The Miami Dolphins have been a decent football team at times, but there has always been something missing from the team. An attitude and identity. This team hasn't been built to play punch-mouth football. They have been far more finesse than anything else.
Despite Brian Flores' attempts to change the defensive mindset, it didn't happen; maybe it was the way he approached the change. Vic Fangio was tough and deliberate, and the defense woke up under his coaching, but he also alienated a lot of players.
Jeff Hafley is at bat now. He takes over a defense, even an entire roster, that has no identity or direction. They are not a physical football team sans a few players. He believes that he can change it.
Miami Dolphins head coach delivers strongest message yet that defensive change is on the way
Speaking at the owners' meetings with the media, Hafley laid out what he wanted to bring to their defense. "What I tried to bring to Green Bay was a play style on defense that we were going to play harder, more physical, and more violent than everybody that we played." Now, he wants that to become the expected playing level on both sides of the ball in Miami.
"I want our whole team here in Miami to play with that same mindset. This isn't just about me coaching the defense now, this is about the culture of every person that touches that field, that's what I want it to look like."
The coach followed that up by saying, "This is not going to be, 'Yeah, this is how we did it in Green Bay.' This is now about the Miami Dolphins and how we're going to do things."
What Hafley has that his previous coaches didn't is a clean slate. He has watched the top players get cut or traded, and that leaves moldable youth that he and his staff can reshape.
Hafley knows that there is only so much he can do given the NFL practice restrictions. He says that change happens based on the type of people you bring into the team. He said you need players who love the game. He doesn't care what a previous coach says, or a scout says about the guy; he doesn't want to ask him either. He wants to see it on the player's game tape.
"You know how you get good at football? You play football. You know how you get good at tackling? You tackle and you block and you get off blocks and you run to the football and you finish down the field, and then you set a standard where this is how it's going to look or you're not playing."
Fans should expect a much different atmosphere during training camp with a stronger focus on coaching rather than simply walking through plays. If the team is going to get physical, it has to start the moment camp arrives, but the mental part of that will begin when players start to arrive for offseason work. That begins in a week.