There are a lot of things that can be said about Miami Dolphins' owner Stephen Ross. His patience is one of them. Now, he will be tested like never before.
If Ross was able to give Chris Grier nine seasons to turn around the team, he has to be willing to give Jon-Eric Sullivan at least five. That means Jeff Hafley should get the same. These are new waters the Dolphins are entering, and the owner holds the keys to the car.
Miami fans need to be patient as well. Time is something no one wants to think about, but to succeed at this rebuild, they will need to take plenty of it.
Stephen Ross must not get too concerned about the Miami Dolphins' immediate success
Hafley won't discuss "tanking." It's not his blood any more than it was with Brian Flores. There is no prize at the end of the season if they lose it all, and they may finish with only a few wins at most. More than that, Hafley should be heralded, not vilified.
The Dolphins roster is a mess, and if Sullivan is any kind of GM, he would have told Ross that to his face the day he stepped in for his first interview. The Dolphins need to fail, but they don't need to "fail forward fast," as Cam Cameron once infamously said. They just have to do it all right.
When Flores and Grier went through the 2019 roster implosion, Ross got antsy. He wanted to win. He saw the progress and expected more. Whatever happened behind the scenes left him with a head coaching decision that sank the rebuild.
Mike McDaniel came on board and lit a fire with Tua Tagovailoa, but he quickly learned the quarterback was more of the problem than even Ross wanted to admit. Now both he and Grier are gone. That's the good news for Ross, but the bad news is that Sullivan has to unravel the tangled skein he was left.
Grier and McDaniel couldn't build a roster. Their patience was gone; they wanted to win and quickly. The trade for Tyreek Hill and Bradley Chubb would be their undoing. Their inability to develop players was another problem.
Ross's decision to bring in Sullivan shouldn't be a "win now or else." It has to be a slow rebuild, one that takes a couple of years. Ross has to realize that Miami isn't built to win now. They won't be built to win in 2027 either. When 2028 rolls around, the Dolphins should have the pieces in place to start competing for real, but the Super Bowl may be too much to ask.
If Miami does this the right way, Ross will get the team he has always wanted before he hands over the team himself. A perennial competitor. Winning will then fall on the shoulders of Hafley.
The best thing Ross can do is to stay out of the football operations. He needs to keep Tom Garfinkel out of them as well. Ross has to give Sullivan and Hafley a chance to build the team they want, not a team that might propel them to a non-sustaining division title.
What Ross has to avoid the most is seeing progression and thinking that a big move will push them over the top. He can't think like that.
Over the next two seasons, the Dolphins will get the salary cap under control. They will have money to spend, and if Sullivan does this the right way, he will save Ross money in the long term.
Patience. It's such an easy word to say, but it is so much harder to actually commit to.