Former Dolphins QB Breaks Silence on Turmoil Under Brian Flores' Leadership

Former Dolphins QB Breaks Silence on Turmoil Under Brian Flores' Leadership originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

The Miami Dolphins enter 2025 with their head coach on the hot seat. Mike McDaniel took over in Miami in 2022 and led the Dolphins to the playoffs in his first two years. However, the Dolphins failed to make the playoffs last season and finished below .500.

Now, McDaniel is in danger of becoming the third straight Dolphins' head coach to be fired after three years with the team. From 2016 to 2018, Adam Gase made the playoffs in his first year and then missed the next two years. Then it was Brian Flores from 2019-2021, before McDaniel took over in 2022.

Although, Flores didn't make the playoffs during his head coaching tenure in Miami, he improved from a 5-11 first season, to winning records in each of the next two years. However, the head coach didn't make it to a fourth year, and former Dolphins' quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick recently revealed his thoughts on why.

The 17-year NFL veteran joined "The Dive Bar Podcast" on Wednesday and explained what happened in Miami when Flores was in charge. But first, Fitzpatrick cleared the air on comments he made about Flores a while back.

"I actually have a really good relationship with Brian Flores, and I like Brian as a coach. You know, I said some stuff on my podcast last year that really got blown up," Fitzpatrick said. "It ended so poorly there that it's hard not to have a very nuanced, in depth conversation about it. It's hard to give you a 10 second sound bite about it and be able to reflect everything that happened."

Fitzpatrick said to truly understand the whole scenario, you'd have to have a much longer conversation to unpack everything, and he did not mean anything ill-intended toward Flores. Then, the veteran quarterback explained how Flores' approach to head coaching could have rubbed other coaches the wrong way.

"The biggest thing was Flores, I think he had to learn a lot about being a head coach, and I think he had to learn a lot about the way he treated people in the building, mainly, you know, the people that work for him," Fitzpatrick said. "It was never the staff members, the people, the equipment guys, the medical team. He treated all of them with the utmost respect. They all, to this day, like, absolutely love the guy.

"I just think that his downfall in Miami was he was so demanding of his coaching staff and sought one particular way that he didn't treat a lot of them with the respect that they deserved. And I don't think a lot of players saw that. I don't think a lot of players felt that, especially on the defensive side of the ball. I think those guys absolutely loved him."

Brian Flores is redefining defense in the NFL...

This week, I took an in-depth look at the Vikings' ultra-aggressive philosophy to win on first down & shut down the run.

Link below.
-- pic.twitter.com/e7McOVjavB

— Cody Alexander (@The_Coach_A) August 5, 2025

Flores flourished as a defensive coach with the New England Patriots under head coach Bill Belichick. He was an assistant in various roles for four years before coaching the safeties and then the linebackers in New England.

In those positions, he was always solely in charge of the guys in his position group and could do drills and techniques the way he wanted with them. However, as a head coach, you have more guys underneath you who have jobs and roles to do.

Fitzpatrick believes Flores' players loved him because he was used to working with his players and having his way of doing things, but being too controlling of other coaches started to create a divide.

"I think as a coordinator in Pittsburgh, and now, as a coordinator of Minnesota, those guys absolutely love him. But it doesn't mean if you're a good defensive coordinator, if you're a good offensive coordinator, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to translate to being a good head coach," Fitzpatrick said. "And I think there were some lessons there that he had to learn and hopefully has grown from, because it ended very poorly, and I wasn't there when it ended, but obviously had a lot of different relationships with a lot of different guys, but it's amazing to see - I'm always going to root for him to have success - It's amazing to see what he's doing in Minnesota right now, you know?"

Something is happening in Minnesota.

Coordinator Brian Flores didn’t just develop a defense unlike any other. He concocted a living, breathing virus inflicting pain on opponents in ways that seem almost preternatural. pic.twitter.com/eefeGVtCXd

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) August 6, 2025

You can look throughout NFL history and find many coaches who were great at being coordinators or assistants but could never figure it out as a head coach.

Buddy Ryan was a fantastic defensive coordinator with the Chicago Bears, but didn't succeed as a head coach with the Philadelphia Eagles or Arizona Cardinals. Dom Capers led a great Green Bay Packers defense, but had a 48-80 record as a head coach. Eric Mangini won three Super Bowls under Belichick, but a record of 33-47 as a head coach. One of the latest, Josh McDaniels, couldn't get it going as head coach with the Las Vegas Raiders, but he's returned to the Patriots, where he found great success as a coordinator with Tom Brady.

There's no doubt Flores knows how to coach NFL players and build a great defense, but head coaching has been more of a learning curve.

"He's a very qualified dude, he's unbelievable defensive coordinator, but he didn't get a head coaching job last year, right? And so it's not necessarily because of the way that he coaches defense," Fitzpatrick said. "I think him not getting a job last year kind of showed like there's some growth that needs to happen and that he needs to realize, and I think he probably has, but there's certainly some relationships that need to be mended and some wrongs that need to be righted there in order for him probably to be able to have that opportunity to be a head coach again."

Since the Dolphins let Flores go, he spent the 2024 season as a senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach with the Steelers, and now he is the Vikings' defensive coordinator.

Related: Dolphins’ Star Receiver Absent From Practice on Wednesday With Undisclosed Injury

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Aug 7, 2025, where it first appeared.