In the words of Ron Burgundy; “Well, that escalated quickly.”
Following a complete disaster of a season opener which saw the Miami Dolphins, who are not hiding the fact that they are tanking this season, get absolutely destroyed by the Baltimore Ravens 59-10, a handful of Dolphin players, reportedly, have already had enough.
According to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, “multiple Dolphins players contacted their agents after Sunday’s season-opening blowout loss and directed them to attempt to engineer trades elsewhere.”
The report would go on to say that some of the players think the coaches “aren’t serious about competing and winning and, by all appearances, have bought into the notion that the Dolphins will take their lumps now in the hopes of laying the foundation via high draft picks for building a successful team later.”
Florio later doubled down on the report, but according to the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson, the Dolphins have denied the report, saying that no player has formally requested a trade.
It’s not hard to see why players would want out. Miami has traded away much of the little talent they had, jettisoning left tackle Laremy Tunsil and veteran wide receiver Kenny Stills to stockpile premium draft picks.
While the logic behind the moves have made sense, as the Dolphins eye the future, it can be hard for players to risk health, and ultimately money, by playing on a team that is not able to compete.
On the flip side, the Dolphins may be better served by telling those players to kick rocks, especially if they have been part of the underachieving units from the past couple of seasons.
A proper rebuild has been long overdue in Miami, and while everyone expected the team to start the painful process this season, nobody expected it to be this bad.
Furthermore, it’s only a matter of time before players start getting hurt, particularly quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick who was battered all day behind a makeshift, and inept offensive line.
While losing is certainly one thing, be unprepared and unable to compete the way the Dolphins were yesterday is another, a dangerous situation for players.
Dolphins head coach Brian Flores certainly has his hands full in his first season as an NFL head coach, and now a player revolt is reportedly being tossed on his plate.
If a culture change is being implemented, Flores is likely to stand his ground and ship off players who aren’t buying in, regardless of how hard the buy in is.
It’s getting hot in Miami, and for once it has nothing to do with the temperature.
