Questions the Miami Dolphins contingent at the Senior Bowl are leaving unanswered
A Dolphins contingent that includes head coach Brian Flores and general manager Chris Grier has spent the past few days in Mobile, Ala., watching practices in advance of the Senior Bowl and interviewing players in the game as part of their draft preparation.
I’ve been back in South Florida preparing the Zach Thomas Hall of Fame presentation, which I’ll deliver before selectors Feb. 1.
But I’ve been monitoring with interest the fine coverage from the Herald’s Adam Beasley here and here. And, frankly, I’ve been left with questions about what the Dolphins are doing and saying up there.
My first question is why offensive coordinator Chan Gailey is not among the Dolphins’ contingent on the trip?
Brian Flores said running back coach Eric Studesville, defensive coordinator Josh Boyer, wide receiver coach Karl Dorrell, special teams coordinator Danny Crossman and himself were in Mobile. And Dan Marino is also on the trip.
But Gailey is the person who will run the offense in 2020. He is, according to Flores, going to be in charge of the vital “coach-quarterback” relationship next year. And that will include a relationship with whichever rookie QB the Dolphins select in the draft as their future starter.
So why isn’t he in Mobile as part of the process of meeting and forming the opening stages of 1. an evaluation and 2. a relationship with some of the QBs at the game, including Justin Herbert?
It’s not about watching Herbert or Jordan Love or any of the other guys practice so much, although that’s important. But it’s about potentially getting hours of time with the players over two or three days because the interview rules at the Senior Bowl are much more loose than at the NFL Combine next month.
The NFL Network, in fact, reported Thursday that teams have been alerted new interview rules at the Combine will limiting the number of interviews teams can conduct from 60 sessions of 15 minutes to 45 sessions of 18 minutes. There are no such limits at the Senior Bowl.
(Also, agents will have their players fully coached up on what to say in interviews by the combine and that may not yet be the case at the Senior Bowl).
So that face time in Mobile is potentially invaluable. But it’s apparently not something the Dolphins see as vital for their new QB whisperer.
Some other questions based on what the Dolphins are saying:
Grier on Wednesday tried to defend spending a second-round pick on Josh Rosen last April, a move I didn’t agree with back then and clearly did not pay a dividend in 2019 ...
“Josh is here, and I think the trade for us last year, we’re always trying to upgrade that position,” Grier said. “It’s a young player that has some talent for us to evaluate knowing we’re going to have picks and a lot of picks in the future and money available that it made sense for us to do that trade.
“After we made it, Josh has made huge strides Brian has talked about. It’s been fun watching him grow throughout the year. I know no one got to see it, but he did a tremendous job growing. And people always forget like I’ve said before, you’ve got four different offensive coordinators and schemes, and that’s hard for a young kid with no stability. So, we’re proud of him.”
My question: If he was making such great strides and doing such a tremendous job growing, why couldn’t he earn any playing time the final two months of the season?
Grier was asked about the connection the Dolphins have had to Tua Tagovailoa for a year or so. Remember #TankforTua? And while claiming there is no connection -- although he and owner Stephen Ross went to see the kid play in at least two games last year -- Grier tried to relitigate the whole 2019 tanking thing.
“We’ll evaluate [Tua] just like every player,” Grier said. “When people were talking about stuff. We said we weren’t tanking. We were trying to win and build. And so to say one player was attached to us, you can’t control what fans and people in the media say. So there’s no pressure for us. The pressure for us is to find the right guy to be the quarterback for the Dolphins, whether it’s him or someone else. That’s the pressure. Finding the right guy to lead the organization. “
My question: If the Dolphins, specifically Grier’s personnel department, wasn’t tanking in 2019, what we saw was them trying really hard to win? Letting players go and not replacing them, trading away starters days before the regular season, letting unhappy players dictate being traded was the front office at the top of its game?
5-11 was the Dolphins doing their best?
It has been expected the Dolphins would bring back quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick in 2020. But on Wednesday, Grier made that somewhat official. By the way, with Gailey bringing his offense to town, I’m telling you Fitzpatrick will be the starter when the 2020 season dawns because he’s played for Gailey for years and knows that offense backwards and forwards.
But here’s my question: At what point does Ryan Fitzpatrick stop being the cool veteran who is trying really hard and leading the team as a bridge quarterback and start being a progress stopper?
I’d tell you the answer must be at the point Tagovailoa or Justin Herbert or whomever is not quite ready but within sight of being able to start.
That is when Ryan Fitzpatrick has to stop being the fun, try-hard vet and start being the backup the rookie quarterback doesn’t have to look over his shoulder and worry about.
This story was originally published January 23, 2020 at 12:00 AM.
