The notion that Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio wanted to clean house in Miami, that owner Stephen Ross didn’t want to clean house, and that Ross nevertheless offered the job to Caserio arguably describes the current state of the Dolphins in a nutshell.
But as one source with knowledge of Caserio’s thinking told PFT, Caserio didn’t want to fire anyone. Per the source, Caserio likes coach Joe Philbin. And Caserio likes executive V.P. of football administration Dawn Aponte. And Caserio likes assistant G.M. Brian Gaine.
It appears that someone (i.e., some with the Dolphins) leaked to Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald that Caserio wanted to clean house as a way to explain Caserio’s decision to reject the offer. Basically, if he wouldn’t have the ability to do the job the way he wanted to do it, he didn’t want to accept it.
Which brings us back to the odd decision by the Dolphins to offer the job to someone with whom ownership would have had a philosophical impasse from Day One.
To summarize, either the Dolphins still wanted to hire a guy they wouldn’t let do the job the way he wanted to do it or the Dolphins have offered an embellished narrative in order to make it look like Caserio simply didn’t choose not to come work for a team that several others also have chosen not to come work for.