Mike McDaniel is an enormous believer in staff chemistry, camaraderie, relationship-building, all that form of intangible, summary stuff. McDaniel, the 39-year-old Miami Dolphins rookie head coach, strongly believes these issues assist win video games. That perception is the explanation the Dolphins had a staff outing Thursday night time, and it’s the explanation Miami’s locker room has a nontraditional setup this season.
All-Pro cornerback Xavien Howard likes the thought of the brand new position-less locker room.
“This is my seventh year,” he stated. “I’ve never seen the team camaraderie tight like how it’s supposed to be because we’re all separated. DBs [defensive backs] go out and do their thing, D-line [defensive line] will go out, quarterbacks do their thing, and it’s different stuff like that.”
I’ve by no means been an enormous believer in staff chemistry profitable video games. I believe it’s overrated, overstated, and overhyped. Talent and training win video games, in that order, adopted by well being and luck, and that’s in regards to the extent of it. Everything else is voodoo. It’s faux.
At this time of 12 months each staff is shut, rather a lot nearer than they have been the earlier 12 months after they had cliques. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. You’ll hear the identical factor at the moment subsequent 12 months.
You reside in fantasyland for those who suppose the staff chemistry helped the Los Angeles Rams win the Super Bowl final 12 months, or helped Tampa Bay the 12 months earlier than, or helped Green Bay within the first Super Bowl.
But McDaniel and the Miami gamers consider strongly in staff chemistry serving to on the sector.
“It’s very important that you get in a locker room where you get to sit next to a brother you’re going to be battling with out there,” veteran operating again Raheem Mostert stated.
McDaniel believes in staff chemistry so strongly that one of many first issues he did after being named the Dolphins’ head coach was change up the locker room.
“It was kind of the first action that I could take to facilitate a better team camaraderie…because you spend a lot of time there,” he stated.
Now, for instance, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is flanked on his proper by security Brandon Jones and on his left by large receiver Jaylen Waddle.
Wide receiver Tyreek Hill has tight finish Mike Gesicki as a neighbor on his proper and an empty locker to his left, a privilege generally afforded star gamers. Asked whether or not he’d talked a lot to Gesicki beforehand, Hill replied, “I talk to everybody.”
Howard is on a four-person row with a wall to his left after which rookie quarterback Skylar Thompson to his proper, then proper deal with Austin Jackson, and…
“Then I got [expletive] Christian’s crazy ass down there on the end,” Howard stated with a hearty chortle, referring to vigorous defensive deal with Christian Wilkins.
It’s all a part of how McDaniel thinks a staff ought to function on and off the sector. The locker room is Exhibit A.
“You should be sitting next to someone you’re not sitting by all day,” he stated.
This isn’t the primary time the Dolphins have shaken up the locker-room seating.
Old-time Dolphins followers may recall the 2010 season, the 12 months somebody thought it was an excellent bonding concept to have large receiver Brandon Marshall seated subsequent to quarterback Chad Henne within the locker room. You can think about how that went.
But McDaniel stated the locker-room setup has “paid dividends,” and gamers agree.
“Also with the event we’re having tonight [Thursday], with the team coming together, that’s a great thing,” Howard stated. “It’s like a little meet-and-greet, and we talk and hang out.”
Linebacker Sam Eguavoen recollects the staff going to Top Golf, {the golfing} and gaming facility, as a shock outing in 2019 and 2020. Coaches canceled a scheduled walkthrough apply and the staff went to Top Golf as an alternative, a nice shock to the gamers.
Thursday’s outing is completely different, Eguavoen stated. It’s scheduled, and it’s outdoor.
“This time we’re actually going somewhere outside, with our own transportation,” he stated. “Everybody’s Ubering up. It’s not like we’re all going out to love a membership or something, however it’s like we’re all assembly up outdoors of labor.
“I’m going to look at Mike [McDaniel] like he’s a guy at a bar. It’s just a time for all of us to just let loose, we’re out of the building, be yourself, get to know one another better.”
We’ll seemingly by no means know whether or not the camaraderie and team-building McDaniel is implementing makes a distinction. In basic, if a staff makes the playoffs, it’ll say camaraderie and bonding have been elements, and in the event that they don’t make the playoffs the failed team-building workouts are by no means talked about.
The key at this level, nevertheless, is gamers like what McDaniel is doing for them with Thursday’s staff outing and the rearranged locker room. And they suppose it’ll assistance on the sector.
“You pull for that guy hard,” Mostert stated of your locker-room neighbor. “You want the best for him, you want the best for his family, and everything he stands by. I’m just trying to do my duty making sure that happens as best as I can.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com