3 assistants get shown the door
The Miami Dolphins’ struggles on offense and defense in Brian Flores’ first season as head coach has cost a few assistants their jobs.
Offensive coordinator Chad O’Shea was fired after his first season as a play-caller, and offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo and safeties coach Tony Oden will not have their contracts renewed.
It is possible that O’Shea, DeGuglielmo and Oden won’t be the only members of Flores’ coaching staff leaving following Miami’s 5-11 season, which featured the offense and defense struggling for most of the year.
“I want to thank Chad, Dave and Tony for their hard work and commitment this season. This was not an easy decision but one I felt was best for the future of the Miami Dolphins,” Flores said in a statement.
“We’re evaluating everything — players, coaches, myself,” Flores said. “So everything is being evaluated, and I think that’s the right approach you need to take to make sure we’re doing things the right way, and doing what’s in the best interest of the Dolphins.”
Oden was one of the few holdovers from former coach Adam Gase’s staff. His unit struggled because of the team’s lack of passing rushing, and because of the season-ending injuries Reshad Jones and Bobby McCain suffered, which forced the Dolphins to move cornerback Eric Rowe to safety and start Adrian Colbert, a former University of Miami standout, for five games after he was signed off the Seattle Seahawks practice squad.
DeGuglielmo’s unit struggled all season. It was handcuffed by the Week 1 trade of standout left tackle Laremy Tunsil to the Houston Texans in a package of players that delivered two first-round picks and a 2020 secondround selection to the Dolphins. However, the group began to stabilize late in the season when center Daniel Kilgore returned from his knee injury, and Julien Davenport returned from a broken leg and became more comfortable playing left tackle.
However, that unit allowed 58 sacks, which tied the Carolina Panthers for the league lead during the regular season, and paved the way for 1,156 rushing yards, which set a new franchise low.
No team ran for fewer yards than the Dolphins during the regular season. Miami and the New York Jets averaged a league-low 3.3 yards per carry.
The Dolphins offense, which was led by O’Shea, who joined Miami after spending 10 seasons in New England as the Patriots receivers coach, finished 2019 averaging 310 yards per game, which ranked the offense 27th, and 19.1 points per game, which ranked Miami 25th in scoring.