Kelly: Is Steve Ross holding himself up to the standards he created for Dolphins? | Opinion
We’ve been obsessed with Steve Ross’ “status quo” comment because for once the Miami Dolphins fan base felt the franchise’s owner was setting a realistic standard for his team.
Problem is we got lost in holding this poorly built, underachieving 6-9 team to that standard we forgot about the statement from the Dolphins’ owner that immediately followed it when Ross announced that general manager Chris Grier, and coach Mike McDaniel would be retained at the end of last year’s losing season.
“We will take a hard look at where we have fallen short [as a franchise] and make the necessary changes to deliver our ultimate goal of building and sustaining a winning team that competes for championships,” Ross wrote in a statement released nearly a year ago.
Competes for championships? Plural?
In hindsight, that statement is where Ross and his half - or whole measures - should really be judged from 2024 on.
Let’s try to be honest about the Dolphins for five minutes.
Did anyone in their right mind believe Miami was on track to win championships when Ross removed Brian Flores as the team’s head coach and replaced him with Mike McDaniel?
The Dolphins settled then, and we have absolutely no proof they don’t, or won’t keep doing it.
Want some proof? Everyone in the NFL knew Jim Harbaugh was coming back to the NFL the offseason McDaniel was hired.
The NCAA was sniffing around the Michigan program in 2022, ready to make an example of a habitual line stepper. Harbaugh needed an escape hatch, and go back to the NFL was seemingly his exit. However, Ross was adamant he wouldn’t be the employer taking the University of Michigan coach from his alma mater, even though there was a ton of evidence Harbaugh could quickly turn around a franchise.
That’s settling. Harbaugh supposedly turned down two other NFL teams that wouldn’t give him all-power that offseason, and a year later he took over the now playoff-bound Los Angeles Chargers.
But what about the other candidates, prospects to replace Flores in 2022? Was Miami settling then too?
The New York Giants hired Brian Daboll after former Dolphins executive Joe Schoen was appointed that franchise’s general manager earlier that January. Even though the Dolphins reportedly had interest in Daboll, who in full transparency was my favorite candidate during the 2022 hiring cycle, Schoen and Daboll were a package deal.
That marriage ended midseason after four years and a 20-40-1 record. Schoen survives for now, but who knows what’s next for the dismal Giants.
The Chicago Bears hired then Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, who was a hot name that hiring cycle. Eberflus got fired 12 games into the 2024 season after seemingly breaking quarterback Caleb Williams, whom new Bears coach Ben Johnson, a former Dolphins assistant by the way, has apparently fixed in one season.
The Denver Broncos proposed to Nathaniel Hackett, who was then the Packers’ offensive coordinator.
Hackett let that Russell Wilson led Broncos team run all over him and didn’t even survive his first season (4-11) before eventually being replaced by Sean Payton, who was shopping for a new team then too.
In two seasons Payton, whom the Dolphins were punished for trying to hire/ tamper with that 2022 offseason, before hiring McDaniel, has turned the Broncos into an AFC powerhouse.
The Las Vegas Raiders gave longtime Patriots assistant Josh McDaniels all the power he could manage, and for the second time McDaniels let that power go to his head. The notorious egomaniac was fired eight games (3-5 record) into his second season.
Doug Pederson, who led the Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl win in 2017, was my second favorite candidate in that 2022 search. But the Dolphins never showed any interest in Dan Marino’s former backup quarterback.
Pederson produced a 22-29 record in his three seasons leading the Jaguars, and got fired at the conclusion of a 4-13 season, which featured a ton of regression from Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
Former Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen replaced Pederson last offseason and has the Jaguars (11-4) headed to the postseason.
Dennis Allen inherited the New Orleans Saints when Payton abruptly, but not surprisingly, stepped down as the Saints’ head coach in 2022. He was 16-18 in his first two seasons lead the Saints, but lost the locker room early in 2024, and then his job after losing his seven of the Saints’ first nine games last season.
That makes Allen a two time loser if we’re counting his failed tenure (4-28 record) as the Oakland Raiders head coach for a season and a half, back in 2012-14.
Kevin O’Connell has been the one success story of this batch of 2022 hires.
He owns a 41-25 record despite this year’s disappointing 7-8 season, which has been plagued by quarterback injuries. Pretty safe to conclude O’Connell will have the 2026 season to redeem himself considering he was named the NFL Coach of the Year for 2024, and received a lucrative contract extension based on what his team accomplished that season.
These are McDaniel’s peers, and the realization that only O’Connell is still around hints that the NFL has a coach selection problem, just as much as they have a quarterback development problem.
Keep in mind that eight jobs were open going into the 2022 season and McDaniel only had one interview. ONE suitor, which was the Dolphins.
And he was more of Miami’s fallback plan than first choice since it was revealed by the NFL that Miami was doing backdoor negotiations with Payton and his agent before getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar, tampering with a coach whose rights belonged to the New Orleans Saints, which denied Miami permission to speak to Payton.
The Dolphins were punished for this - at least that’s what we’ll justify that punishment, the loss of a 2023 first-round pick and a 2024 third-round pick - on even though common sense tells us it was really for trying to motivate Flores to tank the 2019 season, and then getting the league involved in a class action lawsuit against Flores because of his 2021 dismissal.
Tomato, Tomatoe.
But let’s stick to the important subject at hand, which is that justified - or not - McDaniel has outlasted all but one of his contemporaries.
That’s despite having a 34-32 record, despite going 4-23 in games he’s trailed at the half, despite his teams annually collapsing in the fourth quarter of the season, and despite producing back-to-back losing seasons.
Whether McDaniel deserves another year is Ross, and only Ross’ decision, unless the players actually quit on the team in the final two games, like the 2018 Dolphins team did to Adam Gase when they wanted to ensure he wouldn’t return after his third season.
And none of us know what gage Ross will use to make that decision even though he clearly stated at the end of 2024 that the “status quo” wouldn’t do in 2025.
But here we are, status quo-ing it up, with a foundationless franchise that clearly needs to be completely rebuilt.
Plenty has to go right to lead to an organization - or a coaching staff - to succeeding in the NFL. My problem is that starting line, the search process, seems to the most troublesome part of this journey for Miami.
