Extra Points: Dolphins, H. Jackson, Bucs, Texans

Before hiring Adam Gase as their head coach Saturday, the Dolphins considered several other candidates. Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald passes along some interesting information on a handful of those names.

The Dolphins interviewed ex-Falcons head coach Mike Smith, but they felt he lacked “some of the gravitas” for the position. In Mike Shanahan‘s case, Miami’s bigwigs were worried that too many of the two-time Super Bowl winner’s potential assistants had jobs elsewhere, which would’ve negatively affected his ability to assemble a staff. They also had concern about whether Shanahan would be prone to complacency. The Dolphins discussed the idea of pursuing another two-time champion, Tom Coughlin, but they decided the soon-to-be 70-year-old was too advanced in age to factor into their long-term plans. Dan Campbell, the Dolphins’ interim head coach for most of the 2015-16 campaign, was the runner-up to Gase. The team simply didn’t think he was ready for the full-time job. Doug Marrone came in third place, largely because his plan for quarterback Ryan Tannehill wasn’t as enticing as Gase’s.

Tannehill didn’t have the belief of ex-head coach Joe Philbin, Salguero offers, but the Dolphins are confident the relationship between him and Gase will bear more fruit.

“We’re convinced you’ll see a different Ryan Tannehill next year,” a team source told Salguero. “That’s how much Adam will affect things around here.”

More from around the NFL:

• Although a report Friday stated that Bengals offensive coordinator Hue Jackson is in the lead for the 49ers’ head coaching job, they’ll have serious competition for his services from the Browns, reports Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. Jackson will enter his Sunday interview with the Browns viewing them and the 49ers on a level playing field, per Cabot, who notes that other teams with head coaching vacancies could join them in trying to land the 50-year-old. As our head coaching search tracker shows, the only other current opening that Jackson has been connected to is the Giants’, though they haven’t requested a meeting with him at this time.
• Dirk Koetter isn’t the prohibitive favorite to land the Buccaneers’ head coaching job, and they didn’t fire Lovie Smith because they were worried about losing Koetter, according to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. The Bucs canned Smith because their ownership was fed up with his ability (or lack thereof) to build a quality coaching staff, his struggles with repairing their defense, and his uninspiring work when it came to putting together the 53-man roster. General manager Jason Licht believes the team will find a capable replacement for Smith. “It’s an excellent situation,” he said. “I’ve already been shown from the interest we’ve received that people want to come to Tampa and coach.”
• After quarterback Brian Hoyer‘s five-turnover performance in the Texans’ 30-0 wild-card round loss to Kansas City on Saturday, Houston could look for a better option under center this offseason. With that in mind, Mike Sando of ESPN.com examined which roads the Texans might take in the coming months (Insider required). Draft-bound Penn State signal caller Christian Hackenberg, whom Texans coach Bill O’Brien recruited when he was at the helm of the Nittany Lions, is an obvious option. Otherwise, Sando lists Colin Kaepernick and free agent-to-be Sam Bradford as possible fits for the Texans.