Dolphins coaches keep coming and going

The jump start Jeffrey Lurie thought he was getting by "releasing" Chip Kelly six days before the Eagles' final game did not stop Adam Gase from taking the job in South Florida rather than the one in South Philly.

Lots of reports said Lurie and his search committee wanted to conduct a second interview with Gase, who emerged as the most popular candidate among several of the seven NFL teams searching for a head coach. Instead, he went to Miami and accepted a five-year offer to try to lead the Dolphins out of a 21st-century funk in which they have made only three playoff appearances and won just one postseason game.

Since Don Shula's 26-year run in Miami ended in 1995, the Dolphins have had nine head coaches, including interims, in 20 years with none of them lasting more than four seasons. The Dolphins, in fact, are the perfect example of how difficult it is to get this head coaching thing right.

They tried replacing a legend (Shula) with Jimmy Johnson, who had been quite successful replacing another legend (Tom Landry) in Dallas.

Didn't work.

Johnson burned out after four seasons, opting for a more serene life on national television and in his Florida Keys home. He left without a playoff victory even though he had Hall of Famer Dan Marino at quarterback.

One of Johnson's disciples - Dave Wannstedt - replaced him. He was Johnson's defensive coordinator when the Cowboys won the franchise's first of three Super Bowls in the 1990s, but he had already failed as a head coach in Chicago. Despite four winning seasons with Jay Fiedler at quarterback, Wannstedt won only one playoff game and was fired with a 1-8 record in the middle of his fifth season.

After that, the Dolphins turned to Nick Saban, who was two years removed from leading Louisiana State to a national championship. He was the college coach everybody wanted. He was Chip Kelly before Chip Kelly. He lasted two seasons, going 6-10 in the second one.

Up next was Cam Cameron. He was the offensive coordinator that every team in search of a head coach wanted to have after the 2006 season because his San Diego Chargers had led the league in scoring that year. He lasted one season, which matched the number of games his team won but fell two short of the number of Dolphins players who were arrested.

The next bright idea did indeed seem pretty bright at the time. Owner Wayne Huizenga hired Bill Parcells as executive vice president of football operations. If that title sounds familiar, it's because Howie Roseman holds the same one with the Eagles. Rest assured, Parcells had a stronger voice with the Dolphins than Roseman had with the Eagles even before the Kelly coup.

Maybe the Eagles have something similar in mind with former New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin, who reportedly is scheduled to interview for the coaching job Monday. Maybe they want him to be that strong voice with a wealth of NFL knowledge and relationships and not the coach at all.

If that's the case, they should remember that the Parcells model did not work in Miami. The Dolphins went 11-5 but lost a wild-card playoff game that first season. They have not had a winning season since, but they have had four more failed head coaches.

Now they have Adam Gase, and the Eagles do not. Gase, 37, may well be the right guy for the Dolphins. He comes highly recommended by Peyton Manning. The two worked together for four seasons in Denver, but realistically how difficult must it be to work with Manning? Papa John could coach him.

Gase also gets credit for his work with Jay Cutler in his only season as the Chicago Bears' offensive coordinator. Examine the numbers, however, and they are not that much better than those in the quarterback's previous five seasons.

Regardless, Gase is off the Eagles' list. Doug Pederson interviewed for the job Sunday, with Coughlin on deck.

The appeal of Pederson, the offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs, is that he has served for seven seasons under Andy Reid, the most successful and trusted coach during Lurie's 21-year tenure as Eagles owner. I'd argue that he has gotten more out of Alex Smith than Gase did out of Cutler this season.

Coughlin is 69 and coming off three straight losing seasons with the Giants. I don't doubt he has a lot of energy, but the fact that six of his last seven seasons ended with the Giants out of the postseason is a real concern. The way he handled the Odell Beckham Jr. meltdown against Carolina was also deplorable.

The other guys to interview so far were Eagles running backs coach Duce Staley, Giants offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo, and Eagles offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur.

Shurmur, 50, remains at the top of my list among those who have interviewed. In addition to the 10 seasons he spent under Reid with the Eagles, he also got strong insight from Mike Holmgren when Shurmur was the head coach in Cleveland, and he knows the best parts of Kelly's offense, which worked pretty well at times during the 2013 and 2014 seasons.

Whatever Lurie decides, there is plenty of proof down in South Florida that there are lots of ways to get this all wrong.

bbrookover@phillynews.com

@brookob