Miami Dolphins “tanking” is a media narrative that needs to stop
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins are not playing good football and chances are they will be lucky to win more than one or two games. It is not, however, tanking.
The word “tank” or term “tanking” is a media-driven narrative for the Miami Dolphins that in reality starter last year when the Miami Herald’s Armando Salguero called for a “tank for Tua” campaign. Fans took a hold and it spread across social media quicker than mono to someone Sam Darnold kisses.
Stephen Ross did nothing to sway that opinion when during his press conference announcing the firing or now Jets head coach Adam Gase, that the team would probably be bad but they needed a complete rebuild.
The key here is “re-build”. Not tank. Miami isn’t gutting their team for the sake of losing, they are simply getting their roster under control and noting that this year would likely be a bad one, have accepted their 2019 fate.
Looking back over the moves that the Dolphins have made, it is unclear exactly where “tanking” comes into play. Here is a review of how we got to where we are today.
Miami fires Adam Gase.
Miami hires Brian Flores.
Dolphins approach the start of league new year by trimming bad contracts off the roster like Andre Branch.
Miami trades Ryan Tannehill, a player they were expected a release.
Miami trades Robert Quinn, a player they were expected to release.
The Dolphins released a lot of veterans with bad contracts and they were not done just because the draft and free agency were over.
Miami is “blown away” by a deal initiated by the Houston Texans for Laremy Tunsil. They agree to include Kenny Stills who had issues with owner Stephen Ross.
Dolphins trade away Kiko Alonso who had not played much in pre-season and was likely going to end up not playing much. Miami saved his contract and got a player in return.
While the moves left holes at various positions on the field, the Dolphins made an effort to trim bad contracts and get younger.
Dolphins trade Minkah Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick had expressed his desire to leave the Dolphins after only one season because Miami wouldn’t allow him to play in one position only. They received a first round pick for a player who wanted to leave.
At no time in any of this did the Dolphins set up to fail. Trading for Josh Rosen wasn’t an attempt to fail. In fact, none of what they have done was specifically decided upon simply to play bad this year. They were wowed by trade proposals that they couldn’t say no to. They positioned themselves to get younger and out of poor contracts.
Overall the Dolphins may have actually done more to try and stay competitive given the circumstances of what direction the roster was going. There has been talk that the league’s competition committee will take a look at what the Dolphins are doing. Let them. Miami has done nothing wrong and it could be argued that they have done everything right to get the roster where it needs to be so a rebuild can forward.