Players don’t house any tanking thoughts
We’re six weeks into the NFL season, and the Miami Dolphins are already experiencing the quirky predicament players and teams near the bottom of the league deal with on a yearly basis.
Win and preserve your pride, or lose and elevate your NFL draft status.
It’s a struggle NFL teams typically deal with and address closer to the end of the season, when the final games on the schedule could have sweeping ramifications on the future.
Unfortunately for the Dolphins, they will face that unique situation Sunday by hosting the winless Washington Redskins, who could be in position for a franchise overhaul like Miami’s after firing their coach and getting off to a 0-5 start.
While some Dolphins fans may advocate for a loss in the hope it could land Miami the top pick in the 2020 draft, the team’s players and coaches are approaching the game with a vastly different mindset.
“We’re going to go out on Sunday and go to win,” Dolphins captain and offensive lineman Daniel Kilgore said. “As much as everybody wants us to lose to secure the No. 1 pick, I don’t give a damn. We’re going out and win.”
Despite the effects a victory could have on Miami’s future, Dolphins players are more concerned with trying to earn their first win of the season.
“It would be big,” receiver Albert Wilson said. “It would be really big. It’s something that we’ve been fighting for, for a long time.
“For us to come out here and attack the bye week the way we did and get out here and get a [win], I think it’s going to put us in the right direction.”
Dolphins quarterback Josh Rosen said a victory would bring joy and new life to the team after the rough start to a trying season.
“I think it is tough coming in after a Monday and sitting in that team meeting — everything is just easier with a win,” Rosen said. “It just brings some of the joy back into the game. It is kind of that extra little juice that keeps you coming back.”
The Dolphins have said they are adamantly against the notion of tanking by purposely losing to land the top pick, but they have yet to play a competitive game.
The Dolphins have held a lead over an opponent just once all season. They have scored just two touchdowns. They rank last in several statistical categories that shed light on the glaring needs the team must fill in the future to become competitive again.
Now, they will face a team that could be renewed by a coaching change after Jay Gruden was fired Monday.
Starting safety Bobby McCain, a rookie when former Dolphins coach Joe Philbin was fired in 2015, remembers how the coaching change helped spark a two-game winning streak.
“They’re going to be fired up,” McCain said about the Redskins. “It’s going to be like they hit refresh and they’re going to feel like it’s brand new for them.
“But we’ve just got to come in, put the fire out and try to get a win.”