Who might the Miami Dolphins hire as their next coach? 10 possible candidates
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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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The Dolphins’ surprising decision to fire coach Brian Flores on Monday sends owner Stephen Ross back to the drawing board in pursuit of finding the right person to lead the franchise to playoff success that has eluded it for two decades.
Speaking at a virtual news conference, Ross gave no hint as to whom, or what kind of person, he was seeking to become the franchise’s 14th coach, including interim coaches. However, he mentioned collaboration and communication as key reasons for his decision to part with Flores, who led the Dolphins to consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 2003. The Dolphins will be able to begin interviewing coaches immediately, though some might be off-limits as they are still coaching in the playoffs.
Here is a list of 10 possible coaching candidates that could emerge.
Jim Harbaugh
▪ Skinny: Any time there’s an opening with the Dolphins — and sometimes when there’s not — Harbaugh finds his name linked to Miami. Harbaugh is the coach of the Michigan Wolverines and Ross is a Michigan megadonor, so he insists he won’t pluck the coach from his alma mater. At the same time, NFL teams are interested in Harbaugh, according to multiple reports, after he led the Wolverines to their College Football Playoff this year. He was also the coach of the San Francisco 49ers from 2011 to 2014 and led the 49ers to Super Bowl 48.
▪ Pros: Harbaugh is one of the best coaches in the world. He has succeeded everywhere he has been, going 29-6 in three seasons with the San Diego State Aztecs, winning 29 games and the 2011 Orange Bowl in four seasons the Stanford Cardinal and posting a 44-19 record with a trip to Super Bowl in four seasons in San Francisco. At Michigan, Harbaugh has gone 61-24 with four 10-win seasons and three trips to New Year’s Six bowl games. Harbaugh, who started 140 games across 14 seasons and went to one Pro Bowl as a quarterback, had a top-10 defense in every season with the 49ers.
▪ Cons: Harbaugh hasn’t coached in the NFL since 2014 and missed the playoffs in his last season in San Francisco. His Wolverines also play a relatively archaic style, leaving heavily on the ground game and struggling to develop any elite quarterback prospects during his time with Jake Rudock, the only quarterbacks to get drafted from Harbaugh’s Michigan teams.
Doug Pederson
▪ Skinny: Pederson led the Philadelphia Eagles to their first Super Bowl title in the 2017 season but was out as coach after the 2020 season. He took the year off as a coach, but his track record should make him a viable candidate for top jobs this offseason. Pederson also spent parts of four seasons as a quarterback in Miami in the 1990s, backing up Dan Marino.
▪ Pros: Pederson is a proven winner, who won an NFL Coach of the Year Award in 2017, then won a Super Bowl with Nick Foles as his starting quarterback. Pederson was previously the offensive coordinator for coach Andy Reid’s Kansas City Chiefs. He had a top-15 offense in three of his five seasons with the Eagles, including the league’s No. 3 scoring offense in 2017.
▪ Cons: Pederson never built on his Super Bowl success and Philadelphia was a mess by the time he got fired. In 2020, the Eagles were last in the league in net yardage per pass attempt as quarterback Carson Wentz regressed badly from his breakout 2017.
Brian Daboll
▪ Skinny: Daboll spent nearly 20 years bouncing around the NFL before finally settling in as one of the league’s best offensive coordinators in the past four seasons with the Buffalo Bills. Before he established himself with the Bills, Daboll had multiple stints with the New England Patriots, worked for two years as the New York Jets’ quarterbacks coach, had a two-year run as the Cleveland Browns’ offensive coordinator and spent one season each as the offensive coordinator of the Dolphins and Chiefs. He began his NFL coaching career in coach Bill Belichick’s first season with the Patriots and was part of five Super Bowls in New England.
▪ Pros: Daboll, 46, has had incredible offenses in Buffalo and helped develop quarterback Josh Allen into a superstar. After two years of developing Allen, the Bills have had a top-five offense in each of the last two seasons. Daboll also has experience working with Tua Tagovailoa, as he was Alabama’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2017 when Tagovailoa was a freshman.
▪ Cons: Daboll has never been a head coach at any level and, although he deserves credit for helping turn Allen into a star, his offenses were always pedestrian — or worse — before Allen transformed into an All-Pro last season.
Byron Leftwich
▪ Skinny: Leftwich is one of the fastest-rising coaches in the league. Only 41, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator won a Super Bowl last year and is leading one of the league’s best offenses less than 10 years after his playing career ended. As a player, Leftwich started 50 games at quarterback across nine seasons, including 20 for the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2003 to 2006.
▪ Pros: Leftwich has been an offensive coordinator for three full seasons, and ranked in the top 10 in total offense and top five in scoring offense in all three. While coach Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians and Tom Brady get much of the credit for Tampa Bay’s offensive success, Arians has stumped hard for Leftwich and heaped credit upon his coordinator as the primary play-caller. Even before Brady arrived, the Buccaneers had a top-10 offense with Leftwich as the OC.
▪ Cons: Leftwich is relatively inexperienced — which hasn’t been a hold-up for NFL teams in recent years – and has spent two of his three seasons as a full-time offensive coordinator coaching Brady. It’s fair to wonder just how successful Tampa Bay would be without the best quarterback in history.
Jim Caldwell
▪ Skinny: Caldwell has been out of coaching since 2019, when his months-long stint as the Dolphins’ quarterbacks coach under Flores ended because of an undisclosed health issue. Caldwell, 66, hasn’t been a head coach since 2017, but has a winning record in seven seasons, including a trip to the Super Bowl in 2010.
▪ Pros: Caldwell has a legitimate track record of success, guiding the Indianapolis Colts to Super Bowl 49 in his first season. He won 10-plus games in each of his first two seasons before Peyton Manning missed the entire 2011 NFL season due to neck surgery and the Colts managed just two wins. As Manning left for the Denver Broncos and Indianapolis looked to a rebuild, the Colts fired Caldwell. The Detroit Lions gave Caldwell another shot in 2014 and Caldwell posted a winning record in three of four years before getting fired after a nine-win season. Detroit hasn’t had a winning record since firing Caldwell.
▪ Cons: Caldwell walked into a great situation in Indianapolis and had a top-10 offense in both of his seasons with Manning. His offenses never quite hummed in Detroit, though, with the Lions ranking in the bottom half of the league in three of four seasons despite having quarterback Matthew Stafford in his prime.
Eric Bieniemy
▪ Skinny: For several years, Bieniemy’s name has been touted as a future head coach, but it has never materialized into a hiring, bringing forth questions about the league’s commitment to hiring diverse, qualified candidates. Working alongside Reid, Bieniemy has served as the offensive coordinator since 2018 for one of the league’s best offenses with All-Pro players Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce. The Dolphins interviewed Bieniemy, a former NFL running back, during the 2019 cycle.
▪ Pros: Bieniemy is regarded as one of the best offensive minds in the league, a coach that not only Reid has vouched for but Kansas City’s top players. His innovative ideas could be a breath of fresh air and introduce an exciting brand of football to a fan base that has grown too accustomed to stagnant offenses.
▪ Cons: Bieniemy’s role as a play-caller has come into question in recent years, though he and Reid have labeled it a collaborative approach. It’s also fair to question the level of success he would have running an offense that’s not afforded the wealth of talent he currently possesses in Kansas City.
Kris Richard
▪ Skinny: Richard is the defensive backs coach for the New Orleans Saints and previously worked as defensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks from 2015 to 2017, as well as defensive backs coach/passing game coordinator the Dallas Cowboys from 2018 to 2019. The Dolphins interviewed Richard, who had a short stint as a defensive back in Miami in 2005, during the 2019 cycle. Richard, 42, has been regarded as a high-rising assistant for multiple years.
▪ Pros: Richard’s stewardship was noted as influential in the development of several players in Dallas and he has a reputation for developing strong relationships with his players.
▪ Cons: Richard would be another first-time head coach hire, and while Ross has not stated a preference for an experienced coach, his comments on the state of the team and having a young, talented roster might lead one to believe he might lean in that direction.
Dan Quinn
▪ Skinny: Quinn is in his first year as defensive coordinator of the Cowboys after spending six seasons as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. He had a one-year stint in Miami as the team’s defensive line coach for the 2005 season.
▪ Pros: Quinn has a proven track record, going 43-42 and leading Atlanta to Super Bowl 51, the infamous 28-3 comeback by the New England Patriots. In his first season with Dallas, he transformed a below-average unit in 2020 into one of the best defenses in the NFL. He also led the famed Seahawks defense that featured players such as Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor.
▪ Cons: The Falcons were never able to reattain the success of that 2016 season and a combination of slow starts, breakdowns in key moments and a regression from the defense, Quinn’s expertise, ultimately led to his demise. Quinn will have to answer questions about that, as well as his plan for building the Dolphins offense.
Dennis Allen
▪ Skinny: Allen is the Saints’ defensive coordinator, serving in that role for the seventh consecutive season. The Dolphins interviewed Allen in the 2019 cycle.
▪ Pros: Since 2018, the Saints defense hasn’t been ranked lower than eighth in Football Outsiders’ efficiency rankings, so Allen is a good bet to retain the defensive excellence that defined Miami’s seven-game winning streak in 2021. He has also been mentored by one of the most successful head coaches in Sean Payton.
▪ Cons: Allen has already had one go-around as head coach and it was a failure; he went 8-28 in two-plus seasons as the Raiders’ coach from 2012 to 2014. With Ross’ insistence that the Dolphins have a young roster ready to compete now, he could opt for a coach with a more proven track record.
Nathaniel Hackett
▪ Skinny: Hackett is the Green Bay Packers’ offensive coordinator, serving in that role for the third season on coach Matt LaFleur’s staff. He’s also served as the OC for the Bills (2013-14) and Jaguars (2016-18) and is the son of former college football and NFL coach Paul Hackett.
▪ Pros: Along with previous experience as an OC, Hackett has worked as quarterbacks coach, a plus if the Dolphins wanted to cater their hire around someone who can bring the most out of Tagovailoa. Hackett and LaFleur have also integrated run-pass option schemes into Green Bay’s offense, which Tagovailoa had a lot of success with in the 2021 season.
▪ Cons: How much credit for the Packers offense really goes to LeFleur, who also calls plays? Or Rodgers himself? Though Hackett built respectable offenses around less-than-stellar quarterbacks in Buffalo and Jacksonville, he never coached a unit prior to arriving in Green Bay that ranked higher than 15th in Football Outsiders’ efficiency rankings.
Other potential names: Marvin Lewis, Kellen Moore, Todd Bowles, Vic Fangio, Mike Zimmer
This story was originally published January 10, 2022 at 6:01 PM.
