Dolphins vice chairman, president and CEO Tom Garfinkel (left), proprietor Steve Ross (heart) and companion Bruce Beal (proper) have a plan for a brand new head coach. It entails making normal supervisor Chris Grier even stronger. (AP Photograph/Doug Murray)
It's apparent now: The Miami Dolphins don’t desire a head coach. They need an offensive coordinator to name a head coach. They need a diminished chief within the conventional sense as a result of their nice group will lead the group.
The Dolphins, briefly, wish to give the keys of the franchise to normal supervisor Chris Grier in a approach like by no means earlier than — and a approach he’s by no means earned or needed. That’s as a result of they’re satisfied they’re near contending.
I child you not.
That’s Plan A, anyhow, and it goes like this:
1. Re-define Tua Tagovailoa as The Man now that bad-guy Brian Flores is gone;
2. Preserve the outdated defensive workers, if attainable, so this rising protection retains rising;
3. Make investments the dwindling draft worth, a lot of the $70 million in free-agent cash and signal just a few therapists to heal this damaged offense;
4. Rent an offensive coordinator and name him a head coach.
That’s it. That’s the general public Plan A. That was the concept even earlier than Brian Daboll took the New York Giants job on Friday. They had been in no hurry to get his second interview carried out. And why ought to they be?
The reply: The group issues, not the coach, in Plan A — or, effectively, this all dovetails right into a contrarian Plan B. That is how Dolphins proprietor Steve Ross can flip this right into a win. It additionally would clarify why the Dolphins are slow-cooking this teaching search.
It’s additionally the way in which College of Michigan proprietor Steve Ross denied proper from the beginning: Go rent Jim Harbaugh.
The whisper is that after Wednesday’s signing day for highschool recruits the Michigan coach will likely be open to speaking. That means speaking to the Dolphins. That means they’ve talked in some kind. Minnesota has approached Harbaugh already, Professional Soccer Discuss reported. Hmm.
Somebody with the Dolphins once more not too long ago denied Harbaugh was on the desk as emphatically as Ross did weeks in the past. However right here’s a legitimate query: If different groups can rent Harbaugh, why shouldn’t the Dolphins? Why ought to they be penalized as a result of the proprietor is a Michigan man?
However let’s keep on with Plan A, the one the Dolphins are publicly following for now, the one the place Dallas offensive coordinator Kellen Moore and San Francisco’s offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel are scheduled for second interviews this coming week.
Every is likely to be a very good thoughts, a rising hope. However a head coach within the conventional sense? A lion tamer within the method any head coach needs to be?
Moore remains to be explaining that final play towards San Francisco that ended the Dallas season. He’s by no means coordinated a playoff win. He did, nonetheless, assist develop quarterback Dak Prescott and direct a star-studded Cowboys offense to steer the league in scoring this season. Can he convey his receivers with him?
McDaniel’s position in San Francisco is extra nebulous. It’s coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense, Shanahan’s group. McDaniel is a behind-the-scene savant, as folks describe it. He brings successful concepts. He appears to be like like thick-glasses actor Rick Moranis. He’s good because the man behind The Man. Can he be The Man?
All this reverts to the identical thought in Plan A: The following coach will likely be a glorified offensive coordinator — Adam Gase with none say on the quarterback or hiring his workers. That’s as a result of the group of Ross, Grier and group president Tom Garfinkel has carried out such a bang-up job they’re near contending.
Once more: That is what they’re pondering.
It’s not clear who Tua is aside from the man they’re doubling down on. That’s partly as a result of they’ve short-changed Tua (or solely Flores did if you happen to comply with the bread crumbs).
It’s additionally as a result of there’s no good choice this offseason. And, no, troubled Houston quarterback Deshaun Watson isn’t a very good choice. Backside-line: Necessity is the mom of doubling down on Tua.
Subsequent problem: Does defensive coordinator Josh Boyer and his workers keep in place? And is that this protection on a contending course if it does? And why would any potential coach value his bones take a job the place the workers is already set?
There’s a deadly query inside that query, in fact: With out Flores, who oversaw the protection greater than he needed to let on, is that this the identical good protection of the final half of this season?
Past Tua and the defensive workers, the brand new coach has to purchase into Grier, too. Actually purchase into him. So do you in following this group.
Let’s pause right here to let a shiver run by way of Dolphins followers.
Sixty % of any GM’s job is getting the correct quarterback. Grier handed on Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert, to call just a few. He spent a second-round decide buying and selling for Josh Rosen. Sufficient stated?
For 13 years underneath Ross, the Dolphins preserve inventing new methods to run a company. The tank-for-tomorrow idea was the newest. They thought it was impressed. It proved incompetent. They’re again in the identical place.
Now they’re taking their time and offensive coordinators to fit into the group they really feel is near contending relatively than lead it. Do you are feeling any tingle of hope? Only a shiver down your backbone?
Or are you trying on the horizon, hoping the supposed long-shot Plan B and Harbaugh explains all of this growing nonsense?