The Miami Dolphins’ hopes of turning around their fortunes will ride heavily on the outcome of this week’s NFL Draft. The Dolphins have angled themselves successfully to stockpile young talent, but in order for their efforts to be considered a success the Dolphins are going to need to see some of that talent turn into star power. Miami is a team that, generally speaking, has lacked a lot of top names over the course of the last few seasons. Sure, the team saw WR Jarvis Landry come of age and the signing of Ndamukong Suh was as splashy of a move as you’d possibly find.
But the Dolphins haven’t been a team that boasts any significant household names across the spectrum of the league. The latest reminder of these shortcomings? A report from Sportico and Variety, which outlines the NFL’s top selling athletes from March of 2019 through February 2020. Among the NFL’s top-50 best selling athletes, the Miami Dolphins have none.
That shouldn’t necessarily be a surprise, given the team’s offloading of talent in 2019 to angle themselves for a long-term rebuild. But it’s still a damning indictment of how the rest of the league and mainstream media perceive the Dolphins compared to how fans view the team.
Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores is probably just fine with the lack of star power, so long as he’s got a locker room full of team-oriented individuals who love the game. But at some point that passion needs to be able to lead to standout performances — which is probably why so many Dolphins fans are hungry for the team to target Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa in the 2020 NFL Draft. Tagovailoa’s brand is as strong as they come. He’s a household name already after a starring role at the college level and his addition would provide Miami with star power that hasn’t been seen here since Reggie Bush and Brandon Marshall.
But given Tagovailoa’s status as a quarterback, he’d command even more attention. In a perfect world, Tagovailoa stays healthy, gets drafted by the Dolphins and suddenly Miami’s performance and star power issues could be solved all at once. But we don’t live in a perfect world. And Tagovailoa may not be deemed the right fit for Miami. Because after all, Brian Flores cares about winning over everything else — if he thinks someone else is better suited for the job, the Dolphins should act accordingly.