Mike McDaniel is a giant believer in group chemistry, camaraderie, relationship-building, all that sort 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 group 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 concept of the brand new position-less locker room.
“This is my seventh year,” he mentioned. “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 a giant believer in group chemistry successful video games. I feel it’s overrated, overstated and overhyped. Talent and training win video games, in that order, adopted by well being and luck, and that’s concerning the extent of it. Everything else is voodoo. It’s faux.
At this time of 12 months each group is shut, lots 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 stay in fantasyland if you happen to suppose the group 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 imagine strongly in group chemistry serving to on the sphere.
“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 working again Raheem Mostert mentioned.
McDaniel believes in group 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 mentioned.
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 typically 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 … Christian’s crazy a— down there on the end,” Howard mentioned with a hearty snigger, referring to vigorous defensive deal with Christian Wilkins.
It’s all a part of how McDaniel thinks a group ought to function on and off the sphere. The locker room is Exhibit A.
“You should be sitting next to someone you’re not sitting by all day,” he mentioned.
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 a very good bonding thought 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 mentioned 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 mentioned. “It’s like a little meet-and-greet, and we talk and hang out.”
Linebacker Sam Eguavoen recollects the group going to a {golfing} and gaming facility as a shock outing in 2019 and 2020. Coaches had canceled a scheduled walkthrough observe and the group went to Top Golf as an alternative, a pleasing shock to the gamers.
Thursday’s outing was completely different, Eguavoen mentioned forward of the key tour. It was scheduled and outdoor.
“This time we’re actually going somewhere outside, with our own transportation,” he mentioned. “Everybody’s Ubering up. It’s not like we’re all going out to love a membership or something, nevertheless 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 doubtless by no means know whether or not the camaraderie and team-building McDaniel is implementing makes a distinction. In basic, if a group makes the playoffs, it’ll say camaraderie and bonding have been components, 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 that gamers like what McDaniel is doing for them with Thursday’s group outing and the rearranged locker room. And they suppose it’ll assistance on the sphere.
“You pull for that guy hard,” Mostert mentioned 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