Kelly: Reasons to Love the Dolphins Heading Into This Offseason

Steve Ross' open checkbook is one of the many reasons to love the Miami Dolphins organization because it can usually buy the team's way out of a crisis

On this fake holiday (Valentine's Day) that is supposed to be love-centric, I figured it would be beneficial to provide a couple of reasons it’s acceptable for you to fall deeper into an obsessive state with the Miami Dolphins franchise.

Even in these troubling financial times — the CAPocalypse is upon us considering the Dolphins are $52 million over the projected salary cap, and need to clear $80-90 million to retain free agents like Christian Wilkins — there are plenty of reasons to have optimism about South Florida’s NFL team and what this franchise is trying to build on.

Here are five reasons your love should grow for the 2024 Dolphins.

1. Tua Tagovailoa Still Trending Upwards

Say whatever you want about the Dolphins’ starting quarterback for the past four seasons, but he’s one of the NFL’s winningest passers when stacked up against his peers (quarterbacks drafted two years before or after him in 2020). Tagovailoa’s statistics — led the NFL in passer rating in 2022, and was the 2023 passing yards leader — is on par with anyone in the NFL the past two seasons, and his winning percentage is better than Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence and Jordan Love. What Tagovailoa needs is playoff wins (plural), and clutch fourth-quarter performances to enter the elite quarterback conversation. But Tagovailoa, who owns a 32-19 win-loss record, is off to a solid start in four years and has a long career ahead of him if he can stay healthy and productive.

2. Dolphins Possess An Elite Offense

Mike McDaniel is viewed as one of the NFL’s young, talented innovators based on the offense he’s utilized the past two seasons, which ranked sixth in 2022, and finished first in 2023. The Dolphins set all kinds of offensive records last season, and that was despite a fizzling finish in December, games where Miami’s execution got watered down by numerous injuries. Each season McDaniel has cleaned up some aspect of his scheme, or added a different element to his offense. It will be interesting to see the 2024 evolution, and what it will bring. But the Dolphins would benefit from upgrading the slot receiver spot and must learn to be more physical than finesse.

3. Florida the Epicenter of the NFL Universe

I’d estimate that roughly 40 percent of the NFL’s workforce lives in Florida during their offseason. Whether it’s South Florida, Orlando, the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, Jacksonville or the Panhandle, this state is filled with NFL talent, primarily because of the tax benefits that exist for Florida residents, who don't pay state taxes. That means veteran players seeking new homes via trades (think Jalen Ramsey) and free agents (Terron Armstead) shopping for new teams usually have the Dolphins high on their desired destination list. Now, the money and the proposed role has to make sense for all parties, but it’s not like selling a player to come to Green Bay or Indianapolis. That means the Dolphins typically have a chance to land most of the talent they covet, and not every team can say this.

4. The Franchise is Magical at Selling Hope

If there’s one thing the Dolphins franchise has mastered the past two decades, it’s selling hope to a fan base that last experienced a playoff win in 2000, and has lived through nine winning seasons during that span. A 30-year-old Dolphins fan barely knows what a playoff victory feels like, but they sure do know what it’s like to win the offseason. Tom Garfinkel, the Dolphins’ CEO and a major power player in the organization, has become a magician at selling mediocrity at a premium price, and he does it by curating hope each offseason by always making one major splash from a transaction standpoint during the Steve Ross era.

5. Boss Ross Consistently Makes It Rain

The best way to evaluate a sports owner is by assessing what resources he provides his people, his organization. Ross, who is entering his 16th season as the majority owner, spares no expense when it comes to the Dolphins. If the organization can dream about it, and convinces Ross that Miami needs it, he’ll spend his billions to get it. For instance, Ross has set and broken his own NFL record on offseason spending at least three times during his tenure as Miami’s owner. During his run as owner, the Dolphins have made five former Dolphins the highest-paid players at their positions. When you compare that approach to the penny-pinching other sports franchises experience, Ross’ free spending should be appreciated, especially in offseasons like this one, when he’ll be asked to restructure numerous contracts, and required to write massive signing and roster bonuses to create the cap space needs to rebuild, if not renovate last year’s team. 

Why are the Dolphins in a rush to lock up Tua Tagovailoa to a multi-year deal?