With the firing of Cameron earlier today, now it's time to start the parade of candidates for the Miami Dolphins.
It was rumored earlier today that Rex Ryan, the recently fired defensive coordinator of the Ravens, would be one of the first to be interviewed. The Sun-Sentinel reports that the Dolphins have indeed reached out to Ryan for an interview. It is unknown when it will take place.
The Dolphins have also received permission to interview Vikings defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, according to the Miami Herald. This interview is also yet to be scheduled.
It's interesting, though, that 2 of the early candidates being interviewed have no connections to Bill Parcells or Jeff Ireland. One of the reasons Cameron was fired, according to Ireland, was because the two were not "familiar" with Cameron. It's quite likely that Frazier is being interviewed as a way to satisfy the Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for head coaching vacancies. Why else would Parcells want to interview a defensive coach who is most familiar with running the "Tampa 2" defensive scheme?
In my view, this early parade of candidates might just be a way for Parcells and Ireland to prevent anyone from catching on to the very possible "verbal agreement" that has been rumored to already be in place with Tony Sparano. Meanwhile, Sparano is scheduled to interview with the Atlanta Falcons tomorrow for their head coaching job. So it'll be interesting to see when Parcells and Ireland finally get their interview with Sparano. Could they already be on their way to Dallas tonight? Maybe. They could also meet with Sparano tomorrow night. Who knows? What I do know is that the Dolphins have to get their meeting in before next week, at which time any coaches currently with a playoff team are not allowed to interview for other jobs. If they don't do so by then, they'll be forced to wait until Dallas is eliminated or until after the Super Bowl (should Dallas make it that far).
So time is certainly of the essence.