Stephen Ross should put his checkbook away this off-season
By Brian Miller
When the Miami Dolphins season concludes, especially if that is in two weeks, Stephen Ross should close his checkbook and keep things the same.
If I were Stephen Ross and owned the Miami Dolphins this off-season would be a critical one and if I can’t get the head coach I really want, Jim Harbaugh, I’m keeping Adam Gase for another season but with a very short leash.
Stephen Ross wants to win but decisions he has made in the past have haunted him and kept him from seeing positive changes. He bought a .500 and below team and that team remains .500 or below. So what does he do this off-season?
Let us assume two things as certainties even though both may not be true. Ross wants Jim Harbaugh and Jim Harbaugh wants to remain at Michigan for another year. If both are true, then Ross should sit on the 2019 season with Adam Gase and company but not let them freely spend.
Ross needs to block the trading of any and all draft picks including moving up in the draft. Acquiring more draft picks by moving down should not be prohibited especially if they net 2020 draft picks.
Ross should also just bite off what he is being asked to spend already in salary cap space. I would tell Tannenabum and Grier and Adam Gase they can’t release Robert Quinn or Andre Branch or Ryan Tannehill, or DeVante Parker or anyone else to save cap space. I would tell them they should have given out better contracts. All of those contracts are dead after 2019 so let this regime live through the highly overpaid players and not allow them to add more bad contracts to a roster that could be blown up a year later.
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Free agency should be monitored with depth spending only. Adam Gase and the other front office executives have said they believe they have talent to win so they don’t need more from free agency, they have what they need. Players should be healthier in 2019 and return to the field which should help Gase do better than .500.
If all of this works out and Gase leads the team to 10 wins in 2019, he should stay and Ross can once again open that checkbook to fill the openings when a larger amount of cap space will be available. If it doesn’t work Ross won’t be bringing in a new head coach already in cap and contract hell because a few people were trying to save their jobs.
As for quarterback, Ross should ride out 2019 with Ryan Tannehill and tell his executives not to spend a draft pick on a quarterback but instead add defensive players that can fix the gaping holes in pass and run defense.
By placing restrictions on his coach and front office spending Ross is not setting them up for failure as they should be able to win with what they have if they were being coached right. What he would be doing is protecting his future against the same things that each coach comes into Miami having to deal with.