MIAMI GARDENS — Here’s what’s happening with the Miami Dolphins right now — we’re watching the general manager Chris Grier/coach Mike McDaniel/quarterback Tua Tagovailoa era descend from mediocrity to failure. It’s an alarming slide.

I’ve written that this season was going to be mediocre and that a full-blown rebuild was coming in 2026. There’s no guarantee on either of those happening. I spoke to six players Wednesday in the locker room, some on the record and some off the record. They still believe this is a talented team and they can turn things around.

The ultimate judgment of the Grier-McDaniel-Tua era, an era that had high hopes and lots of talent, depends on such a turnaround. 

McDaniel could end this season, and his era, as the most disappointing Dolphins coach of the past dozen years or so. He’s 29-30 (.492), including playoffs, as Dolphins coach. He’s 29-28 (.509) in the regular season. 

As a point of reference, Brian Flores was 24-25 (.490) in the regular season, Adam Gase was 23-25 (.479), Tony Sparano was 29-32 (.475), and Joe Philbin was 24-28 (.462).

If McDaniel finishes 6-11 this season, which means going 5-6 the rest of the way, he finishes the season with a 34-34 (.500) Dolphins record. That’s the epitome of underachievement.

If McDaniel finishes this season 5-12, which means going 4-7 the rest of the way, he finishes the season with a 33-35 (.485) Dolphins record. That’s failure territory for his era.

If McDaniel any more unlucky, ending this season 4-13 or worse, he’ll have a 32-36 (.471) record and he’s definitely in failure territory.

Any winning percentage that’s worse than Gase, Flores, and Sparano, and only narrowly better than Philbin is a abject failure. McDaniel had little to say Wednesday when asked about his career record.

“I’m not in the mindset of reviewing eras,” McDaniel said, adding it doesn’t benefit anyone for him to evaluate his era and that his time is better served by solving problems, which is part of his job description.

The downfall of the McDaniel era started with that shocking 28-27 loss to Tennessee where Miami blew a lead late. He’s 11-18 (.379) since reaching a 9-3 record in 2023. 

It should be pointed out that nothing is final when it comes to evaluating the McDaniel era. The Dolphins could go, say, 7-4 the rest of the way and finish with eight wins. They’ve bounced back a few times in recent history, including in 2021 when they went from a 1-7 start to a 9-8 finish, or 2022 when they went from a three-game losing streak to a five-game winning streak, or 2024 when they went from a 2-6 start to a 6-3 finish.

Things this season seem far from those miraculous bounce backs, however, especially when you consider game-changing wide receiver Tyreek Hill (knee) is out for the season.

Tyreek’s absence brings to mind that Tua has fences to mend. During training camp, Tua was quick to say Tyreek had fences to mend after his infamous “I’m out” declaration following the 2024 season finale loss to the New York Jets.

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Now it’s Tua’s turn to work on relationships in the locker room after saying players have been late to and/or skipped player-led film-watching meetings. Tua put family business out in the streets, a big no-no in pro sports.

Tua, who has been given the best talent the franchise has had in two decades, is 39-29 (.574) as a starter. If he goes 4-7 the rest of the way he’s a respectable 43-36 (.544) as a starter. Ryan Tannehill was 42-46 (.488) as a Dolphins starter with much less talent. Ryan Fitzpatrick was 9-11 (.450) with almost no talent. So Tua’s ahead of them.

But what has Tua won?

He’s led the team to back-to-back playoff appearances, led the league’s No. 1 offense and earned a Pro Bowl berth. That’s the list of accomplishments over three-plus seasons under McDaniel. The signature wins are against Baltimore and Buffalo in back-to-back games in 2022. Yes, there was the Los Angeles Rams win in 2024 and the Los Angeles Chargers win in 2023.

But while noteworthy, those are basically run-of-the-mill regular-season wins.

As for Grier, his cupboard is bare. He’s been in charge of the entire operation since 2019 (he took over the draft in 2016) and you could argue things have gone downhill since then. No playoff wins. Disappointing draft picks. Under-performing free agents. Injuries galore. Signing or re-signing injured players. It’s hard to believe one of his first quotes upon taking over in January 2016 was, “The talk of dysfunction within this organization is over.”

If only that were true.

The Grier-McDaniel-Tua era might have reached the point of no return as far as being good. From where we sit today, there’s very little chance this era gets viewed as successful or anything even approaching successful. That ship sailed perhaps a year or more ago. There’s a better chance the Grier-McDaniel-Tua era is viewed as a failure.