Dolphins Announce Hiring Of Packers Offensive Coordinator Philbin As Head Coach

The Dolphins on Saturday introduced Joe Philbin “as the 10th coach in franchise history,” according to Barry Jackson of the MIAMI HERALD. Philbin most recently served as Packers offensive coordinator, and Dolphins Owner Stephen Ross “preferred to hire a coach with an offensive background.” Ross said, “His intelligence stands out. His leadership skills are unparalleled. He’s a man of integrity. He has tremendous, innovative ideas.” Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland said, “There is not one person out there that doesn’t respect him not only as a coach, but as a person. Fifteen minutes into our first meeting, I knew this was a guy we should seriously look at.” Ross said, “We interviewed six people in person, many who will eventually be head coaches in the NFL. They were all outstanding candidates” (MIAMI HERALD, 1/22). In West Palm Beach, Ben Volin reported Philbin reportedly “signed a four-year deal, though financial terms were not immediately known.” Ross said, "He really impressed me, just listening to him, his organization, his plan, how he'll execute it and make us a winner as fast as possible." Ross added, "He has a lot of the same attributes as the most successful coach the Miami Dolphins have had in the past, and that's Don Shula" (PALM BEACH POST, 1/22). Ireland acknowledged the Philbin “has ‘100 percent’ control over the Dolphins coaching staff, and what type of offense or defense the team runs” (South Florida SUN-SENTINEL, 1/22). Ross said that after Philbin’s interview “he talked to Carl Peterson, his long-time friend and adviser, and Peterson told him it was the best presentation by a coach he'd ever seen” (MIAMIHERALD.com, 1/21). In West Palm Beach, Brian Biggane wrote, “From players to broadcasters to fellow coaches and front-office types, the overwhelming sentiment has been that not only has Philbin, 50, earned this opportunity, but that he will excel at it” (PALM BEACH POST, 1/22). Ross: "I really believe that people that work in great winning organizations learn how to win and that's what it's all about. That's the primary reason and who he is as a person and what he will do for this organization are the reasons why Joe Philbin is the coach of the Miami Dolphins" (South Florida SUN-SENTINEL, 1/22).

RIGHT MAN FOR THE GIG? In Miami, Armando Salguero wrote Philbin “won the news conference on Saturday,” as he was “energetic, he was enthusiastic, he was prepared, pleasant and even-keeled.” Still, Philbin’s success “will be determined, like every Dolphins coach, by how much talent he has at his disposal and specifically how large his quarterback’s exploits become the next half-decade or so” (MIAMI HERALD, 1/22). Also in Miami, Greg Cote wrote Philbin “has become the man in charge of hope for a fan base so desperate for that.” Cote: “He must win. Now.” The hire “qualifies as a big gamble” for the Dolphins front office and it is a “justifiable hire if only based on that shiny title Philbin brings here.” But the Dolphins again “have rolled dice and offered themselves up as a proving ground for a man who arrives with his training wheels still on in terms of the job he has been asked to take on.” Cote: “That makes Philbin, good as he might prove to be, the second choice. The guy the Dolphins ultimately settled for” (MIAMI HERALD, 1/22). In West Palm Beach, Dave George wrote, “The hope is that he's no ordinary Joe. Ordinary is the most odious of fates for an NFL franchise” (PALM BEACH POST, 1/21). But FOXSPORTSFLORIDA.com’s Chris Perkins wrote Philbin “seems to be a man of substance and reality, not the quick fix.” But the hiring is still “a major disappointment” and will make a “tough sell to a dwindling fan base” (FOXSPORTSFLORIDA.com, 1/21).