Back on March 11, 2024, things couldn’t have seemed worse for the Miami Dolphins Organization and its fan base.
To be blunt, everything around the franchise was bleak. Compounding matters, it wasn’t an unusual feeling.
True Dolfans know the sensation all too well. It was difficult to find a silver lining at the time.
Our finish to the season was a repetitive December sputter that saw the AFC East Division Crown slip through our fingers. Another long-awaited postseason run would have to wait one more year before it comes to fruition.
All that was left was a frigid frostbite, the aftertaste of another season that seemed destined to break out of the long-enduring torment of decades past.
Then things got worse.
Exponentially worse.
Miami lost two homegrown interior linemen who had just cashed out on the open market.
Christian Wilkins and Rob Hunt had moved on to Oakland and Carolina, respectively, and priced out of Miami’s Budget. Two home runs in the Draft that had developed and improved each and every year had just slipped through our fingers in the same fashion as the AFC East.
Pillars in the trenches on each side of the ball going from one day to the next. Losing players in Free Agency isn’t uncommon, but these hurt a little more. These would be huge holes to fill for a Team with Super Bowl aspirations.
Christian Wilkins was the anchor for everything the Miami Dolphins Organization aspired to be. He was undeniably talented, athletic, charismatic, engaging, humorous, and a leader. Everything the franchise was trying to achieve seemed wrapped up in #94. If we were going to snap our winless Playoff streak and more, it appeared that Christian would have been at the center of it. Without him, hope seemed difficult to find.
Fast forward four months later, and optimism is renewed.
Maybe it’s just the time of the year.
Maybe it’s just what we do as Dolfans.
Maybe it’s our time.
Training Camp is around the corner, and what looked like an impossible task at the onset of Free Agency to retool the roster with limited assets and Cap Space has turned out to be, perhaps, one of the better Roster from Top to Bottom in recent years.
A huge turnaround from where things seemed headed just a few months ago.
And despite plenty of question marks with multiple position groups, there seems to be enough if things break out the right way to accomplish everything we have been waiting for.
To finally recapture the AFC East Crown. Finally, put those repetitive December sputters to bed. To finally make our run.
From where we started to where we are, we can all agree we’ll take it.
