NFL
Dolphins

Brian Flores is out in Miami as the Dolphins fired the third-year head coach despite putting together a winning season this year (9-8) after starting 1-7 but ultimately missing the playoffs.

Leading up to today, speculation has been that the Dolphins were going to target Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh who’s found himself linked to multiple vacancies and potentially pending vacancies around the League. Stephen Ross’ connection to the University may have further ignited these rumors about Harbaugh, however, according to ESPN’s Jeff Darlington, Flores’ firing was done “entirely independent” of Harbaugh and that the team apparently will not target the Michigan head coach.

Notably, Harbaugh has also been linked to the Raiders — who ended up making the playoffs last night so it’ll be interesting to see which direction they go as the postseason progresses. Harbaugh’s name has also been linked to a former team of his in the Chicago Bears who just fired Matt Nagy after four seasons.

As far as Flores goes, two major reasons for his firing are attributed to his deteriorating relationships with GM Chris Grier (who’ll remain with the team) and starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. This led to Ross believing that Flores was no longer a “healthy fit” for the Dolphins moving forward according to Jeff Darlington.

The 40-year-old Flores finishes his time in Miami with a 24-25 record after originally being hired by the Dolphins back in 2019 after 11 seasons in the New England system.