MIAMI — It’s the worst insult one can say about a football player, or a football team on any level of the sport.

In a sport where the goal is to overpower another man snap-after-snap, dominate him to the point you’ve extinguished his desire to fight, the worst thing someone — or some team — can be labeled is soft.

However, that’s the reputation Miami Dolphins have acquired during the Mike McDaniel era, and it’s a label that’s not going anywhere until the team sheds the finesse reputation that have throughout the league.

“I haven’t seen that,” new linebacker K.J. Britt said when asked about Miami’s lack of toughness. “And I don’t plan to see it.”

“I’m not sure what the outside criticism is for our team. We have a physical team at every position,” new tight end Pharaoh Brown said to the media Friday, clearly unaware of his new team’s lingering reputation, which was first brought to everyone’s attention last year when Jordan Poyer said his former team, the Buffalo Bills, viewed the Dolphins as a franchise that folded when they got punched in the mouth. “The way I’m seeing it on film we have some physical guys from the top down.”

The Dolphins did reinforce the trenches this offseason through free agency and the NFL draft, where the team selected four lineman who weigh more than 340 pounds.

Miami also added not one, but two physical tailbacks in Alexander Mattison and rookie Ollie Gordon II.

An identity change was why all but two of the receivers added to the team this offseason are 6-foot-2 or bigger.

And it’s why Miami signed Brown, an eight-year veteran, who has a reputation for being a mauling in-line blocker.

The goal was for McDaniel’s team to become tougher, and turn the volume up on the physicality the team plays with. Coincidentally enough, the past three days of practice has featured more physical periods, reinforcing the theory that teams improve on the things they work on.

However, Miami’s not going to become the Detroit Lions or Baltimore Ravens overnight. But the goal is clearly to alter the 2025 team’s identity.

“Last year teams primarily sat in cover two because they felt we weren’t a run first team,” Hill said, explaining why the Dolphins big play offense disappeared in 2024, pointing out that defenses had safeties roaming deep to eliminate the deep pass. “Sometimes they put five [defenders] in the box, six in the box. You should be able to run on those light boxes.”

The Dolphins couldn’t, and the run game struggles were so bad — especially in the second half of the season — Miami’s coaches admitted to calling shorter passing plays as run-game substitutions.

This team, this offense, these coaches can’t, and won’t survive 2025 if the run game continues to average 4.0 yards a carry, which was far below the NFL average last season.

During Friday’s practice Miami worked on short-yardage conversion plays, which happens to be something the Dolphins have struggled with the past three seasons, and all three offensive units converted their third-and-2 situation.

It was progress.

“Everybody was moving the ball. The O-line was getting some push,” Gordon II said. “You couldn’t tell that we just started playing together.”

It was clearly a step in the right direction. But a cultural shaft has to be proven on the field.

Miami will have an opportunity to give this makeover a test drive next week when they travel to Chicago for a joint practice, and exhibition game with the Chicago Bears, and the following week when the Dolphins do the same with the Lions.

I vividly remember Lions coach Dan Campbell’s first practice as interim coach of the Dolphins back in 2015, when he replaced Joe Philbin. The former player-turned-coach’s first drill he ran at practice was the Oklahoma drill, known for its intense head-to-head collisions.

The drill is designed to simulate a short-yardage situation and assess player toughness and blocking/tackling technique. It involved offensive and defensive players lining up in a narrow space and colliding with one another to see who imposes their will through force.

Campbell was setting the tone for who he was going to be as a head coach, and his Lions have lived up to that tough-guy reputation.

Now it’ll be interesting to see if McDaniel’s team can shed the finesse reputation they possess?

“Don’t talk about toughness. That’s not something you talk about,” Hall of Fame linebacker Zach Thomas told WQAM earlier this summer. “You have to just show it consistently with your actions.”

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