Chris Perkins: Sullivan and Hafley continue offering Dolphins fans reason to believe
The NFL offseason, above all else — above the trades, the draft, free agency, the rule changes, the scandals, above everything — is about selling hope. And much of it is false hope. Against that backdrop, I continue to think that much-needed culture change is happening with the Dolphins, an organization that’s coming off back-to-back losing seasons and hasn’t won a playoff game since 2000.
Listen to Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan when he was asked at the annual NFL meeting on Monday whether the Dolphins are in a rebuild . “You can draw your own conclusions,” Sullivan said, “but we’re here to be competitive day in and day out, and we’re here to win. “The whole rebuild, retool thing, I don’t believe in that.
I think it sends a terrible message to the locker room. ” A day later coach Jeff Hafley was asked how he intends to impart toughness and accountability into his players. “I think you set a standard and you talk to the players about what the expectation is and you hold them to it,” he said.
“You make it very black and white. These are the things we talked about together, this is the standard that we want, this is how we’re going to hold each other accountable, and then we’re going to hold you to it. ” I love that kind of stuff.
This is a change. It’s a hard-nosed, old-school mentality that’s led by common sense discipline and respect. However, this change goes much deeper than the GM and head coach.
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