I preference this article with the statement that I’m happy with Brian Flores as Miami’s head coach, I also was happy with Adam Gase despite his obvious immaturity issues, I still think that he will eventually be a very good coach if they don’t run him out of New York.
As we get to know our new coaches there’s always some positives and some negatives and even some ticks that you can pick up from these men.
Brian Flores is no exception, he has a similar irritating tick that Tony Sparano the former head coach of the Dolphins had, when they talk they always say “alright” every few words.
The accomplishments of the Dolphins this past off season, even though they only won five games, was huge because of the Lowered expectations of the team.
Major goals that they established was to establish a winning culture, create an identity and get the best out of the players that they can. And we all can say job well done Brian Flores.
There were rumors of tanking and considering how they started off the season, it seemed at one point that those lowerd expectations would be met.
Somewhere around the midway point of the season the Dolphins begin to turn the tables and actually ended up winning five of the last nine games.
Once again with a successful first season many tend to give a head coach too much credit and also want to give them too much power and power can have a corrupting influence.
I like the makeup of this team, I feel both Brian Flores and GM Chris Grier are a perfect match and will have great success working together.
But there are some flaws and that’s what this article is about, in specific the flaws of head coach Brian Flores.
I’ll contribute these flaws to being new to the head coaching ranks and there’s going to obviously be mistakes made there will be some growing pains and some maturing,, hopefully it won’t tear the team apart
Let’s highlight the flaws
Let’s go back to just before the beginning of the regular season when out of the blue Brian Flores fires then offensive line coach Pat Flaherty one week into training camp by expressing concern about the lack of communication and cohesiveness he had witnessed from the Miami Dolphins offensive line, this was a person that Brian Flores brought in with him.
He replaced Pat Flaherty with then consultant Dave DeGuglielmo remember this move, more in this later…
This was a curious move, one unexpected that came out of the blue and it could not have been at a worse time because the season would soon be starting.
It took just about the whole season for the offensive line to begin to play decent.
One of the biggest decisions that needed to be made for the season was who was going to be the starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins, even though Josh Rosen looked good during the preseason, It was aparent that veteran quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick was the better option to start the season for Miami.
After three of the most lopsided losses in Dolphins history to start the season, Josh Rosen was named the starter against the Chargers in week 4. The week before he actually replaced Ryan Fitzpatrick in the Dallas game and played more minutes but for the first time he was named the starter against the Chargers.
After two games there were questions about whether or not Josh Rosen should remain the starter because he was ill prepared to be the starting quarterback and it was obvious he was like a deer in the headlights but nonetheless this is what Brian Flores said regarding Josh Rosen.
Brian Flores said that Wednesday before the start of the Washington game… “The quarterback position has been “settled” and indicated that, barring anything unforeseen taking place, Rosen would be his starter for the rest of the season”
By the end of that Washington game Ryan Fitzpatrick had been reinserted as the starter and remained the starter for the rest of the season.
The Dolphins had a tumultuous season but at the same time they seem to get better each and every week offensively and defensively and both the offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator seem to have settled in and was getting on track with their units.
After A very successful second half of the season where the Dolphins won five of their last nine games many of us seemed to think that everything was good with Brian Flores and his staff.
It all culminated with a win against the New England Patriots in New England, in a game that was meaningful for them, they needed to have that game to get a bye and rest themselves to make a playoff run. In fact the word out of New England was coach Bill Belichick was calling that game a playoff game.
The Dolphins upset New England 27 to 24.
Many of us heaped praised upon the coaching staff and the job they had done and in no way did we expect what came next.
A day after such an exciting upset win in New England Brian Flores fires offense coordinator Chad O’Shea and also his replacedment offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo who he brought in to replace Pat Flaherty who he fired if you remember just before the beginning of the season.
Some rumors are that there was a mutual parting of ways between Dave DeGuglielmo and the Dolphins just to be fair.
We were all blindsided by the firing of Chad O’Shea and I still do not agree with that decision.
There’s also the mysterious case of Jim Caldwell who seemed to walk away from the Dolphins and is looking for an offensive coordinator job with another team despite still being listed working for the Dolphins.
The reason why Minkah Fitzpatrick did not want to stay in Miami he kind of alluded to the way he was treated in Miami in an interview with ESPN shortly after the trade.
And as of the writing of this article the New York Giants new head coach (also a Patriot disciple) has put in a request to interview our current defensive coordinator for their defensive coordinator position and rumor has it the Dolphins might grant it.
These are some disturbing trends that’s going to cause problems for Brian Flores when it comes to hiring coaches, there’s obviously a problem with Brian Flores personality, he’s a hothead, he is extremely driven and probably because of his lack of experience maybe a little too hard on both players and coaches.
He does possess leadership qualities that one needs to be a head coach, you have to be an alpha dog to be in his position, the question is is that dog a killer dog or a disciplined, trained companion?
Hopefully Brian Flores will mature into his position the only question is does he recognize that he may need some seasoning.
The Dolphin Seer 