Miami Dolphins did not “lose out” on Brian Daboll as search continues
By Brian Miller
At some point later today, the Miami Dolphins will officially be out of the Brian Daboll chase when he is hired by the Giants but Miami didn’t miss out on anything.
Two, maybe three years from now, when the Miami Dolphins are winning, losing, or still spinning their wheels, we can all sit back and compare the coach Miami hires this year to Daboll and the Giants. When it all comes down to it, the Dolphins failure to land the soon to be former Bills offensive coordinator, is not a big deal. Yet.
Brian Daboll has coaching experience. He has been an OC at several stops along his NFL career and he has a history with Tua Tagovailoa. It all made for what should have been a pretty good marriage. Instead, Daboll is joining a Giants team that is on many levels, less appealing than the Dolphins gig.
Daboll choosing the Giants isn’t a knock on Tua although many will say it is indeed a slight. Many will say that the Dolphins screwed it up again by not nailing down their top option. But how do we know it was their top option?
Over the last week we have heard that there was a mutual interest from both sides and their very well may have been. We heard that it was almost a foregone conclusion that Daboll would be the Dolphins head coach. It didn’t happen.
The Dolphins wanted to interview him again, the Giants already did. The Dolphins were not ready to make him a deal even though there was some rumors that they had. Daboll may have taken the Giants job because it was an offer in hand and the Dolphins were not ready to do that just yet. We won’t ever actually know.
Miami wanted to be certain and that is why they still have interviews set with Mike McDaniel and Kellen Moore. Many believe that McDaniel was impressive in his first interview with Miami but we also don’t know that for certain either.
What do we know? Nothing. We don’t know what the Dolphins plans are or what they did or didn’t see in Daboll to give him an offer on the table now. This wasn’t a case of Miami not getting their guy. Stephen Ross doesn’t look at money as an issue and he surely wasn’t going to get outbid by the Giants. No, the Dolphins are the ones that likely said they wanted to wait. It wasn’t about Daniel Jones or Tua Tagovailoa. It was the Dolphins. Maybe that was their own indecision that led to it or maybe the truly were not sure. Either way, Daboll is not an option for them anymore.
Perhaps years from now the Dolphins will regret this decision but if we are to bank on statistics through NFL history, we would probably bet more on Daboll heading back to the regular coaching ranks in a few years rather than becoming the next big thing. Daboll is a good guy and a coach outside of the AFC so hopefully he finds success.
As for the Dolphins, there is nothing to be embarrassed about and nothing that needs explaining. They met with him and something obviously didn’t sit well enough with them to make him the team’s head coach today, yesterday, or last week.