‘The perfect story’: Brian Flores returns in a Dolphins’ prime-time game full of subplots

By kickoff Sunday evening, the only thing of importance will be a Dolphins team trying to end a losing skid against a Pittsburgh Steelers squad in the midst of somewhat of a rebuild.

However, the subplots that hover around the team’s Week 7 home game are befitting that of a compelling drama.

There is the highly anticipated return of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, whose absence from a frightening concussion on Sept. 29 has coincided with a three-game losing streak for the Dolphins (3-3).

There is the celebration of the franchise’s undefeated 1972 team — several members of the squad will be in attendance — and the pageantry that comes with it.

And the prime-time stage that serves as a backdrop for a matchup between two proud and historic franchises.

However, the firing of former coach Brian Flores, now a senior defensive assistant with the Steelers (2-4) — and the path the Dolphins have taken in the aftermath of the move — looms as the dominant subplot.

”It’s kind of like the perfect story — playing our former coach, Tua is coming back, coming off a three-game losing streak, it’s a prime-time game,” inside linebacker Jerome Baker said. “This is what football is. This is where you really see who really cares about football and it’s time for the Dolphins to bounce back and get a win under our belt.”

Nine months ago, Dolphins players were celebrating on the field at Hard Rock Stadium. They capped a tumultuous 2021 season winning eight of their last nine games, including a 33-24 victory over the New England Patriots in their finale. It marked the franchise’s first sweep of its division rival in two decades and its first consecutive winning season since 2003.

Flores, speaking on a virtual news conference, talk about how proud he was of the team for turning around a 1-7 start but declined to do a full-scale review of the season and what lay ahead.

It was the last time he addressed local reporters.

The following morning, team owner Stephen Ross announced the team had fired Flores after three seasons and a 24-25 record.

Ross cited issues with communication and collaboration as the reasons for the move, which surprised fans, players and the general football world, alike.

“I don’t think that we were really working well as an organization that it would take to really win consistently at the NFL level,” Ross said.

Three weeks later, Flores filed a lawsuit against the NFL, Dolphins, Broncos and Giants, alleging racial discrimination in its hiring and firing practices. He also alleged Ross incentivized him to tank during the 2019 season, offering $100,000 per loss. The suit has since added coaches Steve Wilks and Ray Horton as plaintiffs and now names the Cardinals, Titans and Texans as defendants.

The suit sparked an NFL investigation not only into Flores’ claims of tanking but the team’s pursuit of Tom Brady and Sean Payton. In August, the league docked the Dolphins two picks, fined Ross and suspended him through Oct. 17 — though he has been able to attend games — for tampering with Brady and Payton. The NFL, however, couldn’t substantiate Flores’ claims of Ross offering payment to lose games.

The lawsuit continues to make its way through the legal system as Flores seeks to have it go to trial, while the NFL wants to handle it through the league’s arbitration system.

Meanwhile, the Dolphins moved on with their hiring of Mike McDaniel in early February. A 3-0 start to the season seemed to vindicate the decision to part ways with Flores before a trio of losses without Tagovailoa. While the defensive scheme Flores brought has struggled to retain its form from the second half of 2021, the offense has seen a face-lift under McDaniel and a slew of additions, showcasing explosiveness and efficiency that was rare under Flores.

Flores, who was hired by Steelers coach Mike Tomlin two weeks after filing the suit, has helped devise the weekly game plan in Pittsburgh and has also coached the team’s linebackers.

“I don’t have bad memories of the place,” Flores told ESPN. “I have a lot of good memories, but my focus is here right now.”

Players have shared similar sentiments about their former coach.

“If I see him, I’ll say what’s up,” said tight end Mike Gesicki. “I don’t know if we’ll cross paths, but I’ve got no ill will or anything towards Coach Flo.”

Said safety Brandon Jones: “It’s exciting, just to be able to see him in person. I haven’t talked to him in a while, obviously, but I’m excited ... it’ll be really cool to see him.”

Second-year linebacker Jaelan Phillips acknowledged he did see the lawsuit but “all that stuff is so far out of our control.”

“Obviously you read about it and stuff, so it’s interesting to see,” he said. “But for us, we were just happy to get a new staff in and kind of jell with them when they did come in. ... [Flores and McDaniel] have different coaching styles. They’re different people. I think we all get along really well with this coaching staff and we’re motivated to play from them.”

Like Phillips, tight end Durham Smythe said the transition from Flores to McDaniel was “as seamless as it could probably be.”

The Dolphins swapped Flores’ stern and strict demeanor with McDaniel, whose humorous, off-beat personality and encouragement have been quickly accepted and praised by players.

“I’ve never been around a coach like this who’s just extremely positive,” Tagovailoa said in June.

No player has benefited more from McDaniel’s arrival than Tagovailoa, whose relationship with Flores was frosty amid the franchise’s pursuit of not only Brady but Deshaun Watson. The third-year quarterback was implicitly at the center of the coaching change; after Flores was fired, Dolphins brass closed the chapter on their Watson pursuit and moved forward with Tagovailoa as their 2022 starter.

Before he was sidelined by a concussion, Tagovailoa was one of the league’s most efficient quarterbacks, playing up to his billing as a top-five pick. And though just six games into McDaniel’s tenure, its success still likely hinges most on what Flores couldn’t do with Tagovailoa — getting him to play to his potential.

“I think it’ll be cool being able to go up against the guys that [Flores is] coaching on that side,” Tagovailoa said. “I know he knows personnel really well from being here with us. But I think we’re all excited to go up against their defense. You hear a Pittsburgh Steelers defense and you just think of hard-nosed. You think of a really tough defense. They’re going to give us some good challenges in this game.”