Kelly: Dolphins don’t have the makeup of an NFL contender | Opinion

The Kansas City Chiefs shipped Pro Bowl receiver Tyreek Hill to South Florida for a treasure chest of draft picks three years ago when the NFL’s new premiere franchise determined the attention-seeking diva wasn’t worth the money he was asking for, and never looked back.

The Chiefs head into Sunday night’s game against the Buffalo Bills, which is quarterbacked by Josh Allen (who has been Miami’s daddy his entire seven-year pro career) at the doorstep of becoming the NFL’s first team to three-peat in the modern era of football.

Outside of the resilient Bills, standing in Kansas City’s way of achieving that monumental feat is either the Washington Commanders, which went from the second-worst team in the NFL in 2023 to the NFC Championship Game in one season, or the Philadelphia Eagles.

That’s the team led by Jalen Hurts, the quarterback Tua Tagovailoa made transfer from the University of Alabama back in their college days together, and a unit that features the NFL’s No. 1 defense.

And that defense was coincidentally built by Vic Fangio, the coach the Dolphins divorced last offseason because of his curmudgeon ways after he failed to get along with some of the Dolphins’ top personalities on defense.

Just as much as you notice all the connections the Dolphins have to the four teams competing to advance to the Super Bowl this weekend, watching this installment of the playoffs, the postseason, should have provided plenty of hints that these Dolphins, this 2024 team we watched limp to a 8-9 finish — as it was assembled — wasn’t playoff worthy.

Maybe Miami could have snuck in as the last wild card team if the Denver Broncos had stumbled. Or if Miami had taken care of their business by winning a game or three more. And certainly having Tagovailoa miss six and a half games didn’t help. But that doesn’t mean the now 25-year drought of not winning a playoff game would have been extinguished if Tagovailoa has been healthy all season.

Why? Because with and without Tagovailoa the Dolphins got pushed around too much in 2024.

In the postseason the physicality is dialed up a decibel or two, and when that happens the team general manager Chris Grier has assembled, the one Mike McDaniel coaches, has wilted.

And this isn’t a unique problem. It’s a consistent theme about these Dolphins that needs to be addressed this offseason if Miami’s ever going to dethrone the Bills as the AFC East division champs, or go round-for-round with teams like Kansas City and Baltimore Ravens.

The clock is ticking on this now seven-year rebuild because this rendition of the Dolphins only exists because team owner Steve Ross gave Grier and McDaniel one more chance to get it right.

One more shot to create cap space to go on a free agent shopping spree, and one more spin around the NFL grocery store and the key decision makers in the 2025 NFL draft.

Even Stevie Wonder can see that Miami doesn’t have what it takes in the trenches to do battle with these playoff teams.

Say whatever you would like about Tagovailoa and his ability, but his play isn’t what’s keeping Miami from getting to the next level as a franchise.

Maybe his lack of durability is a factor, but maybe that changes if the Dolphins can put a better offensive line in front of him, one that can open up running lanes for the tailbacks like it did in 2024, when the Dolphins led the NFL in yards per carry. Or maybe provide Tagovailoa and his receivers an extra second of protection so Hill and Jaylen Waddle can shake their defender and get over the top of a secondary.

But the need for enforcement in the trenches doesn’t just stop there since the eight teams that ranked ahead of the Dolphins in rushing yards allowed last season were all postseason participants.

And the three teams that followed Miami, which finished the season ranked ninth against the run, allowing 103.7 rushing yards a game, were the Eagles, Houston Texans and Bills, which are also playoff teams.

Trench play doesn’t matter as much as elite quarterbacks at this level of football, but it’s the ingredient that neutralizes the playing field for the teams that lack it, and the Dolphins clearly need to do better.