The Miami Dolphins have a surprising head coach opening.
As of this writing, there are six official head coach openings in the NFL not counting the Las Vegas Raiders, who may or may not give interim coach Rich Bisaccia the job after leading the Silver & Black to the playoffs.
Those teams with openings are: Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants, Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaguars. The big surprise among that group is the Dolphins, who fired highly respected Brian Flores after three seasons.
Flores went 24-25 in his tenure, which isn’t great, but in 2019 he inherited perhaps the worst roster in the NFL and the team still won five games. Miami jumped to 10 victories in 2020 but missed out on a wild-card spot via tiebreaker. This season, the Fins started 1-7 but won eight of their final nine, including two wins over the New England Patriots, to end up 9-8 and out of the playoffs.
Flores was only the fourth coach in Dolphins history to record two winning seasons in his first three years with the team, and he finished 4-2 against his former boss, Pats coach Bill Belichick – which is the best record of any coach against Belichick while he has been at the helm in New England.
No one is doubting Flores’ coaching ability, but owner Stephen Ross essentially canned Flores because of a poor relationship with GM Chris Grier. Flores will almost surely get one of those job openings listed above, but where might the Fins turn?
Dolphins Likely Looking Offense
The habit of NFL franchises when hiring a new head coach is to go the opposite of the previous coach. So, if the previous coach was a defensive-minded guy, the team generally will look toward offense the next time. If the previous coach was very hard on his players, the club will try to find a player-friendly coach, etc.
Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll is the current +300 favorite on the NFL futures odds to be the next Dolphins coach, and Daboll obviously knows the AFC East terrain very well. He also has been linked to essentially every other opening – especially the Giants. Daboll worked wonders with QB Josh Allen; perhaps he could do the same with inconsistent Tua Tagovailoa in Miami.
Former Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl-winning coach Doug Pederson and current Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy are each +500. The top seven favorites are all offensive-minded coaches. The first defensive guy on the odds is Tampa Bay Bucs DC and former New York Jets coach Todd Bowles at +750.
One interesting name is Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh at +1000. Ross is one of the biggest financial boosters of the university on the planet, giving hundreds of millions to the school. He reportedly has been obsessed with landing Harbaugh but said this week: “He’s at the University of Michigan. … That is my school I graduated from, and I’m very involved in it. And I’m not going to be the person to take Jim Harbaugh from the University of Michigan.”
Harbaugh is the only current college coach among the NFL betting options for Miami’s opening.
