Dolphins Issues Start At The Top With Owner Stephen Ross

   

Last Sunday, following the Miami Dolphins’ loss in their regular-season finale to the New York Jets, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross released a statement announcing that they were retaining general manager Chris Grier and head coach Mike McDaniel for the 2025 season. The news didn’t sit well with fans of the team, such as myself, who were hoping for some changes. However, can we really be surprised by this, as Ross is clueless as an NFL owner?

Dolphins Owner Wants Players to Stand During Anthem | Fortune

Ross has done many good things in his ownership tenure, such as renovating Joe Robbie’s stadium and upgrading the practice fields and the facilities. However, the one thing that he has failed is overseeing a good product on the field. Ross fails to see what we see as fans, and that’s a problem. Running it back with Grier and McDaniel, I feel, is kicking the can down the road, and we will be back here next year, and Ross will probably make a change a year too late. I hope I am wrong by this, but I don’t think so, especially when you consider Ross’ history with this franchise when it comes to getting things right football-wise. 

Ross became the majority owner of the Dolphins in 2009. He inherited Bill Parcells as head of football operations, general manager Jeff Ireland, and head coach Tony Sparano. The trio worked together for Ross’ first season, but then, just before the 2010 season, Parcells walked away on his own. The Dolphins finished the season with a disappointing 7-9. Though Sparano was his coach, Ross decided to court Jim Harbaugh to be his head coach with Ireland, but Sparano found out about it and it created an embarrassing moment for the franchise.

First, Harbaugh turned down the opportunity to coach the Dolphins. Then, Ireland and Sparano’s relationship deteriorated to the point that they didn’t speak to one another. Ross gave Sparano another year, but fired him mid-way through the 2011 season. The problem I have with that is if Ross wanted to change the head coach, then why didn’t he just fire Sparano?

I don’t think anyone would have been surprised because normally, when you have a change in ownership, they inherit the people they work with and eventually will want to bring in their own people. However, Ross went about it wrong, and the Dolphins had a very turbulent off-season. He should have made the change in 2010, but instead, it became an embarrassment for this proud franchise. 

Ross retained Ireland as general manager in 2012 and had a coaching search. He tried to get the best candidate at the time that off season in Jeff Fisher, but he declined and took the offer to be head coach of the then St. Louis Rams. He hired Joe Philbin to be his coach, who no one had ever heard of, frankly, and wasn’t a hot commodity. He was an assistant with the Green Bay Packers. 

Then, in the middle of the 2013 season. There was the Bully Gate scandal, with guard Richie Incognito bullying second-year offensive lineman Jonathan Martin, who left the team. It was an embarrassing moment for the team again. Yet, Philbin didn’t know of this going on in the locker room of his own team.

How was that possible? The head coach should know what is going on with their own team from all angles, and it was a strong warning that Philbin wasn’t a fit leader of the franchise. Ross fired Ireland but retained Philbin. That was his chance to start all over with a new general manager and head coach, but Ross failed to see what was going on he basically turned a blind eye to the situation when it’s clear Philbin was clueless about the problems in his own locker room. 

Ross conducted a general manager search and offered the job to at least three candidates Ray Farmer, Eric De Costa, and Nick Caserio. The problem was each candidate wanted to fire Philbin and have their own head coach rather than work with him for a year and evaluate after that. Most likely because they all knew Philbin wasn’t fit to be a head coach.

Ross balked and said he was the owner and he would decide on the head coach. Another bad sign was that three respected candidates wanted a different head coach, and Ross didn’t take the clue, so he hired someone else who would listen to him in Dennis Hickey, rather than someone who wasn’t afraid to disagree with Ross and come to a compromise. That partnership lasted two years. 

Then Mike Tannenbaum took over as vice president of football operations in 2015 and basically undermined Hickey and his general manager title, so in 2016, Grier was promoted to general manager and had the final say in the draft. Wait what??? That made no sense to me. Just say Tannenbaum had the final say because, basically, he was. The Dolphins then hired Adam Gase as head coach, and after a playoff appearance in 2016, his first season, things went south in a hurry to the point that Ross fired Gase and Tannenbaum. 

However, Ross kept Grier and gave him full control of the franchise as a loyal employee since 2000. The problem I had with that is Grier had been with the team for almost two decades and, despite working his way up the ladder in the franchise, must have had some say in the decisions, which weren’t good, but Ross wanted a yes man as a general manager. Plus, they were going to do a tank or rebuild and get rid of higher-paid players and build the team through the draft, which frankly was needed, but it was suggested by Ross’ CEO Tom Garfinkel and not Grier, who went along with it. The Dolphins also hired Brian Flores as head coach. 

Flores was the head coach for three seasons and, despite a talent deficiency on offense, had back-to-back seasons at .500 in 2020 and 2021. However, trouble was brewing behind the scenes, as Flores was burning bridges with the front office and changing staff on the offensive side of the ball, which didn’t help him. Ross decided to fire Flores because he wanted collaboration with the franchise and not discontent.

Ross hired an unknown head coach in McDaniel from the San Francisco 49ers who was an offensive-minded coach but was the total opposite of Flores. Flores was a disciplinarian who ran a tight ship, but McDaniel was more of a players-friendly coach. The Dolphins made some aggressive trades for players, such as Tyreek Hill, Bradley Chubb, and Jalen Ramsey, and the Dolphins made the playoffs in 2022 and 2023 but didn’t win a single playoff game. 

The problem in 2023 was that the Dolphins went into the last month of the season with a 9-3 record and a three-game lead in the division over the Buffalo Bills. However, the Dolphins collapsed in the final month, and the Bills took the division title from the Dolphins in the regular season finale in Miami. The Dolphins also struggled down the stretch in 2022, so there were some warning signs there. On top of that, McDaniel had an undisciplined team, and his playcalling was very questionable.

The Dolphins went into last off-season tight against the cap, and Grier hadn’t been as proactive in getting some of his younger players, such as Christian Wilkins, Robert Hunt, and others, to contracts and lost most of them in free agency. Grier then signed some older and lesser talented players, such as Jordan Poyer and Benito Jones. The Dolphins got older. They also didn’t have the draft picks in 2022 and 2023 to combat their free-agent losses due to Grier’s aggressive deals. Fans like teams to be aggressive, but when results don’t come, they can come back to bite you.

In the preseason, it was clear the Dolphins lacked a backup quarterback and had an issue with the offensive line, and Grier, along with McDaniel, didn’t do anything.

The Dolphins eeked out an opening-day win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, but then the season went downhill fast. First, an embarrassing showing against the Bills on a Thursday night game in week 2 in which quarterback Tua Tagovaila got hurt with a concussion and cost him a month. The Dolphins started 2-6 and were dreadful in many areas on the field. The team was undisciplined, play calling by McDaniel was questionable again, players were late to meetings, McDaniel continued to be clueless on challenges, and the team didn’t compete against good teams. In all, the Dolphins finished 8-9, and yet Ross feels the need to run it back. 

He is totally clueless, and once again, the warning signs are there, but he is refusing to make a change. I feel like this franchise is going to be stuck in mediocrity with Ross as owner unless he is willing to make changes when the signs are there. Another thing is that it’s ok for him to hire someone who doesn’t agree with him. It’s not a bad thing to disagree with someone and have a different thing. You can’t just hire someone to agree with the way you want things or take the advice of your right-hand man. He needs to find a football guy that will give him straight and honest answers. Not a yes guy because that’s what Grier is as a general manager. He also needs a coach who is willing to make changes to his approach and be tough on his players. McDaniel said he fined players and didn’t get anywhere.

Of course, it won’t. Players are making millions of dollars. Do you think fining them four figures or whatever it is will work? No, because that money is pocket change to them. McDaniel’s admission that players are tardy is a bad look on him and should raise a red flag to Ross.