On the Bench: The rise of the Miami Dolphins

Professional football in Florida hasn’t been anything to brag about over the past five years, but it appears that NFL fans here may finally have something to cheer for again. The Miami Dolphins are off to their best start since 2007, when they last made the playoffs.

The Jacksonville Jaguars are a perennial basement dweller in the power rankings and are off to an atrocious start, unable to put points on the scoreboard. Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are in constant rebuilding mode, rotating coaches and not being able to decide on a quarterback. Not a good sign.

So it’s all riding on the Dolphins to bring back some pride to professional football in the Sunshine State. Otherwise, fans may stop watching on Sundays and stick to college football on Saturdays; at least they know they can see winners on that day.

The Dolphins have three key elements that make them a surefire playoff team this year. It starts off with the general on the field: the quarterback. I like Ryan Tannehill a lot. The guy has a ton of talent and untapped potential. It’s only his second year in the league, but he has proven himself to be a winner and a leader, and those are key characteristics of a great quarterback. Hopefully, the running game will help take some pressure off him every once in a while, but if that doesn’t work, they have a dynamic weapon on the outside that Tannehill can use.

That big play option is Mike Wallace, the second key for the Dolphins to continue their success. The Dolphins spent a lot of money in the offseason to acquire Wallace’s services because of his play-making ability. Although he hasn’t gotten off to the kind of start the team and fans were hoping for, it is only a matter of time before he hits his stride and gets on the same page as Tannehill. Wallace’s speed and downfield threat opens up the playbook for the Dolphins, keeping opposing defenses on guard. Once he gets going, there may be no stopping him.

The final and most important key for the Dolphins this season is their defense. Over the past three years, this has actually been the Dolphins’ strength, thanks to Cameron Wake. Wake is in the top five in the league in total sacks over the past three years and is a constantly making his presence known in the backfield. You know the old saying, “Defense wins championships,” and if the Dolphins have any hope of winning championships, they need their defense to keep up all the hard work and keep everyone else out of the end zone.

It’s always hard competing in the same division as Tom Brady and his Patriots, but the rest of the conference looks pretty weak, so if Miami can’t take the AFC Eastern Division title from New England, they have a good shot at pulling a wild card position.

Are they for real this year, or are they just getting fans’ hopes up just to let them down, as they usually do? By this time of the season, it starts to be clear who is a contender and who is a pretender. I think they can make some real noise in the AFC this year and with a 3-1 record through the first quarter of the season, it’s looking promising. It’s going to be an interesting season.

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