In defense of Ross, he's spent the money on the facility. And the practice facility making it the top organization voted on by the players every year. He doesn't hesitate to spend on free agents. It's not like he's cheap. Now he hasn't picked the upper management very well. Bring in Achman as a consultant may be a move that he's realized he needs more knowledgeable people in these hirings. From what I've read he doesn't really meddle in the day to day operations. So he spends money and doesn't meddle. What are your expectations besides him not picking good upper management that make him a horrible owner??
The Dolphins interviewed Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley on Wednesday and they’re interviewing two more defensive coaches on Thursday. Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that they will interview Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter and 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh. The Dolphins have also interviewed former Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski and Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak. Minter has been requested to interview with every team looking for a head coach other than the Steelers, but we now know he won’t be landing the Giants job. Saleh is set to interview with the Ravens and Titans this weekend. Oddsmakers have pegged Hafley as the favorite to get the job in Miami, but the search process still has to play out before anyone is going to be announced as their new head coach.
Well, picking the right upper management is pretty much the most important responsibility an NFL owner has. If he can't do that right after 17 years he is a massive failure as an owner. He also signed off and supported things like tanking for Tua, bringing in Flores and asking him to tank, then firing Flores when he disagreed with the Tua pick and tanking. Ross also personally cost us a 1st round pick because of tampering and not being aware of league rules. It has been one big **** show after another over the last 17 years with Ross as owner. Investing in nice practice facilities and renovating the stadium does not make up for failing at everything else.
So many wealthy people saw Mark Cuban's story and tried to replicate it. Mark sold a company for hundreds of millions, bought the Mavs outright (for around $350M?), then worked day to day inside the office with the sales team to build the organization. He hand-picked his coaches, his executives, and then he worked alongside them daily. And when he felt like he didn't want to do that anymore, he sold his majority share for over a billion dollar profit. That's the right way to run a franchise. It's the same thing Robie did. Then a new generation came along for one reason- a sports team appreciates in value more than a car, the stock market, or other assets. They loved Cuban's story of becoming a household name, so they tried to do what he did...yet they had no interest in actually working there. And that's fine if you want to be hands-off, but you'd better hire the best of the best. The problem with Ross (in my opinion) is that he doesn't trust his own front office. Every time we make a major hire, we bring in outside consultants that consult. That sounds great and all, but they get paid for a month's work and then they walk away. Why Aikman? He's not a GM and he's not a head coach. Why not Marino instead? There's no sound method involved here because we don't have people in the front office that Ross respects. From those in the know, I've heard Ross asks absolutely everyone he knows in the league- what do you think I should do? And the problem is that he gets 50 opinions from 50 people, all looking at one cog in the wheel instead of the complete wheel and tire. Was Flores a good coach? Absolutely...but he couldn't get along with the GM and he hated the organization's plans for QB. That's what you get when you seek outside opinions inside a vacuum, they don't necessarily fit your entire organization. And that's what we've done 5 or 6 times now with little success. We never, ever, ever should have hired Flores under those specific circumstances. And when many saw Tua as a huge question mark, we shouldn't have hired Grier either. Hire a GM, or a president of football operations, and let them build a complete team. Will they be biased? Heck yes! They'll also get guys that they already know work well together. You can't have that though when you have an absent owner and no trust within the front office. Ross has to do one or the other- work himself or get the right guy at the very top that will work like a Mark Cuban. Not that the Mavs were anything special, mind you (2x champs), but that's the blueprint all these new billionaires are trying to copy but they're missing the most important part- Cuban personally sold season tickets, he personally worked out with the players, he personally studied the drafts and worked with his executives, etc.
Ross is terrible but are really supposed to pretend Flores was a victim? Or pretend he was fired for any of the things he ratted on them for?
In my book Flores was proven right in most if not all of his grievances. If Ross had sided with Flores instead of Grier we probably would be in a lot better position right now and contending for a championship. Ross's lack of judgment and football knowledge is the root of all our problems.
I agree about Ross but that doesn't mean ignoring the red flags of Flores. Just look at what Fitzmagic recently had to say. Flores ran himself out of the building. Mistake Ross made was not sending Grier packing too. I am sure we would be winning titles if Ross fired Grier and kept Flores when the QB would have been Deshaun Watson. Although I will admit it we wouldn't be any worse off.
Na, we would have definitely been worst off with Deshaun Watson.. look at the draft capital and salary the browns gave up, fully guaranteed. . that decision has set the browns so far back, they cant even cut him this year (his final year of 5 years 230 million full guaranteeds) because he holds a 133 million dead cap number if they release him.. hes going to be there in training camp along with sanders and gabriel….. I dont even know how browns fans stay loyal to that team..
THE common denominator in the Dolphins woes was Chris Grier. Could you point the finger at Ross? Sure, he is the owner but it was Grier that screwed this team. I’m optimistic with the new GM and that he’s come from a class act and successful organization in the Packers. It’s going to take a few years to un-Fook what’s been fooked up.
Didn’t want to start a new thread and I figured this was a good place to post this video. Not sure who all is in the video but I know Omar Kelly is one of them. Saying a lot of things about the Dolphins that we as fans have known for years.
Brian Flores revisionism now? Guy was right about Tua, but that doesn't mean he was a good coach. He was just another in a very long line of failed Patriot/Belichick disciples. He probably deserves another chance, but I'm not sorry he was let go in the slightest and feel strongly that he was at his ceiling in Miami. 4 OCs in 3 years for a new coach is ridiculous.
Thats very underwhelming … it almost feels like we are in the Jerry Jones moment.. ross wants a coach he can control… as i said in the other thread, i would interview Philip Rivers, hes interested in coaching. He may be the next Dan Campbell. He will need strong coordinators like Dan.. but i would feel more enthusiastic about a motivational player type coach like Philip than Jeff…
Nope Flores wasn't right about Tua either. If Flores was right about Tua 2023 and 2024 wouldn't have happened. Nor do I think he deserves another chance. What he did to the OL here alone is sufficient proof that he should never be entrusted with any responsibility to an offence again.
Hafley would be underwhelming compared to Harbaugh, but not a bad pick. His defenses are good and he's spoken of very highly. He doesn't have NFL HC experience, but did get some in college. While not the same, it at least gives him some experience with the management and organizational side of the business. I personally prefer offense (Stefanski or Kubiak), but I wouldn't be mad at Hafley. Seems a lot of the reporting puts him as the front runner with a second interview scheduled for Monday. However, Robert Salah and Jesse Minter both also have interviews scheduled and ties to either Miami or Green Bay. Also, keep an eye on dark horse Anthony Campanile who was in Miami recently and also on Green Bay and is highly regarded in both. I do think the HC experience of Salah and Hafley probably put them ahead. I also have heard rumblings of Mike McCarthy.
Are his defenses good? Middle of the pack in most respects this season. Awful at creating turnovers, and bad at getting sacks. They seem to be good at limiting completed passes to not give up a lot of YAC. Seem to tackle well. They were much better the season prior, when he took over for Joe Barry, who was on our staff this past season. Though they still were bad at getting INTs and mediocre at sacks. And despite being middle of the road at the end of the season in rush yards allowed, they gave up 200+ yards in four different games. That's really, really bad. Its a very small sample size.
Kevin Stefanski has been hired by the Falcons. The Falcons job was rated as the second best job opening (after harbaugh picked the giants). The top current jobs available after falcons and giants got their coaches 1. baltimore - coach the 2x mvp 2. Steelers - stability 3. Raiders - first pick overall - mendoza 4. Titans - promising qb and then theres a tie between dolphins cardinals and browns.. tho id say browns is last
Playing devil's advocate for a minute. I won't dispute 1 and 2. 3) The Raiders have earned the #1 spot by being a truly awful team, and historically even the #1 draftee is far from a lock for greatness. 4) "Promising QBs" have killed more coaching careers than anything other than hubris. The Cards and the Browns have a much longer history of suckitude than the Phins. The post Marino Phins have been mediocre, whereas the Browns and the Cards have generally been bad. I'd put the Phins at around 3 or 4 in terms of attractiveness at around the same level ad the Titans and ahead of the Raiders, Cards and Browns.
I'm SO relieved he's out of the picture now. Everyone can point to the disfunction of the Browns organization but it was Stefanski completely mismanaged that entire quarterback fiasco in Cleveland. That was all on him.
Best available? Doubt that. Anyone wants to come… there is only 32 of these jobs that earns you millions per season. Hafley seems too much of a safe pick based on familiarity with the GM.. like a Joe Philbin hire.
Can a fan eventually reach their limits with a franchise? I've been a fan for almost 40 years now. I've had friends of mine jump ship to other teams before, but I swore I never would. I just kind of feel like if nothing changes, then nothing changes. Go ahead...Hire coach Alf. Let's do Joe Philbin all over again. Let's keep Tua while firing Grier and McDaniels, let's draft guys based on their character traits and personal beliefs as opposed to to drafting them for their skills on the field. I don't know...Maybe it's the off-season and I'm feeling disconnected from it all. Depending on how this off-season goes, this might be it for me.
Philbin was hired as some offensive guru when all he was doing was riding Rodger's coat tails and getting the credit for his play on the field.
Im making a prediction.. during this offseason, we will read an article where sources will say the Dolphins fired McDaniels because Ross was very sure of himself about being able to hire Harbaugh, it will say that he was lead to believe this was a real possibility, that he had these verifiable assurances, that it was a done deal. we didnt even get a zoom interview with the guy. Everything pointed to mcdaniels staying at least one more season, especially with being stuck with Tua one more year. and now, he has egg on his face, he has to pay mcdaniels while looking at a very poor market of coaches. And you have to sell to this new coach that this is the roster and the salary cap situation, and the qb situation aint that great either
I didn't want to keep McDaniel because I thought he was good. I fully expect the team to be bad in 2026 either way. But I felt for months that keeping him as a lame duck was the prudent choice, because I figured that this would happen and we'd be stuck picking through the discount bin yet again for a replacement.
I don’t know, maybe but we had already hired Sullivan and he could have determined McDaniel didn’t fit into his vision of the team. McDaniel was on very thin ice and with hiring OUTSIDE of the organization, and with Aikmen as a consultant, Ross may have heeded the words of his new GM and Aikmen.
I truly believe if McDaniel is hired by the right team as their OC, he’ll have a lights out offense and will be back in the head coaching discussions in the next 3-4 years. But it has to be the right team. If he’s picked up by say, the Raiders he’s screwed.
Maybe. I honestly liked him more as a HC than as an OC. His offense is FAR too reliant on big plays and yac for my tastes, and I'm desperate to move to a system that doesn't do that.
Well the thing about McDaniel’s offense that he failed to stick to was the run game. His first 2 years it was all Tua. Once that train was derailed, he focused more on Achane and the run but the quarterback play wasn’t there for the big plays that come from the run game. Had McDaniel melded last season’s run game with 2023’s Tua’s play, good God Almighty but he too often abandoned the run. Like I said, it’ll all depends on the team.
The run game, when it worked, was super reliant on huge gains. It was never consistent, and never a case when the Fins were just sticking it to the other team for 5-7 yards at a pop between the tackles over and over. You do that, you control the game, and you make it far easier for everything else to work.
His offense honestly was no different than Adam Gase.. a bunch of screen plays/bubble screens.. defenses would read that screen often.. and honestly the only players that did well with it at a high enough efficiency rate was probably Hill, Mostert.. and Achane now.. Still even with that, i hate plays that start with the ball caught behind the scrimmage. Which was a lot with gase and mcdaniels. i want a more vertical offense.. next coach needs to be a lot more aggressive once we got all the weapons in line
I totally agree with you. But even worse than behind the LoS is well behind the LoS and also standing completely still, flat footed, which is what we did so damn often. It just sucks so much, because it depends on so many players on the offense getting it just right and on the defense not being prepared for it, and it failed over and over on both respects after the league got a book on it. But he refused to go away from it, no matter how many times it was blown up, and even when our players were injured because of it. Even more frustrating is that it seemed like the players we had were built to succeed when running slants and drags instead, and when he was forced to go to those routes instead, we'd kill teams with it, or with more traditional screen passes such as Atlanta this season. But the very next game, it was back to his old ways with the BS nonsense, plays that depend entirely on YAC or deep shots. It made me want to pull my hair out. Just absolutely refused to have Tua take the snap, three step drop, get it into the hands of Tyreek or Waddle for a 5-10 yard gain.
I agree that this was probably the reality. And it was likely the wrong move as well. He should have kept McD with Tua, got him some redemption highlight tape in order to raise his trade value, and then made a coaching change if it was necessary. This left us in the worst possible position with Tua and it's going to bite us. One other thing to consider- we've only really seen McDaniel with Tua. He's being fired due to Tua. Yet we had a very potent offense when Tua could deliver. Logically speaking, wouldn't we be better off with McD and a new QB than a HC who's never put together an NFL offense that epic? In my book, McD didn't fail. The offensive line failed. Tua failed. But McDaniel continued to make lemonade out of lemons. Now that we finally have the OL somewhat figured out, I just think it's a really stupid move. We'll see though in a few seasons. One last thing to add to my rant. The day he was fired, Ross said, "I love Mike McDaniel and I love his offensive mind." Then why fire him?!? Duh. That may have been the first time ever a professional coach was fired with an 'I love you' speech.
I agree with most of what you wrote but he didn’t quite make lemonade out of lemons. When you look at his rosters then Flores made more out of nothing than he did. I would’ve understood if they canned McDaniel, if they were sure to get a Harbaugh or Tomlin, but this seems like the usual we come to expect with this franchise, only time will tell…
I can't understand that at all- wow! It sounds like there was some internal tension though over them not winning it all yet. Buffalo has had what we wanted all along, a perennial playoff contender. They were in the playoffs all but one year of McDermott's tenure. I would be on the phone quickly and it sounds like the media is expecting it as well.
