Pat Flaherty Fired as Dolphins' OL Coach; Dave DeGuglielmo Named as Replacement

The Miami Dolphins fired offensive line coach Pat Flaherty and named Dave DeGuglielmo as his successor, the team announced Monday.

According to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, Flaherty "struggled to implement the new system, and it’s been an issue since the spring."

Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald echoed the report, tweeting Flaherty's departure was a "football decision" and not related to anything that happened away from the field.

DeGuglielmo was working on the staff as an assistant after having coached the Indianapolis Colts' offensive line in 2018.

The Dolphins hired Flaherty in February shortly after announcing Brian Flores as their new head coach. He had most recently been the Jacksonville Jaguars' offensive line coach in 2017 and 2018.

Miami brought Flaherty in to turn around a unit that ranked 14th in adjusted line yards and 31st in adjusted sack rate, per Football Outsiders.

The Sun Sentinel's Omar Kelly wrote Sunday from Dolphins training camp the offensive line remained a work in progress:

"In a drill designed around seeing what unit can impose their will, Flaherty's unit failed to get Miami's tailbacks in the end zone consistently, and were occasionally pushed back from the goal line by the Dolphins defense.

"One play on Saturday was so bad defensive tackle Vincent Taylor was in the backfield so fast he drove the center into Ryan Fitzpatrick so hard the Dolphins' first-team quarterback ended up on the ground, and could have gotten hurt."

Firing Flaherty less than a year into the job is quite an about-face, but the alternative was sticking with a position coach who didn't—in retrospect—inspire confidence in Flores.

Getting DeGuglielmo allows him to spend some time with the line for a little more than a month before the regular season kicks off. Miami's first preseason game is Aug. 8 against the Atlanta Falcons and then it officially opens the year Sept. 8 against the Baltimore Ravens.