It’s Time to Embrace the Tank

Good evening Dolphins’ fans. How’s everyone feeling after having some time to process last night’s loss to the Steelers? Personally I was surprised at how well our team played the first half. I started to panic and worry we were actually going to pull off a win. I know, we have their first pick so it wouldn’t be so bad (at least what many fans like to say to me) for us in the long run. But, I still am that fan who would rather play well enough, to show us some hope for the future, but not well enough to win games. Whether you agree with me or not, we should all agree there were some positive takeaways from the game.

Positive Takeaways from Dolphins’ Loss to the Steelers

• We were quick to put up 14 points on the board and keep the Steelers scoreless until about 2 minutes left in the second quarter.
• Xavien Howard had his first interception of the season (which will now be his last but we’ll discuss that later).
• Fitzpatrick brought some excitement, yet again, to our team and made this game watchable for a bit. He will be a great QB mentor to whoever the Dolphins draft in 2020.
• Preston Williams, while still making mistakes, is still improving and showing he will be a part of our future.
• Allen Hurns is a tough guy. I mean just look how he basically was turned into a human pinball (pefect comparison Houtz) and was determined to get that touchdown.

• The Steelers looked like garbage. They need to keep it up because we have their first round pick. Let’s hope we’re their last win of the season. It could happen, especially if Bengals new starting rookie QB wants to make a statement.
• Flores is not afraid to show his passionate (some say angry but I prefer passionate and intense) side and I can’t wait to see how he is when our team is actually trying to have a winning season.

• As Simon Clancy tweeted out last night, Brian Flores deserves a lot of credit because he is coaching the bejesus out of this team.

He is absolutely correct. I’m not sure if we will win 2-3 games, but we’re definitely seeing our team improve each week, especially considering most our team is comprised of guys who would be benched/unsigned on any other NFL team.

• Lastly, if you think that horrible defensive call at the end of the first half was part of a bigger plan, then you’d agree with this tweet.

I mean that touchdown did get the Steelers motivated to actually play football in the second half. So, as I tweeted after that touchdown, the tank was officially back on.

Post-Game Reactions and Trades

I asked fans what they thought of the Dolphins after that game and here are some of the reactions I received.

Several fans stated they are seeing improvements in coaching and considering the lack of talent, our team is still showing weekly improvements. Some fans are still upset over this losing season. Others are enjoying the stress-free season and looking forward to 2020. Here’s Fitzpatrick’s thoughts on the team.

That is why I labeled this week’s piece the way I did. If you’re still one of the few who believes we should win several games this season because it’s just not good to go winless, I don’t understand that logic. I actually feel, for some but not all fans, that it’s more of their pride vs what is better for the future of the franchise. Our Dolphins are now 0-7 and it’s about time to realize we may only have 1-2 wins this season (if any at all) and it’s for the future. The argument that we can’t be a team that has a 17-0 season and a 0-16 season, is getting old too. If we go winless, draft the top QB who does turn out to be the next Andrew Luck/Drew Breese caliber and possibly snag another top player, like Chase Young, 2019’s record will not matter. In fact we’ll all be thankful it happened.

Look at it this way. We could be terrible like the Bengals, Jets, Redskins, or Falcons and not have several draft picks or cap space and be a team that is actually trying to win (and doing a horrible job at it). Honestly, I don’t see an argument that could convince me that what the Dolphins are doing is bad.

Grier is rebuilding this team the correct way by creating a plan and sticking to it. Here’s a few others who agree with the job Chris Grier is doing with the whole “tanking”.

This season is all about evaluating who should and/or will be here in the next couple of years and be a part of the Dolphins who can finally start to become a winning organization again.

With that being said, let’s say farewell to players lost for the sake of the rebuild.

• I’m going to miss Drake. I don’t believe we received a fair trade for him, but RB’s are typically underrated in the NFL and not worth much value. I truly hope he is successful going forward.
• The Dolphins released TE Nick O’Leary today before the trade deadline.

Did his drop ball from the game have anything to do with his release? The Dolphins then claimed CB Xavier Crawford from the Texans.

Newly Added

As you all know the NFL trade deadline ended at 4pm EST today. There was so much chatter of possibly trades but the only one that happened was the Dolphins and Rams.

Talib is on IR for a rib injury and is unable to play until Week 15. Basically that means Grier bought a 5th round draft pick and a potential guy to evaluate for next season.

I heard from others that Grier wanted a 5th for Drake because they currently only received a 6th round (with potential to become a 5th) pick for him and could be why they traded for Talib. I was at the gym when I received the trade news and asked if it was a smart move and received only positive feedback. I guess Grier knows what he is doing. Now he just needs to prove all of this was worth it come 2020 draft.

Also, in case you missed it, Xavien Howard is out for the remaining 2019 season on IR.

Absolutely was the correct call by Grier. Xavien is part of our future and a key pieces of our rebuild. There is not sense in keeping him active and potentially causing him to have a serious season-ending injury. Rest up X. We’ll see you in 2020.

Next Week

We have a short week before we face the equally, but actually probably worse than us, Jets at home. Will Adam Gase still be the head coach by Sunday? Your guess is as good as mine. So much chatter and questions circling about the Jets. Should be interesting to have Gase back in Miami. I will be at that game with my fan club and several other fan clubs. Reach out to me on Twitter if you’re in town for the game and want to meet up with all of us. Lots of activities planned for the weekend. Should be fun no matter if we win or lose on Sunday.

Other tanking updates:

• We’re still number two according to tankathon.com/nfl just behind the Bengals.
• Bengals announced they will be sitting out Dalton and starting rookie QB Finley

Are we lucky enough to have Finley go out there and win a game or two? Maybe beat the Steelers? They are pretty terrible too. We shall see.

Hope you all enjoy your week and hope to see some of you this weekend in Miami!

Go Dolphins!