Vic Fangio's departure: Why are Miami Dolphins always changing coordinators?
Vic Fangio’s three-year deal to serve as Dolphins defensive coordinator didn’t even last one full calendar year.
Surprised? You shouldn’t be.
The last time the Dolphins entered a season without changing their offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator or both was 2015 — and even then those two coaches were relieved of their titles midseason. For the last time both coordinators were retained and actually survived to see the end of that next season, you’d have to go back to 2013.
Congratulations, Mike Sherman (offense) and Kevin Coyle (defense).
Don’t underestimate the role this revolving door has had in the Dolphins struggling to finish above .500 and make the playoffs over the years. A new coordinator usually means a new system, new plays and new terminology. Rather than players refining what they already know, they’re back to square one.
Take this past season. Players talked about the need for patience as they deciphered what Fangio wanted. It’s designed to confuse quarterbacks, but during the learning process, it can be a test for Fangio’s own players. Exhibit A comes from linebacker Bradley Chubb. We all know that before his season-ending knee injury, Chubb was playing at a Pro Bowl level. Early in the season, he wasn’t — and that’s despite his advantage of having played under Fangio in Denver.
What changed as this season went on?
“I feel like early in the season, I wasn’t at the point that I wanted to be,” Chubb said in November. “I kind of just started understanding and getting back to who I was and what I knew he expected of me and what I knew this defense expected of me. Like I said, just buying into perfecting my role — whether that be dropping, playing the run, rushing the passer.”
During the years in question, no Dolphins head coach has lasted four seasons. From that perspective, maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that so many coordinators were one-and-done. Today, offensive coordinator Frank Smith’s name is creating a buzz, possibly for a head-coaching role. Should he stick around, he’ll be in his third straight season under Mike McDaniel. His durability will stick out on a roster that includes names such as Chad O’Shea and Dowell Loggains and Zac Taylor, who as the current head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals took his team to a Super Bowl.
Miami Dolphins have had 17 different coordinators in a dozen seasons
Since 2012, 10 men have held the title of Dolphins offensive coordinator (remember, we’re talking just 12 seasons!) and seven have been defensive coordinator.
In the NFL, change is inevitable, but not like this. In the same span, Kansas City’s Andy Reid has had five offensive coordinators and only two on defense. Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh has had four coordinators on offense, three on defense. Closer yet, Bill Belichick has entrusted his New England offense to only Josh McDaniels and Bill O’Brien and his defense to Matt Patricia, although there were several years when coaches such as Brian Flores were de facto coordinators, calling plays even if they did not have the official title of coordinator.
Flores brought a nebulous situation with him when he became Dolphins head coach. In 2021, George Godsey and Eric Studesville were named co-offensive coordinators, a setup that, while it wasn’t unique in the NFL, was rare.
The best part? Nobody could ever get a straight answer from the Dolphins on who was calling plays even though Flores was repeatedly asked this basic question.
It turned out that it appeared the correct answer was none of the above — that QB coach Charlie Frye had a role in play-calling.
“Really Charlie was giving me the plays,” quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said that August. “I don’t really know how that kind of communication came in, whether it was from George or whether E said something to Charlie.”
Think about that: Two offensive coordinators, yet it’s a third voice relaying plays to the quarterback? In the short amount of time between plays? And Tagovailoa didn’t know the exact chain of command?
Flores grew tired of answering the question. Or not answering it.
“We’ve talked about this,” he said. “We’ve got a system in place. We know how we’re handling that situation. I thought it went well yesterday. We’ll just continue to handle it the way we’ve talked about handling it internally. I thought it went well yesterday and we’ll continue to go the way we’ve planned to do it really since George and Eric became the co-OCs.”
A reporter followed up by saying, “Just to be clear, you do not want to reveal if one, two or three people are calling the plays on game day?”
“No, I don’t want to reveal. It could be six people.”
If the point of the exercise was to spread the credit, the result was to share the blame. The Dolphins finished 25th in total offense that year and 22nd in scoring. The next year, with Smith as coordinator and McDaniel calling plays, the Dolphins improved to sixth in total offense and 11th in scoring.
Perhaps there’s something to be said for a conventional setup.
Stability under Joe Philbin was short-lived
That stable season of 2012 also was noteworthy. The Dolphins were 7-9 in Joe Philbin’s first season. Outside of the defense giving up the seventh-fewest points in the league, there was nothing particularly impressive about either unit, both placing in the bottom third of the NFL. Yet, Philbin retained Sherman and Coyle.
But the 2015 season was rocky, to say the least. The Dolphins started 1-3 and Philbin was fired. Rather than promote Coyle or offensive coordinator Bill Lazor, Stephen Ross turned to the Dolphins’ tight ends coach, Dan Campbell, now the Lions’ head coach preparing for the NFC championship game. The next three days brought shuffling on the coaching staff, resulting in Lou Anarumo replacing Coyle as defensive coordinator. The next month, the clean sweep was complete when Taylor was named Miami’s play-caller.
Adam Gase became Miami’s head coach the next year and admitted all this upheaval had to have affected quarterback Ryan Tannehill’s growth.
More: Is Tua Tagovailoa the long-term answer at quarterback for the Miami Dolphins? | Habib
“I’m sure ‘Sherm’ had some things he liked that he wanted (Ryan) to do,” Gase said. “Bill probably had some things he wanted him to do and then here I come saying, ‘Hey, do it this way.’
“At some point when you’re a fifth-year quarterback, you’re like, ‘How many times am I going to change this?’ ”
One thing that clearly had to change: the handcuffs on Tannehill. Hard as it is to imagine, Tannehill said Lazor didn’t involve him in putting together game plans — not even to ask which plays his QB felt comfortable running — nor did he allow audibles.
“What he called is what we ran,” Tannehill said.
If anyone needed further proof of how times have changed: Under Don Shula, Gary Stevens (offense) and Tom Olivadotti and Bill Arnsparger (defense) all had stints of at least eight consecutive years as coordinators for the Dolphins.
The price the Dolphins paid in the constant change is clear. Excluding this season, when Miami finished 10th defensively and led the NFL offensively, starting in 2012 the Dolphins had just one top-10 ranking offensively (2022) and zero defensively.
More: There have been 36 QBs and coaches since Jay Fiedler, Dave Wannstedt led Dolphins playoff win
McDaniel recognized the advantages of continuity when he arrived from San Francisco and opted to retain Josh Boyer to run the defense in 2022.
“That is a competitive advantage when you’re afforded that ability. It really is. It’s a great thing,” McDaniel said. “You don’t always get it. But players are playing a game and especially on defense, you’re reacting. So the faster that you can process your assignments, the faster you can react and more comfortable (you are). You can play more aggressive and the better defense you can play. That is the ideal and I think for our defensive unit, it’s good to be going over calculus and not algebra.”
Dolphins reporter Hal Habib can be reached at hhabib@pbpost.com. Follow him on social media @gunnerhal.
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Dolphins offensive coordinators
2012 Mike Sherman
2013 Sherman
2014 Bill Lazor
2015 Lazor, replaced by Zac Taylor
2016 Clyde Christensen
2017 Christensen
2018 Dowell Loggains
2019 Chad O’Shea
2020 Chan Gailey
2021 Eric Studesville and George Godsey (co-coordinators)
2022 Frank Smith
2023 Smith
Dolphins defensive coordinators
2012 Kevin Coyle
2013 Coyle
2014 Coyle
2015 Coyle replaced by Lou Anarumo
2016 Vance Joseph
2017 Matt Burke
2018 Burke
2019 Patrick Graham
2020 Josh Boyer
2021 Boyer
2022 Boyer
2023 Vic Fangio
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Vic Fangio is gone: Why are Miami Dolphins always changing coordinators?
