MIAMI – Against all odds, the Miami Dolphins are one victory away from making the playoffs.
Something that seemed far from last year, after losing the first three games with 117 points combined in what was a bad historical start.
Miami had the worst list in NFLHe hired players who didn’t have a team and made them play on Sunday. And with this scenario, they managed to win three of the last five games and dream of a better future.
Are you a playoff candidate so soon?
Tireless, given the endless questions this team had.
But among so many questions, there is a clear certainty, namely that the Dolphins, after much searching, have finally found the head coach indicated in Brian Flores.
Flores is one of five brothers in a family of Honduran immigrant children. His parents, Raúl and María, moved to the United States in the 1970s to give their children a better potential future.
Without a lot of money, but with iron values, that’s exactly what they achieved.
Flores fell in love with football at the age of 12 thanks to his uncle’s tutelage, played at Boston College and received his first NFL shot as a research assistant with the New England Patriots in 2004.
Integrity, hard work and clear communication are its three main values.
And those characteristics made him climb the ladder in New England, where he became responsible for defensive calls when Matt Patricia he was named head coach of the Detroit Lions.
His Patriots managers always talk about Flores “the person”, more than the coach, and that the respect they have for him is absolute.
After 12 interviews, he finally had the opportunity to long for Miami as head coach.
The Dolphins have the only duo of African-American coaches and general managers in the entire NFL, but aside from their origins, their abilities speak for themselves.
The head coach should do his best to win on Sunday, and the general manager is trying to get the best team possible, but to think that the two are not working in unison would be a mistake.
Which brings us to this present in Miami, where Flores is trying to balance winning now with thinking of the best for the future of the Dolphins.
After the team started at 3-3 and was in a series of victories, Flores decided to place veteran quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick to make way for debutant Tua Tagovailoa.
Tagovailoa alternated good with bad, although the team continued to win, thanks in large part to excellent defense and very good special teams.
Twice since then, Flores has placed Tagovailoa when he played badly to replace him again with Fitzpatrick.
The most recent opportunity, last Saturday, when Fitzpatrick led the Dolphins to a crucial victory over their aspirations in the playoffs.
As you can imagine, the criticism came en masse. While some claim that Fitzpatrick is the starter – Flores has already ratified Tagovailoa – others claim that these types of constant changes only drain the confidence of their debutant quarterback.
But while the noise is heard from outside, inside, Fitzpatrick and Tagovailoa, despite the fact that they both want to play, hug and cheer each other thinking about the good of the team.
“It works because Flores is an excellent communicator,” Fitzpatrick said of the constant changes.
It is said that when you have two defenders, you essentially have neither. And, although this dynamic is extremely unusual, I applaud the fact that Flores listens to the criticism for violating the rules, while keeping the locker room, his team in isolation and the future in good hands.
Something very difficult to do, which for the time being seems to work for him.
In fact, I would encourage you to say that if the Dolphins qualify for the playoffs, Brian Flores will be named Coach of the Year, even if he has a great competitor in Kevin Stefanski, of the Cleveland Browns.
Beyond the fact that the defender’s situation receives all the attention, there is no denying that he maximized the talent of his players and that he transformed a defense without so many brilliant names, into an elite unit.
Pause adjustments, which have not been seen in Miami for a long time, are now commonplace.
And for a beginner defender, there is nothing better to learn when his team does not depend on him to win games.
Flores builds these Dolphins in his own way, and next year returns with more options from the first and second rounds of the project.
Therefore, in the midst of so many unanswered questions, there is an inevitable reality: Brian Flores is a great head coach.