Flores vs McDaniel

[masterfins]

Minkah Fitzpatrick had literally nothing to do with the HOU trade.  He was upset that he felt he was being used out of position (as a CB) by Flores, forced a trade to PIT, and subsequently made the All-Pro team as a safety 3 of the next 4 years.

Fitzpatrick was and is a great player, but his trade had a lot to do with the Laremy Tunsil trade. Tunsil was traded on 09/01/19 and Fitzpatrick immediately started being a crybaby about it and demanding a trade, which Miami obliged on 09/16/19.  Fitzpatrick didn't want to be part of a rebuild in Miami and complained about other talent being let go.

[masterfins]

Flores' incompetence in choosing a starting QB crippled this team in ways that are difficult to measure fully.  He should have been starting Josh Rosen (who the team traded a second-round pick for) in 2019, but chose not to for reasons that are still unclear (perhaps because Ross asked him to lose?).  He could have started Tua from day 1 (just as Burrow did in CIN), but chose to start Fitzmagic instead.  Then, the moment Fitz starts to play well, he benches him for Tua's first start... against one of the best defenses in the league.  When an undefeated Tua is facing a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter against the Broncos, Flores yanks him... only for Fitztragic to throw a game-ending INT.  When a 5-2 Tua is trailing the Raiders by 3 points in the 4th quarter, Flores yanks him AGAIN.

Start Josh Rosen?  Arizona gave up on their #1 draft pick after only one year; do you know how rare it is for a team to give up on a QB after one year, especially after they moved up in the draft to get him?  After leaving Miami he spent time with the Bucs, 49ers, Falcons, Browns, and Vikings - with all of those teams after Miami he's gone 2-11 in passing for 19 yards, well maybe 4-11 if you count the two interceptions he threw.  Yet you think Flores erred in not playing him more than he did??  The guy struggles to even make the practice squad.

[EDGECRUSHER]

Start Josh Rosen?  Arizona gave up on their #1 draft pick after only one year; do you know how rare it is for a team to give up on a QB after one year, especially after they moved up in the draft to get him?  After leaving Miami he spent time with the Bucs, 49ers, Falcons, Browns, and Vikings - with all of those teams after Miami he's gone 2-11 in passing for 19 yards, well maybe 4-11 if you count the two interceptions he threw.  Yet you think Flores erred in not playing him more than he did??  The guy struggles to even make the practice squad.

The team gave up a 2nd rounder and more for Josh Rosen, it was the job of Flores to start the kid the whole year to see if he could be the future. Instead, he played 2 games after Ryan was benched and then he himself was benched for Ryan despite putting up similar numbers. Regardless of how it turned out, the front office made an investment and he told them to piss off with it.

We didn't need to know what a 37 year old could do, we didn't even have receivers to develop, we needed to know what Rosen could do and lose with him if we must.

[Dave Gray]

When did he beat them by one point in a rookie quarterback's first start?

The win over the Patriots was 17-16 and came in the first start of Mac Jones' career.

[DenverFinFan]

Max Kellerman once said Fitzy is just good enough to doom your franchise.

Rosen should have started every game barring injury and that’s on Flores.

Flores was an unmitigated disaster and the worst person possible to lead the rebuild after we blew up the team.

[EDGECRUSHER]

Max Kellerman once said Fitzy is just good enough to doom your franchise.

Rosen should have started every game barring injury and that’s on Flores.

Flores was an unmitigated disaster and the worst person possible to lead the rebuild after we blew up the team.

Brilliantly said. If Rosen starts every game and is terrible like expected, we end up with Burrow. If he develops into a good QB, then we use the #5 pick on other needs. I loved Fitzpatrick, but his good play hurt this team.

[Dave Gray]

Flores is too old school in so many ways.  Not playing the future guys so they can hold a clipboard is some old fart thinking.

[Spider-Dan]

Fitzpatrick was and is a great player, but his trade had a lot to do with the Laremy Tunsil trade. Tunsil was traded on 09/01/19 and Fitzpatrick immediately started being a crybaby about it and demanding a trade, which Miami obliged on 09/16/19.

Minkah's mom objects to son playing out of position
Published: Aug 14, 2019 at 01:00 PM

Minkah Fitzpatrick is playing out of position in Miami, or at least so says Minkah Fitzpatrick's mom.

In response to a beat reporter's comment that the second-year defensive back was not playing well Wednesday, Fitzpatrick's mother, Melissa, responded saying he is "being used to suit other people['s] skill set not his own" in Brian Flores' defense.

The hybrid safety addressed his mother's comments after practice.

"She's not wrong," Fitzpatrick said, per a team transcript. "Coach has asked me do something right now. I got to do what they ask me to do. If we have to have some discussions in the future, we'll have those discussions."

Hit with injuries with starting safeties Reshad Jones (foot) and T.J. McDonald, Miami has lined Fitzpatrick up at strong safety, where the 207-pound defensive back has not thrived, per The Miami Herald's Adam Beasley. Fitzpatrick intercepted Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston in Wednesday's joint practice, but also gave up two touchdown passes, per Beasley.

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If Minkah remains at FS - a position at which he appears to be literally the best in the league - he is still on the team today.

[masterfins]

Minkah's mom objects to son playing out of position
Published: Aug 14, 2019 at 01:00 PM

Minkah Fitzpatrick is playing out of position in Miami, or at least so says Minkah Fitzpatrick's mom.

In response to a beat reporter's comment that the second-year defensive back was not playing well Wednesday, Fitzpatrick's mother, Melissa, responded saying he is "being used to suit other people['s] skill set not his own" in Brian Flores' defense.

The hybrid safety addressed his mother's comments after practice.

"She's not wrong," Fitzpatrick said, per a team transcript. "Coach has asked me do something right now. I got to do what they ask me to do. If we have to have some discussions in the future, we'll have those discussions."

Hit with injuries with starting safeties Reshad Jones (foot) and T.J. McDonald, Miami has lined Fitzpatrick up at strong safety, where the 207-pound defensive back has not thrived, per The Miami Herald's Adam Beasley. Fitzpatrick intercepted Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston in Wednesday's joint practice, but also gave up two touchdown passes, per Beasley.

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If Minkah remains at FS - a position at which he appears to be literally the best in the league - he is still on the team today.

This playing out of position goes back to his rookie season under Gase, and I don't deny that was part of the reason he wanted to be traded.  But it was the Tunsil trade that pushed him to demand the trade.  Miami got some good draft capital which is why the trade was made, even though they fucked up the picks.  Do you expect an NFL team to cowtow to players wishes when they only want to play in the position they want?  He was moved around because there were injuries and he was the best to fill the spot needed, this happens all the time.  The guys on the O-line are moved around all the time because of injuries.

Minkah is a great player, I just wish he and his Mom weren't such crybabies.

[masterfins]

Brilliantly said. If Rosen starts every game and is terrible like expected, we end up with Burrow. If he develops into a good QB, then we use the #5 pick on other needs. I loved Fitzpatrick, but his good play hurt this team.

Rosen wasn't and isn't an NFL calliber QB, and Flores recognized this early on.  Fundamentally you wanted Miami to lose multiple games with the hope that a future draft pick works out, I want Miami to win all their games.  It's easy to talk about Miami getting Burrow now, but he just as easily could turn into a Ryan Leaf or Josh Rosen who does nothing for the teams that drafted them.  You keep wishing for losses and complaining about every draft pick that doesn't work out, and I'll keep rooting for wins.

[Spider-Dan]

This playing out of position goes back to his rookie season under Gase, and I don't deny that was part of the reason he wanted to be traded.  But it was the Tunsil trade that pushed him to demand the trade.

If he's playing at FS, he's still on the team today, regardless of anything that happens with Tunsil.  I don't know how else to put this.

He said in the quote from August, "If we have to have some discussions in the future, we'll have those discussions," so clearly a trade was already on his mind.

Do you expect an NFL team to cowtow to players wishes when they only want to play in the position they want?  He was moved around because there were injuries and he was the best to fill the spot needed, this happens all the time.

Except that he WASN'T "the best to fill the spot needed"!

It turns out that the defensive specialist head coach failed to realize that the #11 overall pick on his team was actually the best free safety in the league.  Instead, he kept trying to force him into other roles.  This is rank incompetence from Flores, made worse by the fact that he is, again, a defensive specialist.

Rosen wasn't and isn't an NFL calliber QB, and Flores recognized this early on.

Flores also recognized that Tua wasn't a starting caliber NFL QB.  Flores' judgement on QBs is clearly not reliable.

The consistent through-line here is that - after the Dolphins committed significant resources to these QB prospects - Flores watches a few quarters of play and gives up.  He's the coach who doesn't want to coach; either employees produce results NOW, or he churns through replacements.  Look at his record with offensive coordinators!  Look at his record with the offensive line!  Flores simply refused to coach through improvement.

Just to be clear here: I'm not saying Flores should have lost games on purpose.  I'm saying that, in a year where MIA had very little incentive to win, and had just decided to burn a second-round pick on a project QB, Flores should have prioritized trying to develop that QB over trying to scrape out wins with a 37-year-old journeyman.

[dolphins4life]

Flores also recognized that Tua wasn't a starting caliber NFL QB.  Flores' judgement on QBs is clearly not reliable.

I disagree with this.

In 2020, Flores was trying to balance developing a young quarterback on a team that was supposed to be rebuilding, to trying to win games when that same team turned out to be competing for a playoff spot.

When he made switches, it was not because he was giving up on Tua.  It was because he wanted to win those games now and felt that Fitzmagic gave a better chance at the time.

After the Raiders game, when asked who would start next week, (before Fitz contracted Covid) he stated right away that Tua was going to start.

In that Raiders game, if the Dolphins were not in playoff contention, he almost certainly would not have pulled Tua.

And apparently, his judgement on Rosen WAS reliable, given that Rosen was awful in 2019, and nobody has picked him up since.  Unlike a certain Broncos quarterback who was great in 2011, and then never allowed to start again.

And somebody explain how Miami benefited from the Texans trade.  The Texans have won a playoff game since that trade.  Miami has not

[dolphins4life]

Max Kellerman once said Fitzy is just good enough to doom your franchise.

Rosen should have started every game barring injury and that’s on Flores.

Flores was an unmitigated disaster and the worst person possible to lead the rebuild after we blew up the team.

Glad he didn't, or Brady may have spent his final three years in New England.