The best leaders in all phases of life, including sports, know when and how to delegate responsibilities to those beneath them. That has been something Brian Flores has shown already to be competent in — even after just one year. And, ultimately, if and when Brian Flores reviews the process of those beneath him in the chain of command, he better like what he sees.
The end result if he doesn’t is swift. Just ask former offensive line coach Pat Flaherty, who was fired last summer just one week into training camp as his unit bombed when the team hit the field for practice. Just ask former offensive coordinator Chad O’Shea, whose offense struggled to find life at all in the first half of 2019 before being kickstarted by a herculean effort by veteran quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.
The feedback from players on O’Shea’s performance as the team’s coach was that the first-time offensive coordinator was too complex with his teachings for such a young, inexperienced team. And ultimately, despite O’Shea himself reportedly griping to Flores that the players simply didn’t know the playbook, Flores saw the root of the issue at hand and made a change at the end of the season.
That change brought in a new presence at offensive coordinator — the surprising hire of veteran coach Chan Gailey to the staff. And while everyone was caught off guard by the hire, we now see some direction for the team and why the decision to hire Gailey makes some sense.
Gailey has experience in college and pro scouting and his style has typically been one of spreading the field and playing physical football — a simpler approach than Chad O’Shea’s Patriots-themed attack. And, in Chan Gailey, Brian Flores gets his experienced offensive mind — something he aimed to get in 2019 with the hiring of quarterbacks coach Jim Caldwell, only to see Caldwell take a leave of absence due to health issues.
Once Gailey entered the picture, Caldwell was out.
A veteran offensive mind makes sense for a delegator like Brian Flores, whose experiences run deep in coaching but ultimately favor the defensive side of the football. By getting a coach who has “seen it all” like Gailey, Flores can trust that his delegated tasks will be executed at a higher level than what we saw under O’Shea in 2019.
The only question is “how long can Gailey keep at it?” The man was a graduate assistant for the Florida Gators the same year the Dolphins last won a Super Bowl (early in 1974). At 68-years of age, Gailey isn’t exactly a coach with a long-term outlook that will inspire continuity. Do the Dolphins have a plan to account for that?
Probably not — other than knowing and embracing what their team identity is going to look like on offense. By knowing who they are, the team can stay rooted and committed to that mold — and coaches will make themselves apparent to the Dolphins as logical fits when the time comes. That’s the whole point of the culture Brian Flores is instilling in South Florida — everyone has a role to play. And if everyone does their job, key cogs can be swapped out and the progress can continue.
Flores has put more emphasis on coaching style than coaching strategy, to date. He’s taken younger, less proven position coaches and he hasn’t been afraid to state that the way a coach teaches and communicates is one of the biggest things the Dolphins need. If they’re on the same page there, this collection of coaches can get on the same page about what message or coaching strategy is required on any given week.
So in short, the Dolphins probably don’t have a long-term succession plan for Chan Gailey at this point. But so long as Flores is at the helm and steering the identity of the team, they’ll be well positioned to figure it out when the time comes.