The Official Dolphins Coaching/Staff Announcements Thread

Cool. I'm still leary of a McDaniels type scenario playing out, so I'll be happy when it's done. Even though they have been putting his staff together the last few weeks he has quite a ways to go.

Time to get to work!

Brian’s price might have gone up after that win! What if Kraft says let’s keep em Bill!!

I won’t lie, I’m still on the fence over Flores’ hire. There are many things about him I really like and many things that cause me pause.

I do like how his experience in the Patriots’ organization is pretty well rounded...offensively, defensively, special teams...he been exposed to all of it and seems to be a sponge in soaking up all that knowledge and experience. That’s a big plus in his favor.

What causes me pause however is he’s not his own staff per day. He’s not been his OWN DC, selecting his own staff. He’s not been a HC nor a coordinator of his own. He inherited what had already been built and ran the playbook given to him.

I’m not saying that Flores is going to be a bust, by no means whatsoever. I’m hopeful with the hiring of a defensive coach that the Dolphins will turn around our inability to prevent teams from scoring on us. I’m just leery over the fact this will be the 6th HC we’ve hired that’s had no NFL head coaching experience.

I’ll be open minded and support Flores’ effort as HC but at the same time, I hope everyone here realizes we have so many holes in our team, the next 4 years are going to be agonizing.

4pm EST is 10pm my time. So I might not be brilliant in getting in the updates. Obviously, as always, anyone else is welcome to jump in!

"Galant wrote:

4pm EST is 10pm my time. So I might not be brilliant in getting in the updates. Obviously, as always, anyone else is welcome to jump in!

I thought you were in the UK. Isn't that only 5 hours ahead?

No and yes. The UK is but I'm not there. Gibraltar. One hour further east.

Does anyone know if the other Pats assistants that left to be head coaches took other members of the Pats staff with them? I assume they did but I dont really know.

Dom Capers ... yuck. Hopefully in some kind of advisory role only, I have less than 0 interest in seeing him gameplanning or calling plays. He was atrocious in Green Bay.

I do think it's ok to be leery of the hire though. Yeah he apparently called a great game, but it's one game. It's a big swing, has some very intriguing potential but could also be a major disaster. I'm happy to take the shot and let it play for a few years though.

"texanphinatic wrote:

Dom Capers ... yuck. Hopefully in some kind of advisory role only, I have less than 0 interest in seeing him gameplanning or calling plays. He was atrocious in Green Bay.

I do think it's ok to be leery of the hire though. Yeah he apparently called a great game, but it's one game. It's a big swing, has some very intriguing potential but could also be a major disaster. I'm happy to take the shot and let it play for a few years though.

Thats what I read, some sort of advisory role. Capers did fairly well here under Saban.

I think Flores called great games throughout the Playoffs. Not just yesterday.

"The_Dark_Knight wrote:

I won’t lie, I’m still on the fence over Flores’ hire. There are many things about him I really like and many things that cause me pause.

I do like how his experience in the Patriots’ organization is pretty well rounded...offensively, defensively, special teams...he been exposed to all of it and seems to be a sponge in soaking up all that knowledge and experience. That’s a big plus in his favor.

What causes me pause however is he’s not his own staff per day. He’s not been his OWN DC, selecting his own staff. He’s not been a HC nor a coordinator of his own. He inherited what had already been built and ran the playbook given to him.

I’m not saying that Flores is going to be a bust, by no means whatsoever. I’m hopeful with the hiring of a defensive coach that the Dolphins will turn around our inability to prevent teams from scoring on us. I’m just leery over the fact this will be the 6th HC we’ve hired that’s had no NFL head coaching experience.

I’ll be open minded and support Flores’ effort as HC but at the same time, I hope everyone here realizes we have so many holes in our team, the next 4 years are going to be agonizing.

I have some concerns as well, and rightfully so after so many failures here in recent years. That said any coach is a tossup. We had superstar coaches here in Miami. Jimmy Johnson, Nick Saban, as well as fresh recruits and nothing helped. We constant were an average team.

I wasn't sold on Flores from day one and still cautious, but optimistic still (because what other choice we got?) however after last nights game I feel way more excited that Flores called the defense and shut down the #2 and #1 Offensive teams in the league with a patchwork defense with little superstar power.

Being a head coach will be a huge adjustment, but hopefully his experience in NE will be a great asset. All the other coaching tree candidates from NE have been situational coaches. Flores has been all around the team, offensively, defensively, and seems to be very well rounded which can help him especially with capable coaches behind him.

"The_Dark_Knight wrote:

I won’t lie, I’m still on the fence over Flores’ hire. There are many things about him I really like and many things that cause me pause.

I do like how his experience in the Patriots’ organization is pretty well rounded...offensively, defensively, special teams...he been exposed to all of it and seems to be a sponge in soaking up all that knowledge and experience. That’s a big plus in his favor.

What causes me pause however is he’s not his own staff per day. He’s not been his OWN DC, selecting his own staff. He’s not been a HC nor a coordinator of his own. He inherited what had already been built and ran the playbook given to him.

I’m not saying that Flores is going to be a bust, by no means whatsoever. I’m hopeful with the hiring of a defensive coach that the Dolphins will turn around our inability to prevent teams from scoring on us. I’m just leery over the fact this will be the 6th HC we’ve hired that’s had no NFL head coaching experience.

I’ll be open minded and support Flores’ effort as HC but at the same time, I hope everyone here realizes we have so many holes in our team, the next 4 years are going to be agonizing.

I was pretty down on the hire until last night. I think Flores called a great game, and got me pretty excited. That being said, I am not an emotional guy, and I don't that one game, even if it is the Super Bowl, gets us out of the woods.

I really think that of all the coaches, Flores is entering the most difficult of situations. I don't know if you have been following Mondo at all, but he feels incredibly confident if not certain that we will be tanking, having a youth movement, rebuilding - pick the phrase that you like, but you get the general connotation of where 2019 is heading.

Here is the thing. We have a lot of older expensive vets with big contracts that need to go. Let me be 100% frank. This needs to happen. It probably should have happened last season. No matter who we hired, we need to get back to handling salary cap responsibility. If there is dead money on the books, so be it. To add the fire, we are expected to cut Tannehill and not replace him with a big name QB. I laughed at the idea of starting Falk, and now I think it is entirely reasonable to think that Falk or Jake Rudock could be our opening day starter. When you see our opening day roster, I think it will be evident that we are planning on getting a top QB prospect in 2020 (Tua?).

We can talk about this calmly and rationally right now, but if we are looking exceptionally ugly over the course of 16 games, I think people will sour more quickly than you'd think on him. Gruden has a ring and more draft picks than I can remember a team having in my lifetime , and people are losing confidence quickly. Flores has to worry about losing the confidence of the fans, management, ownership, and the players even if the organization itself is planning a rebuild (more to come on that later).

Flores is in a situation where it is nearly impossible for him to win. Check out the most likely scenario. Let's just say we have a roster, essentially tank (use the word that you'd like here), and are bad. Even after all of that, it doesn't mean we will have the first pick in the draft. It doesn't even mean we will have the second pick. Let's just say we wind up with the 5th pick in the draft (entirely possible). Odds are, any teams finishing worse than us may need a QB. Tua, Herbert, and Fromm could all be off the board, and trading up may not even be a possibility. Starting a rookie adds to Flores's problems because he is now probably having another losing season under his belt. In all honesty, his coaching tenure could start with a 7-25 record. Is this his doing? Nope. Is his seat starting to get hot? Honestly, the answer is probably, "yes."

Scenario #2 - Brian Flores is a solid football coach. This is the scenario we all hope for, right? Let's suppose he can fix the defense right off the bat (I think that this is entirely possible. With Gase and Burke, I think we vastly underperformed.) A couple draft picks and maybe some value free agents could vasty change the direction of this team. Remember, our defense is already pretty young, so a youth movement here really might just be a few guys. Wouldn't it be awful if he exceeding all expectations and won 6-7 games. A top QB is not falling to us at that point, it would take a ton of draft capital to move up and get him. Just think about this. Doing a good job may very well cost him his entire draft class.

Scenario #3 - Camouflaged ugliness. This might very well be the most frightening scenario. It is entirely possible that we field a poor roster, AND Flores does a bad job coaching. Perhaps, he is unable to scheme with our current roster, is not able to acquire players that fit the scheme that he wants to run, outright misses on draft/FAs, cannot develop players. On this board and probably most fan boards across the country, fans are debating if the problem is the coach or the players. This distinctly ignores the possibility of it being BOTH the players and the coach. Think Matt Burke and Charles Harris. This will be something that will be incredibly difficult to recognize, but this has happened before. Cam Cameron brought in his guys and his system, and it was a one and done disaster.

Realistically, I think Flores has a four year project ahead of him, and even in year four, we might see a young, up and coming 8-8 team. I would be thrilled if in four years, we had a roster built like Cleveland's. Would a roster and record like Cleveland's after four years cost him his job? Maybe. Will he even make it four years? Maybe. Could it be significantly less than four years? Yup. Remember when I said there is more to come with the overall patience of an organizational decision rebuild. I think Ross and Grier on board for a rebuild. Ross seems to know that it is going to take awhile. So does that mean that Flores will be given ample time and opportunity to rebuild this roster? Absolutely not. The elephant in the room is Jim Harbaugh. Until Harbaugh re-enters the NFL, there will always be dots connecting him to Miami. I know Ross would not want to poach a marquee head coach from a university that he has ties to like Michigan, but if Harbaugh decided independent of Ross, that he wants to go back to the NFL, I would fully expect him to make a run at Harbaugh. This takes me back to the best case scenario. Suppose Flores went 7-9. with a total rebuild roster, hit on all of his draft/FA picks, and elevated the play of some of our bottom guys, and got them playing like starters. I think Ross would fire him in a heartbeat to sign Harbaugh.

With the Flores hire, there are more moving parts than ever before. The next few seasons are going to be a rollercoaster.

Rumor is that we are interested in Dom Capers as an assistant. This would be a solid hire.

I don’t believe it. It may be 100% truthful but I do t believe the idea is to tank. I think the idea is to change whatever needs changed, get the proper people into positions and grow from the draft and select free agents.

That doesn’t mean tanking, we could rebuild in 2-3 years if done proper and we get some luck.

We need to establish a QB and fix the online and we will be a decent team in 2019-2020.

My only fear is me Ross stripping all the cash flow and setting us up for a rebuild so he can get some money back and sell the team.

"Dorfdad wrote:

I don’t believe it. It may be 100% truthful but I do t believe the idea is to tank. I think the idea is to change whatever needs changed, get the proper people into positions and grow from the draft and select free agents.

That doesn’t mean tanking, we could rebuild in 2-3 years if done proper and we get some luck.

We need to establish a QB and fix the online and we will be a decent team in 2019-2020.

My only fear is me Ross stripping all the cash flow and setting us up for a rebuild so he can get some money back and sell the team.

I don't see much of a difference. Both situations you are not trying to win and the goal is to secure good draft positions.

I don't even know why it is a debate.
For the first time since I became a Dolphin fan 32 years ago the Miami Dolphins are going into the offseason with the plan to not build a team to contend for a Superbowl.

Call it rebuilding, call it tanking, call it woozle-wuzzle.
If Ross was telling the truth 2019 is a season long preseason

No self respecting coach would agree to tank! I don’t believe we will be as bad as some of you think