Kyle Shanahan calls a play from the sidelines against the San Francisco 49ers at FedEx Field. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
The Miami Dolphins have undergone two major changes this offseason, as they fired offensive coordinator Mike Sherman, who did a poor job and reportedly lost cred with Ryan Tannehill. When the Dolphins drafted Tannehill out of Texas A&M, they hired his former head coach at the university with him, and it’s clear that this was the main motivation for making the move. Owner Stephen Ross was incredibly upset with the Dolphins mediocre 2013 season and collapse, but he is giving head coach Joe Philbin another year due to the respect that he has for Philbin. He was also prepared to keep Jeff Ireland as the team’s GM, but he clearly didn’t trust Ireland, who wasted Ross’s money in the offseason by signing players to bloated contracts, not helping the offensive line, and making “upgrades” at linebacker. The Dolphins decision to give Ireland an extension early in the regular season was a poor one, and Ross tried to rectify that by hiring someone to work with Ireland. He clearly had no intention of doing this, and I think it’s safe to say that Ireland’s departure will help the Dolphins in the long run.
For the Dolphins, the focus is on finding the next offensive coordinator and GM, and the team is expected to start taking a look at candidates tomorrow. They are already showing early interest in candidates to be their next offensive coordinator, and former Washington Redskins OC Kyle Shanahan is one of them. According to sources close to FOX Sports’s Peter Schrager, the Dolphins are trying to schedule a meeting with Shanahan this week to discuss the team’s opening at OC.
The younger Shanahan had a terrible ending in Washington and was unsurprisingly fired with Mike, and Kyle Shanahan undid some of the initial good he brought to the Redskins organization by doing a below-average job near the end of his tenure. I’m not the biggest Kyle Shanahan fan, but he had a great tenure as the offensive coordinator of the Houston Texans and has a vast working knowledge of NFL offenses. When he’s held in check, which he most likely will be, he’s excellent. I think Shanahan could end up being a great hire for the Dolphins, especially if he is smarter than Sherman and realizes that Lamar Miller is 10x better than Daniel Thomas.