WTF is Miami Doing?
I am seething with anger. I am full of rage. I have never been more angry at the Miami Dolphins than today. How do you fire Brian Flores and keep Chris Grier? This team is rudderless and clueless. This organization is run by idiots and morons and clearly has a plan just to spin their wheels in perpetuity. For two decades, the Dolphins have been the revolving door of coaches and quarterbacks. That is assured to continue with the Dolphins' idiocy today in dismissing a great coach in Brian Flores.
Did Brian Flores get the Dolphins to the playoffs? No, but he had them going in the right direction; he had a team that would run through walls for their coach; he had a coach that players wanted to play for. He had a coach that turned the Dolphins' defense into one of the best in the NFL, led by Xavien Howard, who had a knack for causing turnovers. He did this while handicapped by a quarterback who cannot throw the ball more than ten yards and an offensive line that gets pushed around like a shopping cart, with a running back in Myles Gaskins, who averages one yard per carry. The fact that Duke Johnson excelled the last month and Gaskins continued to struggle shows the offensive deficiencies that were not Flores' fault.
Brian Flores took over a team in 2019 that was the worst in the NFL. A team that was built to tank for the future, a team that was stripped down to lose. The Dolphins lost their first four games by a combined score of 161-26. Including a 43-0 loss to the Patriots. The Dolphins, though played better as the season ended, they won five of their last nine games, including a controversial loss to the Jets on a phantom pass interference call that was made after a replay challenge, during the silly days when you can conjure up a PI call on replay. The Dolphins finished 5-11 and were still able to draft Tua Tagovailoa.
In Flores' second season with the Dolphins, he was burdened with building around a rookie quarterback. Tua Tagovailoa had been the quarterback the Dolphins wanted from the start. He had success at Alabama, but he had a broken hip. He needed to rebuild and recover while impressing at the draft combine. Tua was picked fifth overall. However, Brian Flores had wanted to pick Justin Herbert and a more traditional pocket passer with a big arm. After a 1-3 start, the Dolphins made strides at 3-3, when Tua Tagovailoa was named the starter. They finished the season at 10-6. However, Tua was a detriment; often, games were rescued when Brian Flores, a smart coach surrounded by an ocean of idiots in the Dolphins front office, brought in Ryan Fitzpatrick in relief. The season's final game in Buffalo was where the season fell apart as Tua was awful and Fitzpatrick was unable to play.
That brings us to 2021. The Dolphins won the season opener in Foxboro, beating the Patriots in a battle of Alabama quarterbacks. This was Tua Tagovailoa's team as Fitzpatrick was allowed to leave after the 2020 season. The Dolphins had Jacoby Brissett as the backup, a player that will never be confused as a capable starting quarterback. In the home opener, Miami was embarrassed, losing to the Buffalo Bills 35-0 as Tua injured his ribs. Tagovailoa missed the next four games as the Dolphins season began to unravel. They would lose seven straight as rumors of a Deshaun Watson trade hungover South Florida like a lingering storm.
The Dolphins were 1-7 as November began, and Tua missed another game with an injury as I watched them beat the Houston Texans in a battle of rudderless teams. Four days later, they beat the Ravens, sending Baltimore reeling as Tua came on in the second half. The Dolphins turned things around over the next two months, becoming the first team to win seven straight games after losing seven straight. They had a chance to get into the playoffs after their 1-7 start as the players did not quit, and the reason they did not quit is Brian Flores. The winning streak ended because of Tua Tagovailoa, who again failed when the playoffs were in reach. It was raining, and the ball slipped out of his hands as all of his passes were off target.
The Dolphins ended the season with a 33-24 win over the Patriots to finish 9-8. It was the first time that the Dolphins had consecutive winning seasons since 2003. From 1970-2003, the Dolphins only had two losing seasons. Since then, the Dolphins have had five seasons in which they won more than they have lost. Two of those seasons were with Brian Flores at the helm, the man the Dolphins fired today. Brian Flores was 4-2 against Bill Belichick, including a sweep in 2021. It is the first time that Miami swept the Patriots since 2000. This is the coach the Dolphins fired.
Brian Flores was given an offense that could not succeed by Chris Grier. They had an offensive line that was pushed around like a shopping cart. They have a quarterback who cannot throw more than ten yards, and they had a cache of draft picks. Still, Grier was incapable of picking the right players as he counted on Myles Gaskins, the worst running back, and Tua Tagovailoa, a certified bust, and expected Flores to win. Brian Flores knew that Tua was not the answer, which is why he was fired.
Brian Flores wanted the Dolphins to pursue Aaron Rodgers or Russel Wilson in the offseason. Now they won't. They will stick with Tua, who will continue to fail. Only now, Tua's failure will be with a bad coach, and a defense that will not be as good as Xavien Howard will likely be the next one to exit Miami. It will take two or three years for the idiots to realize what Brian Flores realized and that Tua Tagovailoa is not a winning quarterback, and the Dolphins will be back at square one. Meanwhile, Chris Grier will continue to emphasize quantity over quality as he can't pick his nose, let alone pick a team in the draft, as it is his offensive line that to most of the failures this season.
The Dolphins go into the offseason with a tremendous amount of cap space. This cap space could have been used to build an offensive line and sign a big quarterback that could have made the Dolphins contenders with Brian Flores. That is gone now. The Dolphins, at best next year, will win five games. I expect them to let Mike Gesicki walk because he is too good for this fraudulent team. They will also trade Xavien Howard. Brian Flores will land a job elsewhere and will be successful. They will sign a ton of mediocre players instead of a few great players who can help because that is what Chris Grier does. They will hire a terrible coach, maybe Matt Nagy, because he fits this disorganized organization perfectly.
Today's move set the Dolphins back at least five years. They will not have a winning season over the next five years. Brian Flores will land a new job and get that team to the Super Bowl. Hopefully, by the time these five years are gone, Stephen Ross, who just owns the team to rub elbows with celebrities, will have sold the team, and they will have smart people who will drain the ocean of idiots. By then, they could draft Arch Manning because they will not contend for a long time. It is a total FUBAR in Miami. I also hear Brian Flores liked the throwbacks, and Ross loving the candyass uniforms, wants to purge them forever. There is no hope.
If the Giants got some brains and hired Brian Flores, I may have to reassess my fandom. I have been asked a million times why I am a Dolphins fan. Right now, I cannot answer why, after this horrific move, this idiocy, this team that never wants to win again.