A week after a miraculous finish that kept Miami’s playoff hopes alive, it’s unclear whether the team will avoid major changes, if a postseason berth isn’t acquired.
Per a league source with knowledge of the situation, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is undecided regarding whether he’ll make changes, and how sweeping those changes would be, after the current season ends.
A playoff berth would surely go a long way toward nudging him toward the sticking with the status quo. If the Dolphins don’t make it, that’s when the analysis becomes more complicated and nuanced. The trio of Mike Tannenbaum, Chris Grier, and Adam Gase has brought stability and the absence of dysfunction to a football operation that had previously been a mess, due in part to the fact that Ross doesn’t like and work in South Florida. Under the prior regime, when the cat was away, the mice trying to eat each other.
The fact that the team has encountered numerous and various types of adversity in the past two years should also be a factor that Ross carefully considers, especially as it relates to the way the organization has dealt with these external stresses and hurdles. The Dolphins continue to fight and scratch and claw for wins, not giving up and not giving in to whatever factor beyond the control of the franchise tries to derail the team.
Then there’s the very real possibility that, in an effort to get better, the Dolphins will get worse. Before Gase, who chose Miami when he had other options, the Dolphins had a very hard time getting the guys they wanted, from Jim Harbaugh to Jeff Fisher to Peyton Manning. If Ross rips off the Band-Aid and starts over, will he be able to lure the folks at the top of the “A” list, or will he have to settle, again?
None of this matters if the Dolphins can steal a playoff berth. If they can’t, Ross will have to make a decision that, for now, he hasn’t. And while he could be tempted to give in to the generalized clamor for change that happens when a team is caught in that gulf between the good and the bad, the best decision often is to stay the course and to trust that payoff is coming.
It’s possibly not a coincidence that the teams that consistently slide toward the bad are the ones that lack the leadership and vision to not consistently give in to the temptation to change, if only for the sake of changing.