If we had kept him he would have been fired in 3 or less seasons. He wasn't ready to be a HC 10 years ago. That's why he wasn't hired by anyone until 3 years ago.
That's a big part of why I think dismissing coaches who don't succeed at their first stop is often silly too. Time, place and situation are so important.
I agree. if there were any chance that he could have stayed 5+ years back then, I'd agree that letting him go was a mistake. He would have been hired and fired within 3-4 seasons. That's just how the NFL operates now. Unfortunately. The Dolphins have had one HC longer than 4 seasons in their entire history. And that's the norm now in this league. If a HC doesn't immediately get to a CCG or SB (within 3-4 years) they are fired.
Well, technically Wanny was four and a half. But no one but Shula has made it five full. I do think that many/most teams are too quick to fire people and move on when there isn't immediate success. Especially given that we live in an era with extremes like the Patriots and Chiefs dominating at the top for so long. We're now in year 15 straight of one or both of them appearing in the AFC CG, and NE of course had a few before that as well. If two teams are hogging all of those CG appearances, it by default makes it next to impossible for anyone else to get there.
Hard to believe that the Dolphins haven't been to an AFCCG since 1992. Since 2010, AFCE teams have made the AFCCG 10 times. Pats- 8 Jets- 1 Bills- 1 Dolphins- 0
They're closing in on the longest drought in NFL history. Washington and Cleveland just ahead of them.
Well, since the Fins are out… For the AFC Pittsburgh, but they’re going to lose. Baltimore (Love King Henry), plus my wife loves purple so… NFC Detroit. They deserve a shot after being the dumpster fire of a team since I’ve been watching football Minnesota. Embrace my Viking heritage and of course the wife…purple
Well Lions went through a complete overhaul as well…new GM has done an incredible job. To give you an idea on how good they are. The team Grier built in Miami; the Dolphins are currently like $10 million under the cap. The Lions? $95 million under the cap, which means they draft very well.
Their GM hit on young players while ours brought in expensive FA’s. Before the season starts the Dolphins will be under the cap about the same as the Lions, however.
But my point Dan, they’re at $95 million under now while the Dolphins are only $10 million under. They’re doing it right in Detroit
Both teams are doing it right. The Lions are currently at $70 under the cap, not $90m. As you wrote, the Dolphins are currently about $10m under. The Dolphins, before the season starts, will be around the same as the Lions, $70m-$80m. These are both before the increase in cap which is projected to be between $10-$20m this year. However, the Lions, at the end of the 2025 season, are projected to have less than the Dolphins have now because Goff's cap hit will be $69m, Sewell's will be $28m, McNeill's will be $29m and St. Brown's will be $33m, for example. However, and just like Miami will do soon, the Lions will restructure, cut people, etc. and get back to having a healthy cap. Here are each teams top 10 contracts for 2026 as of now:
I'm seriously a Lions fan going forward but... I really want to see The Minnesota Vikings vs The Buffalo Bills. and the Vikings win. Two franchises who have been to 4 Super Bowls and lost them all. And the Jills end up 0-5. I'd be totally fine with Lions, Bucs, WTF Wa team is called today beating the Jills too, but give it to the Vikes to rub it in even more.
I'm rooting for Detroit and I think they'll breeze through the playoffs since they seem to be on another level. Don't care about the rest of the NFC but would like to see Mayfield and Tampa do well. For the AFC, I don't like any of the playoff teams. If I had to choose, I'd go with one of the newer contenders (Denver or Pitt). I mainly just want to see Buffalo, Baltimore and KC lose. Then again, I'd like a Buffalo or KC/Detroit Super Bowl just because I'm so confident in the Lions. They were cheated in last year's playoffs and you can tell that they're still taking it very personally. I'm expecting them to set the league record for the number of TD's by a lineman in the playoffs this year...just because they can and it taunts the league even more for messing last year up.
To clarify, they're $95M under and destroying other top teams in the league. It would be a shock if they don't go all the way....and they're $95M under the cap today.
*sighs* You're still missing the point I was trying to make. The Lions are building their team through the draft...and KILLING it while the Dolphins are out there buying players...aged players, players costing much more money and will not be long term with the team.
Then you shouldn’t use cap numbers if you want to talk about the draft/FA. I already wrote that the Lions did it with their draft and the Dolphins brought in FA. I agree that winning the draft is the better way, but both ways can (and have) won teams SB’s. But, even if you hit on the draft as well as the Lions have, you’ll soon be paying FA type salaries to your drafted players. But let’s not act like the Lions haven’t brought in FA’s. Goff, Kalif, Montgomery…to name a few. And they are like 3rd highest in the league with UFA’s right now. So they’ll lose players that they don’t want to pay. Again, for those they don’t WANT to pay… not those they CAN’T pay. The cap just isn’t real. It’s real in that a team can’t sign the most expensive player in every position, but it’s too malleable to worry about.
They’re not $95m under. At least according to spotrac. I’m rooting for them to win it all, but I think they’ll lose in the AFCCG or the SB.
OTC has them about 60m under for next year, with 40 players under contract. Still pretty damn good, especially for a team with a veteran QB locked up.
That will change once they give extensions etc. They’ll be right around where we are now and then they’ll restructure etc and be fine again.
Well, the Fins are in a huge hole. Don't want to fight with you about it because I know you feel differently, but I just don't see how Miami gets out without absolutely screwing themselves over in the future. It catches up with you.
There will be a reset year… way down the line when guys are retiring and they need to retool. The Pats were lucky because they had Brady for so long. The Packers were lucky because they hit on Favre, Rodgers, and Love. 49er are lucky because they hit on Purdy. The reset can work if you hit on a rookie QB. The amount of money the Lions have tied up in Goff, St Brown, and a few others are no different than the Dolphins. Even the Broncos are OK after the Wilson catastrophe because Nix is playing wells if he continues they’ll be set for awhile.
AFC LA Chargers Baltimore Kansas City Houston Denver Pittsburgh Buffalo NFC LA Rams Detroit Minnesota Washington Tampa Bay Green Bay Philadelphia
With THIS front office? I gotta go with Dan here. Grier has eff’d this team 6 ways from Sunday and Campbell would have been yet another victim of his ineptitude.
It’s all speculation man. However, being that he wasn’t hired for a HC position in almost a decade later I think what I’m saying has a little stronger evidence.
Whelp, every single game went against what I was rooting for, lol. But I'm very used to that. Have been for a long time.
With the exception of Baltimore, same here! I was rooting for them to get through to have a better chance of knocking Buffalo out. I was kinda ambivalent about Monday night’s game.
While I want the Chiefs dynasty to end and are sick of them, I in no way hate them like I do the Bills and Ravens. The Ravens are, far and away, the team I root for against the most outside of our division. So at this point, if the Chiefs do beat the Texans this week, I'll be rooting for them in the AFC CG, even though I absolutely do not want them in the Super Bowl. And unless Houston makes it, I'll root for any NFC team over the big three from the AFC.
Really???? Interesting. I actually root for the Steelers and the Ravens. The Steelers for the respect I have for the Rooney family, that the Steelers have only had 3 head coaches in my lifetime (or should I say my football lifetime, since 72) and the fact they’ve won 6 Super Bowls over the 5 decades I’ve watched football. The Ravens as I truly respect their hard nosed old school style of football, hard nosed running and brutal defensive play. Both of those teams remind me a lot of the 70’s era Dolphins.
I grew up outside of Pittsburgh. If my dad liked sports at all, I'd have probably grown up a Steelers fan. But he never has, and so I was left to do my own thing. The Dolphins colors and logo just spoke to me as a kid like it was my calling, and I've been a Miami fan ever since. I have a lot of family and friends who are Steelers fans, and I've always respected the way that they do things both on and off the field. While I'm 100% a Dolphins fan and 0% anything else, I do root for them to win their division. The Ravens have rubbed me the wrong way basically for their entire existence. Players who are criminals off the field in ways far more dangerous than most, bullies and turds on the field, often playing with the lowest level of class and dignity. I just hate that org. up and down. In the NFC, I've always pulled for Detroit and Atlanta, and sometimes Seattle. Like the Dolphins, the Seahawks old uniforms were always a favorite of mine.
I think him turning around a down trodden franchise and making them legit and competing for superbowls is better evidence he would if found his way. last I checked we can tell when a coach is a good coach yet doesn’t have the personell
Not taking a thing away from Campbell because I think he’s done wonderfully in Detroit, but it hasn’t been all just him. The Lions hiring Brad Holmes in 2021 and assembling the team that’s in place now has helped make Campbell and the Lions the success they are today. If only the Dolphins had a GM that knew how to build a team through the draft and keep the team $95 million under the cap.
Griers problem isn’t the cap or talent. Grier’s problem is not bringing in players that are self disciplined, mature, professional, and responsible. There’s as much, if not more, talent on the Dolphins as there is on the Lions. The Dolphins are in no worse shape than the Lions regarding the cap, however. For all of Grier’s faults, he can’t mess up the cap because he doesn’t write contracts nor does he manage the cap.
If you want to say he’s a good head coach NOW, I’ll agree. He still has his warts, however. His coaching lost them a chance at going to the SB last year, for example. But pretending that he didn’t spend a lot of time perfecting his craft under a HoF HC before he became one himself is ignoring all evidence. He needed time to become what he is now. And it’s not realistic to think that a ~35 yr old (who was an intern 4-5 years ago) would be cut out for being a HC in the NFL. And he wasn’t and it’s why no one hired him until he had the knowledge and ability to be a HC. Which he got in the 6 years working in New Orleans.
I get what you’re saying but here’s why I’m disagreeing with you. While the cap can be manipulated where you’re going to be under (ie: roster bonuses that don’t affect the cap, extensions, etc) Grier is trying to build the team through free agency instead of the draft, which is detrimental to the team’s long term success. And because he’s having to manipulate the cap, Ross is constantly having to crack open his checkbook to pay bonuses, causing players to no longer have incentive…they’re already paid. This is why Grier has a problem with the cap, why he’s a poor GM and why Campbell would never have survived as a head coach here.
I agree that Grier needs to draft better and is more dependent on FA’s, but our cap situation is no worse than the Lions. All caps need to be manipulated if you want to compete. And all teams that “hit” on a QB are going to have a large portion of that cap going towards that QB. The Lions didn’t hit on a QB in the draft, though, right? They got theirs via FA. And as such, their QB has an even bigger cap hit next year than Tua. Well, until each team manipulates their contracts, again.
But what did the Lions trade? Pretty much straight up…we’ll give you LA Rams Matthew Stafford and you give us Jared Goff. Negligible salary comparison. And I can’t agree with you about the Dolphins being in no worse than the Lions. Certainly you are right, the Dolphins can extend here, restructure there, signing bonuses etc which will get them well under the cap. I’m not worried about that…I worry that the Dolphins have to do that. Status quo in Miami for years and it’s not been effective in the least building a consistent long winning franchise.
I wouldn't call the trade "straight up" in any world. The Lions got this (via the picks they also received from the Rams): QB Jared Goff CB Ifeatu Melifonwu (2021 3rd-round pick) WR Jameson Williams (2022 1st-round pick) DL Josh Paschal (2022 2nd-round pick) RB Jahmyr Gibbs (2023 1st-round pick) TE Sam LaPorta (2023 2nd-round pick) DT Brodric Martin (2023 3rd-round pick) The Lions received Goff and 3 picks..2 1st rounders and one 3rd round pick. Which their GM then turned into 6 picks. The Rams got a Stafford and a SB. The Lions have surrounded Goff with enough talent to have a very good team. I think the RESULTS of the trade has ended "straight up" (Super Bowl win vs NFL Super Bowl Favs) Saying all of that.. Melifonwu is an UFA (Going to command a high salary this upcoming year) Williams has one more year on his rookie contract, then his 5th yr option, until he hits FA (Unless he's signed before then), and he just had a 1,000 yard breakout season. If he plays that way next year he's getting paid. Paschal isn't a world beater, but he's going to get a new contract or else be traded...and he's good enough that he won't be cheap. This doesn't factor in to the fact that Goff is 30 yrs old, on his second team, and his 2026 cap hit is nearly $70m. Their "window" is closing...right? Probably not because the cap is too fungible. The Lions, like all 32 NFL teams, have to restructure, extend, etc. If the Dolphins have been good at one thing since Grier has been here, it's salary cap management. As far as that is concerned, it's a push between these two teams. When it comes to their respective GM's bringing in football players...the Lions have the advantage.
Grier's inability to draft leads to problems everywhere, because not only is he trying to sign and trade for high priced veterans, but he's also then forced to sign aging players at the end of their careers and street free agents that no one really wants in order to fill holes and add depth. Here are the top tacklers on defense this past year who were drafted by Miami. J Holland 62 C Robinson 26 C Smith 16 J Phillips 6 C Tindall 5 No one else had more than a single tackle all year long. 20 of the top 23 tacklers on the defense were not drafted by the team. No one drafted by the team made a single interception or recorded a defensive fumble recovery. All told, only six drafted players on the whole team started more than 4 games on the year, on both sides of the ball. And I'm sure if you were to do a snap count of everyone, they would be in the small minority as well. Further complicating matters is that the players Grier drafts tend to be brittle, with the six that did start more than four games combining to miss 20. Rather than selectively adding to a dependable core, they end up patching and gluing the team together at the seams year after year, with an incredible amount of turnover, leading to a lack of cohesion at every level.
