{"id":322699,"date":"2025-08-27T21:48:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T21:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/322699\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T21:48:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T21:48:10","slug":"dolphins-grier-on-culture-change-waller-and-crude-emails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/322699\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins’ Grier on culture change, Waller and crude emails"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI GARDENS \u2014 Miami Dolphins general manager Chris Grier<\/a> spoke to the media for about 30 minutes Wednesday. Here are three of the most interesting things he said:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a different mindset led by Mike \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Grier<\/a> was asked about changes, both in culture and the locker room. He began by saying, \u201cIt\u2019s a different mindset led by (coach) Mike (McDaniel) that we talked about right from that last team meeting at the end of last season when he told them what it was going to be, and it\u2019s been that way and the players have responded incredibly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grier was later asked whether he consults players such as quarterback Tua Tagovailoa about their vision of the locker room.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t really talk to players about what we want the locker room to look like,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen Mike and I talk, this is what it\u2019s going to be. Obviously when that\u2019s laid out, we talk to the leaders of the team and say \u2018This is how it\u2019s going to be\u2019 and we do take input from them, but at the end of day it falls on Mike and I for the locker room and how things are handled in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

And finally, Grier mentioned the Stanley Cup, Florida Panthers general manager Bill Zito and forward Matthew Tkachuk.<\/p>\n

\u201cBill Zito brought the Stanley Cup over,\u201d Grier began, \u201cBill is a friend of mine for a while, he actually tried to sign my brother when he was a player, when he was an agent to sign my brother. Bill and Matthew Tkachuk came over and talked about how the uniqueness and closeness of a locker room is so important.\u201d<\/p>\n

My interpretation: Grier and McDaniel seem to be setting a different path for their team in 2025.<\/p>\n

Waller doesn\u2019t have an injury<\/p>\n

Grier was asked whether tight end Darren Waller, who retired last year and was acquired via trade from the New York Giants on July 7, but still hasn\u2019t gone through a full practice, is battling an injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Grier said. \u201cRight now you\u2019ve seen him out there working and running. I think when someone has taken that much time off from football, we\u2019ve been around it where they come back faster and try to do it all and then they get hurt and get worse and it ends up being a whole mess throughout the season. We\u2019ve dealt with that before in the past so we\u2019re kind of being cautious and smart on it so you\u2019ll see him out there, as you guys have seen him each day doing more and more. That\u2019s being smart because we want him available for 17 games rather than come out here and prove something in preseason and then he pulls (something) or gets hurt and then he\u2019s out for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

My interpretation: Grier doesn\u2019t want Waller turning into wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who was signed in May 2024 and not activated until October. He then was released in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an a\u2013hole\u201d<\/p>\n

Grier, who in April revealed a fan mailed him a T-shirt that read, \u201cDon\u2019t f\u2014 this up\u201d<\/a> that he hung on a wall in his office, was asked about his interactions with fans recently. He gave a sobering answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really haven\u2019t had many interactions with fans,\u201d he began. \u201cNo. When I see guys they are like \u2018Hey\u2019 or if I\u2019m out people have always been respectful and nice. They just say \u2018Hey, keep going, appreciate you\u2019. To my face they\u2019ve been nice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI know there are people that are upset, but that\u2019s any job. If I was comfortable and said I felt great about where things are, then I\u2019m an a\u2013hole because I\u2019m not being realistic about where we are as a team and where things are going after last season. So I\u2019m frustrated like they are that we didn\u2019t win enough games last year. I understand it. Like I said, I don\u2019t take things personally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m out people have been generally very positive and stuff to me, but I know there are guys \u2014 I\u2019ve gotten some colorful emails from a couple of people including hoping my kids die of cancer which was a fun one. I was like, there you go, so that\u2019s why I don\u2019t take things personal or real because other people have other issues and stuff in life.\u201c<\/p>\n

My interpretation: Grier is a decent man and this is just a game. No general manager deserves those types of emails.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: August 27, 2025 at 5:10 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI GARDENS \u2014 Miami Dolphins general manager Chris Grier spoke to the media for about 30 minutes Wednesday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[4835,217,7,216,251,2087,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-322699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-chris-grier","9":"tag-dolphins","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-dolphins","13":"tag-miamidolphins","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115102934945618093","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}