Joe Philbin botched this. The Miami Dolphins head coach publicly mishandled the most important position on the field this week, undermining his starting quarterback and needlessly causing a distraction for his team. This is a big deal because it involves his leadership and judgment, and calls into question both.
NFL coaches get fired for their won-lost record first and Philbin — 16-19 into his third Miami season — is on shaky ground by that measure alone, likely needing to make the playoffs for the first time to save his job. Other factors are weighed, too, though, and this one will sit ugly on the wrong side of Philbin’s ledger.
“Steve doesn’t get it,” a club source who is a friend of owner Stephen Ross told me Thursday. “He doesn’t like it. He’s shaking his head. He is not happy right now.”
(I should say this is the same source who in 2011 told me coach Tony Sparano’s job was in peril just weeks before Ross made an in-season coaching change).
http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/greg-cote/article2243944.html