Gase deserves more time to turn Dolphins into winner

MIAMI GARDENS — The Dolphins have walked a tightrope all season, teetering between disappointment and elation every week.

One thing has become abundantly clear watching this 2018 team. These Dolphins aren’t title contenders right now. They are far from it.

But what this franchise is building, the ups and downs of the past three seasons, is worth your respect. And more importantly, our patience.

Whether you should trust this team’s decision-making when it comes to free agents and draft picks can be debated, but what shouldn’t be debated is whether coach Adam Gase is the right man for the job. He has shown that he’s the leader this franchise needs because of how his team has performed all year despite being ravished by injuries.

“We’ve had injuries. We’ve had a record-long games. We’ve had a lot [of issues],” Dolphins pass rusher Cameron Wake said. “Today is another example, just keep believing, keep swinging, and eventually if you keep your nose down and do your work, things will turn your way.”

That seems to be finally happening considering Charles Clay dropped the final pass in the end zone, sealing last week’s 21-17 win over the Buffalo Bills, and Kenyan Drake scored a miraculous touchdown on a final play hook and lateral in Sunday’s 34-33 win over the New England Patriots, which keeps Miami in a four-team race for the final AFC playoff spot.

Gase’s resume as a playcaller the past three seasons has indeed been uneven, and something worthy of close examination at the end of the season. But that’s a different issue.

He’s not Cam Cameron or Joe Philbin, who each lacked the leadership skills needed to inspire professional athletes playing the most physical sport in America.

Gase is a leader of men. He’s not the late Tony Sparano, who was a phenomenal leader, but lacked the X’s and O’s savvy needed to out-coach his opponents.

Gase has proven he can do battle with Patriots coach Bill Belichick.

He’s charismatic and smart, but also arrogant, defiant. With a little seasoning he could become like his mentor, Nick Saban.

The Dolphins organization needs to provide Gase with better talent, which starts with telling him to take a backseat when it comes to player evaluations considering his picks rarely workout, and convince him to draft another quarterback for now and later. If they do, Gase should bloom.

If the patience brigade gave Chad Henne three seasons to blossom, and let Ryan Tannehill incubate since 2012 without ever giving him competition, why can’t this franchise be patient and give Gase a chance to grow into the coach he has the potential to be?

His body of work these past three seasons has produced a 23-22 record and one playoff berth while playing 25 games without the franchise’s starting quarterback. That deserves some respect.

Gase has kept a bad team — one that entered Sunday’s game against New England ranked 29th on offense and 29th on defense — relevant.

That deserves some praise.

The fact that Tannehill, who has a 105.7 quarterback rating on the season, appears to be cleaning up his game, shows Gase isn’t in over his head.

Very little this of what this team planned on this past offseason has worked out, but the Dolphins are still in the playoff hunt, despite the mountain of injuries that have cost them half a dozen key contributors.

Fans and the media often get caught up in the end result, overlook the journey and dismiss the process.

This year’s process has re-enforced that the culture change

Gase preached about all offseason has taken root because the Dolphins are a resilient, scrappy team again, just like they were in 2016 when they earned a playoff berth in Gase’s first season as a head coach.

Next year, the Dolphins need to get offensive linemen Josh Sitton and Daniel Kilgore back from their season-ending injuries, and invest in a young interior player who will blossom into a reliable starter.

Miami must find a starting tight end who can do everything required of the position, and a possession receiver with the size, durability and playmaking ability to replace DeVante Parker.

The entire defensive line needs to be rebuilt considering they’ve struggled to stop the run or pressure the quarterback this season, and Miami must find another starting cornerback for its thinnedout secondary.

Those pieces can make this franchise a perennial playoff contender if it continues to get consistent play from the quarterback position, the offensive line and defensive line get fixed, and Gase blossoms into better playcaller.

Constantly starting over isn’t the answer to this franchise’s seemingly never-ending run of mediocrity.

Letting Gase finish what he started could be.

Omar Kelly