The Miami Dolphins’ embarrassing loss in Week 1 could have much wider implications, with reports claiming that multiple Dolphins players want out amid the team’s obvious tanking this season and are asking the team for a trade.
The Dolphins were dismantled by the Baltimore Ravens, losing 59-10 in a game the was all but over by the end of the first quarter. As CBS Sports noted, many experts had already pegged the Dolphins as the worst team in the NFL coming into the season, but the loss was much worse than they had expected. The blowout was so bad that multiple Dolphins players have asked the team to be traded, the report noted.
As Pro Football Talk noted, a number of Dolphins players don’t want to stick around for the team’s rebuilding, which includes tanking this season as the team builds for the future.
“Per a league source with knowledge of the situation, multiple Dolphins players contacted their agents after Sunday’s season-opening blowout loss and directed them to attempt to engineer trades elsewhere,” the report noted.
“The players believe that the coaching staff, despite claiming that they intend to try to win, aren’t serious about competing and winning and by all appearances have bought into the notion that the Dolphins will take their lumps now in the hopes of laying the foundation via high draft picks for building a successful team later.”
A 59-10 loss has consequences — including multiple players from the losing team wanting to flee what they perceive to be a deliberately sinking ship https://t.co/kpqcxuyFEU
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) September 8, 2019
There were already signs that Dolphins players were not happy with the direction of the season, even before the team kicked off in Week 1. Last week, Miami Herald reporter Adam Beasley said that players were unhappy with the rumors that the team was looking to trade tackle Laremy Tunsil, one of the most promising and well-liked players in the locker room. Beasley suggested that the team would “revolt” if Tunsil were traded, but the Dolphins did exactly that, sending him and Kenny Stills to the Houston Texans for two first-round picks and a second rounder.
While the trade may help the Dolphins long-term plans to build a contender, it was a sign to many that the team was giving up on this season before it even started. Sunday’s blowout loss to the Ravens apparently drove that point home for many players on the Dolphins.
A report from Thursday by Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald: Dolphins players “would revolt” if the team trades Tunsil. pic.twitter.com/4JWJaap7oa
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) August 31, 2019
Despite the report from Pro Football Talk , Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported on Twitter that the Dolphins say no players have asked them for a trade.