The Dolphins have torn apart their roster in an effort to build a team. One important holdover could be the key to changing the culture.<\/p>\n
Linebacker Jordyn Brooks.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s the player who had no qualms about calling the team \u201csoft<\/a>\u201d after a 2024 Thanksgiving night embarrassment at Lambeau Field. He was even more candid about the past, present, and future in a recent conversation<\/a> with Tyler Dunne of GoLongTD.com.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the team is playing soft, we\u2019re playing soft,\u201d Brooks told Dunne. \u201cWe\u2019re not playing the way that we should be playing. Let\u2019s call it what it is. We\u2019re getting killed out here in the cold. We\u2019re fitting right into the narrative. As a leader, that\u2019s what you\u2019re supposed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n The issue with the Dolphins of recent years was a lack of true leadership from their supposed leaders.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think you can be a leader because somebody says you are one,\u201d Brooks told Dunne. \u201cIt\u2019s a natural instinct \u2014 and people go about it in different ways \u2014 but it\u2019s a natural instinct to get something done: No, we\u2019ve got to get it done. . . .<\/p>\n \u201cIt came to a point where I realized, \u2018OK, some of these guys aren\u2019t serious about this, and we are suffering behind it. I can\u2019t just sit here and just let it go by. Showing up late to meetings. Not buying into what we\u2019re trying to do. We play football. If enough guys are not all the way locked in, we\u2019re going to suffer. Basketball team, 15 guys, it\u2019s a lot easier to get everybody to buy in. Whoever isn\u2019t bought in is going to stick out like a sore thumb. But it\u2019s easier to hide when it\u2019s 50, 60 guys.\u201d<\/p>\n The team\u2019s struggles in the cold weren\u2019t the disease. They were the symptom. Miami\u2019s Super Bowl-winning teams of 50-plus years ago won wherever, whenever. In whatever conditions they faced.<\/p>\n During our offseason interviews with new coach Jeff Hafley and new G.M. Jon-Eric Sullivan, that message was unmistakable. It\u2019s not about finding players who can play in the cold. It\u2019s about finding players who can play under all types of weather. Under any type of circumstances. <\/p>\n That\u2019s the culture they\u2019re trying to instill. And Brooks was, by all appearances, the outlier in recent years. Now, he could be the lightning rod.<\/p>\n \u201cMy true value is to be a leader of men,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a bunch of rookies. I\u2019ve got a lot of knowledge that I can give them through my own experience that can help them be more successful. That\u2019s my true value. . . . I went through all those lows for these moments.\u201d<\/p>\n