Chris Grier is starting to have that familiar sound of Mike Tannenbaum or Jeff Ireland approaching the end of his era, which is to say the unreasonable sound of man lost in the wilderness who’s talked to himself too long.
It wasn’t quite clear who the Miami Dolphins general manager was trying to convince, himself or his pack horse, when he answered Wednesday whether a mistake was made drafting Tua Tagovailoa over Justin Herbert, the Los Angeles Chargers’ quarterback.
“I would leave that for you to judge,” he said. “At the end of the day, we went through our process with everyone and we felt good about Tua. There were a lot of things we liked about Tua. We liked Justin too …
“We chose Tua and we feel he’ll be a good player in the league. He’s developing and we’re happy with where he’s at right now.”
This is how the Dolphins act over a quarterback they’re happy with?
They chase after Houston’s scandalized quarterback as his replacement? They covet Deshaun Watson and his 22 sexual assault allegations and 10 more criminal complaints? They don’t deal for him at the trade deadline just because the allegations aren’t settled?
Let’s be clear: The Dolphins didn’t fail Tua by chasing Watson — or by all but admitting the chase will continue once this season ends. You can feel for Tagovailoa being in this uncomfortable position. That’s fine.
But the story here is Grier and coach Brian Flores failed the organization. They took the wrong quarterback. They drafted Tagovailoa No. 5 and left Herbert for the Chargers. It’s Dan Marino dropping to the Dolphins in 1983 in karmic reverse.
That’s why there was a lose-lose feel as Watson and Tagovailoa were prime topics as Grier took 12 minutes of questions on Wednesday. It tells of their thoughts of Tua they want to move quickly on from him.
It underlines the Dolphins’ desperate plight they consider Watson’s legal situation as mere baggage to be handled. They’re not the fixer, though. They draw the moral line on what the franchise will do there.
Grier was loud and clear in saying so after the 22 women’s Houston lawyer, Tony Buzbee, raised that possibility.
“I think any suggestion that this organization would be dealing behind the scenes and trying to influence decisions is absolutely ridiculous and categorically false,” Grier said. “To say that we’d be involved in that is just flat wrong. It pisses me off.”
Grier probably won’t be peeved much longer since he won’t be dealing with it come January when the Watson trade talks begin anew. The revolving door will revolve again. The question becomes if the next plan involves Watson.
He’s a great player, a young and elite quarterback. But it’s one thing to stand by your organization’s own star in such a circumstance, as the Los Angeles Lakers did Kobe Bryant or the Pittsburgh Steelers did Ben Roethlisberger. You can discuss counseling and second chances in that situation.
But take on such a player? Do the Dolphins stand for anything?
In their lawsuits, the women accuse Watson of exposing himself, touching them with his penis or kissing them against their will during massage appointments. In the sexual assault claims, Watson was accused in both cases to have pressured women to perform oral sex during massages and was accused in one of also having grabbed a woman’s buttocks and vagina. Watson’s lawyers have said “some sexual activity” happened during some of the appointments but that he never coerced anyone.
The football problem is Grier hasn’t recognized a quarterback standing before him. Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Herbert — the star names they passed on in the draft drop like bread crumbs on the trail to a 1-7 season.
The Dolphins aren’t a quarterback away, either. Grier’s barren drafts tell why. It was a tall order for any GM, this rebuilding plan of trading good players for draft picks in the manner the Dolphins theorized. It hasn’t worked at all as this season shows.
“We’ve added good, young players,” he said. “We’re happy with where they are, and we think they’ll keep developing and look forward to them all being good contributors in the future.”
The truth: Either they’re the slowest-progressing draft classes or their ceiling is of a group of average players. Who looks good? What young player is progressing to stardom?
The Dolphins traded Pro Bowl tackle Laremy Tunsil and All-Pro safety Minkah Fitzpatrick — and drafted mere pros in return, it looks.
Even the trade down for Jaylen Waddle, a rookie who has flashed his talent at times, looks clumsily wrong. As it stands: The Dolphins traded two No. 3 draft picks (in 2021 and 2022) for a sixth and 13th (in 2021 and San Francisco’s top picks in 2022 and 2023).
All this looks to be the mess passed on to the next general manager, just as it was passed to Grier a few years back. In Ross’ 13 years as Dolphin owner, the revolving door of general managers tells of a constant problem.
It’s symbolized by Tua and Watson now. The former is the Dolphins quarterback even the Dolphins don’t want. The latter is a scandalized quarterback who tells of their desperation. Lose-lose. Just like this season keeps trending.
