Making Sense of the Big Dolphins News

Remember the "Fire Grier Fire McDaniel" banner that flew above Hard Rock Stadium before a Miami Dolphins home game earlier this season? Well, the fan who ordered that banner got half of his/her wish Friday.

The question is whether this half-measure of moving on from GM Chris Grier — through a "mutual parting of the ways" — but keeping Mike McDaniel through the end of the 2025 regular season (per an Adam Schefter report) was enough to satisfying the ever-growing number of disgruntled fans but more importantly was the right move for the organization.

With the Dolphins now at 2-7, they're basically out of playoff contention this season, if not mathematically, then by all logic.

That means that the focus of this season should be on next season — and beyond.

That completely meshes with the idea of moving on from Grier after nine-plus seasons as general manager and more than 24 years with the organization.

But how does McDaniel fit in with an organization that logically is now focusing on the rebuildng project that awaits.

COULD McDANIEL BE THE MAN IN 2026?

The biggest remaining question in the Dolphins situation is why keep McDaniel if the team is thinking about 2026 and beyond unless McDaniel is part of those plans.

Think about it, otherwise, why would McDaniel do anything the rest of the 2025 season but try to win in the present if either he knows he's not coming back or his job security depends on the final record?

All logic suggests that once the trade deadline has passed, the Dolphins should use the rest of the 2025 season to identify those players they want around as they rebuild the roster.

That means more playing time for players who might not give the team the best chance to win at the moment.

The prime example here obviously is rookie quarterback Quinn Ewers.

With Zach Wilson signed to a one-year contract, logic says he'll be somewhere else next season and the Dolphins really would benefit from knowing as soon as possible whether Ewers is capable of being a worthy backup.

And that will come through playing time, which means having him start some games or come into games in situations other than garbage time.

But the reality is until proven otherwise it's Tua Tagovailoa who gives Miami the best chance to win games in 2025, so starting Ewers would be against McDaniel's best interests if he's trying to win games to keep his job — if it's indeed still hanging in the air.

NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero suggested the idea on The Rich Eisen Show on Friday afternoon that McDaniel could be brought back in 2026 to again work in tandem with Tagovailoa considering he's the one who helped maximize his talents in 2022 and 2023 after first being hired and also because the Dolphins pretty much are locked into having Tua on the roster next year because of his contract.

Yes, the Dolphins could follow the example of the Denver Broncos and just absorb the prohibitive cap hit that would come with releasing Tagovailoa, either $99 million in one fell swoop in 2026 or $67 million next year and then $32 million in 2027.

That's actually even more cap space than what Denver had to eat with the Wilson contract, which was $53 million in 2024 and $32 million this year for a total of $85 million.

So, yeah, sure, the Dolphins could swallow hard and move on from Tua, but it just seems very unlikely.

A trade also isn't overly realistic because an acquiring team would have to take on a big chunk of his contract. It's why the idea of the Dolphins having to surrender draft capital to make a trade happen has been brought up, but giving up draft picks isn't a great way to start a rebuilding project.

If the Dolphins decide to bring back McDaniel to try to get the most out of Tua again in 2026, that obviously complicates things in terms of finding a permanent GM to replace Grier because a lot of GMs want the freedom to hire their own coach or pick their own quarterback.

So maybe a scenario exists where the Dolphins run it back next season with not only Tua and McDaniel, but give interim GM Champ Kelly the job for next year as well.

THE GM CHANGE AND THE TRADE DEADLINE

Given he was hired just this year, it's difficult to envision a scenario when Kelly is gone completely from the organization if the team hired a new permanent GM, which would make him more focused on the long-term before the trade deadline arrives Tuesday.

Reports suggest the Dolphins might be more amenable to moving some high-profile players now that Grier is gone, the premise being that Grier also might have been more focused on won-loss record to keep his job this year than on the long-term health of the franchise.

Does that mean that new names will come into play for the Dolphins?

Perhaps, but Kelly shouldn't just be giving players away for the sake of acquiring draft picks.

We still maintain that moving on from Jaylen Waddle, for example, would make little sense because of his production and low cap number ($11.8 million) in 2026, but the reality is there probably aren't many untouchables on what clearly is a flawed roster.

THE BOTTOM LINE

In making the move with Grier, Ross scored points with a large portion of fans, even though it probably wasn't something he wanted to do.

He's been loyal to Grier, just as he has been with McDaniel, but he probably figured one had to go to maybe regain some goodwill from an increasingly irate fan base.

In reality, no fan would have complained had both Grier and McDaniel been removed on this day, but this half-measure was better than no measure in the eyes of many Dolphins fans.

But this half-move certainly did bring up more questions.