From Skepticism?…To Optimism!

Just about a year ago, when the Dolphins announced that they were hiring Brian Flores, I was truly skeptical of that decision because in my mind it was another first time NFL head coach who’s going to get OJT and turn around and get fired probably in two years, mind you I had no clue who he was before his name was being mentioned as Adam Gase’s replacement but I was soured by the rash of first time head coaches this team has gone through with just about Zero success. In my mind he just was not going to be successful especially with the history of this team, boy was I wrong!

Let me back up and say that for sure Brian Flores’ first season was a success in fact a little more than I wanted and hoped for but none the less the Coach did his job well in season one.

We all know the story, we’ve been down this road before, what once seemed promising one year turns into a disaster the following years, that’s been the Dolphins story for the past two decades.

The last good head coach the Dolphins had that did something was Jimmy Johnson in his short tenure as the Dolphins head coach before he retired. After Jimmy Johnson retired there’s been a series of bad coaching hires or a bad combination of general manager and coaching that did not work well together.

Dave Wannstedt
Nick Saban
Cam Cameron
Tony Sparano
Joe Philbin
Adam Gase

Every one of these former coaches disappointed us in some fashion:

Dave Wannstedt (42-31) Don’t let his record fool you he destroyed the Dolphins for years, poor trades and drafts, mismanagement of the best RB in Dolphins history, Wannstedt inherited a great Defense from Jimmy Johnson that carried that team until Dave destroyed it.
Nick Saban (15-17) was a great hire but did not stay around long enough to turn Miami into a contender. (See his Alabama History)
Cam Cameron (1-15) almost took the Dolphins to a win-less season.
Tony Sparano (29-32) Not really head coach material.
Joe Philbin (24-28) Also not really head coach material.
Adam Gase (23-25) was/is extremely immature.

Miami has gone through 6 head coaches in just about 20 years as Brian Flores make the 7th head coach in that span (not counting the 3 interim coaches) and it frustrated me when they announced the hiring of Brian Flores at the time because of the history of the coaching carousel dealing with inexperienced first time NFL coaches.

Why does this time seem to finally be right?

It’s a combination of the entire structure on the management side of the team and how it was finally done right. A big part of past failures have been due to not having the structure in place to succeed, we had GM’s that had no power over the head coach as the owner allowed to much authority to different people on the management side instead of appointing one person to be in charge.

Dysfunction was the outcome as infighting often occurred because to many people had the owners ear and could undermined the person that should have been in charge. Even as recently as the end of last year before Stephen Ross finally did the right thing there were too many Chefs in the kitchen and now that GM Chris Grier has been named the ONLY Chef that reports/answers to the owner things finally seem to be functional and headed in the right direction as both the management team and coaching staff seems to all be on the same page moving in the same direction. At least it appears to be.

Brian Flores has won the hearts and trust of many Dolphins Fans and deservedly so. Chris Grier has stocked this team with resources that should pay huge dividends down the road as they work towards building a contender in Miami, things finally seem to be headed in that direction.

It appears we have reached the end of that long tunnel as there seems to be a bright light ahead!

Fins Up!