LIFT A FRANCHISE AND A CITY
Dolphins go from rebuild to results in Year 3 of Flores era
Opening-day matchup against Patriots will show how far Dolphins have come, or how far they need to go,
Within the disappointment of the Dolphins’ 56-26 loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 17 of the 2020 season, the future of the organization had never been brighter and its trajectory had never been more upward since its strip down and rebuild in 2019.
The team had doubled its win total from five to 10 in 2020, coming one victory shy of its first playoff appearance since the 2016 season. A defense spearheaded by coach Brian Flores led the NFL in takeaways.
And for all the ups and downs of then-rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s nine starts — which included being benched twice — he got his first taste of NFL action after being selected fifth overall in the 2020 NFL Draft.
As the Dolphins enter Year 3 of the partnership between Flores and sixthyear general manager
Chris Grier, expectations are higher than they have ever been.
“It’s still early, but we can be as great as we want to be,” linebacker Jerome Baker said in June. “Every day, we’ve got to go in there and ultimately just get better; and just ultimately do what we’ve been doing — playing together, having fun with each other, playing great offense, great defense, just playing as a team. The sky’s the limit, honestly, for this team. We’re young, we’re hungry and we definitely have some things we need to
work on; but ultimately if we just play together and play as a team, it’ll definitely be a good year for us.”
Flores and Grier have been the architects of the multi-year project, constructing the roster pieceby-piece through draft picks, diamond-in-therough waiver wire and undrafted rookie finds. About 44 percent of the players on the roster were selected by the Dolphins.
One-third of the roster is composed of players who were not selected in the NFL Draft. The team did give out the most guaranteed money in the 2020 offseason but quickly moved off several of the beneficiaries of those contracts, including linebacker Kyle Van Noy, defensive end Shaq Lawson and offensive lineman Ereck Flowers. And as the Dolphins eye the 2021 season, they’re comfortably set for the present and the future, with potentially more than $80 million to spend in the 2022 offseason.
“I think ‘Flo’ [Flores] over the last three years has really just gotten his type of guys in this building,” tight end Durham Smythe said. “Guys who love to compete. I think one thing that jumps out between those two rosters [2019 and
2021] is obviously there’s talent on both, but this one’s so deep really across the board. I’m confident that whoever goes down at any position really, this year you have another starter-caliber guy that can jump right in. I think it’s just the type of guys in the building and the culture we’ve built — competitive, honest, things like that, and deep. From a depth perspective, this is a pretty deep team.”
Though Flores has led a team that was the youngest group in 2019 and second youngest in 2020, the players have quickly taken on his personality and assumed his principles. Despite the youth on the roster, only the New England Patriots — whom the Dolphins will face in Foxborough, Massachusetts, to open the season on Sunday
— have fewer penalties and penalty yards during the past two seasons.
“The culture, just being here six years, I’ve been through a lot of different coaches,” cornerback Xavien Howard said, “and seen a lot of different coaches where we haven’t really had just one culture that I feel can help us, provide us and win games. ‘Flo’ brought that attitude in here. I feel like he’s the guy for the team. Everybody is just sticking to his plan and hopefully we get the job done.”
There are still questions, particularly about Tagovailoa, whose progression and ceiling ultimately will have the most bearing on the success of Flores’ tenure. A structured offseason and an improved group of skill position players have benefited Tagovailoa and he’s poised for an improved second season.
How much improvement remains to be seen, and answers won’t come immediately after Week 1, or maybe even by the conclusion of a season rife with hope and belief.
Through it all, Flores’ “one-day-at-a-time” philosophy has been ingrained in each member of the team.
It’s the mantra that’s guided the Dolphins through their steady ascension, allowed them to — temporarily — sidestep speculation of a trade for Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson.
And it’s the mindset the team hopes will lead it to its best season to date under Flores.
“I think we all naturally think about the past, think about the future,” Flores said. “I think that’s just kind of general human nature or that’s been in conversations with people about this topic. What’s in front of me, what happened — I think it’s harder to stay present. I think there’s a discipline to trying to be in the moment. And yeah, I think that’s something we talk about a lot and I think in this game, if you’re thinking about what happened on a previous play, that could affect you on the next play.
“So we want them to be in the moment because good or bad, we’ve got to focus on the next play. ‘I just scored. I’m good.’ No, that’s not how we want to operate. Or ‘I just had a bad play. I’m no good.’ No, that’s not how we want to operate. I think that’s not just a football lesson. It’s really a life lesson and if you can apply that to the other things in our lives, then I think we’d all be better for it.”
‘‘ I THINK ‘FLO’ OVER THE LAST THREE YEARS HAS REALLY JUST GOTTEN HIS TYPE OF GUYS IN THIS BUILDING. Tight end Durham Smythe on coach Brian Flores