The Miami Dolphins are a complete mess to start the season, sitting at 0-2 against teams they should be beating. After a 33-8 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Week 1, the team held a players-only meeting to try to right the ship. But it didn’t seem to help much, as they fell again in Week 2, 33-27 to the New England Patriots.
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The second-week loss following the meeting has raised a question among NFL fans: Do players-only meetings actually work? Well, former Super Bowl champion Jason Kelce doesn’t seem to think so.
Kelce tried to make sense of the report recently, sharing that a players-only meeting is rarely a good thing.
“I’ve had a few of them [player-only meetings]. You’re in a really bad state once you get to players’ meetings. It’s not a good place to be, usually,” Kelce said on New Heights.
This makes sense, as the meeting could signal that the Dolphins are in a state of disrepair. That’s why the former lineman also noted it’s usually a sign that a coach has lost control of the team.
“A lot of the time, when you get to this point, it’s because you don’t know how to fix the issue. It’s a last resort, like, ‘Hey, we don’t have an answer from a playcalling standpoint or an actual legitimate reason to improve our play on the field. So, we’re going to have a players-only meeting to motivate the guys and make a difference.’ And sometimes it does, I’m not trying to say that they don’t work at all,” Kelce shared.
Most of the time, though, Jason sees players-only meetings as a last-ditch effort. If that’s the case, Mike McDaniel could soon be on his way out of Miami. Which would be a shame, given that the Dolphins had such a hot start in his first two seasons as head man. But the cracks are beginning to split even further on the team.
Later on, Kelce made a strong point, noting that if anyone truly knew the solution to the Dolphins’ problems, they would address it directly and resolve it.
“If you knew what was causing the issue, you’d just go up to the coach, or the player, or the guy in particular,” Kelce pointed out.
At the end of the day, Kelce believes that players-only meetings, like the ones the Dolphins held, are just for show.
“A lot of the time, this is what I truly feel, it’s players just trying to make a show of like, ‘Time to have that players-only meeting. We gotta take accountability.’ It’s like, how about just say this in front of a team meeting in front of everybody?”
Jason went on to say that he never understood why players felt like they couldn’t speak up around coaches. From his perspective, he always cut right to the chase and said what he felt would make the team better. If that hurt the coach’s feelings, so be it. But he wasn’t going to hold back just because a coach was in the room or not.
All in all, it’s a strong commentary on the Dolphins. They’re a team facing a bleak outlook after their 0-2 start. Most of the time, fans hear about players-only meetings and assume it’s a sign of improvement. Well, Jason is here to tell you that’s far from the truth.
