In just two years of coaching, Mike McDaniel has been founded with fault by his players, resulting in his replacement
The Raiders and Chargers showed us on Sunday night that NFL clubs play on Sundays, and they play to win. However, NFL teams—and coaches in particular—play the game on all but two days of the week. The game revolves around politics, networks, and knowing the right person and the person who knows the right person.
It also involves asking how his son’s collegiate baseball career is going—he plays for Brown, right? You gladhandle and schmooze to win the game instead of plotting, scouting, and coaching. You rush to get a better job, more power, and upward mobility. The NFL coaching ladder is a never-ending race, with one position at the top of every thirty-two molehills. Just now, Brian Flores lost one of them.
It was the relationships he struggled to establish and keep that caused him to lose them. That message has been made very evident.
As Steve Wyche of NFL Network noted, “coaches don’t often get fired for coaching reasons.” Flores’s “relationship with [Dolphins GM Chris] Grier and Tua [Tagovailoa] had deteriorated to a pretty bad place,” according to ESPN’s Jeff Darlington.
Furthermore, according to Stephen Ross, the owner of the Miami Dolphins, “an organization can only function if it is collaborative and works well together.” That person would know why Flores was dismissed if anyone did. It was him.
It’s not unexpected that some people found Flores’ coaching style offensive. Flores is one hot guy. He began his coaching career under one of the hardest-working men, Bill Belichick. He once attempted to take on the Cincinnati Bengals bench as a whole.
Although coaches may not be fired for coaching errors, external observers frequently assess coaches based solely on their ability to coach. Flores was a skilled coach. The games were won by Flores.
As the Dolphins so astutely said when they announced Flores’s termination, he leaves Miami with a record of just 24–25, one game below.500. However, we must never forget the teams Flores was sent to during his brief stay with the Dolphins.
One of the worst teams we’ve seen in a long time was that one from 2019. The Dolphins were the only team in the league with an offensive roster devoid of any All-Pro or Pro Bowl players heading into the season. Ryan Fitzpatrick, who was benched for Josh Rosen early in the season, was the team’s top rusher.
They were 21.5-point underdogs against the Cowboys—they did not cover—after starting the season with 49-point losses to the Ravens and 43-point losses to the Patriots.
This caused oddsmakers to create fictitious lines for a game between the Dolphins and the Alabama Crimson Tide, who were led at the time by rising junior quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (more on him later).
