Dave Hyde: Dolphins' litany of woes are a case of mismanagement

Here we go again, worrying about Tua Tagovailoa’s health, wondering if he should retire, watching how long he stays away from the Miami Dolphins to be the, “quarterback of your family,” as coach Mike McDaniel counseled the concussed quarterback with a kiss to his forehead as he walked off the field Thursday.

Well, Tua wobbled off the field. That’s the issue of the ongoing health debate, which gets folded into the issue of the Dolphins’ 31-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills, which gets folded into the even larger issue of this current era:

Who’s looking out for this organization?

It’s nice and necessary that everyone’s looking out for Tagovailoa. Of course it is. But his situation will decide itself, one way or another, as the quarterback talks to doctors and family and decides if a routine tackle causing another concussion is the crossed line that ends his career.

The Dolphins are another, larger matter. After all the offseason moves, schematic shifts and record-breaking contracts handed to players like party favors in keeping with the philosophy that a happy team is a winning team, no one was happy after Thursday. Or winning.

Team owner Steve Ross looked to be in a grumpy mood when put on national television in his suite Thursday night. You’d expect no less. He wants to win in the way people want his billions. But, in each case, neither knows how to achieve that idea.

Thursday didn’t feel like just a loss. It felt like critical mass being defined around this team. What showed up on the new season’s field against Buffalo was the same ineffective and indistinct mess this franchise has fielded for the majority of a couple of decades.

Solving McDaniel’s fun, quick-strike offense looks like simple arithmetic now for Buffalo coach Sean McDermott. Even missing five starters, Buffalo’s defense held the Dolphins to 10 points to go with the 20 and 14 points in games last season.

If it was just a matter of being outcoached, that could be altered by McDaniel moving around some X’s and O’s by the next meeting. Maybe they will be when these teams play again in November, too.

But the larger identity of this team as defined by general manager Chris Grier felt in trouble, too. That’s a deeper hole. The personnel questions are stacking up, from left tackle Terron Armstead being injured again to the lack of a receiving depth to the next-day debate of whether to trust Skylar Thompson as quarterback or trade for help.

The time for that debate was last February, back when someone like Jimmy Garoppolo was on the market. Surely Grier and McDaniel had that talk. Just like they had the conversation over handing out money when it wasn’t necessary to keep players happy.

There’s a cost to this, and it’s not just a salary-cap cost of shedding some talent and having the league’s oldest roster as evidenced by starting 38-year-old Calais Campbell and 33-year-old Jordan Poyer on defense.

The cost, in cold and calculated terms, is wrapped up in Tagovailoa’s ongoing story. No one likes to play the bad guy in raising such issues — least of all anyone inside the Dolphins as seen by their moves. From Ross to Grier, the team has ignored concerns over the quarterback’s health from before draft right through awarding him a four-year, $212-million contract before this season. Even though these health issues, from a dislocated hip to repeated concussions, were intertwined with his story.

Why the contract now when they could have waited a year and got him for the same price? Because McDaniel wanted to confirm Tagovailoa was his guy. You can appreciate that need for a partnership in McDaniel’s idea of culture. But someone had to step up and think of the greater good for this organization considering the risk and involved cost. Grier? Team president Tom Garfinkel? Ross?

Again, who was looking out for the organization?

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result,” Ross said in 2019 to explain why he adopted the tanking plan to rebuild this team.

Isn’t that the same here? This isn’t on Tagovailoa. He’s giving his all. He also has a difficult decision to make after suffering another concussion. But one thing for sure: Money is not part of the decision. He’s owed $167 million if he plays or retires.

The season goes on without Tagovailoa for at least the next game, McDaniel said. The team starts Thompson in the system hard-wired for Tagovailoa.

This isn’t a time for an identity of fun and creativity. Toughness is required now. Discipline. Can an organization that hasn’t pushed such buttons in recent years find them overnight?

This upcoming stretch against mediocre teams like Seattle, Tennessee, New England and Indianapolis doesn’t have the feel of a soft spot in the schedule. It has the feel of a season, even a full era suddenly in question in ways no one expected or prepared for, least of all those in charge of the organization.

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