fire Flores, who was one final Sunday win from the postseason?
There’s a caveat to saying this is the best Dolphins roster in three decades. It’s that few of the teams did much. That 1992 team got blown out in the AFC Championship game. Jimmy Johnson won two playoff games in three playoff years in the late-1990s. This franchise has won one itty-bitty playoff game since.
It’s no fun meeting everyone when the elevator is going down on careers. Maybe this time it can go up? Certainly that’s the way everyone is talking now. But look around. That’s how it is everywhere.
In his camp-opening news conference, New England’s tight-lipped Bill Belichick used the following phrases about second-year quarterback Mac Jones: “dramatic improvement,” “significant offseason work,” “much further along,” and “tremendous.”
It’s like he was trying to top Hill saying Tagovailoa was the “most accurate passer in the NFL.”
It’s a harmless fun and conversation, at least until September when “tremendous” Mac Jones meets “most-accurate” Tua in the season opener. Wednesday’s opening of camp is the official step toward that.
The Dolphins begin with the best general roster they’ve had in years. That’s being brutally honest. The question becomes if the asterisks get erased as this season progresses.
