Miami Dolphins Stephen Ross has a tough decision to make

Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is in a bad position. Make changes or stay the course and hope for the best.

This season has been atrocious. But when you look at the 2018 Miami Dolphins you will remember the slew of injuries that crippled the team early and continued all season long. Frank Gore is the latest who will have likely played his last game for the Dolphins this season.

At the center of all of this is the controversy surrounding the retention of both Adam Gase and Ryan Tannehill. Ross is spending a lot of money on one and a lot of cap space and money on the other and the results on the field are not paying off.

The harder of the two decisions lies with Adam Gase. Ross has to be able to replace him with a coach that he really wants and likes. Jim Harbaugh has stated he will remain at Michigan in 2019. Things can change of course but Miami has been down that road with a college coach who didn’t want to really leave. If not Harbaugh then who? John Harbaugh is going to stay in Baltimore and outside of those two the list is really nothing special.

The same can be said about quarterback.

Ryan Tannehill would make a lot of money on the free agent market but can Miami really pay him $26 million in 2019 to play like has been? Tannehill isn’t the biggest problem with the offense but everything around him needs to be working well in order for Tannehill to tease with great numbers.

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Miami doesn’t have everything working well though. The offensive line is horrible, there is no production from the tight-ends, and worst of all the play calling and in-game adjustments are not working to give Tannehill more opportunities. Naturally you might think a new head coach would be able to work with him.

Tannehill has cost offensive coordinators, Bill Lazor and Mike Sherman their jobs and head coach Joe Philbin his. Clyde Christianson who was the OC the last two seasons was reassigned this past off-season and replaced with Dowell Loggains. All the change and Tannehill is still not progressing.

It has been said a lot in recent months that there is no on-field progression in Tannehill and that he is very similar to the rookie he was in 2018 and there is a lot of truth to that.

As for Ross, well this is another one of those years that could really set the franchise back. In 2014 a big win late in the season led to Ross proclaiming that Joe Philbin would be back in 2015. He was rewarded with a blowout loss the following week to the Jets and a missed playoff opportunity.

Philbin didn’t make it out of 2015. In 2010 Tony Sparano was the center piece of the entire Jim Harbaugh scandal but instead of just letting Sparano go and finding another head coach after missing out on Harbaugh, Ross made the decision to keep Sparano and give him more money. Sparano didn’t make it through the 2011 season.

Now here we are again. Does Ross give Gase another year to prove he can win? If he does is that the third mistake Ross makes or does one more year make sense in a season where the pickings are thin?

It is a fine line and one that Ross has to navigate carefully. While Gase and Tannehill are the two bigger issues, Ross can’t simply turn away from the front office. Should Chris Grier and Mike Tannenbaum both be safe as well? Maybe, maybe not.

During the 2018 NFL Draft Ross wanted his executives to trade up for a quarterback but he was convinced by his executives that Minkah Fitzpatrick was the plan all along. He wasn’t thrilled with that decision. Fitzpatrick has been very solid for Miami but the Dolphins still don’t have a quarterback solution.

There are two more games left for Ross to evaluate his coach, quarterback, and front office. He has to be smart, meticulous in his evaluations, and decisive. The question is whether or not he can be.

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