This is a sore topic for a Miami born native who witnessed a coaching legend in Don Shula finally run out of town. My first home game was 1983 when Marino came in and permanently replaced David Woodley in the Orange Bowl vs the Chiefs, the next year Marino would throw for over 5,000 yards and almost 50 TDs as the 1st QB ever to do it.
We then watched the team handed over from Shula to Jimmy Johnson who had a lot of Miami Shine form his days with the Canes, fans were openly cheering for Shula to retire thinking Jimmy would turn this place into Dallas East...well not so much. He tried to quick fix this place like he did in Dallas winning 2 SB in under 5 years if I recall, he wasn't there that long. And so after '98 he was about done in Miami and it felt like the team was heading in a different direction but not horrible. Instead of retiring or leaving, JJ opted to come back for the '99 season and tragically walked Marino to a Playoff Loss 61-7 drubbing by the Jacksonville Jaguars in his last game as an NFL QB.
-The Wandstadt Years consisted of Jay Fiedler and Lamar Smith and Chris Chambers came along during this run I think. The team slowly fell into total mediocrity but they did win a playoff game at the start of Dave's reign here.
-The last 15 years we have had Tony Sporano under Bill Parcells as the Team President and the Phins were trying to win the old fashioned way of power running mixed with some passing, lot of FGs were kicked when we needed a TD, the revolving door at coaching has been a tragedy for the most part. We had Dumbo Ears who couldn't manage a locker room to a guy who ran the Oklahoma Drill 1st in practice-Dan Campbell. It's been pretty bad although Adam Gase tried to work with Tannehill.
-Some other lowlights include Bully-Gate, still waiting for Curtis Martin and Tony Dungy to arrive but I don't think they were ever coming here to clean things up.
-An owner who is a total baffoon. I kind of applauded Kenny Stills although it's not his political opinions that I stand with him on, just the balls on him to mock the owner, the man writing his paychecks, Kenny Stills I salute you even though we don't vote for the same politicians, it's alright.
-Let's deal with the 2017 draft that Chris Grier had a big hand in and that includes Charles Harris perhaps the worst DE in the NFL in quite some time coming out of the 1st round. In 2 seasons I think he has 3 sacks perhaps, guy has been a total whiff. McMillan who was a 2nd round pick in the same draft wasn't even hardly used this past Sunday, was used more on special teams, what is going on in Miami? Last year Fitzpatrick looked alright but he was ushered in and out of the game, he hasn't been talked up much by the coaches and he was torched like the rest of the secondary this past week. '
-Rashad Jones never would come out of the game with any of the previous coaches, absolutely would not allow anyone to play his position at any time in the game whether they were ahead or behind he felt a duty to start and finish...he was held to like 40 snaps this past weekend out of a possible 72 I believe, things are just not right in Miami. And Jones should be traded for any Safety in the 2nd or 3rd year of their rookie deal because that's all Miami cares about right now.
-If you ever hear Chris Grier speak or go back to when he was introduced by Mike Tannenbaum a couple years back as his future replacement...he didn't call him that of course but that's exactly what Ross-the owner ends up doing. Grier doesn't sound intelligent to me and doesn't invoke a feeling of confidence that he can get it done.
-I want folks to know and understand that open tanking like this on a level we have never seen has to be the lowest common denominator move you can make. What I mean is this is not an intelligent move because if it were then back when Andrew Luck was the No 1 pick you would not have allowed Tony Sporano to start winning football games when the Phins were 0-7 and in prime targeting range to take him but instead they ripped off a couple wins and THEN FIRED Sporano before the end of the season. ANd they screwed that up when they extended him in one of the most uncomfortable press conferences and interviews you will ever see...never has a Head Coach been so underwhelmed to be extended for a season or two.
-You don't allow a gift like Tunsil that fell in your lap for a middle 1st round pick, you build around that typically. I actually was not as big a fan as some of this guy and he was set to make a huge amount in his next contract. And if you had to let Stills go 2 get not just one but two 1st round picks coming back then I guess it's worth it. In fact letting some of these guys go isn't that bad of an idea but the timing was terrible and they look so bad on TV this past week, it sounds good in theory to tank but let's see if they can even field a team in a couple of weeks. If they keep losing 50-10(NE and Dallas next up) then I think guys like Rashad Jones are going to simply ask for an outright release and that will be when the mutiny starts. Or maybe cooler heads prevail and say just pay me my money until you get me out of here...hard to imagine the Phins keep him all year. In fact every week guys like Jones take the field that you know in the end won't be here, you're risking getting an asset in return.
-And now let's discuss the plans to build this BattleTanking Station because while Ross might have the perfect person to run them into the ground, he also gave Flores a 5 year guarantee that no matter how bad the Phins are after the strip down, he gets paid in full for doing this. I'm sure Flores can always go back to being a DC but how easy of the Phins to evoke the Rooney Rule here making it even easier to hire someone that may or may not be qualified to be a Head Coach...not every OC/DC is fit to be a head coach. Flores reminds me of an old boss I had who was rule stickler and while that was OK he also wanted to run things like it was the actual 1950s and Flores right now seems hellbent on breaking the will and moral of any of the old school players or leaders, Flores will decide moving forward who has a leadership position but right now he is acting like Joe Clark(Lean on Me) and I'm not sure that's a recipe for success in 2020...I know it's 2019 but this year is over except we still have to ride out 15 more Sundays of being embarrassed.
-I don't think Miami will go too far down this path with Grier/Flores, perhaps Flores will stay in place, Cleveland allowed one of theirs to start off 1-31 before he finally was shown the door in year 3. I cannot see where Miami will win a game this year, I also cannot see how they could win much at all in 2020, they could possibly challenge the Browns for ineptness over a 2-3 year span, this is not going to be a quick fix.
-Miami has not been good at drafting in the last 10-20 years and that has as much to do with this mess as anything. Now you want a fan base to believe that the only thing keeping you from a Super Bowl is losing every game on your schedule for the next 3-5 years until you can load up with top 5 picks...that's the message you are sending to everyone. We can't hack it and you know maybe 6 Super Bowls on 8 trips over the last 2 decades to a division rival will do that to you, make you a little punch drunk. To buy in to whatever BS that Stephen Ross pitches, don't forget he tried to threaten the area with a move to get tax payers to make his stadium look like it does now and people balked quickly...he got Goodell to pitch in funds finally so the Super Bowl can stay in South Beach on the rotation list.
-The focus is everywhere but the product on the field which has now been reduced down to going 0-16...again they screwed this plan up in 2012 after an 0-7 start, this time they mean business!!!
Why??? For Pitt that is. Good trade for Miami.
