The team announced that tight ends coach Dan Campbell will be the Dolphins’ interim head coach.
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The Miami Dolphins have confirmed that they have promoted Dan Campbell to become their interim head coach to replace Joe Philbin. Though the situation is fluid, it’s interesting that most of the changes have been made on the offensive side of the ball.
Campbell said the Dolphins (1-3) need to show more aggressiveness, stopping just short of dirty play, and he looks forward to breaking up a few fights in practice. “I wasn’t surprised at all”, the fourth-year quarterback responded.
“That’s where we have to change, and we change it in practice”. This team was supposed to perform much better than this, and Philbin was supposed to have learned from his previous mistakes. “Honestly I was a little surprised”, he explained.
“I don’t believe we were performing at the potential we have”, he said. They wanted to win. Now. Just playing the game physically, aggressively and going after dominate. To me, that’s what’s got to change.
“I know it may feel normal being here, but at the same time, I think it’s very abnormal”.
And it sounds like Campbell is inheriting in, somewhat, dysfunctional situation. The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson wrote that the Dolphins’ Saturday practice in London involved altercations among defensive players who are not listening to the coach’s instructions and quarterback Ryan Tannehill.
Entering the 2015 season, the Dolphins were a pick by many to make the playoffs after signing their quarterback Ryan Tannehill to a multi-year extension, and paying a lucrative amount of money to grab free agency’s top defensive player Ndamukong Suh. Before joining the Dolphins in 2010, Campbell played 11 seasons as a tight end with the New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys, Detroit Lions and New Orleans Saints.
Prior to the Monday’s decision, Philbin’s last practice as head coach over the weekend reportedly manifested that he had lost control.
“I’m actually ecstatic for him”, third-stringer Jake Stoneburner said.
For the second successive year a National Football League head coach has paid with his job for a Transatlantic defeat, with the Oakland Raiders removing Dennis Allen last September following their 38-17 loss to the Dolphins in the capital. It is very heated.
So, Campbell probably has his team’s attention.
Al Saunders is getting back in the game. That is when the juices start flowing.
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“I am in the middle of all of that right now”, Campbell said. It doesn’t work that way. They have to be challenged.
