A word of caution about Flores

[Pappy13]

I saw the following on Reddit and thought I would bring the thread here.

https://www.reddit.com/r/miamidolphins/comments/e8c6hk/flores_made_me_a_believer/

You can read my comments in that thread but just let me summarize here. I'm happy the team has responded to Flores, but we don't want another Tony Sparano as head coach, we want another Don Shula. Miami doesn't aspire to be competitive and win in games against bad teams, Miami aspires to be competitive and win in games against good teams. They haven't done that yet. When they have done that, then Flores will be coach of the year material, not a minute before.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Flores has won games against weak teams with what might be the least talented collection of players ever assembled.  That is good coaching, and should translate into a winning season with decent players and playoffs with good players.  But time will tell. 

[Spider-Dan]

He still hasn't done anything to convince me that he's not terrible.  This team still has the worst point differential in the league: 50 points worse than the 1-12 Bengals, and 70 points worse than the next-worst team.  A loss by 1 point, instead of the usual 20, is not cause for celebration.

So far, this looks to be a continuation of the Gase era: nailbiters that occasionally turn out in MIA's favor, or embarrassing blowout losses.  The last time that MIA won by 2 scores was Week 13 of the 2017 season.  The next-most-recent 2-score victory was 14 games before that.

[Spider-Dan]

So as not to come off like tepop84 or Dolfanalyst with a single-minded vendetta, let me add some nuance to my post:

If Flores has been told by the front office that this season is to be sacrificed, I will cut him some slack.  I do not hold him meaningfully responsible for trading Tunsil (nor do I give him credit, for those that think credit is deserved).  There are many faults of this team that are not his doing.

But trolling his best WR before he has coached a single meaningful game was dumb.  He needs to win his players over, not alienate them.  And given his background as a DB coach, his failure to get Minkah to buy in - who was not some grizzled veteran superstar like '08 JT, but a raw second-year player who hadn't yet accomplished anything in this league - is absolutely inexcusable.

Over the years, I've been consistent in criticizing MIA coaches who refuse to coach their players through conflict.  I didn't like it when MIA got rid of Brandon Marshall, Vontae Davis, or Mike Wallace.  And I praised Gase for not giving up on Ajayi, and choosing to actually coach him to productivity.  (Although Gase later traded Ajayi anyway for being "uncoachable," so we take improvements where we can.)   Coaches that are unwilling or unable to coach talented but difficult players will always earn my ire.  Do your job.

[CF DolFan]

I think Flores has shown he is a serious football coach and is having some success with the least amount of talent ever assembled in Miami ... if not ever. I will wait before I'm sold on him as being the one we've been waiting for. We've had people who have had success for a moment and then flamed out. It will take time to see if this guy is the BB protege' we need him to be or if he is the next Tony Sparano.

[MaineDolFan]

Until shown different every coach in Miami is Joe Philbin to me.