The Dolphins got rid of nearly all existing talent on the roster going into 2019, rebuilding literally everything. Flores was known to have emphasized building the culture of winning and thus starting Fitzpatrick became part of that after his near comeback against Washington. By all logic Flores should have ridden with the young QB who was either going to prove he was the guy or, in all likelihood, leave the team in position to draft the successor. Instead, he went with cheap wins at the hands of a veteran QB who saved him from the ignominy of a winless season. Controversially in 2020 he benched the veteran QB when the team was starting to role, but he made his young QB enter the stage when the focus became trying to secure a playoff spot, and thus our team's offense was hamstrung simply trying not to lose games, and the young QB was pulled facing deficits when it may have been beneficial to development to let him try to overcome adversity. We were playing "win now" mode and not rebuilding mode, trying to win the battle but losing the war.
We had two winning but non-playoff seasons, where the team won more games than it lost but still had units that were entirely deficient. Wins that don't result in playoff berths mean nothing.
Cincy didn't case aside every one. They built a solid corps of skill players, to the point where when a talented QB of the future was ready to take over, he wasn't going to have to succeed in spite of a lack of running game or receivers. Those guys were waiting to be unlocked by a high level QB, and adding Chase to that offense made everything fall into place (as opposed to adding Waddle, where by adding one NFL receiver we've just added our first legit weapon, assuming Parker isn't healthy). Cincinatti didn't do cheap things to get wins in their rebuilding season. They didn't hide Burrow and ask him not to lose games. They didn't tell one unit of the ball to play not to lose. They played authentic football, to the point where in the games where their young corps was trying to run regular NFL plays and coming up short, they were still building their future capability.
We had two winning but non-playoff seasons, where the team won more games than it lost but still had units that were entirely deficient. Wins that don't result in playoff berths mean nothing.
Cincy didn't case aside every one. They built a solid corps of skill players, to the point where when a talented QB of the future was ready to take over, he wasn't going to have to succeed in spite of a lack of running game or receivers. Those guys were waiting to be unlocked by a high level QB, and adding Chase to that offense made everything fall into place (as opposed to adding Waddle, where by adding one NFL receiver we've just added our first legit weapon, assuming Parker isn't healthy). Cincinatti didn't do cheap things to get wins in their rebuilding season. They didn't hide Burrow and ask him not to lose games. They didn't tell one unit of the ball to play not to lose. They played authentic football, to the point where in the games where their young corps was trying to run regular NFL plays and coming up short, they were still building their future capability.
