Stephen Ross calls the suggestion that the Miami Dolphins tried to tank ‘ridiculous’
Despite having the league’s lowest payroll, purging their roster and trading two of their best players at the start of the season, the Dolphins had no planned tank — at any level — in Miami, team owner Stephen Ross insisted Monday.
In an extended statement published on the team’s website, Ross said that “the idea that we made decisions to try to be bad on purpose is ridiculous.
“We were a team with an aging roster and the most dead salary cap money in the NFL,” Ross continued. “So we knew that we needed to build it from the ground up, and that’s what drove the decisions.”
The Dolphins surprisingly went 5-11 in 2019, winning five of their last nine, but there was a time that they looked like one of the worst teams in NFL history. While Dolphins coaches and players always tried to win each week, they were working at a severe disadvantage due to the team’s talent deficiency.
But Ross argues that the barren roster makeup was more of a reorganization than a one-year plan to be bad for a high draft pick (the Dolphins will pick fifth next April).
“There were a lot of narratives this year about our approach that were incorrect,” Ross said. “We objectively looked at things and determined that we were a long way from being a championship caliber team and we needed to take a different approach.”
That approach included a new coach with an improved organizational culture. Ross reiterated that Flores’ natural leadership was the reason he got the job one year ago, and said that 2019 “was a successful year,” considering the team’s improved identity and financial situation.
“Brian has proven to be what we were looking for, and I believe we found the right head coach,” Ross said. “He is establishing an identity for this football team as a smart, tough, aggressive, disciplined team with players who play together and play for each other. He has high standards and holds people around him accountable, and he is straightforward and consistent. I think we’ve gotten better as the season has gone on, so as long as we keep getting better, eventually we will get where we want to be.”
Ross expects continued improvement, considering his team has 14 draft picks, including five in the top 60, plus more than $100 million in salary cap space this offseason.
“The expectation is that we keep getting better,” Ross said. “We have great organizational leadership with Tom and Brian and Chris and Brandon and many others. Everyone works together well, challenges each other, and shares the same goals. We need to keep working hard, working together, making good decisions, and eventually we’ll get to a place where we can consistently compete for championships. Our fans deserve that, and we’ll keep working at it until we can deliver it for them.”
This story was originally published December 30, 2019 at 1:16 PM.
