Cowboys Coach Kellen Moore ‘Finalist’ for Dolphins Move (But What’s Jim Harbaugh?)

Miami, we’re told, has created a two-person “finalist list” in their search for their next head coach. Kellen Moore is on it.

FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys, all the way up to team owner Jerry Jones, are planning the return to The Star of offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.

The Miami Dolphins appear to have other ideas.

And Jim Harbaugh may have one more idea as well.

Miami, we’re told, has created a two-person “finalist list” in their search for their next head coach. The Dolphins are conducting second interviews with two offensive coordinators - Moore and the assistant from the team that ousted him from the NFL playoffs, San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel.

The wild card? The relationship Dolphins owner Stephen Ross has with Jim Harbaugh of the University of Michigan, where Ross is a major booster.

McDaniel and Moore are young and without head-coaching experience. Both are raved about by players and co-workers for their intellect - Moore “is always the smartest coach in the room,” said one colleague - but Harbaugh would bring to Miami the greatest wealth of proven success.

There are those involved in this process who wonder if Harbaugh, in his pursuit of the Minnesota Vikings job and maybe this job, is really trying to boost his Wolverines salary.

The Dolphins, meanwhile, have been guided by Ross saying upon the firing of Brian Flores three weeks ago, “I love Jim Harbaugh. … But he’s at the University of Michigan … That is the school that I graduated from and I’m very involved in it, and I’m not going to be the person that takes Jim Harbaugh from the University of Michigan. I hope he stays there. He is a great coach.”

It is possible that Moore or McDaniel interview their way to the job … or in theory that they do the opposite, igniting Ross pursuing a coach in Harbaugh, 58, who went 44-19-1, with three playoff berths and one Super Bowl in four years as the 49ers head coach. One theory from our plugged-in colleague Armando Salguero suggests that Ross will be free to chase Harbaugh because the Vikings already pried open that door. But a source tells us Harbaugh is presently serious about Minnesota, not Miami.

Which leaves Miami being serious about Kellen Moore.

Follow FishSports on Twitter

Follow Cowboys / Fish on Facebook

Subscribe to the Cowboys Fish Report on YouTube for constant daily Cowboys live-stream podcasts and reports!