Dolphins owner Stephen Ross announces extension for head coach Joe Philbin.
Joe Philbin will not have to spend the season as a lame duck head coach.
Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross announced that the team has given Philbin a one-year extension through 2016.
“You don’t get the best from someone when they’re operating with a gun to their head,” Ross told reporters at the NFL owners’ meetings in Phoenix.
When asked whether Philbin would need to make the playoffs to keep his job, Ross declined to answer. He said there must be improvement, but wouldn’t clarify what that meant.
While talking to reporters, Ross also expressed the team’s desire to extend quarterback Ryan Tannehill, and defended the big-money signing of Ndamukong Suh.
Philbin is 23-25 in his three seasons as head coach in Miami. The possibility that Philbin would be fired has come up each of the last two seasons, both of which ended with collapses down the stretch and the team missing the playoffs, despite a relatively weak wild card field both years. There was also the infamous Richie Incognito scandal, which isn’t exactly a talking point for Philbin’s resume. But despite all this, Philbin has remained safe, and appears to have the trust of his team’s owner.
For a man who once flew Jim Harbaugh into Miami for an interview despite already having a head coach, Ross has displayed curious loyalty to Philbin. He announced that Philbin would return in 2015 before the 2014 campaign was over, and declined to pursue Harbaugh a second time this offseason. That may change if the Dolphins miss the playoffs this year, though.
The thing is, the fact that Philbin got a one-year extension has no bearing on whether he’ll be back in 2016 if things go poorly this year. Phibin won’t be a lame-duck coach, which is a status that often leads to the coach losing the team early on (think of the 2010 Carolina Panthers, who went 2-14 with John Fox on a one-year deal). The Dolphins spent a metric ton of money this offseason to upgrade the team, and nothing short of the playoffs can qualify as a success for Philbin and the Dolphins this year.
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