Dave Hyde: Will Dolphins’ big changes lead to results in regime’s fourth year?

Culture is an easy word to talk about. It’s not so easy to create, especially when you’ve flubbed it for three years as coach Mike McDaniel and general manager Chris Grier did in this Miami Dolphins era.

So, they made some change in their fourth season that you typically see in an early-stage rebuild. That’s the way to view this offseason’s work that ends when training camp starts on Tuesday.

You can praise them for making necessary change and hope they got it right this time.

You can doubt them after three years of getting too much wrong.

Hope and doubt are as inseparable as Grier and McDaniel at this point. They said good-bye to players who didn’t buy into the collective culture like Jalen Ramsey, Jevon Holland and (gasp) Raheem Mostert. They quit writing unnecessary contracts for players just to be nice (though defensive tackle Zach Sieler needs paying). They turned the oldest roster in the league into something younger.

All this offseason, Grier and McDaniel followed the first rule when you’ve dug yourself a hole: They stopped digging. That was important. But now comes the harder part of trying to lead everyone out of that hole.

Can they? Will they? And, yes, lead is the operative verb for them here. Everyone around the Dolphins is hung up on which players are leaders, of how they lead, of their lost leaders like Terron Armstead and Calais Campbell.

But if there’s one thing this organization has lacked since Steve Ross took over it’s leadership in the prime leadership positions. Ross wants to win and has spent a lot of money trying. But does he even recognize what leadership looks like inside an NFL team?

His hires make you wonder. Joe Philbin was hired, Ross said, because he was organized as a power-point lecture showed in the interview. Mike Tannenbaum was hired, Ross said, because he ran the team’s sports science wing so well. Adam Gase was hired due to his creative offensive thinking.

Brian Flores was a gifted coach, but had people-management issues. Grier? He’s followed whatever coach is in the building. Year 10, and does anyone know what he thinks winning football looks like?

McDaniel is back to Ross’s idea of a creative thinker and positive influence. Those are good qualities. But McDaniel’s idea of a culture the first three years was of a football commune with his players, a kumbaya partnership with players who had done nothing to earn that relationship.

Maybe McDaniel changes some in Year 4 after some of the players the organization trusted most like Ramsey and Tyreek Hill turned on the coach last season. The curiosity beginning Tuesday will be in seeing any such change.

McDaniel’s camp reflected his culture of comfort the past few years. Rotating days off for everyone. Few exhausting workouts. Players warming up without certain pads or helmets. No sprints after practice.

One way to see it was progressive thinking in a league trying to reinvent training camp. Another way was the whispered word Armstead heard from players back when he signed with the team: “Easy,” he said last year.

McDaniel can’t suddenly become Andy Reid, who takes his Kansas City Chiefs team away for training camp and has purposely tough practices. He can’t be Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice, who begins each training camp with the toughest five practices of the season to set a tone.

Something more like what Washington coach Dan Quinn did in his first season last year would fit McDaniel’s way. Quinn gave players a blank sheet of paper at the start of training camp and had them write their standards for their team’s culture. He posted the results and held players to them.

Maybe that helped explain how Washington had a fun playoff run last season. Maybe it was more rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, too.

The Dolphins have roster questions at cornerback and the offensive line. Most teams have some issue right now. But if Grier and McDaniel get the culture right this time that goes a long way toward solving problems of the past few years.

That’s the hope anyway.

The intertwined doubt that’s part of this training camp says if they can’t solve it in three years they won’t in the fourth year. That’s the tension of this season. Hope and doubt. Now it’s time to show how all these decisions work out.

Dolphins Deep Dive: Miami’s culture; McDaniel on hot seat? | VIDEO

Originally Published: July 19, 2025 at 12:18 PM EDT