We’ve reached another one of those crossroad moments in the Stephen Ross regime, where the beleaguered owner can follow one of two paths:

He can make enlightened decisions that can lift the Dolphins from this abyss.

Or he can make regrettable, short-sighted choices that prolong this quarter century of agony.

As Ross enjoys Sunday’s 20-17 win against Tampa Bay and figures out how to fix a franchise that hasn’t won anything meaningful in what seems like forever, here are 10 unsolicited tips about where he should start:

1). Do not, under any circumstances, announce next Sunday night (or the following day) that coach Mike McDaniel and interim general manager Champ Kelly are being retained.

Now let’s be clear: We’re not calling for McDaniel’s dismissal. In fact, a case certainly can be made for retaining him, because of this recent 7-2 stretch and his creative offensive mind.

I keep thinking of Mike Greenberg’s recent question on his ESPN morning show: “Am I the only one who’s interested in what Mike McDaniel might do with a different quarterback?”

Quinn Ewers’ sterling work on Sunday (118 passer rating, two touchdowns, no picks) offers an encouraging answer to that question. The fact the Dolphins (7-9) played with high effort and energy, despite being out of playoff contention on a holiday week, also speaks well of McDaniel.

But why rush into a decision without seeing who else might become available in the first two weeks of January? Maybe the Ravens and John Harbaugh decide to part ways? Who knows if Steelers coach Mike Tomlin might want a fresh start?

There’s no obligation to tell any coach immediately after the season whether he’s being retained - especially a coach coming off two consecutive losing seasons.

If Ross decides to explore other options before deciding McDaniel’s fate, it would be professional courtesy to tell him. But having a coach under contract shouldn’t prevent any owner from waiting to see who else might shake free.

If there’s nobody better suddenly available, keeping him can be justified. But there’s no need to rush into this.

2). Do a real general manager search.

The good news, from what we have been told, is that Ross has been inclined to conduct a full search and interview people outside the building. That at least has been the thinking in recent weeks.

Could that change? It’s certainly possible, because nobody can predict a billionaire’s behavior or how he might react to a big win at New England next weekend.

Keep in mind that NFL teams cannot interview employees from other teams until the end of the season.

Teams can interview officials working in college football at any time, but the Dolphins are not known to have brought in anyone from the college ranks.

Kelly, who has been interim GM since Chris Grier’s Halloween dismissal, is expected to receive an interview for the permanent job, according to a source. That’s not a surprise.

3). As the steward of the franchise, please do what your hardest working players do — Be the first one in the building and the last one out, at least for the next six weeks.

Ross needs to take a temporary break from his real estate ventures and allocate all of his time to finding the best coach (whether that’s McDaniel or someone else) and the best general manager.

President Tom Garkinkel and senior vice president/football and business administration Brandon Shore have the knowledge to help, but Ross needs to take the lead on this, doing things such as…

4). Call other owners for input on potential general manager candidates who have worked for those owners.

Start with Ross’ friend, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie.

Ross needs Lurie to tell him what decisions (good and bad) were advocated by Eagles assistant GM Alec Halaby and two former Eagles player personnel executives – Steelers assistant GM Andy Weidl and Bears assistant GM Ian Cunningham.

Ross needs to call Cowboys owner Stephen Ross to gather information about Cowboys vice president of player personnel Will McClay.

While you’re at it, call Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti for intel on Chargers assistant GM Chad Alexander: He spent 20 years working in personnel with the Ravens and then five years as the Jets’ player personnel director before joining Los Angeles in May 2024.

If McDaniel is retained, Ross should ask McDaniel to call his good buddy, Packers coach Matt LaFleur, for the skinny on Packers vice president of player personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan and precisely what acquisitions he pushed for and which he did not.

Find someone who’s connected to Lions GM Brad Holmes for intel on Lions assistant GM Ray Agnew.

Those are among the hot names league wide. Ross needs to do at least some of the due diligence on his own.

5). We like colleague Omar Kelly’s idea of asking two smart and serious former Dolphins - Jason Taylor or Zach Thomas - if they would want to undertake a football administration role, but not the GM job. Basically be Ross’ confidante, advisor and eyes and ears in the building.

If that doesn’t work out, offer to pay one or two unemployed GMs simply to pick their brains on candidates. There’s a respected group of past executives with a wealth of institutional knowledge – Scott Pioli (Chiefs), Thomas Dimitroff (Falcons), Jon Robinson (Titans), among others.

Hire one as a four-week consultant simply to get feedback on people they know and with whom they worked.

For the next few weeks, Ross should do what journalists do – focus on information gathering.

6). Here’s who else Ross should hire for a six-week consulting gig: Jimmy Johnson.

This goes far beyond seizing on Johnson’s expertise. You need someone with Johnson’s vast knowledge, intelligence and experience to sit in the room and ask questions during GM (and potentially) coaching interviews.

Pay J.J. whatever it takes. Send a jet to pick him up from his patio in the Keys and promise to have him home by sunset.

Don’t you want someone in these interviews who is best equipped to ask the right questions?

7). Hire a search firm to gather information on all coaching and GM candidates and just as importantly, get a sense from John Harbaugh’s agent, Don Yee, whether Harbaugh is looking to stay with the Ravens or potentially consider other teams.

But Ross’ tentacles can’t touch Yee or Harbaugh because the Dolphins already have been punished for tampering with Sean Payton.

8). If the Dolphins make a coaching change, Ross must be certain that the coach would be open to playing young players - and doing lots of losing for one season - if the team opts to spend the next year getting its salary cap in order and prioritizing a high draft pick.

This does not mean the Dolphins plan to do that.

But they need to know that anyone hired wouldn’t resist if that’s the direction ultimately chosen.

We’re told that the Dolphins did in fact ask Brian Flores if he would be comfortable rebuilding, and he seemed willing.

But what Ross needed to specifically ask Flores was whether he would make decisions that would work toward increasing the team’s odds of being positioned to secure the draft’s top quarterback.

Flores wouldn’t go along with that, played Ryan Fitzpatrick over Josh Rosen in a decision that set the franchise back years, and then sued the team, alleging Ross offered him money to lose games, a charge which Ross has denied.

Ross needs to make sure any GM is also on board with whatever the plan is.

If the Dolphins decide to take a step back for a year, the GM must be OK with it. You can’t have another GM repeating Grier’s mistake of signing a one-year stopgap (Fitzpatrick) who was too good for a full-fledged tank.

9). Ross, Garfinkel, Shore and McDaniel (if he’s kept) and the new GM need to meet over several days to discuss mistakes made and how to avoid them being repeated.

That list should include, in no particular order, the Dolphins’ penchant - under Grier - for signing players with a history of injuries; giving contract extensions when they were entirely unnecessary (Tagovailoa, Jalen Ramsey, Tyreek Hill); targeting too many JAGs (just-a-guy) in free agency and giving them cap clogging contracts; prioritizing speed over physicality; and being content with filling out their roster in late July and August, a decision that defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver cited in the team’s poor defensive start.

They need to discuss why they didn’t invest in young, productive free agents who signed affordable contracts elsewhere (Andrew Van Ginkel, Brandon Jones), why they opted for a physically-limited, small quarterback (Tua Tagovailoa) over the strong-armed prototype (Justin Herbert), why they can never build a team capable of beating playoff teams on the road in December.

This isn’t the time to sweep any of those damaging miscalculations under the rug, or snarkily dismiss them in the way Grier did when he said reporters are more worried about the offensive line than he was, or that the injury rate is 100 percent in football and shouldn’t drive decisions.

It’s the time to painstakingly discuss each of those issues and adjust the organizational philosophies accordingly.

10). Be transparent with the public. Aside from an appearance at McDaniel’s introductory news conference in 2022, Ross hasn’t stood at a podium - or sat at a roundtable - and answered questions from general media in six years.

He did that annually during his first decade as owner, and he ought to do that again.

Long-suffering Dolphins fans deserve to hear how he’s going to fix this. A statement on X doesn’t suffice.

________

©2025 Miami Herald. Visit at miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.