Questions answered: Flores goes on the record about Dolphins’ coaching staff overhaul
The Dolphins made official their new-look coaching staff Monday evening, announcing Chan Gailey as their offensive play-caller and Josh Boyer as their defensive coordinator.
By the time the release was sent out, Brian Flores had already exclusively met here with Dolphins beat writers who are in town for the Senior Bowl. Over the course of a half-hour, Flores explained, on the record for the first time, why took a sledgehammer to a staff that, by any objective metric, got the most out of a talent-deficit roster in 2019.
Or put more simply: Why did Flores fire Chad O’Shea after just one season and replace him immediately with Gailey, who last coached in 2016?
“I have a lot of respect for Chad,” Flores said. “I think he’s a very, very good coach. At the end of the day, I feel like for the future of this team, my vision for us offensively, I feel like it’s a move we have to make. ... From a vision standpoint, as far as how we’re going to run the football and throw the football. How we’re going to go about meetings and practices and walk-throughs I felt like we needed to do something a little differently than we had in the past.”
Flores added: “I’m charged with having a vision for this team. ... At that position, from the coaching staff standpoint, a lot of thought went into this. It wasn’t a snap decision. It was definitely a back and forth. When you’re in this seat you have to make some hard decisions and that was one of them. I felt like it was the best thing for the team.”
The Dolphins finished 27th in yards (310 per game), 25th in scoring (19.1) and last in rushing (72.3). Gailey’s job is to improve all of those numbers. How he’ll go about it remains a bit of a mystery.
Most expected him to run a spread offensive system in Miami, but Flores cast some doubt on that assumption Monday.
“This is someone who has been around the block,” Flores said. “It could be spread. It could be the power game. It’s whatever. He tries to put players in position to do the things they do well. You’ve heard me say that often. That’s something I’ve always seen from him, and something I have a lot of respect for.”
Flores believes a 68-year-old retiree who hasn’t called plays in more than three years is best suited to build a 21st century offense while developing a modern quarterback.
Why?
“He’s very innovative,” Flores said. “He’s been a head coach in this league. He understands situations. He has coached a lot of different types of players. He’s done a job of getting the most out of players. He’s someone I have a lot of confidence in. He’ll help us.”
Flores has never worked with Gailey, but has coached against him plenty. His new play-caller is great at in-game adjustments, Flores said, and will be prepared for every type of defense he’ll see this fall.
But Gailey’s No. 1 job is to help the team identify the right quarterback in this year’s draft, and then turn him into a star once the Dolphins draft him.
“He’s worked with a lot of quarterbacks, he’s been a head coach,” Flores said. “He understands, let’s call it ‘coach-quarterback,’ that dynamic, that relationship, how important it is. He’s a very good teacher and he’s gotten the most out of every guy that’s been in that room. To me, that’s coaching.”
As for defensive coordinator Patrick Graham’s request to get out of his contract and take the same job in New York, Flores elected not to block his longtime friend from making the lateral move, even though he could.
The decision was easier because of the confidence Flores has in Josh Boyer, whom Flores promoted when Graham bolted for the Giants. Boyer is no symbolic coordinator; he will make the defensive calls this fall.
“He and I see things through the same lenses. A lot of ways. He coached corners and I coached safeties and we spent a lot of time together. Defensive philosophies and fundamentals and techniques, the things we teach. We’re very much on the same page. I though we were on the same page with Patrick Graham as well. I don’t want to give the impression we weren’t. But I just felt it was a smooth transition with Josh moving into that role.”
Some other news from Monday: Jim Caldwell will not return, so his time in Miami ends without him coaching a single game for the Dolphins. Caldwell was supposed to be the team’s quarterbacks coach and a veteran voice on Flores’ relatively inexperienced staff, but took a leave of absence in the summer to deal with a health issue and never returned to the team.
Along with the Boyer and Gailey moves, the Dolphins also formally announced that Robby Brown will serve as quarterbacks coach, Austin Clark as outside linebackers coach, Curt Kuntz as assistant defensive backs coach and Steve Marshall as offensive line coach.
This story was originally published January 20, 2020 at 7:41 PM.
