Joe Philbin was out of his depth, but Dolphins' failures are on owner
Dolphins owner Stephen Ross routinely botches coaching hires, demonstrated by Joe Philbin. The organization -- still full of folks from past failures -- is at a crossroads with whoever it picks to run things on the field.
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6 min read
Firing an NFL head coach four games into a season -- especially one that began with renewed hopes and expectations -- is a complete organizational failure from the top down. Let's make no mistake about that, and start right there.
As history has shown, there is little chance of real short-term gain. In the case of Joe Philbin and the Miami Dolphins -- his firing probably was inevitable when he got a nominal contract extension in the spring -- more than anything it crystallized how owner Stephen Ross has mismanaged this most important position. And if the past remains a precursor to the future, it provides little hope much will change around this perpetually middling franchise.
Philbin always was a curious choice for the Dolphins, made even more curious when empowered into a fourth (doomed) season. Ross' loyalty to Philbin was a fault. It continued despite the team continually failing down the stretch, despite the Jonathan Martin fiasco and despite even ending his blind loyalty to embattled former GM Jeff Ireland. Ross chose to champion the dangling coach at a natural time to clean out the entire dysfunctional coaching and football staff. It results in a new nadir for what was once one of the NFL's signature organizations.
It would have made sense to part with Philbin after a disappointing 2014 campaign, especially when everyone in the NFL knew by about Thanksgiving of last year that Ross advisor Mike Tannenbaum would take over the football operations full time. And everyone knew Tannenbaum, then still a coaching agent, had as a client one of the most-coveted head coaching candidates in the NFL in Dan Quinn, the Seattle defensive coordinator who became Atlanta's potential rock star coach after the Super Bowl.
But instead, Philbin got a one-year "extension" that was no mandate but a way to try to deflect lame-duck talk. Miami's brutal start, punctuated by a total lack of production from every key player not named Jarvis Landry or Brent Grimes, thrust Philbin on to a very real hot seat by Week 3, and cost him his job after an indifferent loss to the rival Jets.
That's no way to run a franchise. As long as Ross spends the bulk of his time in New York as an absentee landlord, except for game days, and continues to botch how he staffs his team, nothing will change. Fundamental alterations in how he wields power and to whom he defers are in order. Tannenbaum, whose offseason moves I generally thought were on point, suddenly has his work cut out because the Dolphins are in full-on crisis mode with three months of football remaining. They absolutely have to get this next hire right. Ross simply must learn from all of his past mistakes. Finally.
Just contemplate how he ended up here.
A late foray into the Jim Harbaugh sweepstakes in 2010 resulted in egg on his face when a covert flight to the coach's Bay Area home was anything but. So as Ross and then-top consultant Carl Peterson tried to woo Harbaugh, offering big money, with stumbling Tony Sparano under contract as his coach, of course word got out and of course Harbaugh went elsewhere (it was going to be Ann Arbor, where he is now, or take the 49ers job, which he did). So then he rewards Sparano, whom he could have fired with everyone finding it a sane decision, with a contract extension after striking out on his big prize.
An all-out pursuit of Jeff Fisher in 2012 -- who long seemed obviously headed to St. Louis what with Fisher's agent, Marv Demoff, having a son named Kevin who happens to be the Rams' team president -- again left Ross second-best, at best.
Ross could have stuck with upstart coordinator Todd Bowles, who quickly earned the players' respect at the end of the previous season as Sparano's interim replacement and finally instilled a tough defensive mindset long lacking as a successful interim coach (yes, that sometimes actually happens). Bowles would have been a great hire, but Ross passed. Ross could have gone with the hot offensive coordinator candidate at the time, as well, Denver's Mike McCoy, who was a finalist and prepared to take the job (he's doing quite well for himself coaching the Chargers).
Instead, he chose Philbin. And a clash between coaching and football operations ensued. Ireland eventually lost a power struggle with top aide Dawn Aponte switching over to Team Philbin. And to this day, despite long ago parting with former football czar Bill Parcells, remnants of Parcells' football family tree are all over the building. There has never been an organizational purge from that Parcells tenure, and without it, some rival execs question whether the Dolphins will take that next step.
Philbin failed to finish above .500 in any season and finished 24-28 in Miami, but that mediocrity also is a symptom of the larger organizational issues. He is a good and decent man who generally endears himself to others, but lacks the dynamic bent and experience this job screams for. All this while, quarterback Ryan Tannehill, who Philbin was brought in to develop, continues to offer more questions than answers about exactly who he will be (my best guess is Alex Smith is the high-water comparable).
The answer to Miami's problems is not on this current staff, and there will be a complete purge once this team is done limping through what's almost certain to be a lost season. That's a lost season that had better include figuring out a way to motivate, reach, or scheme up Ndamukong Suh as more than a $20M-per-season passenger, determining who (if anyone) is a true locker-room leader, culling something more from Tannehill and spending as much time evaluating and parsing though coaching prospects as possible.
Who are the coaching candidates?
Many NFL execs have long expected Tannenbaum to turn to former Jets coach and colleague Eric Mangini in 2016. Mangini also has ties to Ross, but with the 49ers defense struggling mightily with Mangini as its coordinator and that team in distress, it would be an awfully hard sell in South Beach. Sean Payton, another Parcells protégé who many believe will be ready for a change from New Orleans by 2016, would the sexy pick Ross has long sought, and few are better with quarterbacks.
Attempts to lure Jon Gruden in the past have gone nowhere, sources said, and I can't fathom that changes now. Nick Saban might be tempted back to the NFL ... but a return to Miami? Nope. Going with another unproven coordinator probably wouldnt move the needle enough for Ross, either.
So as much as Ross' team-issued statement speaks calling it a "tough decision" to let a quality individual like Philbin go, and as much as it is always uncomfortable to fire someone, the truth is, this was the easy part. Admitting defeat regarding this era of Dolphins coaching after showing too much patience is a bitter pill, and doing so in the first week of October is even more unsettling. It doesn't come without consternation. But it pales in comparison to the degree of difficulty required to hire the right coach and build a winning organization, and nothing speaks more strongly to that than Ross' own tangled history of attempting to do just that.
For more on the state of the Dolphins, listen in to Pete Prisco, Brady Quinn and Pat Kirwan's discussion on the mess in Miami. Subscribe to Roughing the Passer here for the latest episodes.
