Ryan Fitzpatrick slams Brian Flores’ head coaching tenure with Dolphins

Ryan Fitzpatrick slams Brian Flores’ head coaching tenure with Dolphins

Current Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator is expected to be one of the hottest names on the head coaching market during this cycle–along with current Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn and former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel.

It wouldn’t be Flores’ first stint as an NFL head coach, coaching three seasons with the Miami Dolphins from 2019-21. Though Flores’ tenure ended sourly in South Florida, particularly by alienating former No. 5 overall pick Tua Tagovailoa.

Former Dolphins quarterback and 17-year veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick, who played under Flores from 2019-20, shed light on the awful situation recently on his podcast “Fitz & Whit” with former offensive lineman Andrew Whiteworth.

“Brian Flores has been a really hot name. And I think the further removed we get from his tenure in Miami, the more people kind of forget about how that ended and the better his name becomes,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think the interesting thing about Brian Flores when I think about him and being able to play under him for a few years is which version of Brian Flores are we getting? In Year 1 with Miami, take you back to that year, Miami got rid of every good player they had; that was jokingly called the ‘Tank for Tua year.’ Halfway through that year, we hadn’t won a game yet, and there was a shift in the way he was approaching his job. He was likable. He was relatable. He demanded a lot out of the players, but he was also able to get the version of his players — and I really appreciated him for that.

“As his tenure went on in Miami, he kind of became unrecognizable. A lot of the staff he brought over from New England — that was was where he cut his teeth in the NFL; was there for 15-plus years as an assistant. I think he’s going to have a really hard time. If you’re interviewing him as a head coach, I think in the interviews, he’ll be likable, he’ll be relatable.

“But, when people say, ‘Give me somebody from Miami that coached under you as a reference, so we can talk to them,’ I think he burned a lot of bridges there. I think he alienated himself from the entire staff. Instead of what you were just talking about, having the humility to ask questions, to collaborate, I think by the end of his time there he became a dictator. He ruined a lot of relationships that he built up through the NFL. And his ego grew so big that there wasn’t room for anyone else.”

At the time of this publication, three teams—the Jacksonville Jaguars, Las Vegas Raiders, and New York Jets—have requested interviews with Flores.

Questions about his tenure in Miami will absolutely come up in interviews–and they should. He’s been in good structures under Mike Tomlin and Kevin O’Connell since, so perhaps there would be a different way he would approach certain situations and relationships if he was calling the shots on the sidelines.

He’s also in an ongoing lawsuit with the NFL for racial discrimination, which also may also come up and potentially keep teams from hiring him as head coach for at least another year. Some coaches are also better coordinators than head coaches, so I am fascinated to see if another team will be willing to take a chance on the brilliant defensive mind.

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