Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin was recently ranked 22nd in a recent poll conducted by Senior NFL columnist of CBS Sports, Pete Prisco.
Prisco has Philbin at that rank based on last season where “he (Philbin) did a solid job as a rookie coach” and he is “well respected as a football guy.” Prisco also mentioned that many people did not want Philbin in Miami given that he seemed to run things a bit tight. Furthermore, Prisco gives advice for Philbin that if he loosens up a bit, players will like that approach better.
This short critique by Philbin is not as far-fetched as some would think given that Philbin himself has begun to loosen up.
For instance, on the first day of minicamp, Coach Philbin showed up late for the first minicamp practice of the year. Since coach Philbin coaches with the intention of teaching players to value their job and be on time and accountable, it was rather odd. Philbin’s excuse? He had things to do. Which shows that after one year, Philbin was less concerned about a chin strap being on or shoe laces being tied and accepted and took the ribbing from players who waited for a year to catch him doing something wrong.
Of greater importance will be whether the Dolphins are going to start showing they are fully prepared to play better weeks 1 through 16. With last year’s dress rehearsals during the pre-season looking like the Dolphins would win zero games, the Dolphins managed to earn a 7-9 record partly because of mediocre and fairly inconsistent play.
Philbin needs to be the facilitator of this team and let the quarterback Ryan Tannehill spread his wings as a second year player. Much of last year showed the ineptitude of the offense trickled down from the philosophy on offense of playing faster, but yet the missing ingredient was the right players for this offense.
Already, the Dolphins have players in place that are fully capable of playing the Philbin way. Philbin’s way is the only way for the Dolphins to succeed and that remaining consistent in his approach of leading is highly critical of him as a coach. Even though, coach Philbin, as of this offseason, was earning praise by experts on leadership in the business community, the only leadership that counts in the long run are what his players will do to lead to winning football.
As a fan, I stand by Joe Philbin in his second year of coaching, but he needs to right the ship and lead this team to the playoffs to start winning over the fans who have been with this team the past 30-plus years.
Clearly, Joe Philbin still has room for improvement, but by this time next year a playoff win(s) could vault him into the top 10.
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