Dolphins Looking at Two Scenarios of History Repeating Itself

The Miami Dolphins find themselves in a familiar place with their head coaching situation

Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross watches from the sidelines during the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium in the 2023 season opener. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The latest national report involving the Miami Dolphins and newly available head coach John Harbaugh suggests the team has been in touch with him, and here we go again.

And if it does turn out that the Dolphins win the battle for the services of the longtime Baltimore Ravens head coach, a battle that figures to include many teams around the league, well, here we go again ... again.

We could be looking at a case of double deja vu for the Dolphins organization, including one specifically related to owner Stephen Ross.

It's based on the Wednesday morning tweet by NFL reporter Josina Anderson, who cited league sources in saying the Dolphins "have been in touch" with Harbaugh.

This would have happened while the Dolphins still have a head coach under contract, that head coach of course being Mike McDaniel.

And the irony shouldn't be lost that 15 years ago, the Dolphins also got in touch with a Harbaugh about coaching for the Dolphins while they still had a head coach under contract, in that case the coach being Tony Sparano.

It was more than getting in touch with Jim Harbaugh, though, back in 2011 because Ross and then-GM Jeff Ireland actually flew to California (without telling Sparano) to talk to Harbaugh, who was coaching at Stanford but had indicated he was looking to get into the NFL.

That trip didn't work out for the Dolphins, who didn't hire Harbaugh but ended up giving Sparano a one-year extension pretty much as compensation for the embarrassment caused to him.

In the aftermath of that episode, Ross said during a media session, “I shouldn’t have been talking to coaches until I decided that I should make a change.”

Now, the two questions with the current situation that jump out are whether Ross directly spoke to Harbaugh after he was fired and whether Ross informed McDaniel that the team would reach out to Harbaugh.

The former isn't a major deal because whether Ross or somebody else, it's the Dolphins organization that would have reached out and everybody answers to Ross. For the latter, one would hope that Ross learned a lesson the first time not to do anything behind his head coach's back, if for no other reason than simple respect.

With McDaniel about to start his three-year extension if he remains as Dolphins head coach, one wouldn't expect Ross to have to compensate him for chasing another head coach.

We'll maintain, however, that if McDaniel isn't sufficient enough for Ross to keep him from pursuing Harbaugh, who clearly would represent an upgrade, then maybe the right thing for the organization if it can't land Harbaugh is to try to find another alternative who possibly could represent an upgrade because clearly the feeling is that an upgrade is needed.

WHAT IF HARBAUGH JOINS MIAMI

If the Dolphins do land Harbaugh, it will be deja vu in the sense of hiring a former Super Bowl-winning coach.

That's what the Dolphins did in 1996 when the owner was Wayne Huizenga and that new head coach was Jimmy Johnson.

That situation was a bit different because Johnson was hired to replace the legendary Don Shula and Johnson also was a local hero, having guided the University of Miami to a national championship eight years later before he went on to win two Super Bowl titles with the Dallas Cowboys.

Johnson ended up coaching the Dolphins for four seasons, guided the team to three playoff appearances and two playoff victories and left behind the foundation for a championship-caliber defense, but he didn't have success drafting offensive players and he didn't produce a Super Bowl for Miami.

Then again, no coach ever has won a Super Bowl with two different teams, so Harbaugh will be looking to make history with whatever becomes his second organization.

At this point, though, simply winning a playoff game should be enough for Dolphins fans considering it hasn't happened since December 30, 2000.

So, yeah, hiring a former Super Bowl winner as head coach sounds like a good deja vu for the Dolphins. Chasing that coach while still having someone in the position? Hmm, maybe not so much.