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Breaking: Miami Dolphins fire offensive line coach Flaherty

By Brian Miller

FOXBOROUGH, MA - CIRCA 2011: In this handout image provided by the NFL, Patrick Graham of the New England Patriots poses for his NFL headshot circa 2011 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by NFL via Getty Images)
FOXBOROUGH, MA - CIRCA 2011: In this handout image provided by the NFL, Patrick Graham of the New England Patriots poses for his NFL headshot circa 2011 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by NFL via Getty Images) /
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The Miami Dolphins have fired offensive line coach Patrick Flaherty today, the teams off-day from training camp and promoted from within.

It has been announced that the Miami Dolphins are moving on from offensive line coach Patrick Flaherty after only four days of training camp. The team reportedly have decided to move on for a “football decision” and nothing that was off-field.

Flaherty has had a previous stint with the Jacksonville Jaguars where he coached a very talented offensive line unit. He was an upgrade over previous coaches at the position, or so everyone thought. The reasons are not clear and “football decision” is vague.

To replace him the Dolphins are diving into their staff and promoting from within but the change may not be all that impressive. Taking his place will be former Dolphins line coach Dave DeGuglielmo.

DeGuglielmo coached with the Dolphins in 2009 when Reggie Bush ran for over 1,000 yards. He left the Dolphins when coaching changes were made in the off-season and followed Todd Bowles to the New York Jets. He was fired a year later.

There is familiarity with DeGuglielmo and Brian Flores. DeGuglielmo coached with the Patriots from 2014 to 2015. While the Patriots won the Super Bowl in 2014 the line play was not good in 2015 leading to his termination. He re-joined the Dolphins this past off-season as an assistant line coach.

The loss of Flaherty is surprising and he becomes the second of Flores’ hand-picked staff to leave. Jim Caldwell exited the team to deal with medical issues but will remain as a consultant to Flores.

Over the course of the first four days of camp it is hard to see what issues may have been in play. The Dolphins offensive line is suspect heading into the season with questions at right tackle, guard, and left guard. Center is manned by Daniel Kilgore and Laremy Tunsil holds the left tackle spot but beyond them there are questions.

It will be interesting to see how the team reacts to the change on Tuesday when they return to practice.

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