Kelly: Is anyone buying what Dolphins owner Steve Ross is selling at this point? | Opinion
One way or another, it’s time to stop wasting Steve Ross’ money, and time. Or stop wasting ours.
The Miami Dolphins’ owner is a nice man, but history proves he’s a little naive.
Maybe not in the real estate world, where he has made his fortune.
But in the professional sports arena, especially the NFL, Ross is too trusting.
He fully supports the people he employs, providing them whatever resources they ask for, and rarely interferes.
But he’s too gullible. And far too patient, which was proven by his vote of confidence in the people in power after Sunday’s 32-20 loss to the New York Jets, which capped the 2024 season at 8-9.
“Our football operations will continue to be led by Chris Grier and Mike McDaniel with my full support,” Ross said in a statement provided by the team hours after the game. ‘Their positive working relationship is an asset to the Dolphins, and I believe in the value of stability. However, continuity in leadership is not to be confused with an acceptance that status quo is good enough.”
Sure!
Haven’t we heard that for years now from Ross, who has been the Dolphins’ majority owner for since 2009?
Miami was seemingly headed in the right direction in 2023, but followed up last year’s promising 11-6 season, which flat-lined when injuries decimated the team in late December, with a 8-9 stinker following Sunday’s loss to a dismal Jets team that fired their head coach and general manager before midseason.
Now Ross’ organization is staring at another rebuild themselves, especially after the team’s top talent — receiver Tyreek Hill — waves the white flag after the game, all but demanding he’s traded away this offseason.
“I’m opening the door. I’m out bro. It was great playing here, but at the end of the day I got to do what’s best for my career,” said Hill, who caught two passes for 20 yards against Jets despite needing 61 yards to produce his eighth 1,000 yard season. “I’m too much of a competitor to be just out there.”
What Hill likely means is he’s too much of a competitor to be with a franchise headed nowhere, and that’s seemingly what the Dolphins are under its current leadership, which will survive this disappointing season despite Miami failing to extend the franchise’s four-year streak of delivering a winning record.
“My full expectations is to be back,” McDaniel said after the game when asked if he’s spoken to Ross about his future. “I prefer to keep our conversations to our conversations.
“You focus on making stuff meaningful. If you are going to be 8-9 and fall short of our goals you have to have your reasons why.”
That’s what McDaniel’s putting together, the many reasons the Dolphins failed, but he would rather not do it after a game where his team turned the ball over four times and gave up 375 yards to Aaron Rodgers.
“I don’t feel it’s responsible on my part to spew what I’m thinking or feeling right now,” McDaniel said after the game when peppered with questions about Hill’s trade request, and for his analysis on why this year’s team fell short of expectations. “I feel like it would be irresponsible to throw something out [now] and potentially ask for takebacks.”
While that’s fair — and funny, which McDaniel is regularly — my concern is whether this team’s leadership has learned from 2024’s mistakes?
Have their realized the trenches matter, especially in December?
I highly doubt the Dolphins have because this franchise keeps making the same mistakes regime after regime, and the one constant is Grier, who has been part of this franchise since 2000.
Ross has been a major advocate for continuity, which explains why Grier has served as Miami’s general manager since 2016, even though the Dolphins haven’t won a playoff game in 25 years.
And shaking things up now would likely lead to a major reset.
But that just might be what this franchise needs because pushing forward with a Hill-less rendition of this team, especially with the franchise facing some financial challenges on the horizon because of lackluster salary cap management, could be pointless since it’s an uphill journey for the Dolphins to enter the upper tier of NFL teams legitimately contending for the Super Bowl.
The easy thing to do is give McDaniel and Grier one more season because a reset now might be painful. However, it could speed up the healing, if not rebuilding process.
But we’ll seemingly run this era of the Dolphins back one more season, patching up areas of weakness, and rebuilding the roster with whatever funds they can squeeze out of the players under contract, and hope that somehow this franchise gets off the mediocrity merry-go-round it’s been on for 20-plus years.
“We will take a hard look at where we have fallen short and make the necessary changes to deliver our ultimate goal of building and sustaining a winning team that competes for championships,” Ross stated.
The problem is, at this point nobody’s buying what the franchise is selling. Not even some of the team’s key players.
This story was originally published January 5, 2025 at 10:15 PM.
