Where Adam Gase ranks among Miami Dolphins head coaches
By Brian Miller
The Adam Gase era for the Miami Dolphins is only going into its third season and it is amazing how many fans want to write him off.
Over the last two seasons Adam Gase has gone from being a playoff coach in first year with the Dolphins to a bum who paid $10 million to Jay Cutler finishing a Joe Philbinesque 6-10. There has been 12 head coaches in Dolphins history. Two of those were interim head coaches.
Where does Adam Gase rank among those coaches in Dolphins history? It’s speculative for most fans because plenty did not like Dave Wannstedt or Joe Philbin or Nick Saban. So instead let’s focus on the one thing that matters most. Wins and losses.
No coach in NFL history has touched Don Shula whose 257 wins is the best in the league. So we already know that Shula is the best of the bunch for Miami. So instead we look at 2-12.
If we go by winning percentage, then Todd Bowles would be number one. His stint as an interim HC provided a .667 win % even besting Don Shula. He has a record of two wins and one loss. We will use winning percentage as a tie-breaker if needed.
Number 2: Dave Wannstedt – 2000 – 2004 – 73 games coached
Wannstedt was the head coach for 73 games winning 42 and losing 31. He posted a .575 winning percentage in his five seasons. He is also the 2nd longest tenured head coach in Dolphins history lasting five seasons.
Despite his five seasons, second only to Don Shula, Wannstedt made a lot of mistakes on the field with personnel and his inability to manage the salary cap drove the Dolphins into cap hell for years. Still, he remains the last Miami Dolphins head coach with a playoff win.
Number 3: Jimmy Johnson – 1996 – 1999 – 64 games coached
How about them Dolphins? Well not really. Johnson’s on the field flair never got the Dolphins or Dan Marino to the Super Bowl. Instead, Johnson left the NFL completely after a blowout loss to the Jaguars ending both his and Dan Marino’s careers on a down note.
Johnson however won 36 games in four seasons with the Dolphins and lost 28. He finished with a .563 winning percentage. Johnson however drafted decently giving the Dolphins players like Sam Madison, Zach Thomas, and HOF DE Jason Taylor.
Number 4: Adam Gase – 2016 – present – 32 games coached
This is where Gase is today. It could change by the end of the 2018 season. He comes in at number four because of all the other head coaches who were not interim coaches, he is the only one with a .500 winning percentage.
Gase’s two seasons have been 10-6 and 6-10. Does that make him better than Sparano? Better than Nick Saban? Better than Joe Philbin? Maybe on paper but 2018 will go a long way to showing the fan base who Adam Gase is.
Number 5: Tony Sparano – 2008 – 2011 – 61 games coached
Tony Sparano’s biggest problem was Jeff Ireland. The two simply could not see eye to eye and Irelands west coast trip with Stephen Ross burned any remaining bridges. Sparano won 29 games in his head coaching career with the Dolphins. He lost 32 giving him a below .500 winning percentage.
Number 6: Nick Saban – 2005 – 2006 – 32 games coached
It would have been interesting to see what Saban could have done had he stayed in Miami. He finished with a 15-17 record. While not greatly impressive he took over a team with serious cap issues and almost not quality players on his roster. Saban simply couldn’t give it the same attention that he could in college and the league restrictions turned him off. His .469 winning percentage was seven tenths better than Joe Philbin’s.
Number 7: Joe Philbin – 2012 – 2015 – 52 games coached
To be honest, Philbin should be higher than Saban given the fact that he coached far more that Saban did. 20 games more to be exact. However those 20 extra games broke down to only 9 more wins and 11 more losses for Philbin.
Number 8: George Wilson – 1966 – 1969 – 56 games coached
Wilson gets the honor of being the first head coach in Miami Dolphins history but his four seasons with the Dolphins are a footnote to the arrival of Don Shula in 1970. Where Wilson may not have been able to win more than 15 games in his stint as head coach with the Dolphins, 15-39, Wilson and then GM Joe Thomas were the actual architects to the Dolphins Super Bowl teams.
The duo drafted Larry Csonka, Bob Griese, Dick Anderson, Larry Seiple, Bill Stanfill, Jim Kiick, and Mercury Morris to name a few.
Number 9: Todd Bowles – 2011 – 3 games coached
Bowles probably should have been considered for the full-time job after the 2011 season but he may not have been ready just then. Of course the choice of Joe Philbin wasn’t all that smart and frankly, Bowles may have been able to get more out of the Dolphins roster at that time. The players really liked him.
Of the three interim head coaches in team history, he is the only one to finish above .500 despite only coaching in three games.
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Number 10: Jim Bates – 2004 – seven games coached
Bates had the dubious task of taking over for Dave Wannstedt when he resigned after the teams bye-week in 2004. He coached seven total games and finished 3-4 with no quarterback and a lackluster offense all around.
Number 11: Dan Campbell – 2015 – 12 games coached
Campbell had a little more to work with than Bates did and like Bowles he was well liked to the point that many thought he should be retained for a full season to see what he could do. Campbell though wasn’t ready for the daily grind of a head coach. He finished the season with five wins and seven losses.
INTERIM NOTE: To be fair, ranking the three interim head coaches really isn’t fair to those coaches as they obviously took over bad teams from struggling or fired coaches. That being said, they all still rank higher than number 12.
Number 12: Cam Cameron – 16 games coached
Saying Cam Cameron coached 16 games is absurd as saying he won one game. The Dolphins were not coached well and you could say at all during that horrid season in 2007. Cameron was so bad that two prominent players said they were in trouble heading into the season with him as the head coach. When Cameron was fired at the end of the season, it was, to say the least, not a surprise.