Chris Perkins: Meet your new Dolphins ... thankfully, they’re tough, aggressive and physical

I’m glad to see the Miami Dolphins adding physicality during free agency.

I’m also glad to see the Dolphins adding toughness and aggression.

They needed all three. Badly.

Now, for the first time under coach Mike McDaniel, they’re adding it.

In fact, they’re stacking it, beginning with a few of these newly-signed free agents.

Listen to center Aaron Brewer, who the Dolphins signed from Tennessee, describe his game.

“I’m headhunting out there,” he said, “so if I can get my hands on you, I’m on you until I hear the whistle.”

That’s good stuff.

That’s playoff-level intensity.

That’s what the Dolphins need.

The Dolphins have enough talent to win in the playoffs.

But they’ve lacked physicality, toughness and aggression.

This lack of physicality, aggression and toughness isn’t just a playoff thing.

Those characteristics are a huge part of what has kept the Dolphins from winning enough regular-season games to earn a home playoff game, and possibly win a playoff game, in each of the past two seasons.

You can’t get bossed around by AFC heavyweights Buffalo, Baltimore, Kansas City and Cincinnati the way the Dolphins have recently. And that doesn’t include the butt-kickings by NFC heavyweights San Francisco and Philadelphia.

Listen to safety Jordan Poyer, the former All Pro who joins the Dolphins from Buffalo. He can talk physicality and aggression. The Bills thrived on it.

“You go into the game with a mindset of being the more physical team,” Poyer said. “In doing so, you tire the other team out then maybe they don’t want to catch the ball over the middle. Maybe they think twice about throwing a certain ball.

“It’s really almost the game within the game, right? Which team is going to be more physical?”

The Dolphins have rarely been the more physical team the past two years.

Change winds might be blowing, however.

I truly like the departed Dolphins — linebacker Jerome Baker, cornerback Xavien Howard, edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel, the list goes on — but I can’t say they brought a playoff-winning level of toughness, physicality or aggression to the team.

I think some of these new signees lean more in that direction, with cornerback Kendall Fuller, linebackers Jordyn Brooks and Anthony Walker Jr., outside linebacker Shaq Barrett and special teams ace/cornerback Siran Neal.

These guys bring it. Neal, speaking metaphorically for himself and Poyer, his teammate in Buffalo, said a lot of people don’t know how to react when they get hit in the mouth.

“That’s one thing that we put upon people,” Neal said of his days with the Bills. “We’re going to see how you act when we punch you in your mouth. Once we did that, a lot of guys and a lot of teams backed off after a while. That’s one thing that South Florida has now with me and Poyer.”

I like what general manager Chris Grier and McDaniel have done in this area.

Tight end Jonnu Smith, who, such as Brewer, joins the Dolphins from Tennessee, talked about the importance of the physical aspect of the game.

“Everybody when you look at the game, you kind of see pass catchers as flashy and highlights,” Smith said, “but you have to be able to bring a physical presence as well to inflict your will on opponents, and be able to when it’s the fourth quarter and guys are tired and it’s late in the year, Week 13, 14, teams don’t want to tackle.

“That’s where we feast.”

The Dolphins routinely were beaten at the line of scrimmage by teams such as Buffalo, Kansas City and Baltimore

It doesn’t stop there, however.

The Dolphins didn’t have enough physicality/toughness/aggression to excel in short-yardage situations, goal-line situations, December football, January football, or games against playoff-caliber opponents. And that applies to all positions from quarterback to wide receiver to linebacker to cornerback to edge rusher. Everybody. Even coaches.

It’s a mentality, a mindset.

Perhaps that’ll change this season.

Defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, who joins the Dolphins from Baltimore, the team that’s roughed the Dolphins up numerous times over the past decade or so, brings a tough, aggressive, physical style of play.

That should help greatly.

If the newcomers can teach the returnees a thing or two about toughness, physicality and aggression, the Dolphins might be on their way to making a few changes in their mentality. And then possibly getting a home playoff game.

And who knows where it goes from there?