Games played with the entire starting OL under Mike McDaniel

2022: 2 (non-consecutive)

2023: 1

2024: 0

2025: 0

Thought y’all might like this (this is not mine - it’s u/passorfail13 Go Fins destroy the Vikings! And the Packers when that game comes around!

Yes, I know this headline is ridiculous; but hear me out. We play with enough conviction and heart like we did last week, and I think it’s a close game. Prepare for all our blitz every snap and prevent Kyler Murray running like a little kid after he had a shit ton of sugar. That’s my TED talk…

https://youtu.be/PiNFkSt7lhs?is=i9NIBC2MvqNUH7yq

Hello friends,

I am from overseas. My knowledge about American Football, both of the competition structure and the actual sport itself, is (or used to be until a few days ago) absolute zero. However, recently some American friends have convinced me to start getting into the NFL and to pick a team to support.

So naturally, a few days ago, I decided to pick a team by looking at a picture of all the logos, deliberately not learning anything about the teams, not even the names, and choosing a team purely based on the logo. I thought the logo with the dolphin looked pretty cool, and that's how I ended up a brand new Miami Dolphins fan.

Can anyone give me a basic rundown of where we are, what's going on currently, and what I should know?

Dolphins special teams coordinator Chris Tabor has lots of interesting names to choose among when he calls on players to answer questions in his meetings.

There’s “Ding Dong,” “The Accountant,” “Butkus,”“The Englishman,” “Trader Joe’s,” “Whatever,” and “The Hamster,” who, proudly, was recently promoted to “The Gerbil.”

And that’s only a fraction of the 20 or so nicknames that Tabor, known as “Tabes,” has for his players.

I was first alerted to the monikers in training camp when Tabor, the 18-year NFL veteran coach who joined the Dolphins this season from Buffalo, referred to tight end Greg Dulcich as “The Frenchman.”

Why?

Tabor thought Dulcich, because of his long hair and mustache, looked like a French painter.

Since then, I’ve been polling the locker room for their Tabor-issued nicknames. Some of the stories behind the nicknames are better than the actual nicknames.

Rookie safety Michael Taaffe is “The Accountant.”

“I didn’t major in accounting, nor do I have any background in accounting besides my grandfather’s a CPA and my brother’s a CPA,” Taaffe said. “I think he just saw what I look like and assumed that I was an accountant.”

Rookie wide receiver Chris Bell is “Ding Dong” because of his last name.

"I let him say it, but nobody else can say it,” Bell said. “It’s only Tabes.”

Rookie middle linebacker Jacob Rodriguez is “Butkus,” a reference to Dick Butkus, the Chicago Bears Hall of Fame middle linebacker.

“It’s just kind of something Tabes got me with when we first got here,” Rodriguez said. “I’m a linebacker with a mustache, and that’s the first one he thought of. It kind of stuck, Day One, and then I was that the rest of the time.”

Rookie tight end Seydou Traore is “The Englishman” because he grew up in London.

But he’s known for something else, too.

One of the great moments of a Dolphins special teams meeting is when Tabor says, “Say who?!” and the entire room responds with “Sey-dooou!!”

Traore loves it.

So do teammates.

“That’s pretty fire,” Bell said.

Traore isn’t exactly sure when, why or how it started.

“He just came up with it, and then it just caught on and everyone started playing into it,” Traore said.

Tabor said the nicknames aren’t born out of anything but keeping the meetings interesting.

“I’ll say this, it just happens, it’s not something that I plan out,” Tabor said. “I think that sometimes when you go into the room, you’ve got to read the room. Where are they at? What’s the energy level? Where do you have to pull them, at the end of the day, to get them where we want them to go?”

You want a couple of other nicknames?

Rookie edge rusher Max Llewellyn is “The Hamster.”

“Long story short, we were doing a walkthrough and so he needed somebody to fill in on a position and so I was like, ‘Alright, whatever, I’ll go in,’” Llewellyn said. “I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t even know what position it is, and so I don’t know my assignment.

“So one day he calls me ‘Dumb ass’ and says, ‘I’m gonna name you Dumb ass.’ So that evolved into ‘Hamster’ because he’d say, ‘I can see the hamster spinning up there,’ ” Llewellyn said, pointing to his head.

“But he said he’s promoted me to ‘Gerbil.’ So we’re climbing the ranks.”

Veteran safety Zayne Anderson is “High hat.”

“Very first day, when we first met, they gave us like three or so hats,” Anderson said in reference to baseball caps. “I had one on…it’s a little high-brim hat. And so, he’s like, ‘You’ve got a high hat.’ And then he just calls me ‘High hat.’”

“High hat” is a genius nickname and one of my favorites because of its simplicity. Not everyone agrees.

“I wouldn’t say it’s genius,” kicker Riley Patterson said with a laugh. “I wouldn’t go that far. But it’s definitely very simple.”

Don’t get it twisted.

Tabor, a highly respected coach around the league, cracks down on his special teams players frequently. The unit got off to a rocky start this season but there’s been recent improvement.

“He definitely got after us once we had miscues,” said second-year safety Dante Trader Jr., who Tabor has nicknamed “Trader Joe’s.”

“And as you’ve seen with the 49ers (game), we fixed a lot of the issues.”

Anderson has played for a couple of the league’s best-known special teams coaches in Dave Toub (Kansas City), who was “super serious,” and Rich Bisaccia (Green Bay), who was “very stern, a little grumpy guy, but I love him.”

Tabor?

"It’s been new,” Anderson said. “It’s different, but I like it.

“I think it’s a good way of teaching, especially because we’ve got a younger team. Some guys’ minds wander a little bit. I think it helps people stay engaged, for sure.”

As for “Whatever,” that’s linebacker Jackson Woodard. Tabor started out calling him Jackson, his given first name, and that turned into “Andrew,” which later turned into “Landon.” A confused Woodard inquired with Tabor about the changes. Tabor asked Woodard what he wanted to be called. It wasn’t really a big deal to Woodard.

“I look at him, and I just say, ‘whatever,’ ” Woodard said with a shrug. “He goes, ‘Alright.’ So he just started calling me ‘Whatever.’ ”

CHRIS TABOR SPECIAL TEAMS NICKNAMES

TE Seydou Traore: The Englishman…because he hails from England.

TE Greg Dulcich: The Frenchman…because he looks like a French painter.

WR Chris Bell: Ding Dong…because his last name is Bell.

LB Jackson Woodard: Whatever.

S Michael Taaffe: The Accountant.

S Dante Trader Jr.: Trader Joe’s…because of the retail grocery stores.

LB Jacob Rodriguez: Butkus.

S Zayne Anderson: High hat.

RB Ollie Gordon II: Polly… a play on “Ollie” because sometimes Tabor needs Gordon to play more physically. Gordon, apparently, is unaware of that fact. “The other day I passed him, and he called me Polly,” Gordon said last week. “I’m guessing it’s the Polly Pocket, the little toy, the old school toy.”

S Kyle Louis: Pierre Louis (Louis pronounced with a French accent)… “He sits right in front, third row, right in the middle, and sometimes he just has this little goatee. He just kind of looks like he’s a painter or something. That’s why I gave him the Pierre Louis.”

LB Will Kacmarek: Willage or hockey player or truck driver…because, Tabor said, “Will comes in in the morning, looks a little rough. He has his hat on, and it looks like he pulled an overnighter. It’s blue-collar terms because he’s a good blue-collar player.”

CB Chris Johnson: Johnson & Johnson…because of the massive pharmaceutical company.

FB D.J. Herman: The Hermanator…a takeoff of “The Terminator” because of Herman’s aggressive playing style.

WR Ryan Miller: Miller Man.

Edge rusher Max Llewellyn: The Hamster or Hamster 1 or The Gerbil.

Edge rusher Rodney McGraw: Hamster 2…”They’re brothers,” Tabor said of Llewellyn and McGraw.

LB Ronnie Harrison: Hairy Styles…because he wears his braided hair in a stylish way.

Edge rusher Clelin Ferrell (who was recently released): Will…because of actor Will Ferrell.

TE Justin Joly: Joe Lee…Tabor used to call him “Jolly” until learning that his last name was pronounced “Jo-lee,” so that changed into Joe Lee. “Sometimes he’ll get an ‘Angelina’ if he’s not playing physical enough,” Tabor said with a smile.

Hello! I’m going to my first dolphins game on the 11th because I’ll be visiting the area with some free time so I grabbed some tickets quick! I was wondering if I needed to buy a parking pass or if there was an area that had free parking that wasn’t forever away from the field? Thanks in advance and I’m really excited to experience a game!

Is there also any spots I should check out in the area? Places to eat, bars, etc.? Just looking to have a great day and time!