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Jul 18, 2023

Chris Perkins: Dolphins’ 2023 locker

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — It’s Year Two of the Dolphins’ Great Locker Room Experiment. And this year the locker room seating chart was made with more thought than last year, although the specific reason

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — It’s Year Two of the Dolphins’ Great Locker Room Experiment. And this year the locker room seating chart was made with more thought than last year, although the specific reason for seating certain players next to one another still isn’t necessarily clear.

Coach Mike McDaniel is the master mixologist of locker-room seating. Instead of assigning players’ lockers according to positions, which most teams do (defensive linemen sit together, wide receivers sit together, etc…), McDaniel has a different methodology.

A guard could be sitting next to a kicker, or a cornerback next to a linebacker.

The idea is getting guys to know other teammates, guys they’re not usually around in practice, meetings or meals.

Players liked it last year, and they like it this year.

For example, cornerback Xavien Howard and wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, a pair of Houston natives, are next-door neighbors.

“City business,” Waddle quipped.

One locker down is fullback Alec Ingold. No one knows why. But Ingold has been embraced with open arms.

“We adopted A.I.,” Howard said. “He came to town, we showed him love.”

Ingold seems to like his new home.

“I always heard J-Dub playing his music,” he said of Waddle, “so now I get to be right next to it.”

No one has the same locker in 2023 that they had in 2022.

That’s by design.

McDaniel changed things up in his second year as head coach, and likely for the better.

“It was very different knowing all the guys so much better than I did last year,” McDaniel said of this year’s locker-room assignments. “So there’s different impulses and directives that I don’t even tell those guys why.

“I think I’ll stop at that.”

So no one knows exactly why quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who is in the locker previously occupied by tight end Mike Gesicki, is seated next to running back Jeff Wilson Jr. Or why wide receiver Erik Ezukanma, cornerback Kader Kohou, running back De’Von Achane and quarterback Skylar Thompson are in that same row.

In the row with Ingold, Waddle and Howard are defensive lineman Christian Wilkins, guard Robert Hunt, an empty locker, and then cornerback Eli Apple as well as a few others (long snapper Blake Ferguson, tackle James Tunstall, center Alama Uluave, to name a few).

“There’s a lot of talent in this row,” Howard said.

The foursome of lockers that last year was occupied by Wilkins, Howard, right tackle Austin Jackson and Thompson is now occupied by linebacker Duke Riley, guard Liam Eichenberg and edge rushers Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb.

Chubb likes his new piece of real estate, which is located by the shower.

“I feel like I can see everything,” he said, glimpsing the expansive locker room ahead of him.

McDaniel doesn’t have the market cornered on this type of seating arrangement. Wide receiver Braxton Berrios, in his first year with the Dolphins, said it was that way in New England and with the New York Jets.

“I think it brings the team closer together,” he said.

The Dolphins’ locker room is pretty much the same by outward appearance. The barber shop is still there, off to the side, so players can get a fresh cut a day or two before the game. The space previously occupied by a humorously controversial ping pong table is now occupied by a sectional sofa sort of thing.

Wilson’s scooter, a toy of choice late last season, hasn’t yet made an appearance, and it might not considering Wilson was put on the injured reserve list Thursday. But about a month ago Wilson said the scooter would be back.

“I took it to the house,” Wilson remarked earlier this month while laughing.

“I got tired of people stealing it from me, riding around, wasting my battery then I’ve got to come back and charge it up. But I take it through the neighborhood now, so it’s all good.”

This is a good locker room. I said that about last year’s team, and I’ll probably say it about this year’s team. They’re fun, they’re good football players, they’re decent guys, and they have a good sense of humor. They enjoy life and enjoy playing football. It’s hard not to laugh or smile every day in that locker room.

Thursday, talking to players in the locker room, it looks like it’ll be a good one again, albeit with a new seating chart.

Credit McDaniel, who is as new-school as it gets in the NFL, for bringing an intangible into the equation.

“On NFL Sundays, position groups don’t win games, teams do,” he said. “So the more that you can get connected to your teammates, the better.”

©2023 South Florida Sun Sentinel. Visit at sun-sentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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