The culture of the ‘new’ Miami Dolphins

The new Miami Dolphins are about taking care of their own and they have done so sans Landry and James so far. But what about the culture of the team heading into Adam Gase’s 2nd year at the helm?

Making good on promises should help the overall vibe of the Miami Dolphins and make for a better overall atmosphere. Players may start to look at the team as a more favorable destination and a place to set up shop rather than the revolving door that can be prevalent in today’s NFL. Also the team seems to be headed in the right direction under new head coach Adam Gase and players might feel better about hitting incentives if they sign, players like Zack Brown more on him later.

Ja’Wuan James should be getting his fifth-year option before a deadline in a few weeks according to Armando Salguero. Jarvis Landry had been reportedly far off on contract negotiations but is not showing any signs of resentment, he left that toward the Patriots which Salguero also covered.

More from Dolphins News

• 4 offensive tackles Miami Dolphins could draft at 51
• Miami Dolphins don’t need CB help but these 5 could be available at 51
• 4 players that could replace Wilkins if Miami Dolphins don’t re-sign him
• Miami Dolphins have a starting point with Wilkins after Simmons deal
• The Miami Dolphins should not take a running back in the draft

The one throw back over last season was Dion Sims who was offered the first TE position but found greener pastures with the Bears. Ten million guaranteed averaging six for three years to play behind Zach Miller is a great gig good luck to him.

On the other side of the coin getting rid of players not playing up to their abilities or an excepted outcome should also be helping the overall culture. Hanger-on player types should be a thing of the past or at the very least kept down to less than a handful.

Owner Steve Ross during his search for a new head coach had stated he wanted to bring in a younger version of legendary head coach Don Shula. After only one season comparisons might be far-fetched. But there are some, players reportedly like, respect and want to play hard for Gase. And for the most part he has the team prepared to play on almost every game day.

There is one glaring deference however. A Don Shula team would be near the bottom for having penalties whereas this Gase team is near the top. And Gase has even stated that he wants his players to be themselves when it comes to “celebration” penalties. While that might be all well and good, when added to taunting and the other run of the mill stuff it placed them among the top five penalized teams last season.  Sutton covers more on this for the Phinsiders here.

When T. J. McDonald was signed it seemed like a move toward being more receptive with somewhat troubled players as he well be only starting the second half of the season due to his DUI charge although medication was involved. But it turns out correlation did not imply causation in this case.

Zach Brown signed with the Redskins at what seems like a very team friendly contract. According to Over the cap he signed for $2.3 million with the same amount in performance based incentives for a one year contract. This OTC report is yet to be verified but if it checks out it sure goes against any notion the Miami Dolphins are becoming more receptive to troubled players as there are rumors attached to Brown.

There have been times when it appears the team is shifting to a more ‘bad boys’ persona but they never quite cross that threshold. While that may seem like a good thing the team has to find a way to cut cost while the money paid out to keep personnel goes up. And with Brown it was a buried rumor.

With the draft coming soon Laremy Tunsil is a fine example of taking a shot at a player with questions lingering. They had to act fast to get him and as it turned out those questionable activities were in the past and hopefully stay there.

Will this new culture of the new Miami Dolphins keep the same results in the win column?

According to Football Outsiders using DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average) stats the Miami Dolphins will take a step back only winning six games this coming season. These stats are heavy on the defensive output and might be based only on what took place and not projecting things like new players added (Lawrence Timmons, T. J. McDonald, William Hayes) and the return of Reshad Jones to the defensive unit as well as better coaching from Gase.

They also have a separate analysis for QB where Ryan Tannehill is rated lower than most others stats sites. However Cian Fahey who does QB film analyst for them has favored Tannehill in the past and also in his new QB catalog that’s coming out. Get some insight on it from Adam Beasley here and if you like what you see purchase Cian Fahey’s new e-book here.

Pro Football Focus has this interesting stat on Ryan Tannehill’s 2016 passer rating:

Looking at this stat everyone should “love lamp” as in Forrest Lamp with the first pick.