NFL coaching carousel: Ranking the most attractive openings
By Ian Wharton
5. Miami Dolphins
Adam Gase’s downfall and departure was bizarre, as the former Miami Dolphins head coach seemingly turned off the entire franchise in 2018 with his brazen personality and ego. It was the right move to dump him as even franchise stalwart Cam Wake passed on the opportunity to endorse him.
Miami promoted Chris Grier to general manager and reassigned Mike Tannenbaum to the business side of the house, cleaning up the messy hierarchy that led to another power struggle. Grier’s done well in the drafts but the organization has whiffed on free-agency, trades and in-house extensions in recent years. That must change, but many of those deals may not have been Grier’s call.
Even as Ryan Tannehill is on his way out and there’s no clear path to a franchise quarterback, this job is more attractive than the others because they’re going to spend, and the roster has enough young talent to see a brighter future than others. Expect Miami to be involved in the veteran free-agent pool headlined by Nick Foles and Teddy Bridgewater.
Veterans cuts will open massive cap space for Miami. Tannehill, Robert Quinn, Andre Branch, DeVante Parker and Kiko Alonso are all but gone already. The new staff will decide on Josh Sitton and Danny Amendola. In total, that could open $60 million without losing much in terms of leadership or production.
Miami is in the middle of the first-round, so they should opt to avoid this quarterback class and wait until 2020 as they rebuild. Developing bloomers like Xavien Howard, Raekwon McMillan, Laremy Tunsil, Kenyan Drake, and Minkah Fitzpatrick should be the focus in 2019.
Long-term, this is an attractive job.