Miami Dolphins vision like their future taking forever

The Miami Dolphins vision for the future is taking what seems like forever. Just like the wait for their next head coach.

As the Miami Dolphins patiently wait for their head coach, and as both offense and defensive coordinators seem to have been chosen. The excitement has been diminished, due to the post season run by the New England Patriots and as the future seems to take forever, so does the new vision for the Miami Dolphins.

Soon the new coaching staff of the Miami Dolphins will take full shape and will start their attempt at resurrecting this once great franchise back into a championship caliber team. Of course, there is no quick fix as the holes in this team are much to vast to simple plug a few holes and compete for a title.

Make no mistake, this is going to be a complete rebuild with talent, structure and culture. It would appear that the defense will become the focal point, as it should be, due to the fact the new head coach to be Brian Flores is a defensive coach and he apparently has chosen defensive minded alike Patrick Graham as his new defensive coordinator. Both coaches have worked their way through the defensive ranks in numerous places, but both actually spent time together in New England on the defensive staff together.

Patrick Graham spent time under Charlie Weis at Notre Dame and following the 2009 season he accepted a defensive assistant position with New England. He worked his way around the defensive side of the New England franchise from 2009 to 2015 then looked to branch out and went on to the New York Giants for a couple of years and last year landed with the Green Bay Packers as their defensive run game coordinator and inside linebackers’ coach.

Both, Brian Flores and Patrick Graham have extensive experience with linebackers and the defensive line and that should translate great for the young outstanding linebacker duo in Jerome Baker and Raekwon McMillian and help to restore some face to this young defensive line. They might even be able to teach Kiko Alonso how to be less reckless and more contained to utilize his talents better, and not leave spaces to be taken advantage of in the defense.

This year’s draft will feature some much-needed defensive line help, a defensive tackle or two and an edge guy could mix well with the young talented guys like Davon Godchaux, Akeem Spence and Vincent Taylor. This defense can become special with all the youth it has and will receive in the draft. If the new coaching staff decides on keeping Xavien Howard (I hope so) and finds a potential solid opposite at corner, then pair Minkah Fitzpatrick with Reshad Jones at the two safety spots, well I think you have the making of a stout and ball-hawking defense. A lot of decisions really need to be made on that side of the ball though, but it seems the potential is there. Some strong defensive coaching will go a long way too, but I think you’ll see a lot of growth on that side of the ball if these two coaches dig in and teach.

More from Phin Phanatic

The potential new head coach Brian Flores had reportedly gone into his first interview with the Miami Dolphins with a binder, inside of it had a list of potential coaching staff selections. Now I’m sure that some of those names have been hired elsewhere due to his current teams’ success in the playoff and his inability to lock those guys down until he’s officially hired, but the names that have been tied to him sure seem well thought out and good hires. The idea that he was prepared enough to have already had names of coaches he wanted on his staff says a lot for his attention to detail, and from what I’ve researched is one of the deciding factors for the Dolphins brass to have like him as a candidate.

The New England Patriots it seems again were purged of an assistant coach, this time on the offensive side and it is speculated that Chad O’Shea will be brought in to run the offensive side of the ball as the offensive coordinator. Chad O’Shea is currently the New England Patriots wide receivers’ coach and has held that position since 2009. This hire is another young guy, but who brings lots of offensive coaching experience from wide receivers, tight ends and special teams. Chad O’Shea has been coaching since 1996 as a graduate assistant for the University of Houston, where he played quarterback from 1994 – 1995. He will have a lot of talent on the offensive side, but a lot of work to do to get the Miami Dolphins back to consistently winning football games and a hand in finding and developing the eventual replacement of Ryan Tannehill. A bright young mind and he is well-respected around the league, and hopefully he will be able to use his experience with being around a great quarterback (sorry I had to mention him) to mold a young future draft pick into a consistent winner.

It is also worth noting that longtime assistant and former Detroit Lion and Indianapolis colts head coach Jim Caldwell will be brought in as some sort of senior adviser, but that is also speculative, and no one is quite sure what his job would exactly be at this point. But, again this appears to be a strong move by potential head coach Brian Flores as Jim Caldwell would serve as a huge pool of knowledge for a young up and coming offensive coordinator to bounce ideas off of and to learn from as well. In my opinion what could it hurt, I think it could only help as long as it stays as a voluntary advisory thing.

Hopefully, Darren Rizzi will be convinced to stick around and continue his great special teams coaching. I’m personally surprised that he has not found a head coaching job somewhere by now. He is obviously an emotional leader, and a well-liked human being and coach. Darren Rizzi would be a welcome sight back on the sidelines for the Miami Dolphins and I’m sure would be an asset for the new coaching staff. There is no need to go looking for a great special teams’ coach, because he is the best in the league, and as soon as Brian Flores talks one on one with him he will understand the talent he has in front of him.

As this coaching staff slowly starts to take shape, the real question and main factor of what leads a franchise to victories has yet to be discussed, the quarterback. Everyone has a theory or plan, and everyone’s design is a little different. The simple fact of the matter is without a solid quarterback, a head football coach and his football staff are going to be short timers and looking for a new job in a short period of time. All you have to do is look at the history of the Miami Dolphins since Dan Marino retired, a carousel of mediocrity and disappointment. I have high hopes for this new regime and staff and it appears that lessons just might have been learned from past failures, finally, and hopefully we can sit back in a few years and applaud the fact that Chris Grier had the fore sight to make the Miami Dolphins a proud organization and again the team of perfection they once use to be.

Home/Dolphins News