Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Omar Kelly: Dolphins still selling little more than hope.
Fans need to see something positive before buying in
The offseason is about making the franchise better ... the jury is still out on the moves made by the Dolphins ...
Do you trust the process? Do you believe in this latest culture change?
Can you envision the return of Ryan Tannehill and the roster makeover that included the banishment of five former Pro Bowl talents and six assistant coaches transforming the Miami Dolphins back into a playoff team?
Are there enough playmakers on a team that produced a 6-10 record last season to make a difference and help the Dolphins regain the magic they had in 2016, when they were a spunky, defiant playoff team?
Those are the questions South Florida sports fans need to be asking themselves before they invest financially and, more importantly, emotion- ally into the 2018 Dolphins.
I need to see something positive happen for this franchise before I buy into any of this offseason’s moves, because the past decade has made me jaded, contributing to my trust issues.
I now firmly believe the Dolphins organization is run on selling hope — and nothing more. Trust the process, they say. You know, the same process team vice president Mike Tannenbaum began in 2015 by adding Ndamukong Suh and then started undoing this offseason when he released him and center Mike Pouncey (from contracts Tannenbaum signed them to) and banished Jarvis Landry, the team’s best draft pick in a decade, over a contract dispute. Believe in this culture change, they stress. So we’re back to the formula that includes adding aged veterans such as Danny Amendola, Josh Sitton and Frank Gore, who all come from winning organizations, as if that worked in the past (think back to Mike Wallace and Dannell Ellerbe’s addi-
tions earlier this decade)?
No worries, because Tannehill, who is returning from a left knee injury that’s kept him from playing in the franchise’s past 20 games, will be Miami’s savior.
Didn’t history already prove Tannehill wasn’t, based on his 86.5 career passer rating and 37-40 record as an NFL starter?
Talent wins NFL games, and only safety Reshad Jones and pass rushers Cameron Wake and Robert Quinn can raise their hand when the playmaker roll call begins.
That’s a very short listen of proven stars.
It is reasonable and realistic to expect young players such as Kenyan Drake, DeVante Parker, Davon Godchaux, Laremy Tunsil and Raekwon McMillan to take the next step as pros. But it seems as if this regime is asking these youngsters to become stars now, carrying the franchise, and that seems like a bit much.
If Tannehill becomes an elite quarterback, maybe the young players don’t need to meet such accelerated expectations, but exactly how long are we supposed to wait for that to happen, considering we’re entering year seven of his development?
The offseason is about making the franchise better, and the jury is still out on the moves made by the Dolphins the past three months.
Honestly, the plan doesn’t seem well thought out.
I’ll be judging this season on four troublesome areas this team needs to fix to even give themselves a chance to become winners.
Miami has been one of the slowest-starting teams in the NFL for the two years of coach Adam Gase’s reign. Last season, Miami scored 41 first-quarter points, a 2.5-point-per-game average. Playing from behind handcuffs the offense, and Gase uses it as his excuse for attempting the fewest runs in the NFL.
Only five teams produced fewer sacks than the Dolphins last season (30). Miami ranked 25th in sacks per passing play and only four teams generated fewer interceptions (nine) than Miami, which finished minus-14 in the turnover department, fourthworst in the NFL.
As a result of the team’s struggles in harassing quarterbacks, opposing teams produced a 94.8 passer rating against the Dolphins, which was the fifth-worst in cumulative passer rating in 2017.
And Miami was the secondmost penalized team in the NFL last season, trailing only the Seattle Seahawks.
If the Dolphins can get off to a faster starts in games, produce more game-changing plays on defense and stop shooting themselves in the foot with flags, Gase’s team might have a chance to be respectable in 2018.
Dolphins fans deserve that, based on all they’ve endured this offseason, and during this decade of mediocrity and redundancy.