Forget Ross, the one constant in Miami Dolphins struggles is Chris Grier
By Brian Miller
Miami Dolphins fans want to blame Stephen Ross for all the failures since 2008 and while many are justified, Chris Grier has been a constant for a lot longer.
Stephen Ross has had four winning seasons as the Dolphins owner. He has failed at hiring a head coach and he has done just as bad at hiring and maintaining his general managers. Who can ever forget the debacle that ended with the hiring of Dennis Hickey?
Now, we are about to jump on the head coaching merry-go-round once again but in reality, Chris Grier should be in the cross hairs as well.
When it comes to Grier, I have visions of Jeff Ireland all over again. A power struggle develops in the offices, the head coach relationship is frayed, the head coach is fired but the GM stays put only to be fired a year or two down the road. This is where Grier is heading but in reality, Grier has more to do with the Dolphins woes than Stephen Ross.
Grier has been the general manager now since 2016. That is six seasons of running the organization. Six years of failed attempts to turn around the franchise that also includes a major rebuild that rebuilt nothing. But there is a lot more.
Chris Grier has been with Miami since 2007 in any real decision making capacity. From 2007 to 2015, Grier was the Director of College Scouting and frankly, he didn’t do a very good job of identifying talent.
Grier is the one constant dating all the way back to 2000 when he joined Miami as an area scout and then as a national scout. He has been a part of the process for more than two decades and still the Dolphins are in a never ending spiral. In his time with the Dolphins, Miami has exactly four playoff appearances with two of them in 2000 and 2001. He has seen only 9 winning seasons in that same time. Yet he still not only has a job but a job now that dictates the team’s future.
Chris Grier isn’t going to be fired this year but it is hard to believe that day isn’t coming, albeit in traditional Stephen Ross fashion, a year or two too late.