After the Dolphins hired head coach Jeff Hafley and General Manager Jon-Erik Sullivan, it quickly became clear that the two men were charting a new course for the organization.
They have salary cap space taken up by a number of veterans who were traded or released during the offseason and the replacements on the roster all skew much younger. The Dolphins had the youngest initial 53-man roster in the league, which fits with Hafley’s stated priorities for his first year in Miami.
Hafley said his goal is to build “something real powerful moving forward” and that the team’s ability to do that will matter more than their won-loss record. Hafley returned to the theme of development during a Tuesday press conference when asked about having such a young roster.
“My expectation as we started this thing, I would say that I figured we would be young,” Hafley said, via a transcript from the team. “Whether or not how young, I really didn’t get into, but yeah, we knew we’d be a young team. And that’s all along, we’ve talked about developing and I’ve talked about the process and I’ve talked about the foundation and I’ve talked about the culture. Usually you start those things and you’re pretty young. I mean, you can look at that and say, ‘oh, we’re so young.’ I look at that and I’m excited about that. We are excited to develop that. We’re excited for the hunger that they have. You mix in some good vets in the pieces that I’ve said all along that we already have here, and I’m excited to get the process started. And again, that’s with the intent to win games, right? I think everybody has misconstrued that with the end result, winning, but it’s going to be fun to get these guys going.”
A full evaluation of the job Hafley and Sullivan did in setting the kind of foundation needed for future success won’t come until the end of the season, but the ride will be an easier one if there are some early signs that the Dolphins are on the right path.