Where’s the set bar of standards? What do the Miami Dolphins stand for? Because there, in the post-game locker Sunday, was the most significant pass of the season.

“We have one more ball,” team owner Steve Ross said.

“We do?” said coach Mike McDaniel, who had just passed out game balls to players after the 29-17 win against the San Francisco 49ers.

“One more,” Ross said, tossing the coach a game ball. “Mike McDaniel.”

Just like that, this offseason’s plans were clear. The owner wants to run it back. Not just with the coach. General manager Chris Grier, too. Ross evidently has seen enough across three years of McDaniel and six years of Grier to want more.

That’s all good and fine, too, considering this is Ross’s decision. It’s his team, his call. But, again, what does this franchise stand for anymore when the owner is congratulating everyone after a six-year build that has them at 7-8?

When the seventh seed in the playoffs remains a long shot, much less the first playoff win in 25 years?

When beating 6-9 San Francisco is considered such a defining moment that Ross stood on the sideline pumping his fist in the air at the end like Joe Namath’s iconic fist pump after Super Bowl III?

Everyone likes emotion and those in the arena should celebrate a win. But shouldn’t those running the show have a standard to properly weigh the moment?

I don’t want to pull out the old-guy card here, but I was here when Don Shula called the entire season a “disappointment” after losing in an AFC Championship Game. I was here when Jimmy Johnson rebuilt the roster, made three playoffs and had two playoff wins in four years and said, “We didn’t get where we wanted.”

Now I’m here when the owner pumps his fist and awards a game ball for pulling within a game of .500 in a way that says he’s happy with a management team that had loud blunders this season.

This didn’t just happen by chance, too. Ross wasn’t just over-celebrating a win. He was making a statement he’s happy with those running the team. He might hope it sweeps all questions under the rug after this season, but that’s not quite as easy as pumping a fist and saying, “It’s all good. We’re moving on.”

The team owner needs to talk to fans about this season and this decision. He needs to talk about how he decided Grier’s management is good enough. He needs to talk about the thinking behind the backup quarterback blunder that changed this season. He needs to talk about how the oldest roster in the league is equipped.

Ross needs to talk about all this because in 2019 he explained the Dolphins trading good players, tanking a season and undergoing a massive rebuild by trotting out the Einstein line about, “The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result.”

Ross is doing the same things over and over again now. Should we expect a different result?

Yes, I know, this is about next season when this season isn’t finished. That’s a bit out of order. But even if the Dolphins sneak in the back-door to the playoffs, even if all the dominoes fall their way this next two weeks — even if this longest shot comes in, is anyone really kidding themselves?

The Dolphins are 1-10 against winning teams the past two seasons.

They were just beaten decisively on the road in the cold in Green Bay and in a dome in Houston with realistic playoff hopes on the line.

A win against the reeling 49ers didn’t change the season. But you’d think it did.

“It’s one of my favorite sports moments, memories of my life,” McDaniel told his players in the locker room.

That pedestrian win?

The Heat’s Pat Riley said he wouldn’t get “warm fuzzies” after losing in the Eastern Conference finals a few years back. The Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers won their first playoff series in a quarter-century a few years back and re-made their coaching staff because their system wasn’t good enough.

Once upon a time, the Dolphins set the standard for South Florida sports. Now the owner throws a fist in the air and tosses the coach a game ball for getting to 7-8 with a flickering chance of the playoffs. He’s ready to run the GM’s six years of nothing into a seventh year.

It’s Ross’s team, his call. But he needs to tell fans why this is where he’s setting the bar.

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