Ross Should Have Talked More About Firing McDaniel

Ross Should Have Talked More About Firing McDaniel

Last week, the Miami Dolphins held an introductory press conference to introduce new GM Jon Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley. Owner Stephen Ross introduced both and spoke for a few minutes of the team, his disappointment of not producing a winner, and even why he doesn’t read the papers anymore.

However, I wish Ross had taken a few minutes to discuss his decision to fire head coach Mike McDaniel. He waited 4 days after the season ended to make the decision. He was criticized for waiting that long. I personally didn’t have an issue because he was looking at GM candidates, and there really wasn’t much urgency. 

However, this is the first time since Ross became owner that he has conducted a clean sweep, firing both the GM and head coach. Other times, he has either fired one or kept the other. Ross also doesn’t like to fire people, so I would really like to know what made him come to this decision.

I really don’t think Ross made this decision on his own, since he has never done this before. He had a chance in 2014, but when he offered the GM position to at least 3 different candidates, they turned it down because they wanted to bring in their own head coach rather than inherit HC Joe Philbin.

Ross said no because he is the owner and can hire and fire the coach, which is his right as he is the boss of the team, so he hired Dennis Hickey, who didn’t have a job, and it was his first chance as a GM.

Then, less than a year and a half later, Ross fired Philbin, and it’s been a pattern of firing the coach, then the GM, and vice versa. 

I know Ross liked and respected McDaniel, but I would have liked to know why he came to this decision. 

Did he act alone on this? 

Did he take input from the GM candidates and decide not to repeat the same mistake he made a decade ago? 

 Or did he get input from his inner circle on the GM search? 

I know none of this matters in the grand scheme of things, but it would be nice to hear an explanation rather than a press release. 

Now maybe Ross didn’t want to go into more because of what happened in Buffalo the day before his press conference, in which Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula, had as press conference to talk about firing his HC Sean McDermott and promote GM Brandon Beane, but in the process he blamed all of the Bill post season failures on the HC and threw one of his players under the bus, Keon Coleman. It was a s*** show, let’s call it what it was, and I loved it personally. 

However, I doubt Ross could have been any worse than Pegula. Maybe he doesn’t like doing press conferences, but it would be nice to hear more about what led to his decision to do a clean sweep since it’s the first time he has done it in his tenure as owner of the Dolphins, and the fans and media have been calling for it for years.