Getting to know Stephen Ross’ power guy Chris Grier

The Miami Dolphins have given the entire football business to general manager Chris Grier in the hopes of changing the future.

On Monday Stephen Ross stepped into the teams media room with the only man who survived the purge on Black Monday. Chris Grier sat next to his boss not as the teams general manager but as the man tasked with turning a perennial mediocre football team into a winning franchise.

Grier dropped the general manager title for the VP of Football Operations title but unlike his predecessor’s’ Mike Tannenbaum and Bill Parcells, Grier will retain the general manager duties. It is a one man show now with no middle man. A part played last year by Grier who did the go-between duties in the middle of Tannenbaum and Adam Gase.

For many, Grier is an unknown. A guy that they know has been around for a while but outside of that he is the guy who was the G.M. during the Adam Gase years. Grier’s past however is more impressive than the “respect” that Stephen Ross claims Grier has around the NFL.

Grier has lived a football life. His father Bobby Grier spent many years with the New England Patriots and Chris got his first work in 1994 with the Patriots and stayed until Pete Carroll was fired in 1999. The elder Grier worked with Bill Belichick and later would work for the Houston Texans.

Grier turned his 1994 internship into a regional scout role and in 2000 took on the role of an area scout for the Dolphins. He has been with the Dolphins since.

Grier has been with the Dolphins since 2000. He joined the Dolphins the same year that Dave Wannstedt was named head coach. He grew from an area scout to a regional scout and eventually to the lead role of the scouting department. Three years ago he replaced Dennis Hickey as the teams general manager.

Through his years, Grier has witnessed and survived coaching changes and in-fighting that was created by power struggles. He survived six head coaches and two interim changes. He survived general manager changes from Wannstedt to Rick Spielman, Nick Saban and Randy Mueller, Bill Parcells, Jeff Ireland, Dennis Hickey, and Mike Tannenbaum. He survived the change over from Wayne Huizenga and Stephen Ross and now, he is controlling the team’s future.

Grier will head up the coaching search. He will locate the talent and search for the right players in free agency and will control what happens in the draft. For all intent and purpose the Miami Dolphins now belong to Chris Grier.

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Over the years it has been Grier who has been credited with finding some of the best young talent but Grier has been the guy behind the scenes. Putting out fires and staying out of the power struggles. Over the last three years Grier has been the voice between Tannenbaum and Gase. Now he will be the guy that the head coach reports to and the only guy that will report to Stephen Ross.

Grier has more than respect around the NFL he has grown within the organization. 19 years have been spent wandering the halls of the Dolphins training facility and offices. He has watched players leave and watched players retire and seen two of them get inducted into the Hall of Fame. The question is through all of the changes that he has survived has he learned what the winning formula is? He should, by now, at least know what formulas lead to failure.

Where the Dolphins go now is up to Grier. Will he blow the team up or try to assemble pieces to supplement the roster while he rebuilds the core? Stephen Ross acknowledged that signing aging veterans hasn’t worked so it is likely that Grier will steer away from the short one or two-year deals that Miami has signed over the years and concentrate more on finding the younger players that are hitting free agency perhaps for the first time.

One thing Grier has to be able to do is identify talent. Miami has been lacking in that department but over the years no one really knew who to point the proverbial finger at. There won’t be any fingers to point this year.

Grier has the background and the intelligence. He has the respect and the resume. Now he has the control for the first time in his NFL career. How well he can put his knowledge to work will be his defining legacy.