We Need to Sign Miko Grimes

After seeing the Dolphins get beat by the Jaguars and humiliated by the Bills, I wasn't expecting much when the Dolphins flew to London, but they still managed to disappoint. I started writing this site during our 2007 1-15 season and so far this season has been even harder to watch.

In 2007, we had a coach too nice to be effective, a leaky offensive line that allowed too many sacks, a defense that couldn't tackle and a recently signed overpaid defensive free agent who was underperforming (Joey Porter). Sounds familiar so far, but there is one gigantic difference. While the 2007 Dolphins had a lack of talent due to injuries and poor personnel decisions, I never questioned that they were playing their hardest. Every week, Zach Thomas, Jason Taylor and the other players went out and played to best of their abilities against teams who were often more talented. While it was frustrating to watch Randy Moss stitch a clown suit on Cameron Worrell, I never felt like Worrell was phoning it in.

This season I see a team most people would agree is more talented than the '07 squad, that with a few exceptions (Jarvis Landry, Reshad Jones and a few others) is sleepwalking through games with very little passion. A lot of the fault lies with coaching and with Philbin out, there is hope that might change but I need to see more passion out of this team. I would rather have a less talented team playing their hearts out than a talented team that doesn't care.

We Need to Sign Miko Grimes

So far this season, aside from Jarvis Landry the person in a Dolphins jersey who has best embodied the kind of tenacity and grit I'm talking about was Miko Grimes. After the game, Miko bravely took on multiple police officers in a show of passion and raw athleticism rarely seen from Dolphins players this season that included headbutting an officer while she was handcuffed. While our society unfortunately has laws that frown on that kind of violence in a parking lot, on a football field those are the exact kind of psychotic impulses that get players to the Pro Bowl.

With Miko recently getting fired from her radio gig, she's available and she already has plenty of Dolphins jerseys with her last name on them so all we'd have to do is change the numbers. If she's willing to fight that hard just to get into a restricted area, imagine what a terror she could be against opposing running backs. 

Adios, Joe Philbin

Joe Philbin just got a lot more time to pick up gum wrappers. Today, Stephen Ross continued his habit of only firing people at least a year after everyone else on the planet knew they needed to go. 

Philbin is a nice guy but unfortunately the NFL awards no points for friendliness or having a tidy practice field. He was a weak leader and as a result, during his tenure anyone with a strong personality was quickly shown the door. When he first became head coach, he said he didn't believe in having team captains, but after Chad Johnson was released the players formed what they called a "leadership council" of four players to represent the voice of the locker room. The next offseason, all four of those players (Karlos Dansby, Jake Long, Reggie Bush, and Davone Bess) were let go. 

Philbin's fear of any players with leadership created a power vacuum that contributed to the 2013 Bullygate scandal. While the Ted Wells report may have exonerated Philbin as being totally unaware of any of the Bullygate events, it convicted him of being totally out of touch with what was going on in his own locker room. He seemed like the overmatched substitute teacher, helplessly asking who threw the paper while his back was turned. In a million different ways, it was clear the players never respected Philbin. Whether it was constantly leaking negative things to the media or Mike Wallace directly confronting him during a game, he clearly never had any command of that locker room. For the past two seasons in a row, the Dolphins quit on Philbin at the end of the season with the playoffs on the line.

With Philbin gone, the Dolphins are left with a team that has some talent, but hardly any leadership. Many of our top paid players like Suh, Wake and Grimes have never been vocal leaders and that's unlikely to change. There are also reports today that Ryan Tannehill recently feuded with the practice squad telling them "Enjoy your practice squad paychecks." when they were intercepting him too much which doesn't inspire much hope for him emerging as a leader in the future. Dan Campbell has his work cut out for him.