The Miami Dolphins have a team that isn't looking great for the 2025 season. After a poor showing in 2024, many believed it was just bad luck, but this year's offseason isn't giving fans much faith.
In 2019, the Dolphins decided they were going to rebuild completely. They had a new head coach in Brian Flores, a new mentality they hoped to build into a physically daunting and disciplined team.
Miami was ready for the next big chapter, but there was a problem. A "Brian Flores" problem that would not only curtail the rebuild but set the team back with more embarrassing revelations. Ross isn't going to make that mistake again (he can make a new one pretty easily).
The idea was simple: tank. Lose as many games as you possibly can without making it look like you were tanking. Gut the roster, get a coach that comes from a "bending the rules" atmosphere, and lose. It was simple. By the end of the year, the Dolphins would be drafting Joe Burrow.
Instead, a year later, they were embroiled in controversy because the head coach didn't like Tua Tagovailoa, and the thought of Tom Brady coming to Miami was enough to eventually lead Flores to blow the whistle on everything.
Miami Dolphins may be looking at a new way to tank without actually saying they are
Chris Grier and Mike McDaniel should be on the hot seat, but neither is conducting business like they are. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Grier isn't fixing his offensive line, his defensive line, or he seems content with inexperienced safeties and oft-injured corners.
He let Jevon Holland, Calais Campbell, and Terron Armstead walk. He is trying to trade Jalen Ramsey, who didn't ask for a trade or more money. He brought back Liam Eichenberg, and his only real addition to fix the line was previously injured James Daniels.
So why tank? What is the purpose of gutting the team slowly, taking away its leadership on the field, and replacing it with no one?
Well, Grier didn't mention his quarterback at all when he spoke about the leaders on this team. There has been a lot of speculation that Tagovailoa could be playing his final year with the Dolphins, if not 2025, then 2026, perhaps when the contract flips in favor of a post-June 1st release.
All this leads to the question of whether or not Miami is deliberately making moves that will make it harder to win games in 2025. Could they be tanking for Arch Manning?
There is no guarantee he will declare for the draft as a junior, and it could very well be decided on what team owns the first pick, but it would be an interesting decision to put the team in a bad situation while saying they feel good about the roster while quietly hoping to lose.
Manning will be the next big quarterback name to flood draft talk. He will be the best player at his position, better than the quarterbacks who have been drafted in the last few years. He is the next Joe Burrow, and if the Dolphins want to replace Tagovailoa, they need a reason and a replacement.
I don't know if the Dolphins are tanking, but it has to be asked, considering two people with their jobs presumably on the line doing absolutely nothing to actually make the team better than it was last year or even two years ago, when they did make the playoffs.