Kelly: Is Dolphins bully-ball mentality taking root?

Was it the flex after every good play made?

Or maybe the stare down after those physical blocks, or the shoulders Jeff Wilson, Jaylen Wright and Chris Brooks lowered to gain an extra yard or two on their intense runs.

Better yet, it was the handful of suplex tackles defenders used to replace a completely acceptable pull down stop.

Friday night’s preseason opener against the Atlanta Falcons was a showcase of the work the Miami Dolphins have put in this camp to alter the team’s league-wide identity as a pushover.

This team with the nerdy looking, Ivy League educated head coach is attempting to play like the bully who stuffs a Mike McDaniel inside a hallway locker, and showcased it against the Falcons all week, imposing their will in the joint practices and in Friday night’s 20-13 preseason win.

Miami owned the line of scrimmage - 121 rushing yards to 53 in the first three quarters - in a game that didn’t feature many starters playing for either team.

The play of rookie offensive tackle Patrick Paul, Miami’s second-round pick, who started Friday night’s game at left tackle and played well into the fourth quarter, perfectly illustrated what the Dolphins want to become.

The 6-foot-7, 332 pounder, who is wearing a facemask that makes him look like the Bane villain in the Batman movies, pushed Falcons defenders around most of the game, routinely turning edge defenders away from running plays, and stonewalling them from turning the corner on rushing plays.

The Dolphins ran behind Paul most of the game and the Falcons couldn’t do anything to stop it.

He owned his job assignment, and followed through on the edict Pro Bowl cornerback Jalen Ramsey demanded from his teammates at the conclusion of a lackluster practice day last week.

Paul’s performance should make Ramsey proud.

And so should Miami’s defensive performance against the Falcons.

New defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver comes from the Baltimore Ravens organization, where he played and coaches, so his side of the team has been cooking with some of John Harbaugh’s secret sauce all training camp.

With Ramsey serving as his sous chef, setting the tone for that side of the ball, it seems as if we can expect Miami’s bully-ball mandate to take root from the unit that hits people for a living.

Now it’s on some coach, a unit, maybe a player to ensure the offense follows their lead, and that this identity change takes root.

This shouldn’t be too challenging considering McDaniel comes from Mike Shanahan’s coaching three, and his mentors run games in Denver and Washington annually set the tone for physicality in the NFL.

Last season McDaniel began to live up to his run game specialist reputation by transforming his pass-happy offense in 2022 into the NFL’s most productive rushing attack in 2023 considering Miami finishes first in the NFL in yards per attempt, and second in rushing yards per game.

When it came to running the ball, Miami trailed only the Ravens, whose rushing attack is aided by a quarterback who has rushed for 1,000 or more yards twice in his six-year career, and averages 61.1 rushing yards per game.

Miami doesn’t possess a cheat code like Lamar Jackson, so what the Dolphins need to latch onto to make this identity shift stick is a punch first mentality, an in your face mentality, one that lets the rest of the NFL know that the 2024 Dolphins are ready and willing to go a few rounds with whoever wants the smoke.