Head coach Brian Flores has begun the five-year mission bringing the Miami Dolphins back into championship contention. They haven’t seen that level of football since the 1980s and 1990s when they had a young Dan Marino under center.
That expectedly bring an element of change. The facilitator of that change is now in focus to the football world: the 2019 NFL Draft. Questions are centered on who a team should pick and how those players should be developed and utilized in the upcoming season and beyond.
Flores, however, stated this morning that he has a less narrow point of view in the offseason that isn’t just limited to those who are strutting across the stage in Nashville come late April.
“I think we are always developing players,” Flores said. “So we’re developing rookies, second-year players . . . seventh-year players. We’re in a business where we’re all looking to improve. . . I know you say, ‘develop a rookie’, but I’m trying to develop everyone.”
In the recent past, it could be argued that rookies were the top priority of player development while free agency was the solution for improving positions of need that weren’t addressed by the draft. Recent examples: Robert Quinn at defensive end, Josh Sitton and Dan Kilgore in the interior of the offensive line along with Frank Gore at running back.
The reason for this? It may be linked to previous coaches Adam Gase and Joe Philbin being under pressure to win quickly. Flores’ five-year contract enables him to feel less pressure.
Instead, he and the team can focus more on building what the roster already has and solidifying the team’s foundation. If successful, this approach can get more out of players every Sunday compared to the salary he is commanding against the cap. This ideology is something that the New England Patriots made a centerpiece of their success during the 15 years he was a member of the organization.
While talk of veteran development isn’t quite as sexy a topic as who should draft Kyler Murray or what Miami’s new head coach will do at the NFL Combine, it is positive reinforcement that the Dolphins may actually be cultivating a culture change in South Florida.
