Grier cuts coaches out of the loop, leader calls team soft & Fangio firing revisited
The Miami Dolphins are now 5-7 after losing to the Green Bay Packers with the 3-9 nosediving New York Jets this week. The hard reality is Miami is an extreme longshot to make the postseason, and a win will do more to help their ruined image than actually putting them in position to reach the playoffs. Whatever way you slice and dice it, given the distracting news this week beating the Jets is critical for McDaniel regime. While the same should be said for Chris Grier, he has been Teflon through three regimes, so you can’t bet that he won’t be here for a fourth.
Given the stories this week, it looks and feels pretty clear that Dolphins’ dysfunction is back in full swing.
Can the Phins salvage this regime?
The calling card of this franchise for over a decade has been far more dysfunction than success. The loss to the Packers was a tough one for both the team and fans, but it was insult to injury when defensive leader Jordyn Brooks called the team soft post-game. This was a week after former Dolphins DeShaun Elliot called this team soft and Jordan Poyer called the team soft in the offseason.
Clearly, if you have eyes, we are soft. Who should be blamed for this softness?
Well, to compound issues, last week Weaver and McDaniel were asked about why they decided not to take Shaq Barrett back onto the roster when he came out of retirement. Both coaches were blindsided because it was the first they heard of the news and Grier never let them know about Shaq’s intentions or his decision.
Who really is Chris Grier… really
Grier is the GM and has every right to make the call on Barrett, but this doesn’t seem to fit the narrative fans have been fed that he just does what the coaches want. But you can bet with the best pay per heads that it was 100% a subject both coaches should have been consulted on or at the very least notified of the decision post facto. Grier did neither. This was a subtle way by Grier to demonstrate who has the power… and who Grier really is.
Now this type of behavior isn’t a one off. We also know that last year’s defensive coordinator Vic Fangio would have players trotted out to his practice field and was never consulted or notified about the additions. This story was swept under the rug with talk that Fangio ‘wasn’t a nice guy’, ‘he’d lost his touch’, and ‘he didn’t want to be here anyway’. But with Fangio doing well in Philly, Dolphins players failing like they did with Fangio despite ‘nice guy’ Weaver in charge, and now Grier again blindsiding coaches, the narrative of who Grier is is in question… or at least it should be.
So, this is where we are at with another disappointing season about to be signed, sealed and delivered: dysfunction dominating the Dolphins narrative.
I don’t know if Tua is the right quarterback or not, or Weaver and McDaniel for that matter. What I know beyond a shadow of a doubt is that Chris Grier isn’t the GM to lead us anywhere other than dysfunction and underachievement. I just hope Ross is the right owner and does what need to be done by firing Grier, finally finding the right person to lead this team, and stays away from interfering with the football side of the business! Go Phins!!!