Flores, Harbaugh and Other Coaching Thoughts
In this story:
Because this is the NFL, there will be several teams looking for a new head coach once the season ends Sunday.
At this point, there is no reason to think the Miami Dolphins will be one of those teams, a feeling expressed by Sports Illustrated NFL reporter Albert Breer when he examined the coaching landscape heading into Week 18 and did not bother mentioning Miami even among the teams whose situation deserved monitoring.
That brings up all sorts of thoughts here regarding Brian Flores as he heads into the final game of his third season.
DOLPHINS RECENT COACHING HISTORY
-- First, we'll start with the Dolphins' coaching pattern since Stephen Ross became owner in 2008, and the fact that Flores is approaching the danger zone based on the previous coaches. The first head coach with Ross as the owner was Tony Sparano, who was fired during his fourth season and he was followed by Joe Philbin, also fired during his fourth season; and then Adam Gase, who was fired after three full seasons.
-- While the assumption is that Flores will be back for a fourth season in 2022, Ross has stayed away from the media for a couple of years now, so there has been no statement from him regarding his coaching thoughts and/or declaring his support for the coach. And, yes, there is precedent for Ross doing just that. For that, we take you back to the latter stages of the 2014 season when the owner entered the locker room after a 37-35 victory against Minnesota and told the media that Philbin would be back for a fourth season in 2015 — even though the team already was assured of a third consecutive playoff-less season under Philbin.
-- While on the topic of Philbin, this is where we need to point out that Flores has now coached 48 games for the Dolphins, which means we can compare to the first three seasons of his predecessors. In those three seasons, Flores' Dolphins have a 23-25 record, which is exactly the same record Philbin compiled in his first three season. Oh, and that also was Gase's record in his three years as head coach.
WHERE FLORES HAS COME UP SHORT
-- That obviously would fall under the category of a major negative if someone were to establish a list of pros and cons in whether to bring Flores back. Another would be the lack of a playoff appearance because Flores now has joined Philbin and George Wilson (who was at the helm at the start of the franchise) as the only Dolphins head coaches who failed to make the playoffs in their first three seasons in charge.
-- Then there are the slow starts, with the Dolphins going 0-7 in 2019, 1-3 in 2020 and 1-7 in 2021. Now, in the interest of fairness, the 2019 team was in full rebuild mode and not equipped to be competitive early on; two of the 2020 team's three losses in the first four games were against eventual division winners Buffalo and Seattle; and this season began with six games against teams that are or have a chance of being in the playoffs.
-- The constant turnover on Flores' staff also could be viewed as problematic, particularly when you consider he's had four offensive coordinators in three seasons. As is the lack of established NFL assistant coaches throughout the staff, the evidence being that co-offensive coordinator George Godsey and outside linebackers coach Rob Leonard are the only two who had previously served in that capacity with another NFL team prior to joining the Dolphins. On the flip side, there are six assistants who never had coached in the NFL before coming to Miami. This isn't to suggest those aren't quality coaches, but there's something to be said for experience.
WHERE FLORES HAS COME UP BIG
-- This might be the point where someone would wonder why the idea of even bringing up the possibility of Flores being replaced would come up considering it was just two weeks ago — before the debacle at Tennessee — that oddsmakers were listing him among the candidates for Coach of the Year (he's off the board now, per BetOnline.ag). And there's absolutely something to be said for Flores keeping his team fighting and believing when the Dolphins were 1-7, which allowed the Dolphins to bounce back to get to 8-7 instead of letting things spiral out of control the way they did in 2007 under Cam Cameron, who was in his first year as head coach and never got a chance at a second.
-- We also could look at the first two Flores seasons as evidenced that the guy can coach. That 2019 team, as we referenced before, was talent-deficient — and that's being polite — because of the rebuilding situation and squeezing five wins out of it was Coach of the Year material. Then again, the Dolphins probably would have been better finishing with the worst record in the NFL, which their talent certainly could have made possible. And we can look at 2020 and realize that the Dolphins' talent level didn't necessarily equate a 10-6 record.
FINAL THOUGHT
-- If we're talking coaching situation, however, we can't leave out Jim Harbaugh's name because the connection to the Dolphins is too obvious. And for those not aware, understand that Ross and then-GM Jeff Ireland flew to California in 2011 to try to woo Harbaugh while he still was at Stanford. Oh, and Sparano still was under contract at the time. Harbaugh eventually became 49ers head coach and took them to the Super Bowl in the 2012 season. Ross is a Michigan man — the school of business at the university is named after him — and it's no secret he's a big Harbaugh fan. So when the report from The Athletic came out last week that Harbaugh might be looking to get back into the NFL, it's only natural to keep an eye on the Dolphins, and that could be where Ross would be well served to publicly declare his support for Flores if the plan indeed is to bring him back next season.
