Things Won’t Change Unless Stephen Ross Makes Major Changes

Then, in 2015, he hired Mike Tannenbaum to run the football operations, which totally undermined Hickey, who eventually left. Then Philbin was fired in the first month of the 2015 season. The next offseason, he promoted Chris Grier to general manager, and he had final say on draft picks and hired Adam Gase as head coach.

Then, after the 2018 season, Ross fired Tannenbaum and Gase but kept Grier to oversee all football decisions and hired a new coach, Brian Flores. Ross fired Flores after 2021 because of the friction Flores had with Grier and others. Then, they hired McDaniel.  

So here we go again. The Dolphins are going to make a change, but Ross, I think, should fire both Grier and McDaniel instead of the revolving door, because if he fires McDaniel and keeps Grier, then we are going to possibly go through the same cycle. 

Grier has been with the Dolphins for 25 years, and the decade has had a say on the roster, especially since 2019. He is the one who has put together this flawed roster.

He was also the one who started the rebuild, and it had success, but Grier didn’t have the foresight to get ahead and try to sign some of the players he drafted, like Christian Wilkins, Robert Hunt, and others. He also traded premium picks and gave new contracts to Tyreek Hill, Bradley Chubb, and Jalen Ramsey. Grier has a reputation for paying players outside the organization in free agency but giving his home-grown talent new contracts.

He gave a big contract to Byron Jones, and the Dolphins still have dead money on the cap tied to him. Ramsey was just traded, one year later, he got a new deal, and Hill is going to be gone after the season with some money tied up. He also didn’t have any good replacements and signed older veterans, such as Jordan Poyer, who was God awful last year. This is not how you build a team for long-term success. 

Ross needs to stop throwing Grier a lifeline and get rid of him and bring in a new general manager from outside the organization. He could hire someone like Louis Riddick, for example, and have him run the team, dissect the roster, and build the team the way he wants. If not Riddick, someone else.

The bottom line is, he needs someone from the outside with a new plan. 

The other thing is that Ross should delegate and let his new general manager hire the head coach.

Since Ross has been the owner, he has hired the head coach, and frankly, his choices have been awful. Philbin and Gase were clueless head coaches. McDaniel was a breath of fresh air, and he had some success, but his quirky personality and entitled players have the team going south with no leadership.

Plus, his offense teams have figured out, and he hasn’t changed his ways as a coach, such as play calling, getting the plays in on time, and his challenges are bad. Flores at least had the pulse of his team, had them disciplined and prepared, but his way caused conflict. Ross should have the football guys make the football decisions. Now, he should be involved in the process because he is the owner, but he should let his football people make the football decisions. 

 Ross must take a long look at himself since he has been the one. He has done some wonderful things business-wise, renovated the stadium with his own money, opened a checkbook for paying players, and built the team facility. The problem is that the product in the field has been a failure. If the trends of what Ross has done in the past continue, then things won’t change on the field.  

Mr. Ross, if you’re going to make a change, don’t go half-assed. If you want to change things, then you must make a bold statement, make wholesale changes, and let a new football staff run the team and hire the football people. Your track record says you won’t, but if you really want things to change, then these are the things you should do for the fans of this franchise that has gone 25 years without a playoff win.

This is once a proud franchise, and now it’s an irrelevant franchise stuck in mediocrity.