Dolphins embracing unique opportunity this month to help battle one of their most fatal flaws from a disappointing 2024 season
The Dolphins are about to spend a whole lot of time together away from home.
The Miami Dolphins are coming off of their most frustrating season in years. It’s one thing to suffer injuries, as the team did in 2022 and 2023. It’s another thing all together to have self-inflicted wounds that also go a long way in preventing you from realizing your potential. That’s what Miami’s year was littered with from start to finish in 2024 — with things like practice attendance, meeting tardiness and player confrontation persisting throughout the year.
We know this thanks in part to some of the comments about the Dolphins’ culture, which was become a borderline obsession for the national coverage of the team over this offseason. Miami, as a result, is not getting the benefit of the doubt from anyone. And they shouldn’t, at least not after what last season looked like. But this year’s iteration of the team has a unique opportunity to lay the foundation of a better environment.
And that opportunity started yesterday.
2025 Miami Dolphins are going road tripping
Mike McDaniel‘s football team packed their bags after a Wednesday practice at the Baptist Health Training Complex and went to the airport, taking off for Chicago. Despite the travel, the Dolphins will practice this afternoon before suiting up for a joint-practice session with the Chicago Bears on Friday morning. The team will then be off Saturday before a Sunday contest in Chicago.
After Chicago? It’s straight to Detroit. The Dolphins will practice three days in Detroit, twice with the Lions themselves in another set of joint practices on Wednesday and Thursday. Miami will then be off on Friday before their second preseason contest; a 1:00PM EST kickoff against the Lions on Saturday, August 16th.
Then, and only then, will this football team come home.
It sets the stage for a lot of time together on the road. And, after the friction of last year’s season, a little extra time together as a team may be just what the doctor ordered. Veteran offensive tackle Terron Armstead retired in April after three years in Miami and on a recent live-stream disclosed just how challenging things were last year.
“My third year (in Miami) was a rollercoaster. It was not a good time…it was a lot of ups and downs. A lot of uncertainty. We had Tua out of the lineup for a long time. We had a lot of confrontation and just friction throughout, whether that’s the locker room or in the building. Not anything that’s groundbreaking but it was enough. Enough to not allow the Miami Dolphins’ 2024 team to do what we had set out to do.”
– Retired offensive tackle Terron Armstead on the challenges of the 2024 season
Last year, Miami played one preseason game on the road. It was a short trip to Tampa and back. The team didn’t spend consecutive weeks on the road until Weeks 9 & 10 of the regular season — and obviously the week in between the games was spent on home turf anyway. With a collection of newly signed veteran players who had been assembled from just about every corner of the league, the chemistry experiment of the team’s locker room, leadership, and relationships was clearly out of balance.
Miami paid the price dearly with a woeful start, one that was rumored to feature at least one intervention from team leadership within the first few weeks of the season to try to ease the “confrontation and friction” that Armstead was referring to.
A pair of Dolphins leaders from the 2025 roster spoke in recent days before departing about the prospect of spending so much time together on the road this month. Both feel as though this is a unique opportunity to hone not only their craft on the field but also their connection to their teammates.
“I think it’s going to be really cool. We’ve got some things lined up with our rookies and then with the veterans and the rookies and our coaches to go out there and find some time to spend with each other. Whether that’s eating, going and seeing a movie, whatever that looks like,” said quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
Pass rusher Jaelan Phillips echoed his sentiment.
“It’s cool team bonding. We’re going on an 11 night road trip so we’re going to be in the hotel with each other every single day, so I think (the joint practices) are a great thing for a lot of reasons.”
Of course, none of this guarantees the Dolphins anything. But it does, along with the focus on the kinds of players the Dolphins have prioritized adding this offseason, give Miami a chance to get this season kicked off on the right foot with one another. It can be an eye-roll inducing cliche, but every player from a championship caliber team talks about how the best versions of their team came with strong relationships and investment in one another as the players and the brotherhood in the locker room.
The Dolphins may not be as talented of a football team at the top of the roster as they were last year. But some (all?) of that could be offset if the team is actually that in 2025 — a team. Perhaps 11 nights on the road together as this season is in it’s infancy can help that come together.
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