Miami Dolphins are Adam Gase’s team…period

The Miami Dolphins are strucutred well from Mike Tannenbaum and general manager Chris Grier to head coach Adam Gase. Just make sure you realize that this is Adam Gase’s team now.

Don Shula, Jimmy Johnson, and Nick Saban were coaches who ruled the Miami Dolphins with iron fists. If you got out of line or didn’t pull your weight you were gone. No questions asked. When each of those three were in Miami it was their way or the highway. Even though Saban was here for only a short time, no one questioned who was the boss.

Dave Wannstedt, Cam Cameron, Tony Sparano, and Joe Philbin were supposed to be top coaches but each came with a side that more often than not either didn’t sit well with the players or the players simply didn’t carry the respect for them. Wannstedt tried to be Jimmy Johnson but he was too nice. Cameron was a joke from the start and Joe Philbin couldn’t get out of his own way. Ton Sparano had an alpha male mentality but on a team that had two other alpha males above him. It wasn’t going to work.

When the Dolphins added Adam Gase he was the next up and coming hot coaching candidate. He was came from a Bill Belichick/Nick Saban type mold. More Don Shula and a lot less Dave Wannstedt. He was revered like Jimmy Johnson without having proved anything. And he took his first team to the post-season.

Gase is a cool dude. The players, most of them, love playing for him. He is up front, honest, and will not stab anyone in the back so if he calls you out publicly, he likely already called you into his office personally. Gase expects results and he expects his players to run his system. Buy into it or get of of it.

In 2016 Gase made a bold move when he released Jamil Douglas, Billy Turner, and Dallas Thomas all on the same day. All three had starting experience. All three were not pulling their weight. Early in the season he benched Byron Maxwell. The starting corner that the Dolphins had just traded for when the league new year began. Maxwell, the guy bringing in almost $10 million in cap space.

2017 has not been kind to Gase who has battled injury after injury and a hurricane to boot. A trip to California then to New York and then to London. He has no bye week and his starting quarterback stands on the sideline in street clothes. Yet Gase will take no excuses.

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Gase again benched Maxwell for poor play and when his ankle injury allowed him to come back, Gase sent him packing. Why? Because Maxwell was doing his own thing on the field and not running the system and scheme of Matt Burke. On Tuesday, Gase put his foot down again and traded starting running back Jay Ajayi.

Now think of this for a minute. Gase doesn’t make personnel decisions. He has full discretion on who dresses on Sunday’s, who plays, and who doesn’t but when it comes to the players on the roster, Gase has to defer to Tannenbaum and Grier. Wanna bet?

At some point Gase has gone to the two executives and said, “I am benching Maxwell”, “I want Thomas, Douglas, and Turner off my roster”, “I want Maxwell off my roster”, and at some point in the last five days, Adam Gase has walked into their office and said, “See what you can get for Ajayi. I don’t want him around anymore.”

While it may not have happened exactly like that I can assure you that neither Tannenbaum or Grier walked up to Gase and said “we got an offer of a 4th round pick for Jay Ajayi do you want to trade him?” They already knew how Gase felt.

This is Adam Gase’s team. Maybe he gets the types of players he wants and maybe he blows the lid of the Dolphins future and they win multiple Super Bowls. Maybe he loses control down the road and finds himself looking for a job. Just like Bill Belichick in Cleveland all those years ago.

Miami has a strong head coach who learning the ropes even as he takes the team into the post-season and struggles through an inept offense. But the Dolphins have a coach who has a vision, a plan, and isn’t always a “yes” man. Those types of coaches are very hard to find and sometimes it takes time to find the players that best fit into that groove.

To be honest, I see a future Hall of Fame head coach. A coach who could be with one team for decades if he can only get over the humps of the first few years. Most of the players on this roster are not Adam Gases’ choosing. That is changing. Sometimes quietly and sometimes, like with Ajayi and Maxwell with a jolting shock of a lightning strike. Make no mistake, Adam Gase will send messages and he won’t do it with bit players. It doesn’t matter your production, your depth chart status, or the opinion of the fans who cheer you on. Pull your weight and do your job or you will be somewhere else. Why? Because this is Adam Gase’s football team.