The Miami Dolphins’ coaching staff has undergone a pretty drastic makeover this offseason. Out are assistant head coach Jim Caldwell, offensive coordinator Chad O’Shea, offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo and others — including defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. The replacement coaches are, by and large, secured, giving Miami a chance to stabilize their staff with fresh faces before the team opens up mini-camps and organized team activities in April.
The biggest lingering question? Why did the Dolphins decide to make such aggressive changes to the offensive coaching staff? Weren’t the issues simply a matter of bad personnel?
We now have some contest on the matter courtesy of Dolphins head coach Brian Flores. Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald recently published a story highlighting Flores’ motivations for the changes — and the context given by Coach Flores is interesting, to say the least.
“I have a lot of respect for (former offensive coordinator) Chad (O’Shea),” said Flores via Beasley. “I think he’s a very, very good coach. At the end of the day, I feel like for the future of this team, my vision for us offensively, I feel like it’s a move we have to make…From a vision standpoint, as far as how we’re going to run the football and throw the football. How we’re going to go about meetings and practices and walk-throughs I felt like we needed to do something a little differently than we had in the past.”
Let’s call this “creative differences”. And given how Flores was able to energize the Dolphins this season, he’s earned the right to run his operation however he’d like — even if that comes at the cost of continuity. Furthermore, Flores’ decision to onboard Chan Gailey and several of Gailey’s assistant coaches from his prior stop in New York indicate that continuity is still important — just not continuing to operate under the same status quo this team was exposed to offensively in 2019.
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