The ”Soft” Tide Is Turning In Miami
Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
If you can’t beat them, sign one of them. This might as well have been the mindset the Miami Dolphins’ front office adopted during the offseason, when they acquired free agent safety Jordan Poyer. The former Buffalo Bills defensive back instantly showed why the Dolphins went out of their way to get a former rival, as he made a splash in one of his first appearances in front of the South Florida media.
Pulling no punches, Poyer was as subtle as a haymaker to the chin when talking about the league’s perception of the Dolphins. From a toughness standpoint, there has been a lack of respect for his new team. Everyone in the NFL seemed to feel it, but Poyer was the one to vocalize it.
He told the Miami beat writers over the summer, “Playing against this team over the past few years, you get a sense of, ‘OK, if you get on top of this team, they might fold.’ What is that? What is it that happens in those moments where we get hit in the mouth? What happens in those moments?”
There’s plenty of evidence to back it up, from the Dolphins’ lackluster performances against top-tier teams to not being able to handle cold-weather road games. What mentality does a winning team take on? Poyer shed some light on that from his time in Buffalo. “It’s like, ‘Hey, we’re good, let’s bounce back.” He added, “It’s a 60-minute game, it’s a long game.”
In addition to importing a hated Bill, the Dolphins went outside the organization to bring in a new defensive scheme and coordinator via Anthony Weaver. The moves immediately paid off in Week 1. Despite heading into the locker room at halftime down 17-7 on Sunday against Jacksonville, Poyer and the rest of Weaver’s defensive unit shut out the Jaguars in the final 30 minutes.
Not only did Weaver make the necessary schematic adjustments to blank the Jaguars, it’s clear that Poyer’s preaching was heard.
Jevon Holland, who lines up beside Poyer at safety, made an absolute stellar play at the doorstep of the Dolphins end zone. Holland threw a punch of his own, forcing Travis Etienne Jr. to fumble, but the play did so much more than take a touchdown away from Jacksonville. Holland’s fist just may have helped Miami break into a new realm of team toughness.
And of course, it also produced a 14-point swing, as Miami’s offense wasted no time capitalizing on the turnover. Tua Tagovailoa found Tyreek Hill for an 80-yard touchdown strike following the “Holland Pummel.”
That turn of events was the kind of perfectly timed counterpunch that Miami never got in 2023. It was also a coming-out party for the new-look Dolphins defense. At safety, Poyer and Holland played 100% of the defensive snaps in Week 1. The front seven got contributions from players new and old. Calais Campbell, Emmanuel Ogbah, and Jaelan Phillips combined for three sacks, and the entire unit looked anything but soft.
Weaver’s coaching and the veteran leadership gave the team a brand-new mindset that looks different from teams of years past. Week 1’s Dolphins had the look of a team that said all the things Poyer’s Buffalo teams would. “We’re good, let’s bounce back. It’s a 60-minute game.” Reading further into Poyer’s prophecy back in July, we see him say, “Don’t get stuck in that play that you didn’t make, or don’t get stuck in X, Y, X of the past.”
Sometimes an outside perspective is all a team needs to hear to implement an identity change. And Miami heard him loud and clear. “Keep playing. Keep staying together. That’s the biggest thing, being able to stay together as a team,” wasn’t just dropped by Poyer this summer, it was almost certainly the message at halftime on Sunday.
Already, Holland answered the call, and so did Dolphins vets like Phillips and Ogbah. And that’s nothing but good news for a franchise looking for their first playoff win in 24 years. The mentality Miami showed in Week 1 could give the Dolphins a puncher’s chance in any game on their slate. Regardless of who, when, where…and what the weather is like.
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