A lot of people who talk and write about football owe coach Flores and Dolphins apology

The upstart Miami Dolphins have won three of five, including two against teams in the playoff conversation.

So this seems like the perfect time to appreciate just how poorly some of the national commentary from earlier in the season ago has aged.

▪ Before the opener, Louis Riddick, the former Redskins and Eagles director of pro personnel, said the Dolphins had gone too far in stripping down their roster and that “Brian Flores has been put in an impossible situation.”

▪ Former NFL Players Association President Dominique Foxworth, the week after the Dolphins’ 43-0 loss to the Patriots, said the Dolphins’ tear-down plan was “unethical and morally reprehensible as far as I’m concerned.”

▪ Just five weeks ago, Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young said the following on ESPN: “What the Miami Dolphins have done this year is put people at risk physically and it’s not right. You can’t be so irresponsible to peoples’ health. It’s not right.”

▪ After the Dolphins’ nationally televised loss to the Steelers, many — including the entire panel on ESPN’s “Get Up” — used Flores’ (wrong) decision to blitz eight on third-and-20 as a sign that even the coaches were in on the tank. Mike Greenberg called it “disgraceful.”

Now, there’s not a single person in sports media that hasn’t said or written something they regret when time and events prove them wrong. We here at the Herald engaged in some (misguided) hyperbole earlier this year, too.

But the over-the-top, personal nature of some of the remarks made about this franchise seemed severe at the time, and downright absurd in light of how well the Dolphins have played since their bye.

Yes, they are talent-deficient. This is still probably the worst roster in football, even with the emergence of players like DeVante Parker, Mike Gesicki, Eric Rowe and Nik Needham.

But there’s a big difference between (rightly) pointing out shortcomings and calling an entire organization immoral.

Flores said Monday that he “[doesn’t] know much about it,” when asked about the pointed criticism, adding “it doesn’t matter what anyone else says.”

Flores later said: “To me, in this league, if your only motivation is what everyone else says, you’re probably not going to be here that long. I think you’ve got to have an internal motivation, an internal drive, a constant chip on your shoulder.”

He already has proven the critics wrong. And given the Dolphins’ closing schedule — their next three opponents, the Jets, Giants and Bengals, have a combined .194 winning percentage — four or even five wins on the season is a real possibility.

What’s more, the Dolphins might actually be too good. They wanted to emerge from this season in a position to land their franchise quarterback in the draft, and for now, that plan is still viable. They’d pick fourth if the season ended today. Yes, if they somehow finish 6-10, they could drop out of the top 10 altogether. But the computer models don’t think that’s likely.

ESPN’s Football Power Index projects the Dolphins to own the fourth, 19th (acquired from the Steelers in the Minkah Fitzpatrick trade) and 24th (Texans, Laremy Tunsil trade) picks in April’s draft, the network’s reporter Cameron Wolfe tweeted Monday.

Even after Sunday’s win, the Dolphins still have a 69.7 percent chance at picking in the top 5 and a 98.7 percent chance of doing so in the top 10.

So, in a bizarre way, this is setting the Dolphins up perfectly to draft the quarterback many thought they’d land all along. Tua Tagovailoa could make a lot of sense at, say, No. 6 overall, given the Dolphins’ need and his troublesome injury history. And if they need to move up a spot or two to ensure they get him, they will have in estimated 14 draft picks at their disposal.

And here’s a way the Dolphins winning this year actually helps their offseason plan:

They’re proving to free agents that this is a capable, and perhaps even excellent, coaching staff on a franchise trending the right direction. If the Dolphins went winless and ended up one of the worst teams in league history, they might have had to pay a premium to lure the best players to Miami. Now, they look more like run-of-the-mill bad team, albeit a bad team with some $120 million in salary cap space next spring.

“We’re going to be a tough, smart, disciplined team,” Flores said. “We’re going to work hard, we’re going to give great effort, we’re going to compete. If that’s the type of player you are, or that’s the type of person you are, then this is the right place for you. If you’re not, it’s not the right place for you. If that’s attractive, great, but that’s the way it is. We’re not going to change.”

One quick postscript. The narrative nationally has changed dramatically in the last three weeks. Flores was actually the toast of Get Up Monday after the Dolphins successfully executed a fake field goal in their win over the Eagles.

“That’s why B-Flo is an absolute is an absolute genius down there in Miami,” panelist Pat McAfee said.

It seems irony truly is alive and well.