Fish and Fins

The good news for Marlins fans is that the Dolphins season kicks off in a week, so they will have a distraction from watching the Fish trying to play baseball. Miami lost their 6th straight game on Sunday vs. Atlanta and have lost 12 of their last 15. They now possess the 4th worst record in the NL and are on a pace to lose 95 games. That’s not exactly what Marlins management expected back in April. 

The Fish officially threw in the towel on the 2022 season a few days ago when they released Jesus Aguilar who was the team leader in both home runs and RBIs. 

Even Sandy Alcantara, the one saving grace for the Marlins this year, couldn’t avoid Miami’s recent demise as he was roughed up for 6 runs in 5 innings this past Friday vs. the Braves. 

There’s always next year for Marlins fans, but for Dolphins fans the 2022 season can’t start soon enough. There hasn’t been this much pre-season optimism for the Fins since Dan Marino last lined up under center for Miami. 

The optimism is well founded. First, they brought back virtually every player from last year’s elite defense. And if that wasn’t enough, they added veteran pass rushers Melvin Ingram and Trey Flowers during training camp. 

But it is the offense that has everyone excited.

The excitement started with the hiring of offensive guru Mike McDaniels as head coach. He and GM Chris Grier then built an offense to support McDaniels offensive approach, which focuses on running the football. That requires offensive linemen, so they signed All-Pro tackle Terron Armstead as well as center Connor Williams. 

Veteran running backs Chase Edmonds and Raheem Mostert were then added as free agents as was wide receiver Cedrick Wilson. 

And as free agency was winding down, Miami surprised the entire NFL world by trading for one of the elite play makers in the entire NFL in wide receiver Tyreek Hill. If Hill teaming up with fellow speedster and rookie standout WR Jaylen Waddle doesn’t get you excited, then nothing will. 

The excitement continued to build during training camp as all of the parts meshed together and perhaps even more importantly, the Fins didn’t experience any injuries of real significance.

We’ll start to find out how good the 2022 edition of the Dolphins is in week 1 as Miami hosts the New England Patriots, who made the playoffs last year. Miami needs to win this game, not only to instill confidence, but because the Pats game will be the easiest matchup Miami has in their first 4 games.

In week 2 they go on the road to face the Ravens. Baltimore was bit by the injury bug in 2021, but they are healthy now with their eye on the playoffs. 

Following that is the pre-season Super Bowl favorite the Buffalo Bills, who have had their way with Miami the past few seasons. The week 3 game will be at Hard Rock Stadium, so this game will be a great litmus test as to how much the Dolphins have really improved.

And if that isn’t enough, week 4 brings another road game, this time vs. last year’s Super Bowl participant the Cincinnati Bengals. 

Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa will be under the spotlight all season and he will have his work cut out for him going head-to-head with 3 of the best QBs in the NFL in weeks 2-4 against Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Joe Burrow. 

Miami needs to come out of this initial 4 game gauntlet with at least 2 wins. While losing games to Baltimore, Buffalo or Cincinnati wouldn’t be overly embarrassing considering how good they are, if Miami envisions themselves as a playoff team, they need to beat some of the better teams in the league. Just being competitive won’t be good enough.

Hopefully, the Marlins bad juju won’t rub off on the Dolphins as anything less than making the playoffs would be a huge disappointment for Fins fans. And to be honest, just making the playoffs shouldn’t be good enough. The Fins need to win some playoff games to put themselves amongst the elite teams in the NFL. 

Dolphins fans can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and it’s time for all that talent on paper to show up on the field.