What will it take for Stephen Ross to act?
It’s a given fact that Joe Philbin is not a good head coach. No question about it at this point. No opinions. Just facts.
He has a losing record, despite being given some extremely talented players, and that losing record is the bottom-line proof.
He makes decisions that are proven wrong by virtually every reputable football expert.
Nothing and no one under him ever improves.
He has never made the playoffs.
He’s a nice enough old chap who could possibly be a well-respected lineman coach at a small D-2 college. He could spend his golden years talking about the same stuff he repeats day after day after day around here: X’s and O’s, down and distance, and his favorite line, “I need to get better as a coach.” (no arguments here).
There is no longer any mystery about if Philbin has what it takes. The mystery lies in Stephen Ross’s involvement.
When, if ever, will Ross act?
Last year, after the Dolphins were eliminated from the playoff race because of embarrassing losses to the Bills and Jets, Stephen Ross remained quiet. Each day that went by, it seemed that Mr. Ross would take no action. If he were going to fire Philbin or Ireland, surely he would have done so immediately after the season, right?
As it turned out, Ireland did get fired. Mike Sherman did get fired. Mr. Ross stayed out of the limelight immediately after the season ended, and when he resurfaced, it was to announce the firing of Ireland.
Could that be the case here? Every single player, writer, coach, announcer, analyst, and even causal fan is declaring how stupid Joe Philbin is for calling that 4th-and-10 timeout. Everyone has voiced an opinion…except for Mr. Ross.
We find his silence interesting. He has neither criticized Philbin nor supported him this week. Just silence. Just like last year.
Last time Mr. Ross stayed silent for a while…he came back with a vengeance and fired people. Please, let it happen again.
Perhaps its Ross’s methods albeit slow and under the radar that belie his actions. We have hints here and there about how he operates. Most interestingly when he tried to secretly court Harbaugh while Sporano was HC. I’m seeing some subtle hints in this case too. Follow me for a minute. Hires Dan Marino, then either Aponte or on Ross’s suggestion, Tannenbaum is hired. These people can have whatever given titles and may infact for the most part be in those roles. But you cant deny that truly knowledgeable football people are present now as opposed to the past, and can at any time offer their opinions and assessments (on or off the record). Its no secret that Ross knows little about the game of football and this makes him easily manipulated by crafty but less than adequate staff using the game itself as an excuse. Or better stated, their deep knowledge of the game vs Ross’s void of it. If Ross can surround himself with trusted and knowledgeable advisors while not alerting Philbin he is doing so, he can finally get a true picture of whom he is employing as HC . And to further that point, these folks can also help him rebuild and ATTRACT the needed people to guide this team forward if he replaces Philbin.
In a whole picture look here is what I think is getting round the football circles.
Miami is a deeply talented team.
The owner has even deeper pockets and has publicly shown the will to spend the necessary money to make Miami a winner. The Wallace contract stands out. I just so wonder how many superior wide outs heard about his deal and would have jumped on it. That kind of chum in the water will attract the right kind of people in the future.
Ross knows dick about football and appears tolerant of lackluster performances. While some would say that’s a bad thing. Imagine how that entices Real talent knowing it will be a less pressured environment with some patience for growing process it takes to build championship teams.
Miami’s lackluster performance offers a huge upside for any budding Coach and other staff looking to come in and be the highly paid savior of a team and fan base terribly fed up with how bad its been for soooo long. Imagine the power they will sway once entrenched ! If I were an ego driven prima donna of a Coach this would be foremost on my mind. You hear me Harbaugh?
Ross wont ever show his cards until he lays them on the table and prefers non confrontational, calculated methods to achieve a total and well thought out convergence on a problem. He isn’t prone to rash decisions and has the money and time to entertain them to the fullest. This is most likely why it took so long to let Ireland go. But I doubt he didn’t learn that waiting too long is ill advised. Especially at how good rookie GM Hickey did with his picks this year. You see he fired someone and hired a new guy and got immediate improvement. This trend will continue in “all phases of the game” trust me on that.
At the moment he’s playing the good owner and employer. Last thing he wants to do is let Philbin know anymore than he already assumes that his job security is waning fast. If I were a lame duck HC I sure as heck wouldn’t be at my best and the threat of a scorched earth exit by Philbin is not totally out of the realm of possibility either. Ala Saban.
I hope many if not all of my assumptions are at least partly accurate if not completely so. But here is what I do know. Ross has deep pockets and needs help. The fan base is fed up. And Miami is loaded with talent. The soil is fertile in Miami for either Philbin to prosper or for some upcoming or established coach to take over the fine built castle of the Miami Dolphins. Either way I’m hoping one or the other will happen by seasons end.
D-Truth I don’t mean to contradict your article. You know I love this place :-). But I feel its strategically sound for Ross to keep quiet and keep solidifying his arrived at opinion by surrounding himself with advisors and forming an ad-hoc committee with dual purpose.
And I will say this as the idea echoes the title of your article somewhat. The time is right for your brand of Dolphins coverage and I hope you get out in front of the idea you’ve created. Or sadly somebody else might be looking at your site’s style in the same way a quality HC is looking at Phibin’s job. Get out there and keep doing what your doing. It wont be long before this site will snowball.
PhinsUp
OUT!
Ross needs to learn that businesses in different industries operate differently. A professional football team is nothing like a publicly traded corporation. He’s not dealing with MBA’s- he’s dealing with young men who might otherwise be in jail if not for football (I say this lovingly).
Maybe this is why he likes Dawn Aponte so much. She plays the corporate game, something very familiar to Ross. An NFL team is about “un” corporate game as you can get. There is honor, loyalty, and other things don’t exist anymore in corporate America. It’s more like the military than Wall Street.
If Ross is unwilling or unable to grasp this, please step aside. The fans deserve better…..