Before the start of the 2024 season, the Miami Dolphins placed a lot of focus on changing the culture around the team. And while linebacker Bradley Chubb didn’t play a single down all year with a torn ACL, he says the team didn’t buy into the whole idea.
“I’m going to say last year, we were lying, honestly,” Chubb said this week. “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.”
That’s good news? On one hand, Chubb is saying that the team has a renewed focus for 2025, but it doesn’t say much about last year’s team. And considering there haven’t been major overhauls, why would fans think that this year will be different?
“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,” Chubb said. “But this year, I feel like everybody has the right mindset 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.”
Head coach Mike McDaniel responded in typical Mike McDaniel fashion. It’s tough to gauge his comments sometimes when they are seen in print, but anyone who has heard his interviews in the past knows that his response began deadpanned and tongue-in-cheek.
“It would have been awesome if he would have told me on the front end when they were lying,” McDaniel said on Thursday replying to Chubb’s comments. “Beyond that, 2024, unless I’m using it directly for an analogy, I’m much more concerned with 2025. I think you do a lot more for the organization if you spend your time thinking forward in terms of not this, that, or the other, or whose fault it was. No, we want it like this, let’s do it like this and this is who we are. I don’t even — what year did you speak of? I guess I’ll read about that in history books.”
It’s not about McDaniel changing; it’s about the players
Chubb was clear that this isn’t on McDaniel. It’s also not exactly clear who – if anyone – he is talking about specifically. Usually when a team leader makes these kinds of blanket statements about the entire team, they have some folks in mind. It’s anyone’s guess as to who he might be speaking of.
“It’s not necessarily him changing,” Chubb said. “It’s more about us, man, about how we accept what he’s telling us. Like he may have a joking way of getting a serious point across, but it’s up to us in the room to be like, ‘Okay, he might have said it funny, but at the end of the day, this is what we’re doing and this is how we’re moving about it and as a team, this is what we’re going to do.'”
It definitely sounds like Chubb is putting the onus on the players and not McDaniel. Whether or not McDaniel takes it that way is a different story.
“So not much of him has changed,” Chubb concluded. “I would say the people around him and the buy-in of the players that he wants has changed and guys are taking accountability of how we want it to look out here because he can only do so much in terms of with the game plan, the team meetings and all that, prepping and putting us in the right position; but we’ve got to go out there and execute.”
Something needs to change
The Dolphins finished last year 8-9 and were never really close to making the playoffs. And considering the injuries to players like Chubb and Tua Tagovailoa, if they had made the playoffs, they wouldn’t haven’t gone far.
Since Chubb missed all of last season, maybe he feels a little more empowered to speak up this year. Any current or former pro athlete will tell you that when you are out with an injury, you don’t really feel like a part of the team. You are there, but not really.
This year, maybe the Dolphins need this kind of vocal leadership. They still have a lot of talent, but even when they put up great numbers (like they did in 2023) it still hasn’t worked. It seems like McDaniel and Chubb agree that a culture change is needed, but maybe the alterations should come from above and not from the players.
