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Make-or-break year for Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross
05:27, 2012-01-10
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Dolphins owner Stephen Ross predictably and with enthusiasm was booed in his own stadium when introduced Sunday to pay pregame homage to retiring Jason Taylor. Recluse general manager Jeff Ireland surely would have been booed, too, had he risen from his rabbit hole for a rare public appearance.The Marlins’ Jeffrey Loria used to be Miami’s most unpopular sports owner, but now he could give lessons on how to remake one’s image — lessons Ross could use. Loria got what he wanted, finagling a new ballpark from the city and county, and then gave fans what they wanted: Star power in the form of manager Ozzie Guillen, shortstop Jose Reyes and others. Instant credibility, sudden excitement.
Of course both owners mentioned must curtsy to the Heat’s Micky Arison. He is precisely what we desire in a franchise lord: A man who finds the spotlight unnecessary while presenting a sufficient checkbook to cover Pat Riley’s audacious dream of teaming LeBron James and Chris Bosh with Dwyane Wade.
This is Ross’ challenge today. He finds himself not only competing with other NFL teams to win the best coach and best quarterback — but also competing with the Heat and Marlins to win the trust of South Florida, the faith of rightly skeptical Dolfans.
Hunting season has begun, and it will be Ross’ litmus test.
Does he have the gumption and boldness of wallet to do something major rather than end up with the hiring equivalent of a field goal instead of a winning touchdown?
We know by now Ross can ace the window dressing, the celebrity bit-part owners on the “orange carpet,” the in-stadium nightclub. Thing is, makeup only hides so much.
Can Ross succeed as a football owner with the product he puts on the field? This is what the fans want. This is where the doubt lies. This is what we’re about to find out.
Getting the big coach/QB quiniela seemed easy, once. Bill Cowher and Jon Gruden were floating around like real possibilities. At 0-7, grand prize Andrew Luck, the Stanford quarterback, seemed as likely for Miami as for anybody.
Now as a new year rolls out and another playoffs commence with the Dolphins left at the curb to watch the parade, what’s clear is that Ross is going to have to work for what he gets. And by work I mean compete, persuade and spend.
With Cowher and Gruden allegedly committed to the no-pressure comfort of TV booths, they have been lapped by a new “it” guy in Jeff Fisher, the longtime former Tennessee Titans coach. Any team that might be coach-shopping –—Miami, St. Louis, Tampa, Kansas City, maybe San Diego, maybe others — will romance Fisher.
He is thought to be most enamored of the Rams or Chargers for their better QB situations, but that doesn’t mean Fisher (or Cowher or Gruden) is not gettable.
Hope that the Dolphins get one of those rather than settle for the field goal named Brian Billick, or take someone else’s castoff like Brian Schottenheimer, or exhume the career of a fossil like Brian’s daddy, Marty Schottenheimer.
It will take more than money to win who you really want, and it will take a better sales pitch than the one that failed to land Jim Harbaugh before this past season.
Ross must prove to his next coach that this owner is committed to long-term winning, that Ireland is capable — or will be replaced
Much glows positively even from this 6-10 season.
Miami has two definite keepers on a pretty solid offensive line, a Pro Bowl receiver, a 1,000-yard rusher along with a promising young back, and, in Matt Moore, a QB who ranked fifth in the AFC in passer rating. (Moore isn’t the answer, no, but he has proved himself a quality stopgap or temp. More on the QB situation in a minute.)
The sales pitch defensively is easier: Mr. Next Coach inherits the league’s third-ranked run defense, promising young sackers in Cameron Wake and Jared Odrick and solid secondary guys in Vontae Davis and Yeremiah Bell.
Miami outscored opponents this season, ended one of the best teams to not make the playoffs and was separated from an 11-5 year by five losses by a total of 12 points.
There are things to work with here, Mr. Next, and one of them is a favorable schedule. Next year’s opponents came out Monday, and Miami’s 10 non-division games (vs. the AFC South and NFC West) are vs. teams that were a combined 73-87. Only three of the 10 are current playoff teams.
All of this suggests ripeness for a fast turnaround.
Of course, Dolfans want to know what the prospective next coach would have foremost on his mind: Who’s the quarterback? Moore is an OK interim guy, a promising “maybe” like Chad Henne … but who’s the quarterback for real?
This is where the owner Ross must be as aggressive as he is hiring a coach, and perhaps even more creative.
The prize Luck will go to the Colts as the overall No. 1 pick, and Southern Cal’s coveted Matt Barkley struck a blow to Miami in opting to return to USC. So what now?
Scheduled to pick ninth, Miami would need a costly trade-up for Baylor’s Robert Griffin III, with needy teams such as the Browns and Redskins picking earlier.
I would enter that trade-up war if I were convinced Griffin was another Cam Newton. You spend big to get big. Especially when you last used a No. 1 on a QB in 1983. (Some cat named Marino.)
There are other options, though.
Green Bay’s Matt Flynn, who threw for 480 yards and six touchdowns Sunday playing for a resting Aaron Rodgers, could be available in free agency or more likely via trade. He is 26, with four years of understudy work in a great offense. Is he worth a first-round pick? On Sunday, it sure looked like it.
Might St. Louis, drafting second, select Griffin and then trade him or incumbent Sam Bradford to a willing partner like, say, Miami? Worth investigating.
Might Indy part with Peyton Manning even if it says it won’t? Worth mulling.
Might Oklahoma’s Landry Jones, who will likely be available when Miami picks ninth, be a franchise passer after all? Worth knowing.
Hunting season has begun, and Stephen Ross should set his sights as aggressively high as possible, on Fisher and on Griffin III as starting points, but leave no dynamic option unexplored.
It will take something franchise-quaking major in a coach hire or a QB answer for this owner to turn around those doubts and that booing. That isn’t unfair.
That is the reality Ross helped create for himself.
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