The Miami Dolphins may be getting ready for the start of free agency, but Jevon Holland seems to have already made up his mind.
If anyone needed more proof that Holland is on his way out, his list of free agency wishes could be a big slap in the face of the organization that drafted him.
Holland was on the Breakin' House Rules podcast and spoke about what he is looking for in his next team. Is it a slight against the Dolphins, or is it a compliment to what he is leaving behind? Holland outlined five areas that he requires to find his next team.
He wants to join a team that "wants to win." They must have "detailed and experienced coaching," an "honest culture," and "leaders that want to lead and set examples by actions, not by their words."
Detailed and experienced coaching is one of Holland's must-haves
All of this can be taken as a slight against the Dolphins. Is Holland tired of the lack of coaching experience in Miami?
Holland has endured both Mike McDaniel and Brian Flores, although Flores had a year under his belt when Holland joined the squad. If this is truly a big requirement for Holland, we can at least rule out the New York Jets.
Someone needs to explain what Jevon Holland means by an 'honest culture'
Holland has been with one NFL team for his entire career, so he has nothing to gauge this against in terms of other teams around the league. Revealing that he wants an "honest culture" is either a swipe at the Dolphins, saying they have not been honest with him, or it is from what he may have heard about other franchises.
Regardless, it comes across as something that might indicate the Dolphins haven't been upfront with him, even if that wasn't his intention.
Jevon Holland wants a head coach who is a leader of men
There are two ways to take this. One, Holland is so impressed by the way McDaniel leads his team that he wants to find the same somewhere else, or McDaniel is not exactly a leader of men.
McDaniel might be well-liked, but that doesn't mean he can lead. There are players he has admitted to walking over his rules, and fines don't curb the behavior of being late to meetings and practices. The discipline of the Dolphins is far from great, so it might be an implication that McDaniel is not one of those leader types.
Do the Dolphins want to win?
Holland's next "requirement" is a team that wants to win, and again, if he were talking in regards to the Dolphins being a team that wants to win, there may have been better communication regarding a new contract.
Instead, it comes across as though the Dolphins are not a team fully invested in winning as a priority. If that is the case, it goes along well with what other former players have said about the Dolphins being soft and unfocused on the task of winning.
It sure seems like Jevon Holland will test free agency
Holland did clarify that he didn't mean the Dolphins don't match his requirements, but it came across more as a mispoken sentence and sounded more like he was saying, "not necessarily 'not' with the Miami Dolphins."
His requirements are not unrealistic, but it says a lot about the culture he is leaving behind. To be fair, Holland isn't the only one who has left Miami and talked about this stuff. DeShon Elliott called the Dolphins soft and said they would never be winners because of the off-field distractions and a lot more.
Holland is only the latest. Consider Calais Campbell joined Miami and said one of the reasons was that the training camps were easier, from what he was told. All of the talk seems to indicate that what Holland is saying isn't just true but also the opposite of what he wants with his next team.