Nov. 15, 2012; Orchard Park, NY, USA; Miami Dolphins center Mike Pouncey (51) during the second half against the Buffalo Bills at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Buffalo defeats Miami 19 to 14. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports

Mike Pouncey is the latest Miami Dolphins player to make a bold statement regarding the teams offense.  “I think the Dolphins offense can be ‘great”, he told NFL Total Access.  This comes on the heels of Brian Hartline‘s statement that the Dolphins have the best WR corp in the AFC East.  While some in the media want to blow this up as overconfidence, to put each comment into real prospective you have to look at the context.  In both cases the players were asked about the teams offensive potential.

You can’t ask a player what he thinks about new additions to his team and expect them to say “yeah, we still suck”.  Doesn’t work that way.  It would have been more of a news story had Pouncey said, “you know, our offense really is going to be fantastically mediocre”.  Ummmm, yeah.  The reality is that the season doesn’t begin until September but there are players who are opening up their mouths now, or so it would seem.

The reality is that it’s actually a nice change of pace for a team that hasn’t been to the playoffs since Tony Sparano’s “Wild” rookie season as a head coach. In fact the team hasn’t been above .500 in that span either.  There hasn’t been a whole lot of positives in Miami outside of “hope”.  Miami fans lauded the Nick Saban hiring.  See how that turned out.  They lauded the addition of a top offensive minded HC.  Yeah, Cam Cameron couldn’t.  Parcells?  Please.  There are a lot bigger fish off the Florida coast.

This is not to say that Joe Philbin is the next savior of the Dolphins.  He wasn’t however receiving standing ovations from fans when he was chosen.  For one he was chosen by Jeff Ireland and Stephen Ross.  Two team members not exactly gleaming with fan support at the time.  Philbin was viewed more as the fallback option to not landing Jeff Fisher.  Yet for some reason, last years sub-.500 season has won him more fans.  Philbin is becoming the Dolphins most popular head coach in almost a decade.  He will if he turns the team into a winning product.

The pieces have been put into place to make a run.  It’s an uphill run but at least it’s a run.  Philbin will have to lead these new players and see to them coming together as a team.  Positive thinking and positive attitudes are the first steps.  While it’s too early to “toot any horns” the reality is that the players are seeing the same thing that the fans are.  That the Dolphins want to win and need to win.  They are not simply going through the motions and accepting that as a reality.  They are talking and more importantly they are believing.  They are actually expecting this team to be better.

They will need to do more than believe it come September.  They will need to prove it.

Some fans see these comments as bulletin board material for their opponents but it’s not like the games will be played next week.  Time has a way.  The reality is that they need something to rally behind.  If opening their mouth gives them the incentives to go out and play harder and not accept losing as part of the game, then the gap between ready and hoping to be ready has gotten smaller.  Let’s also realize this.  For the first time, there are monumental changes on both sides of the ball and that alone should get you jacked up.  If the fans can be excited about the additional changes and increase in talent, then surely the players should be excited as well.  Apparently they are.

Dec. 23, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill (17) throws a pass against the Buffalo Bills during the first half at Sun Life Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

While the NFL Draft and the free agency frenzy gave Miami Dolphin fans a jolt of adrenaline, the long and seemingly boring off-season is now in full effect.

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Pouncey has quickly asserted himself as one of the leaders of the Dolphins offensive line. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports

It’s fair to say that Mike Pouncey’s 2011 arrival in Miami was not greeted with a fervor of excitement by Dolphins fans despite the name recognition brought on by his twin brother Maurkice’s time with the Pittsburgh Steelers.  When a team largely devoid of offensive weapons uses the 15^th overall pick in the NFL draft to select a center, its fair to expect fans to be up in arms.  For a center to be worthy of any first round pick, he would have to be one of, if not the best center in the league, and even then it would still be debatable whether or not such a pick was well spent.  The good news?  Dolphins fans can debate away because Pouncey has lived up to the billing.

Mike Pouncey didn’t make the Pro Bowl this year, nor did he make the All-Pro roster.  Despite being one minute older than his twin brother Maurkice, Mike was beaten into the NFL and thus the minds of the NFL electorate by his brother, and thus Maurkice gets the nods by default.  But, this is not to say that Maurkice was necessarily the better player.

Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com and Matt Williamson of ESPN.com have both regularly written and stated that they felt that Mike was the better player in 2012, and that Maurkice was largely receiving these accolades on reputation.  Furthermore, Mike did make Pro Football Weekly’s Midseason All-Pro team, and also led ProFootballFocus.com’s Center rankings for most of the season before having a drop off in the final quarter of the year.  With any spot on the offensive line, it is always difficult to place any sort of rankings with the absence of significant statistics, but it has become clear that Pouncey is to be considered at least a top five center in the league.

Using my own eyes on the field, you can come to these same conclusions.  To the casual fan watching the game, Pouncey is rarely noticed.  That’s a good thing – most offensive linemen only get noticed when they are on their backsides as their man destroys the quarterback or other ball carrier in the backfield.  Pouncey rarely falls victim to such bull rushes.

On running downs, Pouncey has turned Reggie Bush into a man who can generate yards in the interior running game, something he was previously unable to do in New Orleans.  As he learns the defensive schemes in the NFL, he has proven capable of calling the correct protections to account for various blitzes and defensive formations, an important characteristic when starting a rookie quarterback as the Dolphins did in 2012.

Pouncey has also taken a vocal leadership role with the team, dropping one of the best one liners of the season prior to the Dolphins second matchup with the New York Jets this season.  When asked whether he would respond to Aaron Maybin’s comments that the Jets were looking to “knock out” Bush, Pouncey retorted “I have to be on punt block to say something to him,” referencing the fact that despite his loud mouth, Maybin never actually sees the field.

While the current front office regime’s penchant for drafting offensive lineman high will always be a source of much moaning and groaning, all fans can ask for is those picks to at least live up to their all star billing.  In the case of Mike Pouncey, it certainly appears that will be fulfilled.  Regardless of his actual impact on winning and losing each week, Pouncey has a strong chance to be a plus player at the Center position for the Dolphins in the years to come.

His performance on the field in 2012 was supremely strong in the first half of the season, but as mentioned did begin to tail off as the season wore on.  Hopefully a third year in the NFL will bring better conditioning to perhaps correct this issue in 2013.  It is only the end of season tail that prevents a perfect grade for Pouncey in 2012, but with the slide I award him a B+.