Nick Saban reacts to Chris Grier's ousting from Miami Dolphins

by: Steve Samra 2 hours ago SamraSource

Nick Saban’s time in Miami as the Dolphins coach overlapped with Chris Grier’s start with the franchise. He worked his way up through the front office to become the team’s general manager until he and the franchise opted to part ways on Friday morning.

During the latest edition of The Pat McAfee Show , Saban made his thoughts on the matter known. He has a ton of respect for Grier, and even though he’s the one forced to fall on the sword, he doesn’t think the Dolphins’ struggles fall squarely on the now-former general manager’s shoulders.

“He’s one of my favorites. You know, he was a scout there when I was the head coach many, many years ago. I think Chris Grier does a really, really good job, but I guess, you know, when you look at the product on the field, personnel has to do something about it and be responsible for it to some degree, and the coaches have to be responsible for how they develop it. And everybody’s got to make those decisions internally,” Saban explained.

“… It’s hard. I went through that in Cleveland. In ’93, we were 5–2 and we cut some players at the bye week, and we went 2-7 the rest of the way. There was a little bit of a mutiny in the building. But the one thing that pro players can do and can think of to keep things going is they need to play well to extend their career and to see how much money they can make. So, winning and losing doesn’t necessarily determine that.

“If they keep performing well, they’re still creating value for themselves, and I think that’s important for players to take advantage of, even if you’re not on a winning team. But I think the Dolphins — you know, I have a house in Florida, so a lot of people ask me, ‘What’s wrong with the Dolphins?’ And I can’t really answer that question completely. Obviously, they’ve had some injuries that could affect that, but they haven’t played great on defense, and they haven’t scored a lot of points, so they have lots of issues.”

Now, it’ll be about whether the Dolphins can fight back from their 2-7 start, or if the wheels really start to fall out. Pat McAfee doesn’t think it’ll be on the players if their season becomes a disaster, at least not effort-wise.

“Dolphins fans feel like they’ve been in purgatory throughout this entirety,” McAfee added. “But it wasn’t that long ago that this roster, this money, was like the hottest thing in the NFL. And now it’s the complete opposite of that. And Lamar Jackson comes back to town and does his thing against them.

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