Finsmob Unleashed

As we watch from afar at the two best teams ready to meet in Super Bowl 59, it’s easy to see as a realistic fan that our team will not get anywhere near a Super Bowl perhaps until at least the low to mid 60’s. We have to go through the agonizing 2025 season with this team stuck in neutral at best, trying desperately to make the playoffs and once again realize we don’t belong there anyway. This past season, the supposed Super Bowl run of 2024 Miami Dolphins was a fatally flawed team. One of our best players was a very late free agent signing in 16 year veteran DL Calais Campbell. The other was an older free agent signing who signed 3 years ago and at age 34 may return in 2025, as may DL Calais Campbell. If I were Calais Campbell, I’d look to play on a contender, which clearly precludes playing for the Miami Dolphins. If I were the Miami Dolphins front office and/or coaching staff, I’d only have Terron Armstead back as a backup, as our young LT Patrick Paul, who we drafted in RD2 (#55) gets his chance to be a full time bona fide NFL starting LT.

This team is going to have a major overhaul in 2025, there will be 25-30 roster spots occupied by players that were not on the roster in 2024. Yes, all this after GM Chris Grier and HC Mike McDaniel telling Miami Dolphins Owner Stephen Ross that this team was a Super Bowl contender. Sure, there were some setbacks, the team lost OLB Jaelan Phillips to a torn ACL in game 4 after he worked so hard to get back from a torn achilles injury in 2023. OLB Bradley Chubb, who tore his ACL in 2023 never actually made his return last season. Then of course QB Tua Tagovailoa missed a career high 6 games last season, first with a concussion (no way!), and then with a hip injury, yes, the very same hip that concerned the team in the first place that was injured when he played at Alabama. The Dolphins were really exposed as totally inept as they panicked and scrambled to bring in 2 QB’s off of other team’s practice squads and then immediately have them start, QB’s Tim Boyle and Tyler Huntley were put in immediately, into an overly complicated offensive scheme, and weren’t given much help by HC Mike McDaniel who didn’t appear to simplify things for them as was an atrocious amount of penalties like false start, and motion penalties. To add salt to the wounds, even supposedly educated NFL commentators would compare and contrast the team’s success with QB Tua Tagovailoa to the 3 QB’s that replaced him to show how valuable he is. It was akin to throwing a second grader in to play QB for the High School varsity team. Just a disgrace, and further proof how wrong this team was giving a QB with a lengthy injury history that massive contract.

If you look at the composition of the two Super Bowl teams, you can see that both of these teams are very physical. The Chiefs have slipped a bit on the O-line, especially compared to the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles are bullies on the O-line, and combine that with their athletic QB who is a threat to run at any time, it makes the actual ground game of RB Saquon Barley even more dangerous. Having that threat of Jalen Hurts keeping the ball and taking off leaves the defense vulnerable for Saquon, and the passing game as well. The Chiefs have a very physical defense led by DT Chris Jones, and DE/LB George Karloftis, who reminds me a lot of Kyle Van Noy, formerly of the New England Patriots, Miami Dolphins and now Baltimore Ravens. Looking at all final 4 teams, they all have an athletic QB who can run the ball as well as throw it. The Buffalo Bills with MVP QB Josh Allen, the Washington Commanders with QB Jayden Daniels, 2024 Rookie of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year, the Philadelphia Eagles with Jalen Hurts, and of course the Kansas City Chiefs with QB Patrick Mahomes, who is going for the Threepeat. You can see where the trend is going, and you can also see that our team is going in the wrong direction. Our young 27 year old QB will be asked to stay in the pocket, not to risk injury by rushing the ball, because inevitably, this will lead to injury. We’re going to have build an impenetrable wall around Tua, and not allow him to absorb any hits from the defense. Yeah well, good luck with that!

All I can hope, as I’ve mentioned here before, is our GM Chris Grier, and our Head Coach don’t try and mortgage the future in a futile attempt to win now. What that translates to is not trading any future picks away, and building the team correctly. Not drafting for now only, but also drafting for the future. Don’t restructure contracts and add more cap deficit in future seasons to sign players now. In other words, build responsibly, not impulsively. Build as if you’re going to be here for another decade, not as if this is potentially your last year. Easy for me to say, my job isn’t on the line, but to be fair, with Stephen Ross in charge, it’s hard to believe their jobs are actually in danger anyway, despite the fact the we here all realize they have to be.

Enjoy the game, and observe the things we don’t have, need to have, but probably won’t have, at least through 2025, and hope for better things to come for this team soon!

Happy Super Bowl LIX !!