Grier Ranked 20th Best GM by USA Today | Page 2 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Grier Ranked 20th Best GM by USA Today

The bloom has come off the Shula rose for me. I give Shula his due for the fifteen year period between 1970-1985 (as a Dolphins coach, obviously he had great success prior with other teams). But his last ten years as Dolphins coach are overrated as hell (in light of the disaster the team became post his tenure). He absolutely wasted the Dan Marino years: 1 SB loss, 1/3 in conference championships, missing the playoffs entirely 1986-89, 91 (technically ‘93 as well but Marino got injured), and even in ‘95 they got to the playoffs only to be embarrassed by the Bills (Shula was 0-3 against the Bills in the playoffs).

If Brady is worse than Dan Marino, and Belichick did substantially better with a worse QB then it’s fair to say he’s better. I don’t care much about that debate. But when Marino’s career is reevaluated, one can only arrive at the the conclusion that either he was overrated or Shula was at that point. I’m confident it was Shula.
Not sure how to evaluate Shula his last 10 years. It was definitely disappointing not to win multiple super bowls with Dan Marino at quarterback.

It was a different NFL, though. The elite free agents, with few exceptions, were either signing with Dallas or San Francisco. That Dallas and San Francisco were grossly outspending other teams is what, I believe, led to owners wanting a salary cap.

It's been reported, although I haven't found salary data, that SF was outspending teams 3-1. If that's the case, Dallas was probably close to that as well. Maybe that's why super bowls were mostly blowouts prior to the salary cap

How would Shula have fared in a salary cap situation with Marino? I'd have to think it would be closer to what we're seeing in KC with Mahomes.

Good point, though. I don't have the answer. Only speculating.
 
Shula stuck with Tom Olivadotti too long for some reason. But, it was never Shula the coach that truly failed his last ten years. It was Shula the GM, and particularly the personnel department that collapsed after a few key departures by the mid 1980's. Take a look at just the first and second round picks between 1984 and 1995. With a few exceptions, it was a total wasteland. There was some bad luck involved, but it was mostly disastrous thought process. It was all masked because Marino would go win you games. But the poor drafting put incomplete teams around him. By the way, Shula's last ten years would be orders of magnitude better than anything we have seen since. Shula adapted to win better than anyone who ever graced the sidelines.

As for Grier, I agree with the comment that he needs to win before he will ever get applause. But the mood around him has changed recently as he has ostensibly put together the best roster in these parts in a generation. Let's see it perform first.

Also, Grier has always said that he drafts players that work for his coach. It's never entirely clear who in the organization pounded the table for certain guys. But I am sure the owner knows and he has stuck by Chris even as others have fallen by the wayside. If you look at Flores, it has long been discussed that he seemed to really like guys like Raekwon Davis (hit) but also Igbo (horrible miss) and Long (still hoping, but no spark yet). I think the owner and Garfinkle know how it has all played out.

Let's see how this season goes and we can revisit the topic.
 
Last edited:
The Dolphins have beat the Patriots the last 3 times the teams have played. So the players Grier has selected have outplayed the players Belichick has selected yet USA says Belichick is the best GM in the NFL.

The reality is without Brady at QB, the Patriots have been a very average team and the media still continue to over rate Belichick as a GM.
 
Shula stuck with Tom Olivadotti too long for some reason. But, it was never Shula the coach that truly failed. It was Shula the GM, and particularly the personnel department that collapsed after a few key departures by the mid 1980's. Take a look at just the first and second round picks between 1984 and 1995. With a few exceptions, it was a total wasteland. There was some bad luck involved, but it was mostly disastrous thought process. It was all masked because Marino would go win you games. But the poor drafting put incomplete teams around him.

As for Grier, I agree with the comment that he needs to win before he will ever get applause. But the mood around him has changed recently as he has ostensibly put together the best roster in these parts in a generation. Let's see it perform first.

Also, Grier has always said that he drafts players that work for his coach. It's never entirely clear who in the organization pounded the table for certain guys. But I am sure the owner knows and he has stuck by Chris even as others have fallen by the wayside. If you look at Flores, it has long been discussed that he seemed to really like guys like Raekwon Davis (hit) but also Igbo (horrible miss) and Long (still hoping, but no spark yet). I think the owner and Garfinkle know how it has all played out.

Let's see how this season goes and we can revisit the topic.
Unfortunately, so true. I still scratch my head on why Don Shula was so loyal to coaches who weren't getting the job done. That might have been the main reason Dan Marino didn't get a ring.

As you mentioned, the drafts were pretty horrendous during a long time frame. Bosa, Kumerow, Billy Milner etc. Miami traded two #1's for Hugh Green and he got hurt and was never the dominating player he was expected to be. Larry Gordon had a fatal heart attack jogging at 27 years old. David Overstreet died in a car crash.

Lots of things went wrong and yet Marino was so great that a team with marginal talent still competed.

Marino did have a flaw that hurt the Dolphins as well. His play action was actually terrible and didn't help out the run game. I don't think we can dismiss that either as a factor in not winning it all.

Combine that with a notoriously cheap owner, while teams like SF and Dallas were spending whatever it took to win and Miami just wasn't good enough.
 
I believe BB is still under .500 without Brady. Of course, he did make it to the playoffs with a rookie quarterback last year.

I've always believed that Shula would have had more super bowl titles if he had coached his entire career in a salary cap ERA. Joe Robbie was a notorious cheap skate.
BB and Brady are link together because nobody else believed in Brady except BB.. That why he number one GM off all time..BB carried Brady first 5 yr off his career.. brady was not that good in 2001- 2005.. that defense and kicker win lot games also...BB i dont think he is that good off GM or coach in 2022 as he used too be.. he is near retirement soon..
 
20th seems right for Grier. If Tua balls out and turns heads, that number will go higher.

Can’t say Grier didn’t have a stacked deck to build a winner though. He got a ransom for his LT by a desperate coach/GM on his way to getting fired and then another ransom for having the 3rd pick in a deep QB draft.
I was expecting to see him in the 10-15 range. But I agree that Tua's play will affect Grier's ranking moving forward.
 
Hard to judge failure when 31 other teams reach that tag every season. Grier is below that. And more until he proves me wrong.
 
I believe BB is still under .500 without Brady. Of course, he did make it to the playoffs with a rookie quarterback last year.

I've always believed that Shula would have had more super bowl titles if he had coached his entire career in a salary cap ERA. Joe Robbie was a notorious cheap skate.
If just the USFL never existed, Shula would've won at least a couple more.
 
For what it's worth, USA Today ranked all NFL GM's with Chris Grier coming in at number 20. I think that's low, but Miami has only made the playoffs once in Grier's seven seasons in the position with three winning seasons.

Bill Bellichick was given the top spot, which I definitely don't agree with. As a coach, sure but as GM?

The bottom line is winning, though. Hopefully, this year will move Grier up. Personally, considering the magnitude of the rebuild I think Grier is top half of the league, just outside of the top 10 (12ish).

If they literally named Belicheck as the best GM, the writer of this article should be fired immediatly.

Hes been arguably thr 32nd ranked GM. He's wasted more cap dollars and draft picks than pretty much any GM still employed.

Article and the Author are totally cluless.
 
For what it's worth, USA Today ranked all NFL GM's with Chris Grier coming in at number 20. I think that's low, but Miami has only made the playoffs once in Grier's seven seasons in the position with three winning seasons.

Bill Bellichick was given the top spot, which I definitely don't agree with. As a coach, sure but as GM?
Yeahhhhhhh, I can add this to the long list of reasons that I think USAToday is worthless.

"Belichick #1", my pale white arse!
 
Back
Top Bottom