The Dolphins made the playoffs last season and they helped raise expectations for the coming season when they traded for cornerback Jalen Ramsey this offseason.
Ramsey’s arrival and the hiring of defensive coordinator Vic Fangio gave observers two reasons to believe that the Dolphins defense can take a leap forward after Miami finished 24th in points allowed last year. That’s led to optimistic predictions about what the season will hold, but Ramsey said at a Tuesday press conference that the team has to focus on the task at hand rather than on what other people are saying about them.
“It’s just Day 1 of training camp,” Ramsey said. “We’ve got to do the work first. The work comes first. When you put the work in, you don’t really worry about none of that. You don’t really worry about what other people say. You know what you have done to prepare and you just stand on that and whether it works out for you or not, you know if you put the work in.”
Ramsey was on Jaguars and Rams teams that failed to build on success from previous years, so he knows preseason predictions don’t always measure up with actual accomplishments. He and the Dolphins will be trying to avoid that fate this year.
