Everyone’s day of judgment in the NFL eventually comes.
Few know when it will happen or what the circumstances will be that leads to them being put in front of the judge, jury, and executioner assessing their performance, but there will come a moment where they must all stand on their best.
“This is the best you could do?”
For Chris Grier that performance review period is now, and this offseason’s latest makeover of the seemingly forever floundering Miami Dolphins better be good or else it should be his swan song as this team’s top executive.
There’s the new quirky, but swagalicious head coach in Mike McDaniel.
There was a vote of confidence for a young quarterback in Tua Tagovailoa he hand-picked.
Grier made sure 2021′s 15th-best defense in the NFL retained every contributor this offseason, including its defensive coordinator Josh Boyer.
Terron Armstead, a franchise left tackle, who can help anchor a young offensive line, was added.
And Miami paid handsomely in draft picks and money to acquire receiver Tyreek Hill, one of the NFL’s top offensive playmakers.
After years of purging the roster, trading away proven players for draft picks, and investing in a youth movement, the Dolphins say they are in position to pivot as a team, so they basically pushed a large amount of the team’s draft picks into the middle of the table to acquire Hill.
“We’ve been building here for a while acquiring picks and cleaning up salary cap,” Grier said at the NFL meetings. “This is an opportunity to get a good player, a dynamic player, one of the best players in the league. When those opportunities come you can’t pass on it.
“Getting the roster to the point where we can start competing.”
Grier used that term “start competing” more than once during his talk with the media this week, and it had me puzzled.
Competing for what?
Are we talking about an AFC East crown? The Bills have stiff-armed the Dolphins the past two seasons with dominant performances. Maybe offensive coordinator Brian Daboll taking the New York Giants’ head coaching job waters down their offense. But maybe it doesn’t, and quarterback Josh Allen takes another step forward as one of the NFL’s young elites.
Are we talking about competing for a playoff spot, ending this franchise’s five-season playoff drought? Or producing the franchise’s first playoff win since the 2000 season?
Picking McDaniel to replace Brian Flores, with the awareness that his strengths and specialty is everything this team has been lacking the past three years, was a wise play. Especially since McDaniel comes with an accomplished offensive coaching staff.
The addition of Hill, who has averaged 11 touchdowns a season in his six-year career, will help improve the offense if he can stay healthy, and is the same player he was with the Chiefs.
Luring Armstead from New Orleans will give Miami a chance to be respectable in the trenches, which was seemingly an area Flores couldn’t fix.
So the addition of a proven playmaker, an improved offensive line, a commitment to the run under an offensive-minded head coach, and continuity on defense is Grier’s recipe for survival.
And he needs to walk in conviction that this will work because there’s nobody else to blame anymore.
This team succeeds and fails on his decisions, and Grier needs to remind himself of that anytime the people-pleasing side of his personality encourages him to take a backseat to someone else.
It’s all on you now, Chris.
He’d be arrogant to think a general manager gets to pick a third head coach (already hired Flores and McDaniel), and a third quarterback (traded for Josh Rosen and drafted Tagovailoa), especially if their franchise hasn’t qualified for the postseason since 2016.
So this team he’s assembling for the 2022 season is his moment of truth.
In fairness, Grier has never shied away from taking accountability, and more importantly, ownership for the franchise’s failures during his seven-year reign as general manager and four-year tenure as the team’s top football executive.
No matter who advocated for who, Grier will own every draft pick made since 2016. Every hit, and every miss.
He’ll stress that every free-agency decision, from the ones that got away to the ones that were overpaid, is his doing.
But it’s time his actions and decisions accompany this accountability.
When the day of judgment comes — and it will indeed come because there’s nobody left to blame but Grier anymore — this roster will be what he must stand on.
