Miami Dolphins fans need to adjust their expectations
For many years, Dolphins fans have backed the team with unquestioning loyalty. Sometimes, they were rewarded with a lot of winning. Lately, however, that ‘blind loyalty’ has led to consistent mediocrity.
Merriam Webster dictionary defines a ‘fanatic’/fan as “a person exhibiting excessive enthusiasm and intense uncritical devotion toward some interest or activity.” In sports, however, a ‘fan’ can also be someone that shares the same enthusiasm but is overly critical of the team. Reality lies somewhere in between.
In today’s NFL, fans/teams are too quick to judge young players and often give up on them too soon. Take Josh Rosen, for example. He may or may not be a good QB for the Dolphins but is it fair to make that determination already? The 22-year old Rosen hasn’t been in the same offensive system since high school. That’s three years at UCLA and two years in the NFL. Compare that to Aaron Rodgers who wasn’t asked to start until his 4th season in Green Bay.
When judging players like Mike Gesicki, Christian Wilkins and others sometimes it takes a couple of seasons for the player to shine.
On the other end of the spectrum fans, and even Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, have often given blind faith/loyalty to undeserving members of the organization. For a player example, look no further than quarterback Ryan Tannehill.
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Tannehill was beaten out by David Gerrard in his rookie season but got the starting job by default when Gerrard was injured. From that day on, Tannehill was never challenged for the job; up until the day he was traded to Tennessee.
More glaring examples of this organization’s false loyalty are seen in the front office. It was clear even before he was hired that Mike Tannenbaum was the wrong man for the job but it took four years for Ross to see it. Same with the hiring of head coach Joe Philbin.
Fast forward to today and we could be looking at the same thing with current GM Chris Grier. His 9 seasons as Director of College Scouting and three seasons as GM have produced dubious results.
That brings us to this season. Grier has torn down the roster to a level that many ‘experts’ didn’t even consider it a legitimate NFL roster. The eternally optimistic Dolphins ‘fanatic’ blindly trusts that Grier will ‘magically’ know what to do with the plethora of picks and cap space at his disposal. What in Grier’s history suggests that he’s fit to be making those decisions?
What it all comes down to is that maybe fans shouldn’t be so quick to condemn the Dolphins young talent and should spend more time/energy concentrating on the people procuring the players. When it comes to the team we all love, is being a “rational fanatic” too much to ask for?