Dolphins proprietor Steve Ross and fired coach Brian Flores are lawyered up over Flores’ lawsuit. However the prime soccer downside with the Dolphins hasn’t modified.
It’s all the time one thing with the Miami Dolphins. They’re on a treadmill of mediocrity or they’re tanking for tomorrow or their tank was torched by a coach who received an excessive amount of. That final one is the newest narrative put out by the fired coach himself, Brian Flores.
Flores alleges workforce proprietor Steve Ross supplied him $100,000 for every loss in 2019 so the workforce might get the No. 1 draft choose. Flores received sufficient to get the fifth choose. Ross loudly refuted the game-fixing declare. Everybody’s lawyered up.
That is the cloud over the franchise, simply because it as soon as was Bullygate, and as soon as was a cocaine-sniffing assistant coach. It all the time has been one thing throughout Ross’ tenure. However let’s be clear about Tankgate. It’s not why the Dolphins’ soccer future is unsure now or throughout Flores’ time. Hold your eye on the ball right here.
The issue wasn’t the housecleaning.
It was the housecleaners.
It didn’t matter that the Dolphins missed on the No. 1 choose and quarterback Joe Burrow due to Flores’ successful. They nonetheless had an opportunity at one other Burrow. They sat at No. 5 and normal supervisor Chris Grier handed on Justin Herbert. And Miami took an injured Tua Tagovailoa as an alternative.
There’s the central, on-field downside of the Dolphins for years, the one which retains repeating itself with misses on Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Herbert after they had the possibility. The Dolphins can’t acknowledge the one participant who can change a franchise: The nice quarterback prospect.
Perhaps no workforce can. Perhaps some simply get fortunate throwing darts. However look what occurs to the abilities who discover these abilities. Kansas Metropolis scout Brett Veach observed Patrick Mahomes as a sophomore. He began sending video of Mahomes to Kansas Metropolis coach Andy Reid.
“He was as nice then as he's now,” mentioned Veach on the Tremendous Bowl two years in the past. By then he was the Kansas Metropolis normal supervisor.
Buffalo assistant normal supervisor Joe Schoen noticed Wyoming successful with Allen earlier than enjoying a winless San Jose workforce with out Allen. Wyoming misplaced. After which received once more when Allen returned.
“They had been successful due to him,” Schoen mentioned.
He pounded the desk for Buffalo to draft Allen. It did in 2018. Two weeks in the past, Schoen was named normal supervisor of the New York Giants.
For the following decade, the AFC title appears to be like like it should undergo Mahomes, Allen, Burrow, Jackson and Herbert. None is older than Mahomes’ 26. All however Burrow had been accessible in drafts the Dolphins had been on the lookout for quarterbacks — or ought to have been.
Herbert was there for the Dolphins — regardless of if Ross supplied Flores $100,000 to lose for the No. 1 choose or not. The Chargers had the worst-rated offensive line and fired their teaching employees when he broke the rookie landing and completion data. It had the Thirtieth-ranked scoring protection and a coach whose goofy selections price them the playoffs this season.
Herbert had some good offensive expertise to direct the fifth-scoring offense this season. So Herbert isn’t in a dysfunctional group like Tua is within the Dolphins. He’s simply in a nasty one.
Tagovailoa is usually a good quarterback with extra assist. Can he be amongst these 5 quarterbacks? That’s what the Dolphins wish to hear from teaching candidates Mike McDaniel and Kellen Moore this weekend. It’s the narrative they let leak to set this offseason earlier than all of the discuss turned about Flores and his flammable lawsuit.
The discrimination fees are the nationwide headline of the lawsuit. The sport-fixing fees in opposition to Ross are the native headline. They’ll be a narrative for months, lengthy after the Dolphins rent a coach, lengthy after they begin coaching camp with one other rebuilt workforce.
Whether or not Ross made the $100,000 supply to Flores or not, the central truth doesn’t change: The Dolphins didn’t want the No. 1 choose that 12 months. They'd the fifth. Do they plead the fifth if requested this beneath oath?
It’s not the tank that went fallacious.
It was Grier selecting the fallacious man.