What Dolphins’ Flores is doing that other Belichick disciples couldn’t. Tua still limited

ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky made an interesting point the other day in sizing up Brian Flores’ Miami Dolphins.

“This is the first real Bill Belichick disciple where it actually looks like New England on tape,” the former NFL backup QB said. “And that’s not to discredit Miami. That’s to applaud them and speak glowingly of them. That’s the first one that when I watch them on tape and go, ‘Man that looks a lot like New England week to week.’”

For all of Bill Belichick’s success — including five Super Bowl championships — his New England coaching tree hasn’t been particularly successful.

The eight men who worked for him in New England and went on to be head coaches elsewhere have a combined 168-236-2 record (a 41.4 winning percentage). Two of the eight were fired this year — Bill O’Brien by the Texans and Matt Patricia by the Lions.

Flores, who’s 12-15 as Dolphins coach, has a chance to be the best of that group, though it’s obviously too early to know.

What’s notable, though, is that while Flores has implemented a defense system very similar to New England — and taken a half dozen of their players — he hasn’t tried to precisely emulate Belichick’s personality, according to players who played for both New England and Miami.

But there are a few exceptions.

Last year, Dolphins and former Patriots defensive back Eric Rowe told me one of them:

“There are a couple things he told us he’s taken from Bill,” Rowe said. “He mentions ‘the trifecta’ to help us stay out of trouble. The trifecta is [toxic relationships], alcohol and ---holes.

“He said, ‘I’m taking it from Bill’. It’s true. That’s how we get in trouble. Since [2019] training camp, he said those are three things that usually play into you getting in trouble. People on the streets know. Bill says it all the time, every bye week, every long weekend, every spring, he’d say ‘stay away from the trifecta.’”

But Flores smartly dumped the Patriots offensive approach — which was too complicated for some players — in his New Year’s Eve decision to fire coordinator Chad O’Shea and lure Chan Gailey out of retirement to run his offense.

At least from national TV voices, there’s already seemingly a strong conviction that Flores will be a long-term success. He’s receiving the type of effusive praise that former Belichick Patriots assistants has seldom garnered as head coaches.

“Flores is going to be coach of the year,” CBS’ Boomer Esiason said by phone.

“He’s just next level coaching,” Showtime analyst and former Pro Bowl receiver Brandon Marshall said. “And for that reason, the Dolphins are going to have their future set up for success for the next 10 years because of this guy.”

Of the eight Belichick Patriots assistants who have gone onto head coaching jobs, only one — O’Brien — has a winning record (52-48).

He won four division titles and yet his tenure — which ended with his firing after an 0-4 start this season — isn’t viewed as a great success because the Texans never advanced deep in postseason and O’Brien appears to have been snookered in trades with the Dolphins involving Laremy Tunsil and Arizona involving All Pro receiver DeAndre Hopkins. O’Brien served several roles under Belichick, including offensive coordinator.

Here’s how the other Belichick Patriots disciples have done:

▪ Romeo Crenell, the Patriots’ former defensive coordinator and now the Texans’ interim coach, is 32-58 as a head coach with Cleveland, Kansas City and Houston.

▪ Eric Mangini, another former Patriots defensive coordinator, was 33-47 as head coach of the Jets and Browns.

▪ Josh McDaniels, New England’s former and current offensive coordinator, was 11-17 as head coach of the Denver Broncos, then backed out of the Colts head job after initially accepting it.

▪ Patricia, Belichick’s former defensive coordinator, was 13-29-1 as Detroit’s coach, producing far worse results than the fired Jim Caldwell extracted as his predecessor.

▪ Kliff Kingsbury, who was the Patriots quarterback and offensive quality control coach in 2003, has less experience with Belichick than the others on this list and is 11-15-1 in his two-year tenure as the Arizona Cardinals coach.

▪ Joe Judge, Belichick’s former special teams coordinator and wide receiver coach, is 4-7 in his first year as the Giants head coach.

Three Belichick assistants from his pre-21st century tenure as Cleveland’s head coach became NFL head coaches: Nick Saban (15-17 as Dolphins coach but perhaps the best college football coach of all time) Al Groh (9-7 with the Jets) and Jim Schwartz (29-51).

Flores — who was a scout, special teams coach, safeties coach, linebackers coach and pseudo defensive coordinator in New England — has done several things better than other former Patriots assistants who got head jobs.

Among them: Picking the right Patriots players to join him here. Among former Patriots on the roster, Eric Rowe, Kyle Van Noy, Elandon Roberts and Ted Karras have all been assets.

One player on last year’s team — who didn’t want to speak publicly about the Belichick/Flores similarities — cited a couple commonalities in the coaches: 1) Both do a good job in preparing teams for every possible game scenario and 2) Both are skilled strategists.

As ESPN’s Mina Kimes said: “They always come in week to week with a different plan, which is very Patriots like. And they execute. That’s why they’re a terrifying team.”

3) The player said both coaches will coach you “super hard. You have to be mentally tough” to play for either Belichick or Flores.

“He expects excellence,” second-year cornerback Nick Needham said. “You have to push yourself as hard as you can to live up to the potential he has for you.”

INJURY UPDATE

Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was limited in practice for a second consecutive day Thursday with a thumb injury and his status for Sunday’s game against Cincinnati remains in question. Ryan Fitzpatrick would start if Tagovailoa isn’t deemed ready to start. Here’s what Flores said about Tagovailoa’s status before Thursday’s practice. Flores has said Tagovailoa is the starter if he’s healthy.

Meanwhile, Flores said the Dolphins have enough at running back even with Salvon Ahmed (shoulder) and DeAndre Washington (hamstring) injured and Myles Gaskin working his way back from a sprained MCL.

Ahmed remained limited in practice on Thursday. Gaskin was at practice but remains on injured reserve. Washington missed a second consecutive day of practice. Matt Breida and Patrick Laird are the only healthy running backs on the roster.

Meanwhile, receiver Malcolm Perry — who didn’t practice Wednesday with a chest injury — was able to practice on a limited basis on Thursday. Guard Solomon Kindley remained limited with a foot injury.

THIS AND THAT

▪ Bengals coach Zac Taylor said his team has been preparing to face both Dolphins quarterbacks — Fitzpatrick and Tagovailoa — and noted that he studied Tagovailoa before the team drafted Joe Burrow first overall. Burrow is out for the season with a knee injury.

“We watched every game he played in and certainly he was a premier quarterback in his class and [we had a sense we might go in] that direction with the first pick,” Taylor said of Tagovailoa. “So we watched plenty of him. Tremendous competitor, can get the ball out quick, really accurate. He’s got the arm strength to make all the plays and can really create in the pocket. He can move around and just avoid the hits back there and extend plays and really dangerous that way. So just a really, really good person, good quarterback, someone who would love to have in the organization.”

▪ Jesse Davis, informed he has received effusive praise from offensive line coach Steve Marshall for his value to the team and his ability to start at multiple positions, said: “It’s nice to hear. I do work hard at this position [guard and tackle]. I just want to be on the field. The fastest way off the field is to tell somebody, ‘No, I don’t want to play that position.’ I enjoy the challenges it brings. Sometimes it’s tough.”