MIAMI — Twenty-five years is a quarter of a century.

That time period covers most of our adolescent and college years. It takes everyone to the entry point of adulthood.

It’s no secret that 25 years is how long it has been since the Miami Dolphins last won a playoff game.

That drought is the quarter-sized wart that sits on the face of South Florida’s NFL franchise.

But if we’re being honest, and more importantly fair to the people who own (Steve Ross), run (general manager Chris Grier) and coach (Mike McDaniel) the franchise, they each have very little to do with the playoff-win drought.

Ross bought the franchise in 2008 and became majority owner in 2009, so he’s only on the hook for the past 17 years. And more than half of those years he was figuring out how the NFL worked.

The argument for Ross I have consistently made is that he’s never pinched a penny when it comes to this franchise, and that’s critically important. His main blind spot is he struggles hiring the right people, and often keeps some employees longer than he should.

But keep in mind that Ross’ reign as owner has coincided with Tom Brady and New England’s nearly two-decade dominance over the NFL, which explains why the Dolphins haven’t won an AFC East division crown since 2008.

Back in 2000, which is the last time the Dolphins won a playoff game, McDaniel was a ball boy for the Denver Broncos.

McDaniel didn’t even start coaching in the NFL until five years later, and joined the Dolphins staff a little more than three years ago.

McDaniel learned of the franchise’s record-setting history of playoff ineptitude the hard way, from employees when he arrived, and accepted the challenge willingly.

He has led Miami to the postseason in two of his three seasons at the helm, and is coming off a season that got derailed by quarterback injuries.

Unfortunately for Grier, he has been part of the Dolphins organization for 25 years.

The top executive on the football side of the organization joined the franchise as an area scout in 2000.

However, in fairness to Grier, he gained power and influence in 2007 when he was appointed the team’s director of college scouting. And even then, in that role you just get a say on how the draft board is put together. You don’t get a vote.

Final say came from Dave Wannstedt, Rick Spielman, Nick Saban, Randy Mueller, Bill Parcells, Jeff Ireland, Dennis Hickey and Mike Tannenbaum. Grier managed to survive all those eras, and bosses because of his accommodating and adaptable personality.

Since 2016 when he took over as general manager, the result of a coup Tannenbaum pulled on Hickey, Grier has been an architect for how the franchise has been built. So he’s on the hook for at least a decade of Miami’s struggles.

As we watch franchises like the Detroit Lions, Houston Texans and Washington Commanders transform in a season or two, maybe it’s time to take a deeper dive into what has gone wrong.

There are entire franchises (Baltimore, San Francisco and Philadelphia) that have been to the mountaintop (the Super Bowl game), got rebuilt and went again before the Dolphins have won a first-round game.

“If we [were] closer to the season that we were chasing, if we won two more games, does that make me a different coach?” McDaniel asked at the NFL owner’s meeting.

What would the 2024 season have looked like if Tua Tagovailoa had been healthier, or Raheem Mostert hadn’t had costly fumbles in critical moments in losses to Indianapolis and the second game against the Bills?

Maybe the Dolphins beat the Bills if Jordan Poyer doesn’t get flagged for spearing a Buffalo receiver, setting up the game-winning 61-yard field goal.

Those are clearly questions McDaniel has been asking himself and his staff all offseason as they self scout and evaluate.

Miami could have easily won 10 games with a healthy Tagovailoa.

But does a 10-win Dolphins season get McDaniel off the hot seat?

Would a third straight winning season inspire the decision-makers to continue the all-in approach instead of adapting the fiscally responsible course Miami has taken in free agency?

My answer to that question would be no because it wouldn’t address the fundamental problem, what’s at the root of this 25-year crisis.

For a quarter century the Dolphins were plagued by mediocre quarterback play, terrified of having quarterbacks actually compete for their status and roles, and poisoned by bad offensive line play.

Each era of this franchise had its strengths and weaknesses, but the root of the recent drought has more to do with the Dolphins being more finesse than physical.

Toughness is needed to win games in the postseason.

Physicality is needed to do battle with playoff bound teams, and Super Bowl contenders.

The Steelers and Broncos were the last two AFC teams to get in at 10-7, and they both got waxed in the first round. Baltimore pummeled Pittsburgh 28-14 at home, and the Bills stomped out the Broncos 31-7 in Buffalo.

The one thing the Ravens and Bills have in common is physicality.

Do we really think Miami would have had any other fate against the two teams that have bullied them the past couple of seasons?

This team Grier and McDaniel are building might feature the worst trench play in the NFL headed into this month’s NFL draft.

Until that changes, until the Dolphins stop getting pushed around at the line of scrimmage, we can probably expect the next quarter century to play out like the last one has.

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