Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores wants you to stop saying “tank”

The Miami Dolphins are not tanking despite the fact that so many people want to believe they are. Brian Flores doesn’t even like the term being used.

When Brian Flores took over the Miami Dolphins there was not question that the team was going to rebuild. That was made clear by Stephen Ross at the press conference announcing the decision to fire Adam Gase. Then everyone started talking about “tanking” for a quarterback in 2020.

Brian Flores has some of his own thoughts on that.

At the league owners meeting in Arizona, Flores spoke with the media and pretty much said Miami is not tanking.

"“The term tanking, I think it’s disrespectful to the game,” Flores said, “I really do. I don’t like that term. I don’t like when people use it. This game has done a lot for me, personally. Football has really leveled the playing field for me as a person. It’s really the one thing that leveled the playing field so to disrespect the game and use that term, it stirs something up inside of me, to put that nicely.” This complete quote is courtesy of Cameron Wolf of ESPN."

The fact that “tank” has become such a thrown around comment is hardly surprising. During the 2011 season it was all about the “Suck for Luck” campaign. This year, Armando Salguero started the “Tank for Tua” campaign.

No head coach is going to try to get his team to lose and no self-respecting player is going to go out and throw a game to get a better draft pick. It also doesn’t install a winning mentality or for that matter teach the system to the players.

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It would be like saying, “hey do it this way but not this year”. It doesn’t work. Miami is not going to be a very good football team in 2019 but that has nothing to do with “tanking”. It has to do with the fact that Miami jettisoned salaries and are trying to get younger quickly with a focus on the NFL Draft.

Miami was almost non-existent in free agency and while they will add depth to the roster after the draft, the Dolphins are hoping to build their draft capital over the next two seasons. This is another reason that many believe that Miami will not trade up for a quarterback this year and see how the 2019 season plays out first.

Chris Grier echoed the same feelings when he told the media that “there is no tanking”.

Flores shouldn’t have to defend that word and frankly I’m more impressed that he even took the question at all. His job is to win and while he may not be on the hot seat to win this year or next, winning is the only thing that ultimately will insure his career as a head coach in the NFL.