In Defense of Chris Grier

[Dave Gray]

I just want to make one point:

I am not hell-bent on saying that Grier is great.  But I think we have a lot of talent on this team.  We have some of the best receivers in the league, a top QB, a decent defense, etc.  We seem very capable of going far and when things with this same group of guys were going well, we were at the top of the league.

But the point I want to make it: Go look at the season prediction threads.  People were expecting upwards of 13 wins.  That meant that you believed in the roster.
Go back and look at the discussion on Tua.  The leading opinion was that we knew the injury risks but we had to sign him -- then he got injured and you're blaming the guy we kinda agreed did what he had to do.

It isn't that you can't criticize Grier, but I just feel like fans were fine with all of this prior to Tua getting hurt and they're just playing the result.  It's a scapegoat.

[Fau Teixeira]

Chris Grier is taking heat because he stood up and told a pool of reporters before the season that they were more worried about the offensive line than he was.

So now our offense line is just offensive and he's getting shit for it. And well deserved shit.

[Pappy13]

But the point I want to make it: Go look at the season prediction threads.  People were expecting upwards of 13 wins.

Which people? A lot of the pre-season predictions that I was reading from people who actually do this for a living said that Miami was one of the top choices of teams to fall from the previous year. Here's a couple of examples. I can't find the article that actually says that Miami was their top choice for 2024 for teams to falloff, but I did read that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4219gMrq8BA

https://flteams.com/2024/09/08/miami-dolphins-2024-pre-season-outlook-and-season-prediction/

https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/news/nfl-analysts-divided-on-miami-dolphins-season-prospects-01j6z4pc204q

I think the Dolphins are proving that you can't win in the NFL with just the best skill position players in the league. You have to have a balanced team from the skill positions and the in the trenches folks. The offensive and defensive lines (including LB's) for Miami are the problem. They have great WR's, RB's, corners and safeties...but they have nothing else. Tua is a great QB for the system, but he's not durable and he can't extend plays when the initial read isn't there which makes him an overall good QB in my opinion, not elite and you see what we have in the way of backups. That's not a winning combination at least it's not for Miami. So much money is tied up in the skill positions there's no money left for the other positions which we are finding are equally important.

[Dave Gray]

Which people?

Just fans.  The same fans that are now calling for Grier's head for having a shitty roster, when they themselves expected big things from the very roster they say is shitty.

[Denver2]

Just fans.  The same fans that are now calling for Grier's head for having a shitty roster, when they themselves expected big things from the very roster they say is shitty.

I’m just saying I’d rather he goes before McDaniel, I think he did what he had to it just didn’t work out.

[masterfins]

I think Grier has done a decent job as far as player acquisition.  I really feel like it's the coaching, which is also somewhat his responsibility.

[Downunder Dolphan]

Grier had assembled a great roster - last season, and the one before that. But over-commitments to a few elite few players caught us up big time this off-season.

Next season will be even worse after we threw even more guaranteed money at Tua, Tyreek, Waddle & Ramsey - all of which were already contracted, but we just decided to make things even tougher for ourselves (after the majority of the draft pick bounty we accumulated from the Tunsil and other trades have departed because we're broke).

If our highest paid players were performing at the level we were paying them, we may not be having this discussion. Then again, we lost so many good players in the offseason, maybe we still would.

The credit card is maxed out and the party is over. The rebuild is a failure.

Grier is copping heat, not because he's a scapegoat, but because he is deep into this mess of his own doing.

[Downunder Dolphan]

But the point I want to make it: Go look at the season prediction threads.  People were expecting upwards of 13 wins.  That meant that you believed in the roster.

Not me, as well as someone else in the "2024 Way Too Early Record Predictions" thread:

I hope I'm wrong but I think we will be lucky to win 10 games. This team isn't physically tough in the trenches and we like to go on multiple loss streaks. Besides that it will take time for our defense to come together. Add that with such a tough schedule to end the season right now I have to believe we will be 9-8  this year.

I am with you on this one - when I looked over that schedule, I also saw a 9-8 season coming up.

I expected some regression and to either scrape into or just miss the playoffs, but I wasn't expecting our offense to struggle like this halfway through the softest part of our schedule. Or McDaniel not to have developed something new to deal with the NFL's tightening of the motion rules, or the potential for the loss of Tua.

Some people severely underrated the losses in personnel during the off-season, and overestimated the quality of the list left over. I wasn't one of them.