It's Over...

(A bit of a read)

After near 24 hours of pondering over yesterday's game, a clearer head has prevailed. Surprisingly, I wasn't upset or emotionally affected by yesterday's game. To quote Dennis Green, "They were who we thought they were" and I just had to chuckle at all of the Dolphins woes and miscues yesterday. With that being said, there is no salvaging this team under this current regime. It's over!

Chris Grier
While there are those who have defended him and some of the free agency moves and trades he's made, there is no defending the fact that since 2016 when named the GM, he has spent nearly a billion dollars, $850 million to be more precise and has had 21 1st and 2nd round draft picks. Nine years as the general manager and THIS is what you have to show for it with all of the capital you've had, in actually dollars spent and draft picks? Some will argue that Grier didn't have full control; that he was directed to report to and/or work with others in developing the roster. Maybe, maybe not but the bottom line is this is what your signature is on and if any of the claims out there that your hand was pressed is true, then you shouldn't have been GM in the first place. I don't subscribe to those claims. You're the GM and with no Executive Vice President of Football Operations to report to, you report to one man and one man only, Stephen Ross. These are the teams YOU'VE assembled, from players to head coaches. This mess we've had since 2016 falls on your shoulders and yours alone.

Mike McDaniel
From the days of Green Bay's power sweep, to Kevin Gilbride's run and shoot, to the Wildcat and even to Mike McDaniel's offense, there has always been one consistent fact; sooner or later your unique offensive scheme will be figured out. When that happens, unless you are just blessed with substantial generational talent at nearly every position, if you can't adapt and keep your offense fresh, you're going to falter. This is what has happened to McDaniel's offense. Now, folks will point fingers at Tua (I'll address that in a moment) but when you take a hard honest look at the actual playcalling, you'll discover its gimmick plays relying on deception and misdirection in the hopes of consistency relying on finesse to fool the opposing defenses. When you first implement an offense such as this, with no data available for teams to be able to study, it's going to work and you're going to seem like a genius but as I said, sooner or later, you're going to be figured out. And this is JUST the offense and the playcalling. How many times have the Dolphins offense either taken a time out of penalized for delay of game because of how LATE the play is sent in? And times in which Miami has gotten the play called in in the "nick of time", your scheme of pre-snap motion has now become irrelevant due to the lack of time left on the play clock. Poor time management has been an issue of McDaniel's and it's not improved during his tenure. As for his personality ok, he's a bit of a nerd...he's a geek. So be it but have you ever seen any fire from him? Not saying that your head coach needs to be a raving lunatic on the sideline; some arguing he's remaining calm which is a good thing, but every once in a while when your'e getting your a$$ handed to you, your players need to SEE and FEEL their coach's anger and disappointment. Lombardi, Shula, Noll, Gibbs, Levy to name a few let their players see that ire when it was needed. Seeing the players on the sideline yesterday, they're defeated and they have no leader...no north star...no inspiration. McDaniel has lost the lockerroom.

Tua Tagovailoa
Never in my 53 years old watching the Miami Dolphins have I ever seen a player amongst the fan base that was more polarizing than Tua, even more so than Ryan Tannehill. Now my philosophical base when it comes to football has been consistent; it's a TEAM sport. If a team or fans are relying on a single player to be their redemption, you're betting your life to win the Powerball. Now as a disclaimer before going on, I was not in support of drafting Tua. The Dolphins were such a dumpster fire of a team with so many holes that spending so much draft capitol on drafting a rookie quarterback in 2019 was foolish, but Miami did. So be it. Now, looking at pure TALENT and TALENT alone, I saw it there in Tua, even under Flores. I saw the potential but also saw the Dolphins had still failed in the one area of football that matters the most offensively and that's the offensive line. it utterly amazed me then and even now, how you would spend so much draft capital on a quarterback that despite having incredible talent, did have an injury history and fail to field an offensive line to protect him. It boggles the mind. It's like putting a battalion of infantry on the front line to defend an area without fortifying your position and simply relying on their talent. McDaniel saw the potential in Tua and was able to devise an offensive scheme to play to his strengths, but I said about McDaniel, once that scheme is figured out unless you adapt, you're done. Now this season, as I've said in other threads, there is something OFF about Tua. His play is off, his passes are not as crisp and precise as they had been, his pocket presence is off. I never felt Tua was going to have LONG career in the NFL. I felt he would only last 6-10 years at most. Could this be the beginning of the end of Tua's NFL career or does he have a "head space and timing" issue that's clouding his on field performance? I'm not sure which it is but Tua certainly is not playing to the level that we had seen from him these past seasons under McDaniel, even with the offensive scheme seemingly being deciphered by opposing teams.

Conclusion
This team had a shot, but the window for that success was an EXTREMELY narrow one. The 2023 season was the season for it to happen. The offense was firing on all cylinders, the defense was playing... adequately. We were making our mark but just couldn't close the deal. This team under THIS regime, from GM to head coach, to coordinators to players apexed in 2023 and like coming over that crest on a roller coaster, it's been all downhill since. It's time for Ross to pull the trigger.

Grier has got to the first to go. Go outside of the organization. Go to a championship team and see what they are doing and who they have. Recruit and hire a GM from one of those teams. You're a businessman so recruiting talent for your endeavors should be in your wheelhouse, just recruit from winners. Let him bring in his OWN people. Give that new GM free reign on the remainder of this season. Keep McDaniel? Fire McDaniel? Deal players to other teams for draft capital? Keep players? Cut players? It's time to shake it all up and start anew.