Miami Dolphins fans have hope but need patience next two seasons

The Miami Dolphins as we all know are rebuilding the franchise and many NFL experts predict the Dolphins will be the worst team in the NFL this year.

For Miami Dolphins fans, there is hope that the team will finally turn a corner and return to the top ranks of the AFC East and knock the Patriots off their perch, but they need a lot of patience.

To say the Dolphins are going to be bad this year is not because they don’t have the talent it is because there is a lot of unknowns and uncertainty. Youth is being served this year with most of the roster only having a handful of experience.

The oldest player on the roster to date is 41-year-old John Denney but the iron man plays one role on the team. Behind him, there are only three players in their 30’s. Ryan Fitzpatrick is 36 while Daniel Kilgore and Reshad Jones are 31.

28 players on the roster are over the age of 25 and of those 28 players, six are over the age of 27 and none of them are considered building blocks to the franchise.

Yes, the team has gotten younger but that doesn’t mean they can’t win. They just might not win a bunch of games right now. When the season arrives, fans will have hope that the 2019 season will be better than what those media guys and gals are predicting but reality says our expectations shouldn’t be too high.

Not yet.

Next year promises more of the youth movement. In fact, next year could see no players over 30 still on the roster. The Dolphins could have as many as 10 draft picks in next April’s draft and if recent history is any indication, they should all make the roster.

Consider this for a moment. If the Dolphins draft 10 players next year and the 20 players that are on the roster now from the last three drafts are still on the roster, Miami will have 30 players from four drafts making up the bulk of their roster.

The Dolphins are not going to be considered a big player in free agency next season either. The focus has shifted to building from the draft and adding cheap veterans later afterward.

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The 2019 and 2020 seasons may not be great but they should be exciting for another reason. Watching these younger players develop should be fun to watch and seeing the coaching staff work with them to develop will be interesting. There is a lot riding on Brian Flores and his staff as well as Chris Grier’s personnel decisions.

If what they are doing proves to work, Miami could be a very exciting team in 2021 when these players are seasoned and well into the new systems they are learning. For many fans, this is one of the more enjoyable off-seasons of the last few years because the focus has been on change and unlike under Adam Gase, it is not change simply for the sake of making a change.