An early November speech from Dolphins receivers coach Karl Dorrell was the spark the team needed,
We made it.
Three months have seemed like three decades. But the hardest, longest, weirdest Dolphins season in a generation ends Sunday.
The Dolphins will finish the 2019 season with either four or five wins, depending how Sunday goes against the Patriots in Foxborough. Hopes outside Davie aren’t high; the Dolphins are more than twotouchdown underdogs.
But win or lose, credit coach Brian Flores this: His team didn’t quit. He maximized a fatally flawed roster. He helped unearth some gems and polished up some other forgotten ones. And, most importantly, he avoided catastrophe.
Things could have gone really badly — like worstteam-ever bad — after losing his top lieutenant (Jim Caldwell) to illness, losing a young defensive player (Kendrick Norton) to a car accident that cost him his arm, after trading away two of his best players (Laremy Tunsil and Minkah Fitzpatrick) and after losing his first seven games as Dolphins coach by a combined 161 points.
Many on the outside saw that as mission accomplished. The more the Dolphins lost, the better their 2020 draft pick.
Flores saw that mind-set as a poison to the culture he was trying to establish.
“He’s let it known since Day 1 he’s not in the business of tanking or anything like that,” Dolphins receiver Allen Hurns said. “We believed him as weeks went on.”
Finally, after those seven consecutive losses, that belief was rewarded.
A victory over the Jets — and fittingly, against former coach Adam Gase — in Week 9 ensured the Dolphins would not go winless. The Dolphins have won three more since, and by beating the Bengals last Sunday, ensured they would not be the league’s worst team — no small accomplishment, given the unprecedented talent deficiency.
Credit Flores’ coaching. Credit general manager Chris Grier for finding players where others saw failures. Credit quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick for conjuring up the old magic. Credit receiver DeVante Parker for proving all the haters wrong.
That’s all good stuff, but ground already covered.
How about a fresh take on the team’s turnaround?
How about we credit
Karl Dorrell, the Dolphins’ wide receivers coach who played an important — but until now, unknown — role in the Dolphins’ secondhalf improvement.
Let’s go back to Nov. 2, the day before the Dolphins’ 26-18 victory against the Jets.
Dorrell had something to say that he thought his team should hear. So during a team meeting, he got in front of the group and inspired a group needing inspiring.
But we won’t tell you about it. Let the people who were in the room do it better than we can.
Guard Evan Boehm: “Karl got up and talked and that was pretty sick.”
Tackle Jesse Davis: “We were 0-and-whatever, and he gave us a speech about how back when he coached here [in 2011] and they were 0-and-whatever and went on a six-game run. We went on a two-game run right after. … We started turning things around at that point. We started believing in each other.”
Dorrell’s message? Play together, trust the process, trust the coaching, trust one another. It worked eight years ago, when the Dolphins finished the season 6-3 after starting 0-7.
Dorrell’s speech resonated. The next day, a breakthrough. Finally, a win.
And then a week later, a road upset over the Colts.
“When we got two wins in a row, the energy around the building was all different,” Hurns said. “We got to the point, as far as we really started believing in ourselves as well as the coaching staff. It just felt different. Not even game days. Just coming to practice. There was more energy. People having fun with it, and things like that.
“That was probably the biggest thing for me, getting those wins back-toback. Especially when people at the beginning of the season were saying we were the worst team ever in history.”
A hapless, overmatched team transformed into a plucky underdog. Even in losses, the Dolphins have been competitive, holding leads in nine of their past 12 games.
An identity has been forged. And leaders have emerged.
“At the beginning of the season, there was so much rotation,” Boehm said. “Nobody really knew anybody and everybody was like, ‘Oh, what’s going to happen? What are we going to do?’ I think towards game four, game five, we started seeing those leaders emerge and a lot of them were voted captain and some of them weren’t.
“Fitz just became a captain. [Davon] Godchaux, who recently became a captain. Those two guys really stick out in my head right now. They just emerged, and you saw the way the locker room kind of grew together. That’s what you need. To win games in the league, you need to have a great locker room and a great environment in the locker room to be successful ad win games. You have to trust each other and have fun.”
The Dolphins have fun, both on the field and off.
They draw up passing plays for kickers and defensive tackles. They kick onside and fake punts. They go for it on fourth down.
And their locker room takes its cues from the quarterback.
Fitzpatrick has been exactly what this team has needed. He has kept things loose despite an avalanche of adversity — with 17 players on injured reserve, including starters Xavien Howard, Jakeem Grant, Reshad Jones, Bobby McCain, Raekwon McMillan and Preston Williams.
Nearly half of the team’s opening-day roster is no longer on the team. No NFL team has used as many different players in a game as the Dolphins have this season, with some starting just days after being acquired.
“The guys that were here in the offseason, the guys that were here during training camp — the Dan Kilgores and the Jesses and the DeVantes and everything Albert [Wilson] has worked through — all of those guys that have been through this roller coaster of a season together, we’ve kind of all done it together and I think we’re coming out of it better football players and stronger,” Fitzpatrick said. “That’s something that I’ll look to and remember about this season is just the progress. Through it all, those guys continue to keep their focus and continue to try to get better every day. It was difficult conditions and situations, but we kind of all did it together and leaned on each other.”