Miami Dolphins: How They Screwed Up A Rebuild

The Miami Dolphins aren’t looking like the team that left it all out on the field last year. They’ve lucked into winning two games this season and got beat by teams just as bad as them. At one point they looked like the next big thing in the AFC East and now they’re looking like they need another rebuild. So where did it all go wrong in Miami?

You can blame Tua Tagovailoa for not being, yet. You’ll point your fingers at the run game and the lack of production. You can compare their draft picks to ones that are already having success. However, that’s not what doomed this Miami Dolphins team. No, where it all went wrong, was trying to recreate the New England Patriots.

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Brian Flores comes from a Patriots team that has had success year after year and he’s tried to emulate that. The Dolphins offense runs the short patterns that are meant to pick apart a defense. They’ve used situational backs in their run game and never focused on a true rushing powerhouse. So much of their strength is built into how well the defense performs. All key elements of the New England Patriots championship dynasty.

Unfortunately for the Miami Dolphins, they don’t have those pieces in place to accomplish those feats. First, they don’t have Tom Brady. A quarterback that can make decisions quickly and get the ball out of his hands is the key to their passing attack.

Two, they don’t have a solid offensive line. New England built an offensive line that would fit Brady’s shortcomings coming out of college, mostly his poor footwork. To prevent disaster, the Pats built a line strong enough to give him time and speedy receivers who can get open for a quick release.

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And the poor offensive line play is the exact reason their run game suffers. In today’s NFL, yes you can throw any running back in the backfield and get a 1,000-yard rusher. You just have to have the offensive line and quarterback to do so. New England’s success is the Dolphins’ failures. A quarterback who keeps defenses on their heels and an offensive line that can push to give RBs the room for an extra yard or two.

Brian Flores has taken the wrong approach from the New England Patriots. He’s taken the skills that worked there with him but not their strength. New England always built a team that played to their strengths and then hammered them home. If the Miami Dolphins and Brian Flores want to turn things around, they need to refocus in the offseason. They’ve got the cap space and the draft picks to fix things, but they have to play to their strengths and stop trying to recreate New England 2.0.