What to Make of the 'Culture Change' Chatter

Not sure if you've heard, but there's talk of a "culture change" with the Miami Dolphins, one that ideally will make the difference in getting the team back to the playoffs in 2025.

It has been a talking point with the media during the offseason program, with head coach Mike McDaniel and some key players talking about a renewed or more serious commitment to doing things the right way after coming up short in that area last season.

McDaniel spoke of non-negotiables with his players before minicamp practice Wednesday, after which he was asked (by me) about what some of those might be.

His answer was both lengthy and spirited.

“I think some of the non-negotiables were the football program has to focus on football," McDaniel said. "For that to happen, there’s a lot of things that can’t dominate people’s time, which is like, first and foremost, being on time. Being accountable to each other and staying to the rules or feeling very open as a team that, hey, it’s OK to call someone out when they deserve to be called out, and for those people, it’s OK to be called out as long as you change your (expletive) behavior.

"So realistically, I think we’re in the business of winning football games, that’s what we’ve set forth each and every day this offseason. The people involved in this football program have each and every day shown me that they are up for the task. And what does that mean? Well, how many games are won and lost today? Zero. So you have to establish a standard and maintain it. Realistically, that’s what we’ve been about from the beginning, but sometimes a re-emphasis or just emphasizing anything in general is very necessary."

McDaniel then proceeded to say he's happy with what he's seen in that department in the offseason, specifically "in the way we want to do business."

WHAT'S DIFFERENT? AND WHAT DIFFERENCE CAN IT MAKE?

As McDaniel spoke about this re-emphasis, it was impossible not to think that the Jalen Ramsey impasse is related in some way, as someone who trained in the offseason last year in Tennessee and invariably showed up to practice during the season after his teammates had gone through stretching (might have been something, might have not).

Regardless, the players are saying the right things about being accountable, whether it be Tua Tagovailoa or Alec Ingold.

"I would say, I think there was a little bit of struggle inside the locker room of, I think it's the little things, like the details of communication," Ingold said this week. "You have an offseason that doesn't go the way you want, and things kind of piled up. Now I think you saw that the first half of the year for sure, but guys fought through it, right? You had the people that were fighting to build the chemistry; now you learn how valuable that is. You start a fresh offseason, you learn your lessons, you got to lick your wound.

"You have that same intention walking in without all that friction, I think that allows for a better jump off the ball because I don't think we had OTAs like this last year. I don't think guys were as dialed in as they are and this point in the offseason, man, it's really about training focus and tension, laying the bricks of a foundation you can build off of to give yourself a chance. I think that's what we're doing and it's cool to see the guys stepping up across the whole locker room."

Of course, the two big questions that jump out here are, 1) why didn't this happen last year? 2) How will that translate onto on-field success?

The answer to the first question may be as simple as having some players not totally committed to the team cause who no longer are on the roster — or soon won't be.

The answer to the second question is more complicated because you can have the most punctual and committed team in the league, but at some point you also have to have some players and there's a lot more involved in winning and losing.

For example, it wasn't a lack of professionalism that cost the services of Tua for six starts and it wasn't a lack of professionalism that accounted for the team not being better prepared for that possibility.

Would the Dolphins have finished better than 8-9 if the players had been more accountable and responsible last season? Maybe. But who knows?

THE FINAL WORD

We also should understand this is the team of year when every team is full of belief, full of hope and always talking about being better than the previous year.

For the Dolphins, this was an obvious talking point after McDaniel said at the end of last season that simply being on time was an issue in 2024.

Once he said that, the logical follow-up was to pound on the idea of better accountability this offseason because, if not, then what would that mean?

But are just words, like Bradley Chubb kind of suggested was the case last year.

“I’m going to say last year, we were lying honestly," he said. "Point blank, period. We felt it. We put our toe in the water, but we didn’t dive all the way in. We didn’t get all the way there with each other. We weren’t making the effort to go the extra mile and I would say this year, we’re doing that. I’m not sure how it’s going to turn out for us, but we are putting forth that foot to change it because last year, like I said, we said we wanted to change, yeah, we’re doing this, we’re doing that; but it’s not going exactly how we want to. But this year, I feel like everybody has the right mind-set and moving forward, so if it works out, it’s going to work out. If it doesn’t, we’re going to get back to the drawing board and make sure it works out.”

Again, every team needs every possible advantage to succeed, and maybe better accountability can get the Dolphins one additional win in 2025, but it's also not going to guarantee that Tua stays healthy, that the offensive line can provide better blocking, that the massively unproven secondary can cover to an acceptable level.

It's a good step, make no mistake, if this team stopped feeling entitled after the humbling experience of 2024.

And maybe what happened last year was to an extent the result of an overly generous front office that kept handing out big contracts, even to players who really didn't need to have their contracts addressed.

Maybe this was the needed correction.

And while McDaniel has to set the tone, it's on the players to do their part.

McDaniel has seemed more intense at times in his media dealings this offseason, but expecting him to go from player-friendy to task master overnight isn't realistic. Chubb said it Wednesday, that McDaniel still is the same coach.

"I think from a team perspective, this offseason has been healthy because we’ve established the way we want to do business, and then guys have either followed through or been held accountable in the process," McDaniel said. "And all of those things are things that we’ve established collectively as a team that we need to do to win football games, and done a good job of eliminating all other things that don’t have to do with that out of the equation.

"That’s a monumental part that is a daily focus — noise out the door; in the door, focus and deliberate, intentional practice at the things that we have to be elite at on game day if we want to win football games.”

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