Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Grier wields power, but is he deserving?
With the 2019 NFL season fast approaching, the South Florida Sun Sentinel takes a look at 10 storylines to watch for in a 10-part series ahead of the Miami Dolphins’ first day of training camp on Thursday, July 25.
Chris Grier is intelligent, egoless, calm and unassuming.
The Miami Dolphins general manager has been brought up around the NFL since childhood because of his father Bobby Grier’s background as an NFL executive and scout. That’s why there’s little doubt Grier is qualified to run a franchise.
But what we don’t know — what Grier hasn’t proved yet — is that he’s good at his job and deserving of the power he holds.
He has only produced one good draft class (2016) since being promoted to replace a fired Dennis Hickey earlier that year, and Miami’s offseason moves the past three years ended up being a waste of the organization’s time and money.
Considering Grier was in the
room when the franchise decided to invest three seasons in Chad Henne, draft Pat White, sign Philip Wheeler, start Dallas Thomas and never get Ryan Tannehill any competition, his hands aren’t completely clean in the struggles of the past several years.
That’s why there’s concern whether Grier has the skills needed to steer the course of Miami’s latest journey: the overhauling of its roster from top to bottom and building a franchise that can deliver sustained success.
That’s the challenge owner Steve Ross placed on Grier when he put the 49-year-old in charge of everything on the football side of the organization. It’s now Grier’s job to get the Dolphins off the mediocrity merry-go-round they have
been on since Dan Marino retired after the 1999 season.
Hiring Brian Flores as Miami’s 10th head coach showed Grier is an out-ofthe-box thinker. Hiring defensive coordinators as head coaches isn’t in vogue right now in the NFL, and coaches off the Bill Belichick coaching tree don’t have a track record of succeeding.
But Grier likes that Flores has learned from Belichick, a defensive innovator, and feels that he can relate to this generation’s coddled football players, which is important.
The hiring of Marvin Allen and Reggie McKenzie, two established and respected talent evaluators, as top executives this offseason was a step in the right direction for the Dolphins because of this roster not having much high-end talent. But it’s ultimately on Grier to make the decisions that will return the Dolphins to a position of prominence.
He has potentially created $90 million in cap space for next offseason, and the Dolphins are in position to have 12 draft picks in 2020 because of all the moves made — and not made — this spring and summer. Creating a stockpile of money to spend and having a treasure chest of draft picks is every executive’s dream, but it only pays off if the top decision-maker knows how to use those resources.
Let us hope the fact that Grier watched decisionmakers such as Dave Wannstedt, Rick Speilman, Randy Mueller, Bill Parcells, Jeff Ireland, Hickey and Tannenbaum make many mistakes will lead to a quick transformation for the Dolphins.
If not, it’ll just be yet another wasted era, and there will be nobody to blame but Grier.