The 2015-2016 season is winding down. As of this post, we're down to the final four teams battling for the opportunity to lift the Vince Lombardi trophy in early February. And, for the 24th year, Miami is not playing in the conference championship game.
When was the last time the Miami Dolphins played in the AFC Championship game? What team did they play? What was the final score?
In a matter of a week the Dolphins revamped their coaching staff in hopes of turning things around and get the team back to competitiveness. First, the team hired Adam Gase, the franchise's 12th head coach in the team's history. Then the Dolphins hired Vance Josephas the new defensive coordinator. And, to round out the top coaching positions, Miami hired Clyde Christensen as the new offensive coordinator.
These are big changes. But, will they equal more wins? Will this be the combination of coaching minds to help Miami reach something like the AFC title game?
Adam (Beasley), I imagine when a coach comes in, like anybody, you want to kind of erase anything from the last regime, but has Coach Gase done anything to kind of just make us forget what happened last year?
Well they're trafficking in hope; that's what a new coach is. We don't know for sure because he's never done it before. So you just have to inspire some hope in the fan base that this is that fresh new face, this is the hot candidate who's going to get this turned around. Now you can excuse Dolphins fans for being a little cynical, a little jaded. They've heard this story before. The Dolphins have been through, as you mentioned, 12 coaches. That is substantial. I think about that fact they had one coach [Don Shula] for dozens of years and then 10 since he retired about 20 years ago. That's pretty stunning to think none of them have really panned out. And they hope this is the one that gets a turnaround. Adam Gase brings a great resume. He's worked with some of football's finest minds. He's hailed as an intelligent guy, a hard worker who can relate to his players. But again we really won't know how good of a job he can do until he actually does it.
How many candidates did the team actually talk to before making this choice and who were some of the bigger ones?
Yeah, he was one of seven to actually get an interview. Total different levels of experience from, obviously Mike Shanahan, who may get some Hall of Fame consideration when he does hang it up for good. Another name is Anthony Lane who is a running backs coach for the Bills; an up and coming coach. They kind of split the difference because gazing around football for about 20 years. The question with Gase is this: Can he bridge that divide of having great expectations but no resume as a successful NFL head coach? You have to remember that all coaches were first time coaches at some point.
The NFL has the Rooney Rule, which governs how many minority candidates a team is supposed to talk to for the head coaching position. So how many minority candidates did the dolphins talk to?
Two. Detroit Lions defensive coach Teryl Austin was one of the first to interview. And Anthony Allen, running backs coach for the Bills. So they fulfilled the Rooney Rule requirement. Early on and in that they focused on the coach they ended up with Adam Gase.
So we mentioned Claude Christensen coming in as the offensive coordinator, but under Gase, what exactly is he going to be doing?
Well, he'll be running the, and most importantly, will be trying to fix Ryan Tannehill. That's why they brought him in. He's worked wonders with other quarterbacks around the league in the past. They want him to do the same here in Miami. Look, they invested a lot in Ryan Tannehill. He signed a six-year $96 million contract before the 2015 season. But here's the thing, they can basically get out of it after this year with little pain, so this is more of an audition for Ryan this year than anything else. The team wants it to work out. Obviously he wants it to work out. Adam Gase might be the guy [who] brings it all together.
But does the team look for a new quarterback in the upcoming draft just in case?
My guess is they'll probably draft one in the later rounds. They're not going to give up a high draft pick for a quarterback. They don't think that's a real pressing need at this point. But I will say this: If Ryan again plateaus or even regresses a bit in 2016, he will absolutely be out of a job in Miami 2017.
We have a lot of time before the draft, but of course that's the next big thing. What does the team need?
Defense, defense and more defense. If you could basically just blindfold yourself and throw a dart at a dart board and any position on defense that it hits. They could draft and upgrade. Even defensive tackle, obviously they have Ndamukong Suh, Suh. They drafted Jordan Phillips in the second round last year. But neither Phillips nor Earl Mitchell really played a high level this past year so they could upgrade really any position, most likely cornerback or defensive end. My guess is they'll go after one of those two with the eighth overall pick.
And we hear about the offensive line. Tannehill is still a quarterback that gets sacked a lot, and gets pressured a lot. How's the offensive line look?
Not good. I mean that's pretty clear they need two new offensive guards. He has been the most sacked quarterback of anybody in football since he entered the NFL since 2012. And those hits are really starting to add up. He was banged up at the end of last season. You know, he could barely walk out of the locker room the second to last week of the year. He had found blood in his urine at one point during the season -- just kind of tells you how much of a pounding he took. They can't let that happen any more. It's affecting his physical abilities. And it's affecting his mental game, too. He needs to get more protection and I think they're going to address it either in the draft or free agency.
Before the season started there was a lot of excitement and the team looked really good in the preseason. Then everything collapsed. We have a new coach. Realistically what is the team ownership talking about here as to what this is going to be like in 2016?
Yeah. That's the thing is that they're not trying to set expectations high again. But they're also not saying this is a total rebuild, so again if you're a Dolphins fan you've come to love 8-8 and 7-9 seasons, though they've been in that neighborhood for a bit the better part of 15 years now and I don't see any reason, unless they make a huge splash in the draft and free agency.
Meanwhile Sun Life Stadium continues going through renovations. How is the construction of the canopy coming along?
Yeah they're just getting started on that. But certainly fans are looking forward to getting out of that 95 degree heat in the middle of August, September, especially those day games -- they can be brutal. So the canopy will be up for the start of the 2016 season and I know ticket holders are counting down the days.
The other thing too is the stadium actually shrunk a little bit because of the construction.
It was certainly fuller than it has been years past. It feels more like an NFL stadium -- that wasn't a football stadium -- that was a mixed-use stadium, baseball and football. This certainly has a footprint now of a football stadium so that's nothing but good.
By the way, did you answer the question from earlier?
Sunday, Jan. 17, 1993 Miami Dolphins (11-5) 10 Buffalo Bills (11-5) 29
