When the Miami Dolphins tweeted from their official account that the team and general manager Jeff Ireland had “mutually agreed to part ways” on January 7, eyebrows were raised. When an organization announces that one of its employee’s departures is mutual, it usually isn’t.
And now, 18 days later, with Patriots director of personnel Nick Caserio turning down the position, the Dolphins are the proverbial punchline of jokes across the Twitter-sphere.
We’ve taken a look at the risk involved of taking this job, thanks to the lack of infrastructure in place for sustained success.
- James Walker, who covers the Dolphins for ESPN.com, proclaimed the situation a whiff for the franchise and that they completely botched the GM search.
- Miami Herald columnist Armando Salguero said this was just the second or third embarrassing moment for the Dolphins this week, likely referring to general manager candidate Jason Licht choosing the Buccaneers job instead.
- Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio said just getting Caserio to interview made the job look better, but offering it to him only for it to be turned down erased that.
- Caserio stands to benefit from the situation, sending a signal to teams that he’s ready to consider general manager jobs in 2015, tweets NFL Network’s Albert Breer.
- There is also the possibility that Caserio received a raise and/or a VP title to stay with the Patriots, according CBS NFL insider Jason La Canfora.
- The Dolphins are down to three candidates who have interviewed twice — Titans director of personnel Lake Dawson, Buccaneers vice president of player personnel Dennis Hickey and Miami assistant GM Brian Gaine. Walker suggests that the team simply go in-house with Gaine, and that if things don’t work out, it would be easy to start over again in 2015. With how things are going right now, that would be par for the course.