Steve Ross wants to ‘change the culture’ of club
MIAMI GARDENS — They asked Steve Ross what needed to change, because that’s what is asked around after every season finale, and the Dolphins owner knew his lines perfectly to script by his seventh disappointing season. He answered as if from memory. “The biggest thing is we need to change the culture,” he said.
They need better players. They need better coaching. They need what they always need this time of year, which is better organizational decisions and to build the football product in a way they haven’t season after disheartening season.
If that’s what’s meant by “change the culture,” so be it. But what Ross really needed to say is Mike Tannenbaum has the keys to the franchise, and the vice president of football operations must be better than any Dolphins executive in years or they’re sunk.
That includes Tannenbaum last offseason, by the way. He inherited an organization the owner had set up a year ago. So
his hands were tied in some form. Now you’re seeing what Tannenbaum really thinks.
The coach, general manager and both coordinators who started the season were fired at various points by Tannenbaum before Sunday’s final surprise, a 20-10 win over the half-interested Patriots. (And give interim coach Dan Campbell credit for winning a game this team could have ducked out on.)
Firing is the easy part, as this lost decade shows. Now comes the harder job of building. Chris Grier, a long-time scout, is moving into Dennis Hickey’s job as general manager. The coaching hire follows next.
The to-do list on this roster already is settled by the front office, and it’s an interesting one. Here are the top two positions they feel need improving: 1. Guard 2. Cornerback You can put linebacker next. And throw defensive end in there, but the hope is to bring back two of three of the defensive ends in question — Cameron Wake, Olivier Vernon and Derrick Shelby. That would downgrade that need.
So why guard? It’s typically a non-impact position, a low investment on a winning team. But the No. 1 problem with the Dolphins this year was the offense didn’t score points, and the front office feels it didn’t score in good part because the guards caused problems across the line, which caused problems across the offense.
And, yes, that’s guards. Plural. The need is to find one, and maybe two, starting guards to combat some good AFC East defensive tackles and give quarterback Ryan Tannehill the protection to allow him to play better than this season.
This front office still believes in Tannehill. It knows he needs to be better. But with better protection, with better balance between the pass and run, and with better starts (the Dolphins were outscored 88-47 in the first quarter this year), Tannehill will improve. That’s the plan anyhow.
The need for one or two cornerbacks is obvious. Brent Grimes turns 33 this summer, and that’s foreign land for a shutdown corner who relies fully on smarts and athleticism.
Throw in the profane comments of his wife, Miko, directed at Tannehill and reporters, and it smacks directly of the “change the culture” idea Ross espouses. Put it another way: Would Don Shula put up with that? Bill Belichick? Any champion coach from any era at all?
Belichick was at the other end of the stadium Sunday dealing with issues winning teams deal with. His quarterback, Tom Brady, was hobbled. The playoffs are coming. And they lost a game they halfheartedly tried to win — running 21 times with third- and fourth-string running backs in the first half, compared with just five Brady passes in that span.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Belichick said. “That’s what we have; we have a lot of work to do.”
The Dolphins have more work. Much more.
The Patriots always talk about winning more games this time of year. The Dolphins’ talk at this juncture of recent years has included a cross-country courting of Jim Harbaugh, Bullygate, a wife’s words and the constant purging of staff.
Can Tannenbaum get it right? Can he get it so the Dolphins can make January a month where games matter again? “Change the culture?” Change some front-office decisions. Change the draft successes. The culture will follow from there. As it is, the Patriots head again to the playoffs, and the Dolphins head again to draw up another new plan led by the latest executive.