The Miami Dolphins are seeking to shake the label in 2025. 

This is a football team that's been labeled as a finesse team, a front-runner, and 'soft' in recent years. Some of the critique has been earned through struggles against top competition. Other portions of the reputation may have been unfairly perpetuated by some bad luck along the way. At the end of the day, the only way a narrative changes is by taking matters into your own hands. 

This year's Miami Dolphins will try. They could only be so lucky as to have the fanbase and pundits judge them strictly on their performance. The 2025 team will, instead, absolutely be held to the critiques of names like DeShon Elliott, the 2023 Dolphins safety who blasted his former team, calling them "soft as (redacted)" on an appearance on the "Punch Line Podcast" last November. Elliott suggested that the Dolphins melted down the stretch in 2023 in large part because they were not a bunch of mentally tough individuals.

It very well may have been true. It cut some members of last year's team that were holdovers deeply based on their reactions to the quote. But there's one big problem with judging this year's group against that criticism, or any of the last two years, for that matter. 

Hardly any of the players on the Dolphins' 90-man roster this week were even employed by the Dolphins back in 2023. Here's a look at the Dolphins' depth chart from December 1, 2023 and which players are still under contract. It paints a jarring picture of roster turnover. 

Survivors from Miami Dolphins' December 2023 53-Man Depth Chart

A grand total of 23 holdovers who were playing during Elliott's alleged "soft" collapse are still around. One such player, cornerback Jalen Ramsey, is actively on the trade block and not expected to return. Six additional holdovers (in yellow) were not on the active roster starting on December 1st due to either injury or serving on the practice squad. Just 16 members of the 53 man roster entering December of 2023 remain on Miami's 90-man offseason roster today. That's only 30% of the 53-man. Several of those players, including Cameron Goode and Channing Tindall, are long shots to make the roster in 2025. 

Based on summer projections, the Dolphins could be down to as few as 16 holdovers all together when they cut to 53-players this fall. 

These are not the 2023 Miami Dolphins. They're also not the 2024 Miami Dolphins — Miami returned the sixth lowest percentage of their roster from last season of any team in the league last year (63.8% according to OverTheCap). Of the players no longer with the team, nearly 20% of them still have yet to find a new home on a different roster in 2025. That figure is the fifth-highest of any team in the league this offseason, trailing only the Browns, Jets, Vikings, and Titans. Three of those four teams picked in the top-seven of this year's NFL Draft. 

Common denominators are dwindling

If the Dolphins struggle with the same issues again in 2025, the directions of which the finger can be pointed are dwindling. Fast.

Miami has talked the talk about changing the culture of their team this offseason — which has also drawn some criticism from pundits. But until this year's Dolphins get the chance to actually show the world what they're about on the field, all they can do is talk. And they've been asked about it. Repeatedly. 

You'll have a hard time insulating general manager Chris Grier and head coach Mike McDaniel from absorbing the brunt of the blame if Miami again struggles to dictate the line of scrimmage or has such a stark split in performance based on the quality of the opponent in 2025. After all, their actions indicate that they seem to feel the root of their issues has lied in the personnel. Some rooms, such as Elliott's home in the secondary, have been completely torn to shreds in the past 18 months. 

If overhauling the individual groups doesn't do the trick, one can only then assume that it is the architect and the leadership that need to change. Time will tell. But in the sake of fairness, your judgements of the 2025 Dolphins should lie with the 2025 Dolphins, not in the stereotypes and criticisms of the earlier years of McDaniel's tenure. Most of those players guilty of those narratives around the Dolphins don't call South Florida home any longer. 

Acknowledging that is, at the very least, a start. From there, it's in the hands of this year's group to change the tune around the Miami Dolphins. They'll do that by walking the walk. 

Jonnu Smith wants more from the Dolphins — could Miami really trade him? A look at recent TE deals hints at an answer fans won’t love

Let's make one thing abundantly clear: the Miami Dolphins and tight end Jonnu Smith are a great fit together on the field.  The Dolphins endured a bunch of soft coverage cushion in 2024 and failed to have the offensive balance needed to punish teams consistently for their coverage structures. As a result, Miami was afforded […]