Trust no one.
In fairness, that warning is coming from a man who clearly has trust issues.
But can you blame me? I’ve covered the Miami Dolphins since 2007.
That’s 19 seasons of a franchise chasing its tale.
That’s 19 seasons of the winningest franchise in all of professional sports in 2000 getting on an endless ride on the mediocrity merry-go-round, going 25 years without a playoff win.
That’s 17 seasons, five coaches (not counting interims), and five different individuals (again, not counting interims) at the top of the football side of the organization with Steve Ross being this franchise’s majority owner, and round-and-round we go.
That’s why Dolphins fans should trust no one in this organization when it comes to laying the proper foundation for a winning NFL franchise. They haven’t earned it.
The franchise’s leadership, excluding the business side, has been troubling.
The franchise’s hiring process has been terrifying.
The talent evaluation for the Dolphins has been negligent for nearly a decade.
The quarterback competition has been non-existent for two decades.
The money management has been laughable considering Miami carries $35.5 million in dead cap next season before even making a single roster move in 2026, and is presently $15 million in dead cap space, which trails only the Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings and Kansas City Chiefs.
The Dolphins’ future looks bleak, and as much as Ross, and every one of his hires, has talked about changing the culture, we keep doing the same ole two-step to the same ole beat.
And the latest tune is Ross hiring former Hall of Fame quarterback and current NFL game announcer Troy Aikman to the search committee, with the goal of finding a talent evaluator who will do a better job of picking talent for this franchise while (insert coach here) develops the talent, and Brian Shore manages the operations, and franchise’s books.
Let me tell you where I have heard this before?
It was back in 2014 when Dennis Hickey was Ross’ fourth choice (at least three others turned him down) to become Miami’s general manager, after others were turned off by Ross forcing his next “talent evaluator” to work with Joe Philbin, and have the business side of operations run by Dawn Aponte, who at that time was the only female in power running an NFL franchise.
The Dolphins’ operations were mocked privately (for what exactly, I’m not completely sure) by NFL insiders that offseason, and it seemingly motivated Ross to hire Mike Tannenbaum as executive vice president of football operations a year after he wouldn’t interview him for the general manager role.
Tannenbaum was hired as a consultant months after Hickey was chosen, and abruptly shanked him in the side to take full power, eventually removing him after two football seasons and replacing him with now-fired general manager Chris Grier.
Grier, the son of a former NFL executive, a career scout and talent evaluator for the Dolphins since 2000, was handed — not earned -—a general manager role, put in charge of talent evaluation, and mediocrity was reinforced.
While the Dolphins had a few hits under Grier’s leadership of the talent evaluation department, there were far too many misses, and those misses forced the franchise to spend irresponsibly in free agency and patch holes on the team’s roster with aged and often injury prone players.
That somewhat explains Miami’s usual flat-line performance in December and January, when playoff berths are on the line and playoff games are played.
Grier gained full power when Tannenbaum and Adam Gase were removed after the 2018 season, and his limited leadership skills and lackluster talent evaluation led us to where we are today with Mike McDaniel, who owns a 35-32 record, with two first-round playoff losses, heading into Sunday’s season finale against the New England Patriots.
McDaniel started out smoldering as a head coach, revving up Miami’s offense with Tua Tagovailoa at the trigger to the point they were the NFL’s most dynamic offense. But the engine (or Tagovailoa) started breaking down in 2024, and as a result McDaniel has delivered two straight losing seasons.
While Ross claimed “status quo” wouldn’t be tolerated this season, here we are as a franchise flirting with the idea of retaining McDaniel, forcing him on the next general manager and creating yet another three-pronged leadership structure within the organization.
Just this time the Dolphins will use Aikman’s connections in the NFL to assist the general manager search instead of Bill Parcells’ connections, Carl Peterson’s connections, or Bruce Beal’s connections.
Exactly what should make Dolphins fans feel more confident in this search than they did for any of the five previous coaches, five former top executives, and six starting quarterbacks — Chad Pennington, Chad Henne, Ryan Tannehill, Jay Cutler, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Tagovailoa — Miami has had during Ross’ disappointing watch over South Florida’s NFL franchise?
Again, I warn you Dolphins fans, trust needs to be earned, not given.
