Why Was Brian Flores Fired As The Dolphins Head Coach?
Why was a 4x Super Bowl winning coach with only three years of head coaching experience for the Miami Dolphins fired? It seems unreasonable, as Brian Flores quickly made a name for himself as one of the best young coaching minds in the NFL before his departure.
In Flores's first season as head coach of the Dolphins, he was already improving his reputation. During his first season Flores was able to upset his former team the New England Patriots in Foxborough. This was the first time the Patriots lost to the Dolphins since 2008.
Even though they did not make the playoffs in his first year, the Dolphins were able to maintain back to back seasons above .500. Having two back-to-back winning seasons in only 3 years with a team is very impressive. Also maintaining two winning seasons repeatedly was the first time since 2002-03 the Dolphins were able to achieve this.
Miami was able to take a massive leap during Flores’s second year. During his first year the Dolphins finished 2019 with only a record of 5-11. To finish the 2020 season, Miami ended the season with an impressive record of 10-6 and led the league in takeaways too.
Flores, who only has a head coaching record of 24-25 was fired prematurely at the end of 2021, even while he has racked up some quite impressive wins and accomplishments for the franchise. In just his second year as a coach for the Dolphins he was able to win games where many analysts would write them off before the game even starts.
Back in Week 5 during the 2020 season, the reigning NFC champions San Francisco 49ers had a home matchup coming up against the Dolphins. This game was a perfect example of many analysts writing Brian Flores and his Dolphins off to lose. Miami ended up blowing out the 49ers in their own home by a score of 43-17.
This monumental win was the first road win the Dolphins got over the 49ers since 2004. The confidence used from this win was very key in starting a crucial 5 game win streak, not the first win streak Flores will achieve as the Dolphins’ head coach.
Overall, the start to the 2021 season for the Dolphins went down in devastating flames. They had a 1-7 record halfway through the season. After two months of frustration Flores locked his players in and his team went on to win eight of their last nine games.
After winning the last eight, he finished off the season by sweeping division rival New England Patriots, the first time the Patriots were swept by Miami since 2000.
With all that said, to begin the offseason Flores was unreasonably fired and will continue to look for a new head coaching job to succeed in the 2022 season.
Jeremy Goldman is a first-year broadcast journalism major. To contact him, email: jmg7714@psu.edu.
