Tag: Chad O’Shea

Dolphins coaching upheaval not worth panicking over

The recent changes to the Miami Dolphins coaching staff are nothing to worry about — at least for now.

Time to take a page out of Aaron Rodgers’ playbook, Dolphins fans.

R-E-L-A-X!

There seems to be a general consensus among Dolphins on social media that something is afoul in Miami after watching several coaches depart South Florida — leaving the optimism that surrounded Brian Flores seemingly waning. Since the end to the 2019 season, there have been at least five departures from the coaching staff, including both coordinators; Chad O’shea was promptly relieved of his duties, while defensive coordinator Patrick Graham was allowed to leave for the same position with the Giants.

Speculation suggested Miami let O’Shea go to retain and promote Jerry Schuplinski, but then news broke that he, too, would jump ship to New York to coach with best bud Joe Judge, another former Patriot assistant. Couple that with the release of on-line coach DeGuglielmo and safeties coach Tony Oden, and that’s more upheaval than we probably all would have assumed would come after year one.

Take a deep breath.

Fans should understand the importance of a quality coaching staff more than anyone after watching the sheer incompetence that was Adam Gase and his band of buddies. You could even throw in Joe Philbin’s staffs for good measure. What’s even more important, perhaps, is having a quality coaching staff that unequivocally share the same vision and can operate in lock-step moving forward.

To say that wasn’t the case with these now former coaches would be irresponsible speculation, just as it is to assume Brian Flores doesn’t have a plan with replacing these gentlemen.

Furthermore, is it not a little refreshing knowing Flores isn’t trying to be an exact clone of his former boss? Bill Belichick used to be known for blocking his assistants from leaving New England. Meanwhile, the Dolphins coach respected his associates enough to let them leave, all while having the confidence to replace them.

Word has come out on the replacements for some of these guys, but nothing has been confirmed by the team website at this time. What seems to have fans most unsettled is how out-of-the-box some of the reported hirings have been.

Chan Gailey, who has been out of football since 2016, will supposedly run the offense, while Robby Brown will be his QB coach. Brown has bounced around many programs, but never as a quarterbacks coach. Flores also tapped the college and even high school wells, supposedly, to fill some assistant roles.

It shouldn’t be seen as a negative that Flores isn’t afraid to think outside the lines of ‘normal’ when building the team his way. He is methodical in his vision for the program. And while other outlets talk about “curses” and use a generally negative tone when discussing the Dolphins, we should instead remain optimistic that coach Flores will bring this team back to glory.

Time will tell.

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