Cote: Miami Dolphins open training camp under Tua contract cloud & with everything to prove | Opinion

Two words for the Miami Dolphins as they open preseason training camp:

Now, please.

Don’t say it as a polite request, though. Bark it as a demand.

Now, please!

The Dolphins are really good at teasing, at letting their fans think this (finally) could be the year. And then letting those same fans down.

Four straight winning seasons, the last two of them in the playoffs, but with nothing to show for it.

The most offensive yards in the NFL last year and the second most point scored, but with nothing to show.

No playoff victory for this franchise in the past 23 seasons — longest such streak in the league.

Nobody asks more patience of its fans than the Fins, who were last NFL champions when Richard Nixon was drowning in a quagmire called Watergate about a half century ago.

Now Miami is pretty good at last. Exciting. Fast. Star players.

But where is the payoff? When’s payday?

“Windows” close fast in the NFL. Mini-dynasties like the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes are the anomaly. Most teams lucky enough have a few years of maybe contending. The Buffalo Bills are having that ... or has their window already closed as some suggest?

This should be Miami’s window. Right now. With quarterback Tua Tagovailoa better and healthier than ever. With Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle leading a great receivers room. With their best running game in forever. With a bright young coach in Mike McDaniel entering his third season, the sweet spot.

But what do we have as training camp opens with Wednesday’s first full practice?

A buzz-kill controversy enveloping the most important player on the team. A contractual impasse that leaves Tagovailoa — coming off a fully healthy Pro Bowl season and the most passing yards in the NFL — justifiably feeling undervalued as he looks around and sees QBs like Jared Goff and Trevor Lawrence lavished with $50-million-plus-a-year deals while Miami counter-intuitively nickels and dimes its most essential guy.

I think Tagovailoa should be in that $50 million club. The Dolphins apparently are not convinced. Are they right? Pro Football Focus seems to agree, ranking Tagovailoa only 14th, mid-pack, in its latest starting quarterback rankings, and ninth in the AFC.

The Dolphins are not perfect. Offensive line is middling. A new defensive coordinator, Anthony Weaver, takes over a unit that ranked a subpar 23rd in most points allowed. Star defenders Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb are not yet back from serious late-season injuries.

This is why, despite the best version of Tagovailoa yet seen and a dynamic offense, Miami is only tied for 12th in Super Bowl odds at 25-1, as per ESPN BET. That’s seventh in the AFC, after the champion Chiefs, Ravens, Bengals, Bills and, more surprisingly, the Texans and Jets.

You read that right. Miami is picked third in a four-team division. And C.J. Stroud makes Houston the hot new it-team that evidently also has leapfrogged Miami.

ESPN just came out with its Future Power Ranking for the next three seasons based on four categories: overall rosters other than QB, quarterback, coaching and front office. Miami was ranked a decent 10th but only sixth in the AFC after the Chiefs, Ravens, Bills, Texans and Bengals.

So does that mean Miami’s “window” to contend is still open? Was it ever, really?

It is open, but how much? For now, it is open enough to at least let a breeze waft in to refresh fans’ hopes as a new season uncorks and optimism is mandated to be in the air.

But might that window still open wide enough to allow in the gust of legitimate championship dreams?

Better question: Does a franchise that hasn’t let its fans cheer a playoff victory in 23 years even get to be that audacious?

The Miami Dolphins begin this training camp needing to prove they are as good as they think they are.

For now: Treat Tagoaviloa like the franchise QB you desperately need him to be, and go win a playoff game. Then we’ll talk