One NFL insider wasted little time opening the door for a possible worst-case scenario follow-up from the Dolphins’ transition away from Chris Grier

The quickest way to ruin a needed change would be…

Kyle Crabbs — NFL National Writer

Oct 31, 2025 4:29 PM EDT

The Miami Dolphins took the first step today towards a brighter future. The team mutually agreed to part ways with general manager Chris Grier just days before the 2025 NFL trade deadline, setting the stage for interim GM Champ Kelly to work the phones and conduct business on Miami’s behalf amid a transition to the future.

But the NFL is a funny business — it stands for ‘Not For Long’. And, as such, those in positions of power don’t typically operate with long-term patience for what is “best for business” for the franchise. Doing so could jeopardize their own job security. That’s now what is at play with head coach Mike McDaniel. And as the team assesses their future at head coach the rest of this season, it’s important for the team to not predetermine their call.

Especially in a way that handcuffs their new hire coming in. One NFL insider has already alluded to such an outcome. Tread carefully, Miami.

NFL insider Tom Pelissero spends little time opening the door for a worst-case scenario

“There is certainly a scenario, in my mind, where you take a vision to what is going on to the bigger football operation here, bring in a person or multiple people to try to get things right, keep Mike McDaniel for one more run with Tua, who is a quarterback who Mike got the job in part because he was the one coaching candidate who back in 2022 said ‘I can win with this guy’. Give him one more shot with a lot of different moves in terms of personnel, with a new GM or maybe a head of football operations calling the shots here, and then you make the decisions at the end of 2026.”

— NFL Insider Tom Pelissero on if the Dolphins could conduct a half-reset

I, for one, am old enough to remember just six weeks ago when the talking point, from Pelissero no less, was that Mike McDaniel is too handcuffed by the offense he has to run with Tua Tagovailoa. Now, all of a sudden, someone else’s proverbial head as rolled and Tagovailoa’s contract is too difficult to move off of and McDaniel could get one more year under the jurisdiction of someone else running the operations?

Ross deciding this on his own, before hiring a general manager, would be a first class ticket to taking an unfortunate but necessary change for the Dolphins and promptly flushing the potential benefits of it down the toilet. Now, if a new executive enters the fray and decides he’d like to work with Mike McDaniel on his own, that’s something that should be left up to the executive in question. But to proactively, before deciding on a hire, determine that the Tagovailoa contract and the McDaniel job status is set in stone? That’s a great way to cut down your candidate list — and you likely won’t be garnering interest from the best candidates on the market.

Pelissero continues on to mention how he isn’t a fan of half-resets and partial measures. He’s right to feel that way. And now, the most important thing for team owner Stephen Ross to do is to continue throughout the rest of this season without having the end in mind. Allow McDaniel and the players’ resumes speak for themselves with a full body of work. And focus on the general manager search — so that whatever decision you make, you know you can trust that person to decide what the rest of the football operation actually looks like. You’ve already made the first step towards change. Resisting all future ones, even the hard ones for coaches we like or for quarterbacks with big guaranteed dollars, for the wrong reasons will only hurt the chances of this shift having success.

Miami Dolphins News

Chris Grier’s greatest sin as the Dolphins general manager wasn’t something he was — it was something he wasn’t

It’s time for a new era. Let’s learn a lesson from this one.

Kyle Crabbs