Omar Kelly: Dolphins backups show fight in preseason win over Lions

Omar Kelly, Miami Herald on Aug 16, 2025

Published in Football

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MIAMI — There’s a scene in the "8 Mile" movie based on the popular rapper Eminem’s life where B-Rabbit says all the diss lines his opponent could use against him in a competitive battle rap simply to disarm his opponent, taking away his rival rapper’s ammo.

While making a plea for his favorite rapper to attend Miami’s joint practices against the Detroit Lions this week, Mike McDaniel brought up that scene and made a metaphor to the exact reason he chose to hold two joint practices against a Dan Campbell led Detroit Lions team that won 15 games last season.

McDaniel seemingly wanted the Dolphins to see how far the gap was from a good to a great team, and the Dolphins learned just that before, and during Saturday’s preseason 24-17 win over the Lions.

“Who doesn’t know the 8 Mile anthem?” McDaniel said. “I actually reference [Eminem] and call it ‘8 Mile,’ which is where you do his battle rap thing and say all the [negative] things people know to be true.

“And then what?”

McDaniel is likely referring to the talk he’s either had — or needs to have — with his 2025 team about his hope, wish, desire for this season’s Dolphins to stop being mentally and physically soft.

For this team to save everyone from the unemployment line McDaniel’s players need to change the national narrative about South Florida’s NFL franchise by becoming a tougher, more physical team, one that is mentally sharp to the point they don’t beat themselves with penalties and poor execution.

McDaniel knows every narrative the local and national media and more importantly, his own fanbase — parrots out about the Dolphins in his era as head coach.

The Dolphins haven’t won a playoff game in 25 years.

McDaniel’s team is undisciplined.

The Dolphins are obsessed with speed, and as a result they are more finesse than physical.

The Dolphins can’t play in the cold, usually fade in December, and rarely beat playoff caliber teams.

He’s never once hidden from those narratives, and has actually confronted those theories — which are part of this franchise’s history — head on, saying “they won’t change unless we do something about it.”

And that’s why the Dolphins have had a more physical training camp before they took the show on the road, holding a joint practice against the Chicago Bears, which is led by Dan Campbell’s protege Ben Johnson, and then two against Campbell’s Lions.

We’re quite familiar with Campbell work down here in South Florida because he served as the interim coach of the Dolphins during the 2015 season, replacing Joe Philbin four-games into the season.

I’ll never forget that during the very first practice Campbell led the Dolphins went from the team stretching period to the Oklahoma drill, which is a collision driven, man-vs-man practice period where each player’s will and fight is put to the test.

That’s Dan Campbell, who led those Dolphins to a 5-7 finish. He’s someone you refer to by both names every time you mention him.

The former NFL tight end turned coach is in your face. He’s aggressive. He’s a punch you first kind of guy.

That’s how the Lions have built their team, and now the franchise is clearly benefiting from it considering the 36-15 record they’ve produced the past three seasons, which includes a 2-2 playoff record the past two seasons.

McDaniel needed this "8 Mile" trip to show his 2025 team the Dolphins’ new course, the one that got started in the 2025 NFL draft when Miami added 1,200-plus pounds of beef on the offensive and defensive line.

Miami’s not a finished product two preseason games into the 2025 season. The secondary remains a mess, the running back unit is thin, and the backup offensive line is a disaster. But the fight and spirit Miami’s backups showed on Saturday — days after getting pushed around by the Lions for two practices — shows that McDaniel’s team is a work in progress.

“I want to see how the guys respond to adversity because it’s not if, but when,” McDaniel said after the win.

Eminem and B-Rabbit didn’t become one of the world’s most legendary rappers the night they left the Detroit trailer park, so let’s not expect McDaniel’s team to resemble Campbell’s team overnight.

The first step is knowing what you’re working against, and then fully committing yourself to changing it.

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