Former Dolphins offensive coordinator Chad O’Shea was in the middle of his exit interview with quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, when head coach Brian Flores had someone interrupt, to break the news that it would be O’Shea’s exit interview as well.
That anecdote was part of a longer report by the Miami Herald, which painted a picture of a coach trying to do too much with a young team last year.
Hours after O’Shea was fired, Flores replaced him with veteran coordinator Chan Gailey, and players believe that will make things a bit easier to grasp.
The primary complaint about O’Shea in the story cooks down to the idea that he was teaching Patriots-level offensive complexity to a team that lacked years of experience in the system. One player described it as a “[expletive] show,” and another said the instruction and installation was a “disaster.”
Of course, it’s easy to beat up on O’Shea, who wasn’t gifted with an overwhelming amount of depth or talent to work with. Brought along with Flores from New England (where he had spent 10 years as receivers coach), it’s understandable that he’d want to coach things he knew. O’Shea has since been hired as receivers coach/passing game coordinator with the Browns.
Fitzpatrick was apparently surprised to learn that O’Shea had been fired in the middle of his meeting, and it’s unclear if he knew Gailey was on the way (the two had some success together with the Jets and Bills).
The Dolphins are going to be young again this year, with the 37-year-old Fitzpatrick the only offensive player over 30. And there’s a strong likelihood that at some point soon, Gailey will be breaking in first-rounder Tua Tagovailoa at quarterback.
Keeping things simpler should help, though it appears Flores decided after his own rookie year that having some experience on his staff would help.