Miami Dolphins Stephen Ross Needs To Get This Right

The Miami Dolphins are two weeks away from the end of their season. Win both games and you still get to watch the playoffs from home. It’s going to be a bitter pill for owner Stephen Ross to swallow. Last year his team needed to win one game against either the Bills or the Jets to make the playoffs. They lost both and scored a combined six points. This year they needed to beat Baltimore or New England to a have a legit shot at the post-season and they lost to both. The Dolphins offense has scored just three touchdowns in three weeks.

Missed opportunities yet again. For Stephen Ross however those missed opportunities put him in a position, yet again to make a tough decision and this time he has to get it right. Right on two fronts.

Ross has been the owner of this team since 2009 and in that time he has watched his football czar Bill Parcells quite a week before the regular season began, fired his head coach Tony Sparano, fired his GM Jeff Ireland, and hired a new GM, Dennis Hickey. That’s a lot of hiring and firing in five seasons but it’s the process that has been all wrong.

Tony Sparano was never his coach, he was hired by Parcells prior to Ross buying the team but no one will forget and some won’t forgive his Jim Harbaugh flirtation with Sparano still the head coach. He suffered through another agonizing season with a lot of animosity in the locker room and some thick air between himself, Sparano, and Ireland. He chose to keep Ireland, fire Sparano and then went on a whirlwind ride to find a replacement for Sparano. Even that didn’t go right.

Ross was spurned by the names of Gruden and Cowher but also by Jeff Fisher. Then when it came down to Joe Philbin, he turned to Dawn Aponte an while Jeff Ireland wanted Mike McCoy, Aponte wanted Philbin and Philbin became the HC. The tension only mounted as Aponte and Ireland grew to dislike each other and the fallout of that relationship ended with Ireland being fired after last seasons collapse. That led to the awful search for a new GM where five candidates turned down an interview for the job four others outright turned the job itself down.

For Ross things have not gone well but he got lucky, or so far it seems, with his GM search last year as Hickey has shown a tremendous amount of promise. Now he faces another offseason of making change and he needs to get this one right. Both for his franchises success and his own image.

If Ross is wanting to fire Philbin he needs to do it on Black Monday, traditionally the day after the season ends when coaches are typically fired. He then needs to decide what he wants in his coach, something he may already be discussing with his advisors, Mike Tannebaum and Dan Marino, this according to Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald. Then he needs to go out and get his coach.

Most believe that Ross wants Jim Harbaugh who is likely on his way out of San Francisco. It will cost Miami money and draft picks to get Harbaugh unless the 49’ers fire him outright. The Dolphins will need to trade for him. While Harbaugh would be a glitzy choice and in some ways atone for the swing and miss of five seasons ago. The issue with Harbaugh is other teams, both in the NFL and college ranks, will want him too. The Dolphins will always face the uncertainty of whether Harbaugh would down the road go back to college.

While Harbaugh may be Ross’ want there is a likelihood that the will not be a real possibility and that will lead to names like Rex Ryan, Dan Quinn, Todd Bowles, Hue Jackson, and possibly Bill Lazor to name only a few. There are a lot of possibilities out there this year and how Ross handles his search will go a long way in him getting the guy he wants and maybe the guy who is best for the team.

Whatever happens, Ross has to get the search right and the coach right. He needs to listen to the people that he is trusting in the most. Dan Marino and Mike Tannenbaum and not let this become an internal team debate. This team is wasting a ton of talent if they don’t. If his conviction is staying the course with Philbin, then he needs to man up and say so the day after the season ends, then live with his decision.