Miami Dolphins Looking For New Offensive Line Coach For 10th Time In 9 Years
Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel is looking for a new offensive line coach after relieving Matt Applebaum of those duties after one season, a source told OutKick.
Interviews for the newly open position are already underway and one candidate who has already interviewed is Dan Roushar of the New Orleans Saints, another source said.
The Dolphins went through half-a-dozen tackles in 2022 and offensive coordinator Frank Smith was pulled into needing to help coach the line. McDaniel wants to hire someone who can do the job himself so that Smith can concentrate on his coordinator duties.
The Dolphins, it should be noted, have a curious recent history of hiring and firing offensive line coaches very quickly.
The next Dolphins offensive line coach will be the team's 10th in the last nine years. The club has been unable to find an offensive line coach it deems suitable enough to work beyond one season in the job since 2014-15.
Since that time the Dolphins have gone through four head coaches and those men -- Joe Philbin, Adam Gase, Brian Flores and now Mike McDaniel -- have all been unable to stick with an offensive line coach beyond one season.
A new offensive line coach will be tasked with having his group protect Miami Dolphins quartrerbacks. (Photo by Peter Joneleit/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The Miami Dolphins Are Seeking A New OL Coach, Again
Obviously all the situations have been different with different dynamics. But the results have been the same.
McDaniel is looking for a new line coach after having Applebaum in the role one year.
Flores went through four offensive line coaches in his three seasons and even fired Pat Flaherty, his first hire for the position, two days into the 2019 training camp.
Gase had three offensive line coaches in his three seasons and suffered perhaps the strangest and most understandable reason for moving on from one coach when Chris Foerster filmed himself in his office snorting cocaine before heading off to a team meeting.
That episode was followed close behind on the bizarre scale by the 2014 firing of Jim Turner. The NFL's Wells Report painted Turner as a prominent figure in the 2013 bullying scandal that involved offensive linemen Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin.
In that report Turner was said to have participated in a in a lifestyle-themed prank on a Dolphins offensive lineman -- suggesting the player was gay in front of other players.
The way Turner did this was by allegedly gifting his offensive linemen female blow up dolls for Christmas, while giving the one player a male blow up doll.
Turner was fired upon release of the Wells report.
It's unclear when McDaniel expects to finalize his decision for the team's next offensive line coach.