Miami’s Investment During The Week Is Paying Off
Syndication: Palm Beach Post
Great teams often contain great players who push each other throughout the week in practice to play at their best level come game day.
According to Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, the culture that has been instilled in the locker room and the relationships that have been developed between players over the last few years has been a key piece to the team’s success this season. Players can push and motivate teammates to ensure they are playing to their best ability.
“Everything you see on Sunday is an accumulation of the investment during the week,” McDaniel said during his press conference Tuesday. “When you are challenging guys during the week as a player, you’re challenging a peer. Then they rise to the challenge and make a play Sunday and people lose their mind. That’s where all of the energy and the excitement comes from within a team on Sundays because they are putting in a lot of due diligence during the work week and that’s why we’ve gotten better at things.”
But, the culture wasn’t built overnight. McDaniel said it’s something that has been brewing over the last 29 games. He said he’s brought in speakers to talk to the players about these exact things, and now he’s seeing their hard work come to fruition on the field.
“A lot of guys have been trying to go above and beyond,” McDaniel said. “We’ve had a couple of guys in to speak to the team over the last two years and it shows that the guys are listening. It’s really hard to not go above and beyond when Christian Wilkins and Zack (Sieler) are mandating that groups meet together. Or the way that Tua (Tagovailoa) has grown in that regard is monumental. But you also have guys like Tyreek Hill, who have taken a complete giant step as leaders and understand how much their investment impacts how much other people invest.”
After being on successful teams in the past, McDaniel said he knew what the formula looked like and put a leadership structure into place that allows players to make important decisions for the team.
Along with his captains, McDaniel has a leadership council made up of one player from each position group.
“Those two groups make a lot of decisions, that I put in the player’s hands,” McDaniel said. “It’s kind of filtered through them.”
From that, McDaniel mentioned seeing fullback Alec Ingold, offensive tackle Terron Armstead, linebackers Jerome Baker and Jaelan Phillips and safety Jevon Holland all taking massive leaps forward when it comes to holding teammates accountable in terms of preparing for the task at hand. But the list didn’t stop there.
“The list is lengthy and you can go to every position, but the fact of the matter is on NFL gamedays, this team is very prideful about doing their best,” McDaniel said. “You see a team that strains, that is together, that cheers for each other.”
Through 12 games this season, its paid off. Entering their Week 14 matchup against the Tennessee Titans, the Dolphins are 9-3, are the current No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs due a tiebreaker with the Baltimore Ravens and also own top scoring offense (32.0 ppg.) in the AFC, and only trail the Dallas Cowboys by .3 points.
Despite the success, the Dolphins remained focused on the task at hand and will continue to put in the work.
“It’s interesting and kind of cool and I’m happy for the fan base to get that excitement,” McDaniel said. “That’s all nice but we have a job to do today and if we short change ourselves in what we learned from this last game or if were worried about anything else other than the Tennessee Titans, then all of those conversations and stories don’t matter at all.”
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