3 philosophies I want the Miami Dolphins to embrace in 2023

Making sure there is an emphasis on all three elements to the game meaning special teams can't just be put on the back burner

There possibly was a little bit of hubris that came from Mike McDaniel last year in how he handled special teams. The Dolphins ranked 3rd to last in the league in the amount of punt returns they ranked dead last with only 5.8 yards a return.

It felt like McDaniel really didn't care who was returning punts and only really cared about making sure they possessed the ball instead of trying to make a play on punts. I get that making sure your really good offense gets the ball is paramount but I also think you can't just make receiving a punt something that means nothing to you.

Look at the Super Bowl. One of the biggest plays of the game was the punt return by Kadarius Toney in the 4th quarter. Not sure about you, but if the team that seemingly always gets to the conference title game, who has been to three Super Bowls over the last five years winning two of them cares about something, it stands a good reason that your team who has one playoff win in 23 years should care about it as well. Call me nuts on believing that.

McDaniel can't go into this year and act like gaining yards on a punt return, a play that often can change the momentum of a game, is something worth not trying. This year compared to last year it seems the Dolphins have a legit return man or two so it should be a worthwhile thing for McDaniel to embrace.

Braxton Berrios has always been solid at returning kicks and I think we all know that Devon Achane will get some run at doing it as well.

The point is, all aspects of the game need to be cared about. I'm not even saying that special teams have to be cared about equally to offense and defense. That's not realistic. But more of an onus needs to be put on it because a big return might win a game maybe even more.