It is being reported that players this year were missing and or late for team meetings. How do you fix that?
It starts with a head coach that is BFFs with his players. McDaniel has got to change that relationship. It works when the team is winning, but as soon as there is adversity, that sort of coach/player relationship generally results in what we saw this season.
Simple. Bench them. Belichick used to do it no matter who it was. In fact if it's a guy like Hill that's a great way to send a message that nobody is above the team. If that doesn't work put them on the practice squad. Problem in my opinion is McDaniel is not respected or feared. Too buddy buddy with the players.
This team has gone from one extreme to another. Flores who ran a tight ship and the players hated to McDaniel who is close with his players but not strict enough. There needs to be a happy medium. Something about this reminds me of the Jimmy Johnson story he would tell about how you don't treat every player the same. Something to the affect of if he caught players dozing during a team meeting - if it were a third stringer, he would cut them immediately. If it were Dan Marino, he'd gently say, "Wake up Dan." I'm probably getting some of that wrong but you get the idea. Of course with this team, things are so lax we're talking about players skipping meetings altogether, not just dozing. With no repercussions. A happy medium would be nice, but much like it does in politics, the pendulum always seems to swing too far to the other extreme with this team.
The biggest "Players Coach" in the league is probably Dan Campbell. Andy Reid, Mike Shanahan, Sean McVey, McD, and some others, are close seconds. BB wasn't the disciplinarian in NE. It was Brady and other vets. The best way to get players to play hard is for players to police their own. That's how you change culture. When a new player comes onto the team and is "dressed down" by a teammate that's 100x worse than a HC yelling at them. And that starts with the GM ensuring that he picks committed players. The HC is, of course, a part of the culture, but they aren't the biggest part. When it comes to players, a HC is there to teach and ensure learning. This isn't Pop Warner football. The PLAYERS are responsible for their teammates and their own actions and the GM is responsible for fining and cutting players who don't conform.
I complained about it ad nauseam last year when Hard Knocks showed players using practice time to choreograph TD celebrations. Everybody here thought it was funny and fine because the team was winning then. To me it was a perfect example of the kind of culture this team has and why it's a problem.
Campbell isn't afraid to get in their asses though. I agree, I think there is plenty of blame to go around, but I don't think the coach should depend on the GM to police the team. I do think it is largely on the coach to set the tone that he wants for the team.
I don't think the GM should police the team. I think the GM should hire the right people and fire the wrong ones.
Imagine Tua yelling at guys to get their heads out of their asses at Metlife while staying warm in a snuggie? Seriously who on this team has the balls to be a tough leader and get in another player's grill? I can't think of one.
I’ve lost respect for McDaniel since training camp and this just coincides with what I reported for 11 practices and 1 preseason game
You mean to tell me wearing "I wish it was colder" shirts and starting meetings at 25 minutes past the hour isn't enough to be competitive?
Apparently fining them does nothing. Wondering really how much sitting them would do? I mean if they don't care enough to make a meeting why would they care about sitting some in a game? Maybe missing out on bigger money with incentives?
Absolutely. But there has got to be some sort of enforcer then on the coaching staff though, someone who can hold them accountable. In general, I think culture's view on accountability is going to continue to present a problem, as far as hiding these players accountable.
This past year… Sieler, Campbell, Armstead, Chubb, Tyreek, Mostert… I agree that Tua needs to be more stoic. I’m all for guys having fun, but that’s only AFTER they’ve won the game or are blowing another team out. I wrote Tyreek because that’s what he should have done, but he’s a quitter. I want him gone.
The players are responsible for getting and staying in shape. The HC is about coaching, mentoring, and teaching. The problem isn’t the HC, it’s the lackadaisical attitudes and poor leadership of the vets. Tyreek was the highest paid player on the team. Campbell was the oldest vet. Armstead and Mostert are obviously tough and disciplined. Chubb, Ogbah… etc. These guys are supposed to be the Gunny Sgt’s. Now we see that Tyreek just quit. Probably quit after Tua went down in week 2. Campbell was the new guy on the team so I can understand his apprehension of getting into guys faces of the vets there before him that played lazy and carefree. I think the problem is the disciplined guys were outnumbered by the lazy. Grier needs to bring in guys with a different mindset. That’s how you change culture. We wonder why, after numerous HC’s and players, this team seems “soft”. It’s the players. Grier brings in talented, but weak minded people. They don’t want to work hard. They get by on talent… which in the NFL doesn’t cut it. 3pmi wrote a great post in Club. Look at who McD’s guys are vs Grier’s guys. If we had a team full of McD’s guys, it wouldn’t be “easy” here.
Not sure where this best belongs, so I'll just drop it in this thread. https://www.the-sun.com/sport/13232986/miami-dolphins-fans-demand-tua-tagovailoa-retire/amp/
Its not like Grier is bringing in guys like Tyreek without McDaniel being 100% on board. McDaniel has to at least share the blame and that is being generous to him. But to be fair to Tyreek if he wanted to quit when Tua was originally out he could have got surgery on wrist and called it a year.
Reading all of these posts… I do agree veterans need to be policing their own, especially is they’re wearing that captain patch on their jersey. However comma dramatical pause… The head coach has to be the be all end all authority on the team. As a platoon sergeant, my squad leaders knew what I expected of them and I held them accountable for their soldiers. That’s delegating authority and when I saw they were enforcing standards, I sat back and let them handle it however, if there were times they being lackadaisical about something, I lit EVERYONE up, pulled that subordinate sergeant aside and lit into his ***. “If I have to do your job, then I don’t need you” Same principle here. Nothing wrong with McDaniel letting those team captains handle problem children if you will but when they don’t, he needs to be that authority figure and drop the hammer. Fines for players making multimillion dollar per year contracts aren’t effective. What is effective is benching them for a quarter, half, game or an in house suspension. Action…Reaction
Doesn’t work this way in the NFL. A HC can only do so much. The HC is there to teach, mentor, game plan, and scheme. Could you imagine if a HC benched their star QB for breaking curfew, they lose the game, and that loss kept them from the playoffs? Lol… Again, doesn’t work that way. It starts with the GM bringing in disciplined and hardworking players. That attitude will permeate throughout the locker room. If a player doesn’t fit the culture they want, the GM handles that as a last resort. Otherwise, the players get him in line. Never once did my Skipper dress down one individual Marine. He also never doled out punishments…unless it involved legal crap. He told his subordinates what he wanted and relied on them to get it done. The Skipper is the HC and the platoon Sgt is the teammate. He’s just a respected teammate who isn’t afraid to tell other players to shape up. The best units I ever joined were filled with self motivated Marines and we policed ourselves. The same thing applies to NFL teams.“Ourselves” included the SNCO in charge of the platoon.
I echo Dan's statement above. You have to draft football players that want to be professional football players. It's why I'm such a big Calais Campbell fan. You have to really do your homework with the personnel you are picking. Draft guys that are notable hard workers. Grier keeps looking in the wrong areas. He's a huge part of the problem. As for McDaniel...Well, this isn't 1985 anymore. You can't scream at players, this isn't Hoosiers, these are athletes making millions of dollars. It just doesn't work that way anymore. Believe me, I'd love to bring back some of the grit and toughness from that era, but those days are long gone. McDaniel needs to hold players accountable, there needs to be communication, and boundaries do need to be set, but it's done completely differently these days. If guys are missing meetings, showing up late, hiring cookers, whatever....Then that...Is a personnel problem and guys like Hill are setting a bad example. I guess start with this dud of a GM we have and go from there. Maybe focus on drafting high character players that want the opportunity in the league. Sometimes a players habits/flaws are overlooked due to their talent level, so it's a tough situation all around. Glad I'm not a GM.
But McDaniel needs to at some point discipline the ones who aren't doing what he wants them to do. Like, great, I agree, veterans and especially captains should be policing the team. But what happens when they don't? At that point, HC can't just avoid that power void, he's gotta step in and be the alpha. Otherwise there is not going to be any respect. Respect will only be based on winning. When the offense is humming and they're beating garbage teams, they love Coach, he's the best...he gets them and knows how to handle this generation. They struggle and lose and hit adversity, no one cares what Coach says. Like at some point, if leadership is failing at other parts of the team, then the coach has got to step in. He's the freaking coach. He certainly can't simply sit around and change nothing.
A coach has got to be able to find things other than money to incentive players. But yeah, in general, I agree, it's hard to hold these guys accountable. I said that a few posts ago. As society has changed, and the game has become more and more about money, superstars rule. Like you said, it isn't Hoosiers.
I have feeling that Hill quit on the team really hit McDaniel hard. Seems like the Dolphins and McDaniel have done everything to coddle him and be his buddy.
This is exactly right. It does start with Grier in that he needs to draft/bring in high caliber guys. Someone in cline said it best, look at “Grier’s guys” and to be look at “McD’s guys”. Big difference in mental makeup. Grier’s guys may be more talented, but McD’s guys have higher standards and are more professional.
They aren’t captains anymore and potentially aren’t Miami Dolphins anymore. I say potentially because let’s be honest, MONEY is a huge factor. You can’t just cut and hire players willy-nilly without looking at the pay ramifications. Not only that, but winning matters to the HC and GM more than to the low character players. So they can’t just bench Tyreek hill for entire games when the playoffs are on the line. The HC would be fired.
https://www.patspulpit.com/2015/6/1...k-sending-patriots-players-home-from-practice I think benching players is way more effective than fines. Especially for those who are "too much of a competitor". It hurts the team short term but once precedent is set guys will fall in line.
Benching Malcolm Butler isn’t the same as benching Tyreek. The Pats had comparable players ready to step up. Also, BB did bench Brady when he missed/was late. Why? Because benching Brady would lose games. From your article: “When Tom Brady got in his scary fender bender in 2010, he was (reasonably) late for practice. He was not sent home upon his eventual arrival.”
So this brings us back to the Jimmy Johnson methodology of treating every player different. Me personally I would bench Hill if he was one of the players who was late/missing at practice. In fact if I was Stephen Ross I would give McDaniel my blessing so he's not afraid of doing what he needs to do. This was obviously a problem and needs fixing next season. I hear you that it's a player problem but at least a few of them are going to be here again next season. So they need to try a different approach or the same thing is going to continue.
