The one mistake the Miami Dolphins cannot afford to make with their next head coach hire
What’s the definition of insanity?
General manager search? Done. The Miami Dolphins have filled a major job vacancy in just five days — an impressive display of pace, preparation, and conviction in a candidate.
It would be fair to say Miami’s general manager hiring experience is the polar opposite of the last time the Dolphins went outside the building to fill this role a decade ago. The year was 2014. Then-general manager Jeff Ireland was dismissed from his post, and Miami took 19 days to get Dennis Hickey from Tampa Bay to take the job.
The big difference other than time? Miami got its guy this time around. When Hickey was hired, Miami was turned down by executives Nick Caserio and Lake Dawson, while Ray Farmer pulled his name from consideration before being offered the gig. Mistakes were made during that search and in the years beforehand.
Miami, apparently, learned its lesson and applied it all these years later. And now it’s time for the Dolphins to apply another lesson from their history of struggles. There’s one mistake the Dolphins can’t make in identifying their next head coach.
The Dolphins’ next head coach must be the right fit for the culture, not the scheme
Mike McDaniel was a scheme whiz off of the hottest coaching tree in football when he got to Miami. He was hired to retrofit his coaching to QB Tua Tagovailoa. Brian Flores was a diabolical defensive play-caller who has reminded everyone that the scheme wasn’t the problem with his tenure in Miami, while serving as the Vikings’ defensive coordinator the last few years.
Adam Gase once got an endorsement as a great offensive mind from Peyton Manning. And Joe Philbin was hired in part to bring the Packers’ offense to Miami, without the quarterback that made it run or the play-calling experience needed to make it work.
Those are your Stephen Ross head coaching hires since Ross became the primary owner of the organization. Each one of the four was a first-time head coach when they signed on the dotted line in Miami — although that isn’t necessarily the mistake the Dolphins need to avoid this time around.
Would I be concerned about hiring another first-time head coach? Absolutely. The power dynamics and responsibilities change when you’re in charge of an entire locker room. McDaniel’s tenure soured as the big-name players in the locker room had their way in 2024, spurring a hopeful culture change.
Flores was the other way — he became so obsessed with control that he burned a lot of relationships, including churning through offensive assistants at an alarming rate. History looks back kinder on Flores’ tenure these days, thanks to the “tanking” allegations Flores leveled against the team and for being resistant to Tua Tagovailoa as his quarterback.
But make no mistake about it: Flores, behind the scenes, quickly soured many relationships within the Dolphins building, ran out of offensive play-callers willing to work in Miami, and was a leading force in Miami’s effort at the time to acquire Deshaun Watson via trade in 2021. He almost got it, too.
Flores has been back on his game in Minnesota, with some Miami fans rolling their eyes. Of course he is. But scheme wasn’t the problem with Flores, just like it wasn’t the problem with McDaniel. The Dolphins need someone to lead. And they need that leader to be aligned with the rest of the leadership in Miami.
Recent Miami Dolphins head coaches
- Mike McDaniel: 35-33
- Brian Flores: 24-25
- Adam Gase: 23-25
- Joe Philbin: 24-28
The Dolphins have already taken a promising first step in that direction by, for the first time under Ross, committing to a full and complete reset of the football operation. The head coach and the general manager and being picked and put on the same timeline. Good.
But getting the hire right means looking for the right things. What’s the track record of leadership? How well connected is the coach to a meaningful staff? How well does a coach conduct themselves in front of a roster of 90 players in the offseason or 53 players plus the practice squad throughout the year? How confident are you in that answer if they don’t have experience? Do they have experience with the kinds of challenges South Florida can present to a player?
Advisor Troy Aikman should be guiding the head-coaching search in this direction — this is what has failed the Dolphins time and time again in attempts to land “the one.”
It’s far past time for Miami to step out from behind the shadow of Dan Marino and start acting comfortable in its own skin. Go back to the Cam Cameron hire before Ross bought the team. Any time this franchise has gone after buzzy coordinators, it’s blown up in their face.
Hire the right person qualified to lead, not whoever you feel brings you closer to the feeling Marino gave. Good play callers come and go. Good culture is irreplaceable. We should know this, given the kind of players Don Shula needed to play for him. Now it’s time for Miami to start acting like it hasn’t forgotten that history and to change the criteria that matter most in its last several coaching hires.