With various news reporters camped outside the Miami Dolphins training facility in Davie on Thursday, possible change lingered in the air with the entrance of a rather large unidentified flying object. The chopper hovered over the practice field and landed with one man exiting, the owner of the Dolphins, Stephen M. Ross.
For nearly 7 hours, Steve Ross met with both Jeff Ireland and head coach Joe Philbin to find out what in the heck went wrong the final two games as the Dolphins were destined for the playoffs The Dolphins were outscored 39-7 and showed a lack of interest of making the playoffs.
In addition, Steve Ross met with offensive coordinator Mike Sherman who has come under fire for not getting a solid game plan together to beat the hated rivals: the Bills and Jets. All that stood in the way of the Dolphins were the Jets since the Ravens lost and were losing before the Dolphins took the field in the second half.
On this fact finding mission, Steve Ross met with just about every coaching member to dissect exactly the reason the Dolphins fell flat on their face as the likes of the San Diego Chargers entered the playoffs even though the Dolphins beat them fair and square in December.
This much we know, there are plenty of reasons for Steve Ross to fire Mike Sherman. However, due to a clause in head coach Joe Philbin’s contract, Sherman can only be fired by Joe Philbin and it is possible that while Steve Ross could fire anyone, he would be going above and beyond what is called for by an owner. Thusly, it is possible that if Philbin won't fire anyone since he defended his coaching staff on Monday, he could be on a collision course with Jeff Ireland.
Additionally, we’ve heard about how Joe Philbin and Ireland could have been unintentionally pitted against each other such as Philbin laying out his reasons for the failure on not having talented players and Jeff Ireland rebutting with not developing and misusing the talent as the reason for not making the playoffs. This notion comes to us per Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald, who wrote a brilliant blog this morning.
So, at this point, we might see the fracturing of the Dolphins staff and front office and while professionally, both sides could be pointing fingers; but this much we know, nothing has yet to change. Everyone is going about their business and getting ready for the 2014 offseason.
Should any changes be made, they could come early next week. For a Dolphins fan base that has already begun the process of publicly refusing to renew season tickets; change can’t come soon enough.
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