The Phinsider
Which three Secret Superstars on the 2025 Dolphins roster can help the team get past 2024’s disappointments — both on and off the field?
Generally speaking, professional organizations that talk a lot abut “culture” don’t have enough of the right kind in the building. That would seem to apply to the Miami Dolphins of late, a franchise that has had to deal with more than its share of veterans unhappy with the ways in which things have been going, and some to the point where they want out of town outright.
Tyreek Hill had to deny his own rather pointed statements about wanting a trade back in January, and now, Hill is lobbying the team to avoid trading cornerback Jalen Ramsey. Earlier this month, edge-rusher Bradley Chubb said that the team was not entirely aboveboard when speaking of a culture change in 2024.
“I’m going to say last year, we were lying, honestly,” Chubb said with a laugh. “Point blank, period. We felt it. We put our toe in the water, but we didn’t dive all the way in. We didn’t get all the way there with each other. We weren’t making the effort to go the extra mile, and I would say this year, we’re doing that. I’m not sure how it’s going to turn out for us, but we are putting forth that foot to change it because last year, like I said, we said we wanted to change, yeah, we’re doing this, we’re doing that — but it’s not going exactly how we want to.
“But this year, I feel like everybody has the right mindset and moving forward, so if it works out, it’s going to work out. If it doesn’t, we’re going to get back to the drawing board and make sure it works out.”
That’s the intangible stuff. The tangible stuff amounts to the 2024 season being the first missed postseason under head coach Mike McDaniel, and everything fell a bit off the plank when it came to both offensive and defensive efficiency. There are those who would say that the NFL has figured these Dolphins out from an offensive perspective; those looking on the brighter side might insist that when everyone’s healthy, it’s a lot tougher to suss out what any team is doing.
“It would have been awesome if he would have told me on the front end when they were lying,” McDaniel said on June 12 of Chubb’s comments. “Beyond that, 2024, unless I’m using it directly for an analogy, I’m much more concerned with 2025. I think you do a lot more for the organization if you spend your time thinking forward in terms of not this, that, or the other, or whose fault it was. No, we want it like this, let’s do it like this and this is who we are. I don’t even – what year did you speak of? I guess I’ll read about that in history books.”
Well, if the 2025 Dolphins are to get...
