When Wildeyes was hired, he was my 3rd choice.
Interestingly, Mike S was my 1st choice. He IMO would have done good things w/ RT17 & Ajayi.
p.s. Todd Bowles was my 2nd choice at the time FWIW
Watching DAL @ TB last night, it felt like decades ago since Bowles was here. It seems he's been all over the NFL since then. A very highly regarded man but the life of NFL assistants is one of constant relocation, many times regardless of job performance.
I was never a Gase fan. One of the Dolphin's organization commented to a reporter prior to the introductory presser that he was "a young Bill Belichick". I've been around too many execs wanting to claim greatness in their "solution" before any work has occurred. I knew immediately we were only trying to copy the Patriots and was satisfied nothing more needed to be done after his hiring. A very clear indicator to me we were headed for disaster.
Never compare anyone to someone else's greatness in a truthful evaluation. It shows a complete lack of ability to make an honest assessment. It's ok as fans or general conversation to make such boasts, but when it is your responsibility to make an actual assessment, it should be made on real merit and defined criteria. Comparing someone to greatness simply shows the lack of desire to do your diligence as a decision maker.
If you took Gase's time with Peyton Manning away from his track record, he had decent successes but many times other factors were in play. He never truly had sustained success. There seem to be a lot of reaching to make him greater than actuality.
I also admit not really caring who we hired as HC when we tabbed Flores. I knew it was going to take a football mind with real connections to find our HC. I didn't want to fall into the "hot young talent" discussions and I didn't want a retread. I knew there most likely was someone well established in the league who was right for the job, but may not be the heralded pick by the analysts.
I do admit being a firm Grier believer even before Flores. Grier seemed to have all of the requisite background check marks and pedigree of being around great individuals at different points in his career. I felt Grier was bearing some unnecessary blame and guilt by association of the Gase and Philbin years. I thought he just needed an honest chance to run an organization. And I was glad we sifted through the heap of bad individuals we had and identified him as a genuine executive. Even the best GMs are .500 with their drafting success. Grier has a great drafting record and even when he misses, he finds an undrafted gem to redeem himself. For every Iggy, there is a Needham.
I have no doubt we are in the right hands. But you can't just go to McDs and order a QB, RB, DE, CB or OT. You have to pick from what is available.
That said, I fear if we don't find the right QB at this juncture (Tua or whomever) that we could be looking at several years of wasted talent acquisitions just to build a playoff team that is waiting for the right QB. I think of KC and the Marty Schottenheimer years. He was a consistent 10-11+ win season HC (even some 13 wins), but never won a playoff game in 10 years.
It shows to the genius of Andy Reid seeing Mahommes, even when he had a safe QB in Smith, and making the draft pick sacrifices to go get him.
We have to get QB right this time. While I hate the reality, even if it means trading Tua for DW.... we've got to do what we must to get back into the elite club of the NFL. We've wasted too much time pretending we know what we are doing. With the right QB, Flores and Grier can make us into the next Dolphins dynasty.
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