On the surface, a team ranking 26th out of 32 in a set of power rankings could pretty easily be framed as a disrespectful move — it indicates the team is in the bottom quarter of teams in the league. And that’s exactly where the Miami Dolphins sit in the eyes of NBC Sports’ Chris Simms and Mike Florio — although when you hear the duo talk about the Miami Dolphins, they actually have a great deal of flattering compliments for the way this team has handled their roster rebuild and attacked this offseason.
Some of the lower ranking simply comes from just how far the Dolphins had to go 12 months ago, and even that was before Miami eventually traded OT Laremy Tunsil and SAF Minkah Fitzpatrick.
In all, the NBC Sports duo offers fair commentary on the Miami Dolphins as a team during their dedicated time to Miami; which spanned nearly 10 minutes and hit on a slew of subjects:
The main highlights from the discussion of Miami seem to be rooted in how well the Dolphins did to embrace their team identity based on what Brian Flores’ background would suggest the team will look like once complete and whether or not the Dolphins will have the answers needed to set rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa up for success.
Florio refers to the selection of Tagovailoa as an “owner’s pick” — suggesting that the impressions from around the NFL are that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross got involved to help steer Miami’s critical quarterback decision. How much truth there is in that statement is yet to be determined; although in good time we’ll probably continue to hear more of how Miami’s decision came to be, for better or for worse. But Tagovailoa, at the very least, has an offensive situation with Chan Gailey that will make him feel comfortable with getting the ball out of his hands quickly — a point made throughout the discussion to acknowledge that Miami continues to do the right things to set their team up for success.
The next step is simple — take all of those preparations and piece the puzzle together. If Miami isn’t just well aligned for success but actually experiences it, they’ll be much higher than 26th in the next round of power rankings.