MIAMI GARDENS — Dolphins rookie safety/linebacker Kyle Louis, like many of his young teammates, favors the NCAA’s newly-adopted “5 for 5” college sports rule that now grants athletes a fifth year of eligibility and five years to complete that eligibility. With college football starting this weekend, I was interested in getting their thoughts on the topic.
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It was during these locker room conversations that I learned something about Louis and the others. These young Dolphins are super confident and hyper competitive, traits general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and coach Jeff Hafley seem to covet. I’m not sure they can shut it off.
This no-BS attitude surfaced organically when I asked the youngsters about the controversial offshoot of “5 for 5” granted by courts, not colleges, that allows players who were cut from NFL training camps to return to college football this season, possibly this weekend. Some critics of the ruling say it’s unfair to college players who were preparing to be starters for weeks or longer. All of a sudden their starting job is gone because someone deemed not good enough for the NFL has returned to college.
The Dolphins’ youngsters basically say to those college players, “You get no pity from me. Compete for your starting job!”
Their conviction is eye-opening.
Louis said he wouldn’t care if a fifth-year player returned to college. He said his mentality wouldn’t allow him to lose a starting job to anybody.
“That’s competition,” Louis said. “If coach brings somebody in at the last minute to start me over, then he ain’t never believed in me.
“So, nah, I already got the mentality. He ain’t about to come in and just start over me like that.”
Defensive tackle Jordan Phillips, a 2025 fifth-round pick out of Maryland, was just as extreme as Louis.
“Every day that you compete, you’re not competing with just the guys on your team, you’re competing with the whole world,” Phillips said. “So, at the end of the day, life ain’t fair, right?”
Safety Michael Taaffe, the rookie fifth-round pick who was originally a walk-on at Texas, was even more dug in.
“They brought three transfers back-to-back-to-back years to try to replace me,” Taaffe said. “And every single year I just took it in. That’s fine. I’m going to go beat them out. And it might’ve took six games. It might’ve took the next spring, but eventually I was the one that was, at the end of the day, the starter.
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“So, is it unfair to the guys? I don’t think so.”
The unremitting confidence and almost arrogant defiance the Dolphins’ youngsters displayed was insightful. And consistent.
Cornerback Chris Johnson, the No. 27 pick of the draft out of San Diego State, called players returning to college an “interesting situation” and said he understands both sides of the issue.
“I’ve got a couple of buddies that they tried out for a camp or whatever, don’t end up making it,” he began. “It’s like, ‘Well, I’m still trying to play ball, so why not go back?’
“So, I do kind of see it from both sides because then a freshman just got on campus and now he’s got to compete with a, quote, unquote, NFL player.”
But Johnson was also pretty hardcore.
“I definitely say it’s unfair,” he said of a fifth-year player taking a starting job this season. “But at the same time, that’s just kind of how the game goes and how the game evolves. It’s the same way how you might think you’re the starting safety and then some guy enters the portal and they give him a million dollars to come.”
Overall, the Dolphins players had intelligent thoughts on “5 for 5.” Louis, for example, said he’s glad players who get a fifth year get another opportunity to get their degrees. Phillips said players should take advantage of every opportunity they’re granted, on and off the field, and that’d include returning to college for a fifth year.
“If I don’t make a roster in the NFL, I can go back, earn a few hundred thousand dollars, and enhance my draft status for the next year,” he said.
I try to always take advantage of opportunities to talk to players, old and young, about their views on topics ranging from social media and NIL (name, image, likeness)/transfer portal to putting a spy on the quarterback, coverage schemes, the current run game/defense trend or anything else.
I had no idea what the young Dolphins would say when I asked about the “5 for 5” rule and players being able to go from NFL training camp to college football this season.
What I learned is that their unrelenting competitive nature makes them perfect for what Sullivan and Hafley desire with this rebuild.
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