Opinion: Brian Flores’ short-term pain with Miami Dolphins includes long-term ramifications
It surely takes a strong person – that’s you, Brian Flores – to keep selling the mission statement when the blowout losses are piling up and the best players are being shown the door.
The Miami Dolphins have been outscored 102-10 through two weeks of the season and another slaughter seems to be in the cards for Sunday, when they take their act on the road: The hot Dallas Cowboys are favored by 21 ½ points.
You see those projected margins routinely in college football, when some small, tight-budgeted school is willing to get blasted by a major powerhouse in exchange for a big payday. But in the NFL?
At this rate, the Dolphins will not only finish 0-for-16 but obliterate the league record for most points allowed in a season (533, 1981 Baltimore Colts) by nearly 300 points.
Yet Flores, who lost another bona fide talent this week when safety Minkah Fitzpatrick was traded to Pittsburgh, is holding steady with his optimistic talking points.
“My message is always the same,” Flores told reporters this week. “Come to work, get better, we improve, we learn from our mistakes.”
What a noble rallying cry for a rookie head coach. To the outside world, though, the message is tanking. Fitzpatrick, a first-rounder last year, follows left tackle Laremy Tunsil (2016 first-rounder) and playmaking receiver Kenny Stills as fire-sale examples discarded for the grand vision.
Miami will have seven picks in the first three rounds in April (unless, of course, they pick up a few more in the coming days) and more extra picks the year after that to go with fat salary cap room. Listen up, season ticket-holders: Talent is coming. This is a repeat of the model the Cleveland Browns executed to evolve from laughingstock to SI cover boys with lofty expectations.
Mind you, the jury is still out on whether it will work for Cleveland, with second-year GM John Dorsey and first-year coach Freddie Kitchens inheriting the start-up package from the Sashi Brown-Hue Jackson regime. Miami will undoubtedly look to draft its Baker Mayfield next spring – Oregon’s Justin Herbert or Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa – as the cornerstone franchise quarterback.
And if they miss – remember, the Chicago Bears traded up to draft Mitchell Trubisky over some kids named Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson – then they’ll take a few more steps back.
“No one likes losing,” Dolphins GM Chris Grier said this week. “We’ve talked about building a team that’s going to win and compete for championships for a long time instead of being in this one year, and then you fall back for two or three. Again, it is a long-term vision, but we will be aggressive.”
Maybe they’ve timed this to coincide with the retirements of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick? Regardless, let’s suppose this plan works for the Dolphins. How long will it take? Are we talking 2022, 2024 or 2027?
It’s also fair to wonder if Flores – who a few months ago called a masterful defensive game plan that throttled the high-powered Rams offense and helped the Patriots win a sixth Super Bowl -- will still be considered head coaching material if it doesn’t work out. Look at Jackson, the former Browns coach who was once considered by multiple teams as a head coach but is now out-of-work with a 3-36-1 tenure in Cleveland on his resume. Try selling Jackson on your fan base as your new head coach.
That’s the risk for Flores. Good, he got a five-year contract from Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, who upon hiring Flores bemoaned that the franchise (playoff wins since 2000: 0) is still stuck in the same rut it was in when he bought it. Maybe Flores, with Grier picking the players, will turn it over like Jimmy Johnson did with the Cowboys a generation ago. Johnson walked in the door with the franchise quarterback, Troy Aikman, then traded his best player, Herschel Walker, for the haul of draft picks that added so many layers (like Emmitt Smith) to three Super Bowl champions.
For now, just know Flores has the opportunity to show that he can deal with some stuff. Why take the job in the first place, knowing the difficulty in starting from scratch? Well, it’s the 1-of-32 thing. There are only so many of these gigs that usually open up because a change is needed.
Flores clearly needs a hat in psychology. The Minkah Fitzpatrick trade came days after multiple reports maintained players were seeking trades in the wake of the 59-10 setback to Baltimore in the season opener. And when players come to work to find that another top talent is gone, it can’t do much for morale. The Dolphins will spend this season fighting the next team on the schedule and the prospects of a losing syndrome – with many of the players figured to be long gone (by their desires or the team’s desires) whenever the day comes (conceivably) that the Dolphins find the promised land.
You’ve got to love Flores’ signature response when asked about tanking. He despises the thought, like any good coach would, as an affront to the integrity of the game. That’s one way to try appealing to the professional pride of his players. But it probably works better with a few W’s to break the monotony of losing.
“I believe in Brian,” said Grier, adding that Flores – who broke into the NFL in personnel under Scott Pioli – is in lock-step with the grand plan. “He’s a great leader, a great man. I think he’s the right guy to lead us through these times.”
Maybe so. This much we know about Flores: He’s a fearless man hardly afraid of a major challenge.