Dolphins can take control of their story

This, for me, is the lure of today’s opener: The Dolphins finally get to answer everyone. To act on their ideas. To finally, mercifully, after eight months just having to take punches, have a chance to change the narrative about the loudest and longest laundry list a Dolphins offseason has produced.

Just go through where things stand nationally:

They tie for the worst Super Bowl odds at 150-to-1 with AFC East division rivals Buffalo and the New York Jets from some oddsmakers.

Their over-under win total (6 1⁄2) from other oddsmakers is the Dolphins’ lowest in a decade.

They have one player among the NFL Network’s Top-100 players (Cameron Wake at No. 74) and none in a similar ESPN poll.

Coach Adam Gase is ranked to be on the hot seat entering this year, according to several outlets, and vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum received the lowest grade from player agents in a USA Today poll.

Former Dolphins Jarvis Landry and Mike Pouncey questioned quarterback Ryan Tannehill’s leadership, and former defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh dropped a, “right up the gut lol” on the Dolphins defense after Carolina ran 71 yards up the middle in preseason.

Do I need to go on?

And on?

Because I can pile on with my own thoughts. They’re too old in places and too young in others. They left preseason with more questions — cornerback? linebacker? receivers? four quarterbacks on the roster? — than they entered it. My prediction: 7-9 this season. And that looks optimistic compared to the national idea.

“Words,” safety Reshad Jones said this summer. “Just words.”

That’s just it. They take control of what

words get used now. That’s what makes today’s opener against Tennessee more intriguing than most. They pull back the curtain on what they’ve been working on for the past eight months. The Dolphins don’t like this storyline around them? Change it.

Some of the difference from last December is obvious. Just getting Tannehill back should make this team better than the Jay Cutler-led team from last year. They saw offenses running three-receiver sets 65 percent of the time against them and so drafted versatile defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick and speedy linebacker Jerome Baker.

They swapped out high-priced talent like Suh, Landry and Pouncey for items that mean different things to people. They got more tangible pieces to use. They also set out to improve the team’s intangibles: culture, chemistry, desire, personality fit and professional integrity.

“This team won’t quit on me,” Gase has been saying for months, showing the haunting and taunting message from last year’s disaster involved a team that did.

For the past decade, the Dolphins’ seasons have oscillated between winning six games when everything went wrong in a season and winning 10 games when everything went right in years. There’s mediocre consistency in that. There’s no reason to think this season will break that mold.

Not yet. Not now. Not as the season kicks off. But starting today they get to write whatever happens as opposed to these past eight months where they just had to stand and take anything said. Too old? Too young? Not good enough? Not smart like other teams?

None of that matters right now. Gase was asked if he’s excited about today’s kick-off.

“Anytime you get to this point … you’ve been working since the spring to get here, going through training camp and you cut down the roster,” he said. “It’s been a good week.”

It’s been a long eight months for those on the inside of this franchise. There’s an intrigue to any season starting. This one just has more than most, because the Dolphins think they see something no one else does. Now we start to see.

Are they real?

Are they counterfeit?

Finally, they tell us.

Dave Hyde