A friendship that began as NFL scouts led Grier to hire Brian Flores as Dolphins head coach

Stephen Ross has hired three head coaches during his 10 seasons as Miami Dolphins owner. Joe Philbin wasn’t totally his idea, but rather him taking the advice of a search committee and people he trusted. Adam Gase was completely on him as he identified Gase and stuck with him despite advice to strongly consider others.

The hiring of New England Patriots linebacker coach and defensive play-caller Brian Flores also isn’t entirely on Ross, per multiple sources. That one’s on general manager Chris Grier.

Ross obviously signed off on the Flores hiring, as he did the others, and will bring the coach to South Florida on his private jet Monday morning to finalize him being named Dolphins coach.

But Ross allowed Grier, who has been newly empowered on all things Dolphins football, to push this hire, per sources.

So why did Grier go with Flores?

It begins with the fact they have known each other a long time and are friends. In fact, several Dolphins coaches who have moved on have told the Herald it was an no secret within the organization that Grier was focused on Flores as the favorite to be Miami’s new coach even before interviews began.

So where did Grier’s affinity for Flores begin?

Flores began his time with the Patriots as a scouting assistant in 2004. He did that for two years and then was in the pro scouting department for two years. Grier was a Dolphins-area scout, then assistant director of college scouting, then director of college scouting during that time.

So the Patriots’ personnel man and the Dolphins’ personnel man often crossed paths.

And it made their interview last month feel somewhat comfortable.

“The Dolphins [interview] was different in that I’ve known Chris for a long time,” Flores said. “We met in scouting games way back when. I have a lot of respect for him. He’s someone I call a friend. That was good and obviously Steve Ross was great to meet.

“And that was the same for all the interviews. I met a lot of great people, and it was a great experience for me. That part was really enlightening to me.”

Grier and Flores had also spent time together prior during the 2018 NFL annual meeting in Orlando. Flores was in town participating in an NFL career development symposium, and Grier was there with the Dolphins as their GM.

“Yeah, he and I have crossed paths there and at games for 12 years,” Flores said. “Again, my scouting background, we saw each other all the time.”

Flores shifted from scouting to coaching in 2008. And after working with the New England special teams and serving as an offensive assistant, he worked with the Patriots’ secondary.

That’s when he began to see himself as a future head coach.

“I would say there a point, let’s call it 2014,” Flores said. “I was coaching the safeties and as you know, in any profession, there’s a time when you feel like, ‘OK,’ you’re doing things. You’re impacting guys. You feel like you’re making a difference.

“I had a great group of safeties — Devin McCourty, Duron Harmon, Pat Chung, Tavon Wilson. I felt like I was making an impact and a strong impact on those guys. The things I was saying, I watched it come to fruition on the field and off the field, over and over and over again.

“That’s when I felt I had some real, true leadership qualities and I guess that was the point I felt one day I could be a good leader in this league.”

When teams began to call to set head coach interviews with Flores it confirmed that other folks agreed with him because obviously they also thought of him as a likely leader.

But Flores, who deflects credit for the the success of his players, didn’t exactly feel emboldened by the requests to interview -- even when Grier called.

“It was humbling I would say,” Flores said. “”That is the first word that comes to mind. To be considered is humbling.”

This story was originally published February 1, 2019 at 3:38 PM.