Can Flores be first to flourish?
Belichick’s coaching tree hasn’t fared well; Dolphins head man looks to change that
Bill O’Brien’s tenure as an NFL head coach came to a screeching haltMonday when theHouston Texans surprisingly fired the coach that had led the franchise to five winning seasons in six years because of this season’s 0-4 start.
With that pink slip another branch of the Bill Belichick coaching tree became rotten.
And not just any branch because O’Brienwas the Belichick protégé who had produced the best NFL career up to this point, whichwas evident from his 52-48 record in the regular season, and 2-4 record in the playoffs.
It’s another example that not everyone who works with greatness has it themselves, and that “The PatriotWay” doesn’t deliver a dynasty unless it comes with TomBrady at quarterback.
There’s a long list of NFL franchises and college teams— Houston Texans (O’Brien), Detroit Lions (Matt Patricia), NotreDame and Kansas (CharlieWeis), Kansas City Chiefs (Romeo Crennel), Denver Broncos (JoshMcDaniels), New York Jets (EricMangini) and Cleveland Browns (Crennel andMangini)— that have learned this the hardway.
The Miami Dolphins (1-3) and their fan base are still trying to figure out what type of fruit Brian Flores is. He spent 11 seasons learning The Patriot Way, working under Belichick, before being named the Miami Dolphins’ head coach.
The hope is that Flores isn’t the usual Belichick’s disciple, and can find a way to emulate O’Brien’s level of success as a coach.
Itwas O’Brien, the general manager, that got O’Brien, the coach, fired following a two-year run of making questionable trades and personnel decisions, some of which the Dolphins benefited from considering Miami ownsHouston’s 2021 first- and secondround picks for the trade that sent the Texans offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil and receiverKenny Stills.
But O’Brien, the coach, was pretty decent, the best of a batch of bad Belichick apples.
Patricia has one of the hottest seats in the NFL after two-plus seasons of failures, and his team’s 1-3 start in 2020. And if Patricia, who owns a 9-25-1, record bites the dust at some point this season it would leave only Flores and newly hired Giants coach Joe Judge (0-4 to start) as the remaining Belichick disciples left as head coaches.
Dolphins fans better hope Flores bucks the trend, and has an O’Brienlike coaching career because thatwould make him the best Dolphins coach since Jimmy Johnson considering the Texanswon four AFC South titles under O’Brien.
Itwould be nice for a Dolphins coach to lead his team to any kind of success after nearly two decades of mediocrity.
Flores is off to a rough start so far, holding a 6-14 record in his first 20 games.
For comparisons sake the previous two Dolphins coaches, Adam Gase and Joe Philbin, were 7-13 and 10-10, respectively, in their first 20 games.
Flores’ supporters will justify his slowstart by saying that the talent level of Miami’s 2019 teamwas abysmal, and there’s some validity to that.
But if Flores can be praised for producing a 5-11 record with a roster full of journeyman, waiver wire claims and practice squad call-ups, why isn’t he doing better this season with a team that spent more than $240 million on a talent makeover this past offseason?
The good thing about Flores is he doesn’t try to emulate Belichick much outside of adopting a similar defense to the Patriots— which I’d argue isn’t very effective without a lead provided by the offense— and theway he aims for his team to have versatility at every position, and defined roles for every player.
It is possible that Flores is aiming to be his own man, and has learned from the mistakes of others, incorporating those lessons learned from the trails and tribulations Belichick’s former Browns and Patriots assistants turned head coaches have made.
Hopefully Flores continues to be his own man and paves his own path because that’s what helps franchises and players growand prevents them fromgetting turning off by their head coach.
Flores has his own flavor, and that is encouraging.
Butwe still have not learned if it’ll be tasty or not. And theway other Belichick proteges have struggled, it might be time to take a bite and see if this fruit is rotten or not.