Dolphins owner Stephen Ross explains decision to keep GM Chris Grier after firing Brian Flores
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Miami Dolphins fire head coach Brian Flores
Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross fired head coach Brian Flores Monday following his third season with the organization. Read all of the news from the move that stunned many around the NFL.
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Brian Flores, who missed the NFL playoffs in all three of his seasons as the Miami Dolphins’ head coach, is out.
Chris Grier, however, is staying with the Dolphins, even after Miami missed the playoffs for the fifth consecutive year and in five of Grier’s six seasons as general manager.
Owner Stephen Ross’ decision to fire Flores on Monday was the biggest stunner of the league’s so-called “Black Monday,” not because it was surprising to see the Dolphins make changes, but because of just what changes they decided to make.
Grier has been with the organization since 2000, in an executive role since 2007 and the GM since 2016, and the Dolphins haven’t won a playoff game since his first year when he was an area scout.
Ross, however, touted the transformation of the roster Grier has achieved in the past three years when explaining why he decided to keep him as his GM.
“If you look at our roster, we have a very fine, I think, an excellent roster of young players,” Ross said. “We had an old, aging roster before that was leading us nowhere but to mediocrity, and I think that when you look at our roster today you see our salary cap, players that we have — I think we’re well suited for the future.”
In reality, the misses have come nearly as often as the hits for Grier, which is why Miami will once again watch the playoffs from home this season. While Grier has put together a solid young roster — mainly by jettisoning veterans and acquiring a wealth of draft capital — his tenure has so far been as much defined by the talented players he let slip away.
The defining move of Grier’s time as GM to date has been his decision to pick Tua Tagovailoa with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft over Justin Herbert, who was selected by the Los Angeles Chargers one pick later. Though much of the Miami fan base supported the pick after a trying rebuild in 2019 defined by the “Tank for Tua” slogan, Herbert has established himself as one of the league’s ascendant young quarterbacks, while Tagovailoa has struggled with inconsistency and been sidelined by multiple injuries.
Though reports stated Grier and Flores were at odds about the quarterback pick, with Flores reportedly wanting to go with Herbert, at a post-trade deadline news conference in November, Grier called the report “inaccurate” and said, “all of our decisions we make as a team, but I’m not going into who wanted what.”
Ross referred to “communication and collaboration” as playing a key role in making another shakeup within the organization.
When asked about the future of Tagovailoa in Miami and the potential to re-engage in trade talks for Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, Ross notably said the decision would be in the hands of the team’s next coach, not Grier.
The Dolphins were already set for a critical offseason, expected to have a league-leading $70 million in cap space. Grier will still likely handle the major personnel decisions that await but now with a new running mate as his head coach.
Hit: Grier has drafted four Pro Bowlers in his tenure.
Grier took over as GM about four months before the 2016 NFL Draft and quickly made a splash when he landed offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil with the No. 13 overall pick, cornerback Xavien Howard in the second round and wide receiver Jakeem Grant in the sixth. He then followed it up by picking safety Minkah Fitzpatrick in the first round of the 2017 Draft.
All four have developed into Pro Bowlers, with Howard and Fitzpatrick both earning first-team All-Pro honors last year.
Miss: Only one of those four actually received Pro Bowl and All-Pro honors with the Dolphins.
In 2019, Miami traded Tunsil to the Houston Texans and Fitzpatrick to the Pittsburgh Steelers, as part of the team’s strip-down and rebuild. Both players made their first Pro Bowls a few months later.
Flores, of course, deserves a lot of the blame for the Fitzpatrick situation because he never got along with the defensive back, but they were still just two more stars the Dolphins let go.
Earlier this year, Miami traded Grant to the Chicago Bears and now the wideout is going to the 2022 Pro Bowl as a return specialist.
Howard was the only player to play in a Pro Bowl as a Dolphin during Flores’ tenure.
Hit: Grier has found six no-doubt foundational players in the first three rounds of the last two NFL Drafts.
The volume of early-round picks to pan out for Miami, particularly on defense, in the last three years is impressive. The Dolphins got defensive tackle Christian Wilkins in the first round of the 2019 Draft, safety Brandon Jones in the third round of the 2020 Draft, and linebacker Jaelan Phillips and safety Jevon Holland in the first two rounds of the 2021 Draft.
The Dolphins also took wide receiver Jaylen Waddle with the No. 6 pick in 2021 and saw him quickly become a fringe contender for the NFL Rookie of the Year Award, and picked offensive lineman Robert Hunt in the second round in 2020 and have developed him into a solid starting guard.
It’s a pretty good core for the next coach to work with.
Miss: He also spent first-round picks on tackle Austin Jackson, cornerback Noah Igbinoghene and defensive end Charles Harris.
The core, however, could’ve been a lot better. Jackson has not worked out at left tackle and now is just a pedestrian guard. Igbinoghene can barely get on the field on special teams, let alone defense. Harris had 31/2 sacks in three seasons with the Dolphins before they traded him to the Atlanta Falcons and he has 101/2 sacks in two years since, including 71/2 this year with the Detroit Lions.
Miss: He’s 0 for 2 in coaching hires so far.
Less than a week after Grier took over as GM in 2016, Miami hired Adam Gase, who went 23-25 in his three seasons as coach and 13-19 in his last two seasons after he made the playoffs in his first year.
Grier then hired Flores in 2019, watched him lead one of the league’s worst rosters to five wins in his first season, then rattle off back-to-back winning seasons.
Still, the Dolphins, by firing Flores, have deemed the Flores era a failure, with a 24-25 overall record and not a single playoff berth. Miami hopes the third time will be the charm for Grier hiring coaches.
This story was originally published January 10, 2022 at 12:15 PM.
