Joe Philbin doesn’t like the perception that the Dolphins didn’t aggressively pursue free agent quarterback Matt Flynn.
Philbin, the Dolphins head coach who spent the last four years coaching Flynn in Green Bay, was asked by a reporter today why he didn’t pursue Flynn as aggressively as many people thought they would. And Philbin said people who think the Dolphins didn’t pursue Flynn aggressively are wrong.
“I think we made an aggressive push,” Philbin said. “We got him in here relatively quickly. Again, we had a great meeting. Matt and I had some conversations, a number of conversations prior to his arrival to Miami. We had some subsequent ones after. He’d probably be able to give you better answer as to why he chose to go elsewhere.”
That aggressive push may have been hampered by the fact that the Dolphins first aggressively pushed for Peyton Manning, but Philbin said he’s not sure why Flynn picked the Seahawks.
“Again, you need to ask Matt Flynn why he’s in Seattle,” Philbin said. “There’s a myriad factors that go into why people make decisions about their own future, which is their prerogative. And clubs have their own prerogative as to how they are going to decide to move forward. And so again, it always takes two people to get a marriage and so I wish him well. He’s a great young man. But he’s better to ask why he’s in Seattle.”
Flynn’s decision to play for the Seahawks even though the Dolphins made an aggressive push — and even though Flynn already knows he can play well in Philbin’s offense — would seem to be another indication of the widespread perception that a whole lot of players just don’t want to play for the Dolphins right now.
Philbin, however, is accentuating the positives with his quarterbacks. Of David Garrard, Philbin said, “I think he throws a real catchable ball.” And Philbin said Matt Moore “managed the games very well.”
So the Dolphins will have either a quarterback who throws a catchable ball or a game manager. But they won’t have Manning or Flynn, the quarterbacks they pursued aggressively.