South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Dolphins’ goal: Defy predictions
Dolphins hope to make doubters ‘put their foot in their mouth’ for 6-10 prediction for 2020
The Miami Dolphins added quarterback Tua Tagovailoa among 11 new rookies, spent more than $140 million in guaranteed money to 11 free agents and sprinkled in even more talent to their roster along the way this offseason.
Still, national expectations appear largely bullish for coach Brian Flores and his Dolphins team during the 2020 season.
In ESPN’s annual Football Power Index (FPI) rankings released this week, the Dolphins are projected to be one of the worst teams in the league.
— The Dolphins are ranked No. 27 among all 32 teams.
— They are projected to have a 6-10 record.
— They have a 13.8% chance to make the playoffs, with a 4.8% chance to win the AFC East.
— And a deep playoff run could be virtually out of the picture: The Dolphins have a 1.2% chance to reach the AFC title game, a 0.3% chance to reach the Super Bowl and a 0.1% chance to win Super Bowl 55.
“I think we’ve made some good picks. I think we had some good picks in free agency as well. I’m not too big on looking at ESPN and what they are talking about in March, April and May,” Dolphins safety Bobby McCain said Thursday.
“We’re just going to take it one day at a time and try to get better as a team, and hopefully by the time January and February rolls around, they’ll be able to put their foot in their mouth.”
The Dolphins will have their work cut out for them.
Flores and his coaching staff, which has 10 new coaches, must work efficiently to acclimate their influx of new talent while playing the third-most difficult schedule in the NFL.
Adding players like Tagovailoa, the NFL’s highest-paid cornerback Byron Jones, a group of edge rushers like Kyle Van Noy, Shaq Lawson and Emmanuel Ogbah, two talented running backs in Matt Breida and Jordan Howard, first-round left tackle Austin Jackson and cornerback Noah Igbinoghene and several other new additions should help.
Still, ESPN gives the Dolphins the worst chance to win the AFC East compared to their divisional counterparts.
The Buffalo Bills have the best chance at 41% while the Patriots have a 40.9% chance even without Tom Brady. The New York Jets have a 24% chance.
“None of that stuff means [anything] unless you go and put the work in. If we go in and lollygag and not go out there and work hard in practice, it doesn’t matter that we got a first-round quarterback. It doesn’t matter about [any] of that stuff,” Dolphins defensive tackle Davon Godchaux said last week of the team’s new additions.
“We’ll see. At the end of the day, I’m not the type to say, ‘the Dolphins are about to go 16-0.’ It’s a process. Everything looks good on paper. You’ve still got to put the work in, so I think when we get back hopefully for training camp, I’m excited about it.”
The Dolphins overcame unfavorable national expectations from a season ago.
Miami was expected to have the worst record in the league last season. One ESPN analyst projected the Dolphins to go winless in 2019. Another analyst, from Sports Illustrated, thought the Dolphins would go 3-13.
Yet, the Dolphins finished with wins in five of their last nine games, finishing 5-11 in Flores’ first year as Dolphins coach.
So, this is not unfamiliar territory for Flores and his core group of players still on the team.
It may take some time for the Dolphins to hit their stride with all their new additions.
“I think that right now is the time to kind of just be selfish in terms of focusing on how you can improve and develop your game to help the team, and then collectively as a team whenever all this quarantine and coronavirus and all that stuff settles down and we get the okay to get back and work together,” Dolphins tight end Mike Gesicki said this week.
“If you guys know anything about Coach Flores and how he runs our team, we’re never looking too far ahead and kind of just focus on the task at hand.”
Added Godchaux: “I think the sky’s the limit for our team in the future — if we just keep day-by-day when we get ready to go out for training camp and just day-by-day just chopping wood.”