Miami Dolphins: Coach Philbin’s important decision
By Sean Denison
A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to ask Miami Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin a couple of questions. One of those questions was if his persona was just a front, and if he was really a comedic guy off the field. After the chuckles from Philbin and the rest of the media subsided, Philbin answered: “I don’t know about comedic. That might be a little strong. I do have a sense of humor, believe it or not.” Philbin continued to explain that his sense of humor was, “a little dry with a little bit of northeast sarcasm in there.”
As a matter of fact, just a few weeks after I asked him that question, Philbin has started to show a side of him we rarely, if ever, see. A side that is more relaxed, fun, and entertaining. Look, the man actually cancelled a Dolphins practice to watch the new Straight Outta Compton movie. Hell, he even dawned a white suit and top hat and rapped in front of the team. Although it was a little uncomfortable to watch the coach—a nerdy, white, Ned Flanders-type—succumb to doing something extremely out of his comfort zone, it was respectable. He’s trying.
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If the Dolphins don’t make the playoffs, Philbin’s gone. Philbin knows this. And he’s trying to do things a little differently because his coaching style hasn’t brought Miami a smidgen of success since he arrived. In truth, you could say the Dolphins’ record under coach Philbin resembles the tall, dorky northeasterner: 23-25.
As Philbin’s approach changes, some things might stay the same. Over the years, Dolphins fans have questioned a slew of decisions the coach has made. Dolphin faithful’s often find themselves scratching their head, pondering what the hell just took place. And once again, despite the many efforts to change, Philbin seems to have stayed the course of his questionable coaching style. Saturday night in the Dolphins preseason home opener, the team plays host to the Atlanta Falcons. Given that it’s the third and “most important” preseason game of the year, a game in which starters normally play into the third quarter, the Dolphins plan to address this scrimmage as a regular season game.
The problem? Despite what the roster might say, it’s safe to say that Miami doesn’t have a left tackle for the scrimmage. Branden Albert is still recovering from his ACL injury and his replacement Jason Fox suffered a concussion last week and has yet to be cleared by the Dolphins medical staff to play. That leaves undrafted rookie Aundrey Walker to protect Tannehill’s blind side. In retrospect, this should be an easy decision for Joe Philbin: sit your franchise quarterback out in a meaningless scrimmage game.
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If Philbin decides to play his franchise quarterback, particularly all the way into the third quarter, he’s taking a risk that doesn’t have much reward—in fact, no reward at all. Only bad things can happen. In truth, starting running back Lamar Miller shouldn’t play either. If the unthinkable happens, who’s to blame? Do you blame the undrafted rookie offensive lineman? No, all of it goes on the decision made by the head coach. Even if all fares well, it’s still yet another head scratching moment we, as Dolphins fans, are much too familiar with.
If Tannehill and the rest of the starters get the thumbs up and play Saturday night, everyone in attendance will hold their breath at every snap of the football. Every person that is comfortably sitting in their living room will have heart palpitations every time Tannehill drops back to pass, Lamar Miller runs, and every time the Falcons show a blitz.
Unfortunately, in the past few weeks, the NFL has seen a great deal of its players injured in the preseason; in fact, the Dolphins saw one of their own players go down (Louis Delmas) with a season-ending injury in a intra-squad practice against the Carolina Panthers. Every time—whether it be practice, a scrimmage, or a game—when a player straps on a helmet and runs onto a football field, there’s a chance that he could get inured. It’s something that we all know can happen at any given moment. You’d just hate to see it happen to such an important player, especially when it doesn’t have to.
Hopefully, Coach Joe Philbin’s new, relaxed, and fun attitude will help him come to his senses and give some starters, particularly Ryan Tannehill and Lamar Miller, some rest Saturday night. Because we’ve seen this movie play out before—no need to make it a sequel.