WTF?!?!: Why Terminate Flores

In the afterglow of what counts as a successful season for the Miami Dolphins (winning record and a sweep of the Patriots) I wake up bleary eyed to news of head coaches getting fired. Orienting myself in the time of year, I am not surprised. The shock came from who was fired. Brian Flores, Head Coach of the Miami Dolphins for the last 3 years, has been relieved of his duties. Shock is a bit of an understatement. As I sift through texts, phone calls, and DMs asking about my opinion or knowledge of the incident, I find myself in an odd position. On the one hand: Flores has achieved something that hasn't been achieved since the 2004 season (back to back winning seasons) and has swept the AFC east rival Patriots for the first time in 21 years. On the other hand, the Dolphins have ridden ho-hum seasons to 20 years with exactly 0 playoff wins.

Under Flores, the team has started collectively 4-17 in the months of September and October over the last 3 seasons. Coming into a season filled with expectations, a 1-7 start effectively ended the Dolphins playoff hopes before Halloween. Flores' team was at its absolute best when there was nothing on the line and it's absolute worst when real stakes were on the line losing 56-26 against a Bills team playing backups in a "win and in" game and losing 34-3 against the Titans which eliminated the team from playoff contention.

So does a Defensive coach that has allowed 90 points in their only significant games of the last decade really deserve another?

Well...

The response has been...vocal. The media has clamoured to the defense of Brian Flores, as I and most dolphins fans did as an immediate reaction as well. Damien Woody was "pissed about the Flores firing". Emmanuel Acho called the move "ridiculous at best and incompetent at worst". Another category of outrage was at the extra years added to the Joe Judge and Matt Rhule regimes in spite of their objectively inferior performance to that of Flores. Obviously, we live in the take era of sports commentary. Everyone has to have an extreme opinion about everything. However, the majority of these talking heads had an original hot take that came before this current one: The Dolphins were a really bad team that took advantage of other really bad teams.

Not only was there a flurry of reports and commentaries on the foregone conclusion of Flores' firing, but they were followed by 9 weeks of stating how this team would not be in the playoffs and if they did they would be immediately bounced. Why, then, is the media so appalled and offended by the move? The real reason has less to do with football and more to do with Social Commentary. White coaches like Matt Rhule, Matt Nagy, Matt Patricia (why are Matts so bad at coaching) and Joe Judge are being given extended chances to right their respective ships while Brian Flores, a rare coach of color, is being given the boot.

First, let me say that other teams' bad decision making is not proper justification to also make bad decisions. The state of affairs of making sure diversification in the NFL does not end with players leaves much to be desired. However, Stephen Ross has released coaches in the past after only a few seasons for performance and relationships (Adam Gase after recording one of only 3 playoff seasons this century). The Dolphins will retain one of the few Black GMs in football, Flores will land on his feet and the Dolphins opening is a chance to include names like Bienemy, Caldwell, and Lewis. So let's move on from the societal reverberations, as I am not qualified to navigate these waters, and focus on the effect on the team and fanbase that has lost patience after 20 years of mediocrity and 0 playoff wins.

Was this the right move for a franchise that has become all too acquainted with falling short of already reduced expectations? The real reason behind Flores' firing will gain clarity and scope over the coming offseason but, for now, we're being told it was his inability to form and maintain relationships within the organization and without (as evidenced by the lack of performance on the offensive side of the ball.) Couple this with the previously referenced statistics during his Dolphins tenure and we can see a good argument to rationalize a personnel move. But I'm not buying this move as the best that could have been made. Of the 3 major personnel decisions that teams need to get right (GM, HC, QB) the Dolphins elected to part ways with the one that has had the best performance over the last 3 seasons. Tua has certainly shown no signs of being a long term solution at Quarterback let alone showing signs of being worthy of the number 5 overall pick not 2 drafts hence. Which leads to the performance of the GM in this unholy triumvirate. Chris Grier helped make some savvy moves that quickly led to a stockpile of assets marveled at by the entire football world. And what did Mr. Grier do with this collection of picks? In a word? Nothing. In 2020, Miami had 3 first round picks spent on Tua, Tackle Austin Jackson, and CB Noah Igbinoghene. This trio of first rounders might go down as the most ineffectual first round collection any one team has acquired. In Jackson's second year, the Dolphins lay claim to the worst offensive line in the sport by nearly every metric while seeing Jackson bounced from Left Tackle to Left Guard to left side of the bench. And in Noah's second year, he's been relegated to a gunner on the punt team. This brings us to the franchise altering decision to go with Tua over Quarterback wunderkind, Justin Herbert. At the moment, both Herbert and the Dolphins are suffering from Grier's decision as neither have made the playoffs in the time since. But as time unfolds, the ripples of this decision become all the more clear and we'll see where this lies in the pantheon of QB misjudgments that has defined the post-Marino Dolphins. (A quick review: Culpepper over Brees, Jake Long over Matt Ryan, Tannehill over Wilson, Jay Cutler over...literally anyone else)

Over the last few days, reports have come out of some of Flores' faults and we have some clarity added into what went into the surprise decision. Sun Sentinel beat writer Omar Kelly alludes to first hand experience into how poorly Flores could communicate with people around him. Kelly also reports that one of the biggest rumors cited as rationalizing Ross' move, that of Flores wanting to take Herbert instead of Tua in the 2020 draft, was completely false stating "if Flores wanted Herbert that would have been the pick because Chris Grier would give his head coach...the QB he wanted." Stories also include rumors of benching Tagovailoa even when healthy for the woeful Brissett and stripping one of the offensive co-coordinators (that's right CO-coordinators) of play-calling duties. Flores wasn't fired because of his coaching, but, at a certain point, doesn't coaching also include your staff and not just the players on the side of the ball you prefer?

Did Stephen Ross prune the right branches? Are the Dolphins one phenomenal coach away from a Super Bowl? Probably not. On paper, this was objectively the wrong move. Flores' teams routinely performed above expectations (as long as expectations weren't too high) and his defense was always capable of making huge plays that directly led to wins. Even with reports of Flores being difficult to work with, but I'm not sure he should really be pinned with the lack of success in an organization where this state has become the norm. A QB with no obvious special traits and the man that selected him over a physical freak definitely seem to have been easier scapegoats. But for an owner that is short on time and patience, the squeaky wheel doesn't get the grease. He gets the axe.