MIAMI GARDENS — The Dolphins locker room is OK — for now. I’ve been asked about the attitude in the locker room by several people recently.

This has been a businesslike locker room at both the facility and postgame on the road. At the facility, there’s no Pop-A-Shot style basketball game, such as in recent years. There’s no ping-pong table and no card table, such as in recent years. It doesn’t have any of those corny/motivational sayings on the walls. It appears to be a place of accomplishment and achievement rather than an entertainment hub. It’s a noticeable difference.

From the row of lockers that includes quarterback Malik Willis, linebacker Jordyn Brooks and edge rusher Chop Robinson to the row that includes rookie wide receiver Chris Bell, rookie left guard Kadyn Proctor and rookie tight end Will Kacmarek and everywhere in between, players are enthusiastic despite having an 0-2 record and, by most outside accounts, a bleak future.

On the road, yes, the Dolphins lost at Las Vegas and San Francisco, but the postgame locker rooms have been professional. Players have been disappointed, but upbeat.

And no one is sulking ahead of Sunday’s matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs.

“I feel like we’re optimistic,” left tackle and team captain Patrick Paul said, “but I mean, no one likes losing. I think that’s the best way to put it.”

By the way, this isn’t a Pollyanna, butt-kissing column. You know I’m averse to those. And you know I’m not a Dolphins fan. I’m one who calls it as I see it from the start, such as picking the 2022 Dolphins to finish 8-9 (they finished 9-8), questioning Mike McDaniel’s coaching chops beginning in December 2022, and asking in October 2023 whether the Dolphins offense was overrated.

This season, the Dolphins’ locker room isn’t a collection of crushed spirits, as many have suspected. Besides, it’s been my experience that teams rarely quit. It happens, definitely. But players usually stay focused on the task ahead regardless of the team’s record, and I think this team will follow that path.

Fans are shocked at how badly the rebuilding Dolphins have looked in their first two games. Players seem to be working their way through the situation. The locker room has been no-nonsense from that standpoint.

Perhaps these Dolphins, who opened the season with an NFL-high 13 rookies on the 53-man roster, are too young to know that they’re off to a discouraging start.

So, no, this Dolphins locker room isn’t anywhere near some of the worst/most dejected locker rooms I’ve been in, and I don’t think it’ll approach that level at any point this season.

The worst?

It was February 2008, in the Miami Heat locker room shortly before the All-Star break. Multi-talented All-Star forward Shawn Marion had just been traded from upbeat Phoenix (34-14) to beleaguered Miami (9-37) in a deal for disgruntled center Shaquille O’Neal.

Marion, after being with the team for a few days, surveyed the locker room and asked, “Why is everybody so down around here?”

I replied, “You’ll see.”

He did. The Heat finished a miserable 15-67 that season, a year in which hope was sometimes hard to find among veterans.

Dolphins veterans such as defensive tackle Zach Sieler, who is in his 10th season, are keeping a positive attitude.

“Thankfully, with football, lose by five, lose by one, lose by whatever, like we did (against San Francisco), it doesn’t matter,” he said. “It’s just one loss, it doesn’t carry extra weight. So we go out there and take it to them next week and go get this win.”

Sieler knows what he’s talking about.

The Dolphins have bounced back from the doldrums a few times recently.

The 2019 Dolphins started 0-7, including one of the worst three-game starts in NFL history when they were outscored, 133-16, and then won five of the last nine games to finish the season 5-11.

In 2022, the Dolphins were mired in a five-game losing streak late in the season and somehow found a way to scratch out an ugly victory against the New York Jets, 11-6, in the finale to earn a wildcard playoff berth.

On that vibe, I’ll tell you that I’ve never seen a more heartbroken regular-season locker room than the Dolphins in 2024 when they lost at Buffalo, 30-27, on that 61-yard field goal by Bills kicker Tyler Bass with five seconds remaining. The loss dropped Miami to 2-6 and 1-6 against the Bills over a three-year stretch. Players were stunned and silent.

But even with that loss, the 2024 Dolphins team dusted itself off and finished the season by winning six of its last nine games. Players told me that a series of players-only meetings helped. I’m not suggesting these Dolphins need players-only meetings. I’m suggesting a positive attitude can help turn things around even when they appear incredibly bleak, and at this early point of the rebuild there’s still a positive attitude in this locker room.

“We have 15 more games to go,” third-year wide receiver Malik Washington said, “so I think the whole locker room as a collective is like, ‘Let’s just keep going, let’s keep pushing forward, let’s learn from our mistakes, let’s see what we put on tape on Sundays and let’s grow from it.’ ”

We’ll do another attitude check five or six weeks from now.