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The Miami Dolphins have begun their search for a new offensive coordinator after relieving Mike Sherman of his duties earlier this week. Sherman's offense failed to deliver on the promise of an explosive, fast-paced attack, and failed to score more than a lone touchdown over the final two weeks of the season, when one win would have earned the team a playoff berth.
The Dolphins averaged less than 20 points per game this season.
The first person to be interviewed for the position appears to be Philadelphia Eagles quarterbacks coach Bill Lazor:
Eagles QB coach Bill Lazor is in Miami today interviewing for the Dolphins OC job, per a league source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 8, 2014
Lazor's highest position in the NFL has been as a quarterbacks coach, having held that title with the Eagles for a year, with the Seattle Seahawks from 2008-2009, and the Washington Redskins from 2006-2007. As a college coach, Lazor has been an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for both Virginia (2010-2012) and Buffalo (2001-2002).
He severed as the starting quarterback at Cornell from 1991-1993.
About Lazor as a potential candidate for an offensive coordinator position, Bleeding Green Nation recently wrote:
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Lazor has coached in the NFL and in college. He has been a coordinator and positional assistant. He's only 41 years old, but already has 20 seasons of experience as an assistant coach. That means he knows what he's doing, but is still young enough to have an open mind and be considered a coach on the rise. The older a coach gets, the more he is considered set in his ways, which isn't always an attractive thing. Lazor could be an offensive coordinator candidate at the NFL level. I'm sure some colleges would love to hire him for that role, but I doubt he'd have interest. The only way he's going back to college is to be a head coach. I don't think it is likely another NFL team comes after him to be the offensive coordinator this year, but that could happen in the future.
It appears their assessment that no one would approach Lazor for an offensive coordinator position is off, but the rest of the assessment it fair. He is young, and he could scare teams off because of that age. But, that could also be exactly what draws a team like the Dolphins, who are trying to shake off the Tony Sparano era-power running game and the Mike Sherman-conservative offense.
It will probably be the first of many potential offensive coordinator interviews over the next few days, but it does give us a picture that the team is looking to more than just the Green Bay Packers tree, and could be looking to grab elements of the Eagles' fast-paced offense.
