MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — How much has Miami Dolphins owner Steve Ross learned about being a better NFL owner?

Not how much does he think he’s learned. How much has he really?

We’re about to find out. Because only the Dolphins could turn the overdue firing of general manager Chris Grier into a Friday of questions and controversy, one where fans already drenched in mortification over another bad season became chained to fear their future still includes coach Mike McDaniel.

The firing of Grier was coming after 10 ineffective years as GM. His passive, non-plan at the trade deadline appears to be the final straw. It’s not like the Dolphins have a lot to trade before next week’s deadline. But Grier didn’t have a plan to make some calls and weigh the market and do things GMs of 2-7 teams typically do.

So, Ross finally fired Grier. That could have been the whole meal Friday, but it became the appetizer when Ross also decided to keep McDaniel as coach through “at least” this season, as the Sun Sentinel confirmed.

And quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, as you’ll see, is at the center of that “at least.”

If you need to lie down right now and put a cool compress over your forehead, take a minute. There’s plenty of time to wait on this — 64 more days of inconsequential football until the season’s over.

Actually, it’s not inconsequential anymore. Not as Ross views it. He wants to see if McDaniel can win some games. He wants to see if this team can turn things around in a way that says this coach is worth keeping around.

What would impress Ross to see? Five or six wins in the final eight games? It might not even be about a win total, sort of like Ross not so much looking at trades made before the deadline but the plan to make them — the process is in play here.

Tua’s future is in play, too. He looks more limited with each passing stretch of season. But Ross sees something beyond that the way you would, too, if you were the owner. Tua is not just a $54 million salary-cap hit in 2026 if the Dolphins release him. He’s a $99.2 million dead-money hit in NFL lingo.

That means Ross would have to write a check of $99.2 million to move on from Tua. That’s nearly twice the record $53 million Denver paid to be done with Russell Wilson.

You’d think those numbers alone would get McDaniel fired with Grier. McDaniel did his job by showing everyone who Tua was as a quarterback. But he then went all Ted Lasso in (1) believing Tua could be talked into being an elite NFL quarterback, and (B) pounding the table until his quarterback got paid accordingly.

Here’s the funny part. And not ha-ha funny. That terrible contract is why McDaniel has the “at least” attached to him staying around this season.

Raise your hand if you think any new coach would want to keep Tua.

Anyone?

So, as Ross looks at this, McDaniel is the only coach capable of making Tua work. The quarterback is going to be kept next year regardless. What, pay $99.2 million for him to leave a year early? Joe Robbie paid close to that to build his stadium.

Ross has made two fundamental mistakes in hiring people to run the Dolphins:

1. He doesn’t hire the coach and general manager at the same time, which puts them on different timelines with different senses of urgency.

2. He doesn’t recognize the trait of “leadership” as the NFL defines it. Here’s the first demand of a GM or coach: Can he command a room full of young, easily distracted players?

Ross got rid of the general manager who deserved to go and hopes to keep the coach who deserved to go just as much. Did you see those fundamental problems again in Thursday’s loss to Baltimore? Those fumbles, penalties, miscues in the ninth game of the season? In his fourth year?

Here we are, another bumbling Dolphins season, and the question is what Ross has learned all these stumbling years. The answer if we take Friday at face value: Not enough.

Put another cool compress on your forehead. This season has more that’s-so-Dolphins drama to it.

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