Miami Dolphins year in review starts in January with coaching changes
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins 2018 season could be over with as soon as this weekend if several things happen in the NFL. Last year in January we were talking coaching changes.
In the next twelve articles in our year-end recap of the Miami Dolphins 2018 season we start with January 2018 in a similar situation that we are in today, the hot topic of coaching changes.
When 2019 begins to give in to 2020 will we be talking about coaching changes made in January of 2019? Probably and likely but who is the question. In 2018 the coaching change many wanted to see was the replacement of defensive coordinator Matt Burke.
Some believed that Burke would be replaced and the name Vic Fangio was being floated around as a potential new hire but Fangio stayed in Chicago and Adam Gase kept Burke. Minor coaching changes were made on both sides of the ball and most of those were positional changes. The only “big” move came with the re-assignment of OC Clyde Christianson which allowed Gase to hire Dowell Loggains to run the offense.
The problem? Loggains wasn’t given play calling duties. Those were retained by Gase.
While coaching changes dominated the early portion of the new year it was Jarvis Landry that would take center stage for much of January and February right up until the start of the NFL league new year in mid-March.
As January continued on the back and forth between the Dolphins and Landry’s camp continued to form a divide that ultimately would not end well for either side. Landry wanted a contract in the $15 million per year range while Miami was more inline with a $12 million per year contract.
The back and forth would eventually grow so divided that the Dolphins would trade Landry to the Cleveland Browns but we will get to that later.
This January will most likely bring more coaching changes. The question is who and how deeply will those changes go? Matt Burke is clearly on the hot-seat but there are new reports that owner Stephen Ross is ready to move on from Adam Gase and if that happens, there will be a lot of turnover this off-season.