Win or lose, Stephen Ross doesn’t meet with reporters after Miami Dolphins games — or really ever. So we don’t know for certain how he experienced yet another late-season heartbreak Sunday.
But our guess is he’s equal parts angry and exasperated after Miami’s bumbling, fumbling 20-12 loss to the Houston Texans that effectively ended any hope of a third consecutive playoff appearance.
Is he mad enough to fire general manager Chris Grier? That’s unknown. But inflamed passions should have nothing to do with it.
The case to move on from Grier after a long run with the Dolphins is totally logical.
Will Miami Dolphins’ Stephen Ross Fire Chris Grier?
It’s not like Ross hasn’t been patient.
Grier started with the Dolphins as a scout in 2000. Since then, they’ve gone 194-207 (with a -480 point differential) and won one playoff game in seven appearances.
Now, we don’t blame Grier for the decisions made by Rick Spielman, Randy Mueller, Jeff Ireland, Dennis Hickey, or Mike Tannenbaum.
But we do blame Grier for the decisions made by Chris Grier.
He’s had total control of Miami’s roster since 2019. In that time, the Dolphins are 50-47 (-87 point differential) and 0-2 in the playoffs. The Dolphins are not, and have not been, good enough for many reasons.
But reason No. 1 is pretty consistent: Their roster isn’t good enough.
It wasn’t nearly good enough Sunday because of decisions Grier made.
He decided before the season to make Tua Tagovailoa the fifth-highest-paid quarterback in NFL history.
Tagovailoa on Sunday turned the ball over four times and averaged a meager 4.9 yards per pass attempt to fall to 6-14 (with 31 touchdowns and 19 interceptions) against teams with winning records in the Mike McDaniel era.
Grier decided to not only trade five draft picks (including a first-rounder) to acquire wide receiver Tyreek Hill, he has since paid him roughly $80 million — with another $27.7 million fully guaranteed in 2025.
Hill on Sunday was the same as he’s been in most of the Dolphins’ biggest games: Invisible. He had two catches for 36 yards on seven targets and was the intended receiver on all three of Tua’s interceptions.
Grier teased reporters who worried about the quality of the offensive line before the season.
On Sunday, the Dolphins had one starting-caliber lineman on the field because of decisions Grier made. The Dolphins allowed three sacks (including a strip sack), 17 pressures (10.1% pressure rate), and six tackles for loss and committed six penalties (four enforced).
Ross is willing to pay any price to produce a winner. Resources aren’t the issue in Miami. The Dolphins since Grier took over have spent more than $1 billion on players (and tens of millions more to build Miami’s best-in-class training facility).
It hasn’t mattered.
Ross has done his part.
Grier has not.
And unless he wants to be right back in this position again in 12 months, Ross needs to move on from Grier once and for all.
Certainly, there are personal considerations for Ross. He has loyally stood by Grier through all these years of mediocrity because he likes him and believes in him.
But this is a bottom-line business. And the bottom line is clear. Grier has fallen short time and again. The Dolphins were the best of the mediocre teams in 2022 and 2023, but aren’t even that anymore.
They are 6-8 this year in what’s at-best the third-worst division in football.
Tough decisions loom for the Dolphins. They have the NFL’s sixth-oldest roster (27.2). They have the sixth-smallest amount of projected cap space in football next year ($12.6 million).
They need to rebuild their offensive line and their safety position. They need to figure out what to do with Hill, Bradley Chubb, Terron Armstead, and Jaelan Phillips.
And they need to decide if McDaniel, who is now 6-17 against teams with winning records in his three years as head coach, including 3-14 on the road, is part of the path forward.
In other words, the Dolphins’ general manager has a big job ahead of him. Grier has proven during his quarter-century in Miami that he’s not the right man for it.