The Miami Dolphins are arguably the worst team in football. The team fell to 1-5 in London on Sunday morning after an embarrassing loss against the — winless at the time — Jacksonville Jaguars.

There are plenty of legitimate on-the-field excuses and drafting gaffs to blame for this start, but Miami’s issues aren’t about injuries, talent, or even drafting — it’s a coaching philosophy problem that is infecting all levels of this putrid franchise.

Brain Flores’ is a Patriots’ disciple, and his philosophy is stolen right from the “Patriots’ way.” It’s his way or the highway. It’s toughness over scheme. That philosophy is rigid, and frankly, out of touch and out of date with the current NFL landscape.

The Patriot way worked not because it was the best way to build an NFL team, but because it was headed by the best coach of all time and the best quarterback of all time. Brian Flores is not Bill Belichick, and whatever you think of Tua Tagovailoa, he is not Tom Brady.

For Flores, that philosophy translated into making the Dolphins a well-disciplined team with a great culture that punched other teams in the mouth with physicality in the running game won with defense and showed up ready to compete every single week.

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Miami isn’t succeeding in any of the areas that are supposed to be Flores’ calling card.

The Dolphins’ defense ranks 24th in the NFL in DVOA, according to Football Outsiders, is allowing 29 points per game good for 28th in the NFL, and is giving up 417.8 yards per game, which is good for 29th in the NFL.

The Dolphins are the sixth most penalized team in the NFL this season, and as for a “physical running game,” Miami ranks dead last in rushing yards per game this season.

Miami’s “culture” hasn’t exactly been stellar either. Flores refusing to budge on where Minkah Fitzpatrick would play cost them an All-Pro safety. His handling of the quarterback situation last season stunted Tagovailoa’s development and created a divide in the locker room.

Even this season, Tagovailoa’s trainer took to Twitter to bash the head coach for being stubborn and not being someone the players could talk to. Whether he’s right or wrong doesn’t really matter. A tightly run ship doesn’t have this problem, and this is not the first person to make these claims about Flores.

This doesn’t even get into Miami’s propensity for signing and trading for players only to release them less than a year later, which has — per multiple reports — made agents wary of dealing with Miami.

Those traits and philosophy are supposed to be Flores’ identity as a head coach. The things he is supposed to instill in his players. The traits he hangs his hat on. His brand. But none of them are present in the 2021 Dolphins.

I say all of that to say this: there is not a single successful team in the NFL that builds their team with the philosophy Miami is trying to build there’s. Not. A. Single. One.

Yes, there are teams with good defenses, obviously. However, all of them either have dynamic quarterbacks and/or young up-and-coming play-callers like Tampa Bay and Baltimore.

Miami had an opportunity to hire one of those up-and-coming play-callers this offseason. Instead, they did it the Patriot Way and hired a familiar face who wasn’t going to challenge Flores’ philosophy and beliefs.

That works when you have Brady and Belichick but for everyone else, it prevents team’s from evolving and changing with the times. Miami needed a shakeup, but that’s not how Flores rolls.

You can’t win games with a stalwart defense and an offense that just scrapes by anymore. Defensive regression — like Thanos in Avengers Infinity War — is inevitable. The age of game managers is over. That goes for both quarterbacks and head coaches.

Flores’ philosophy has crept its way into every facet of this franchise whether that is on the field or in the draft room.

On the field, Miami runs a criminally archaic offense despite almost never running the ball — something modern analytics would agree with but not when you can’t throw the ball deep, they are wildly conservative in key situations like when leading and before halftime. They are trying to emulate the dink and dunk era of Patriots football.

There are two problems with that. One, Tom Brady is the most clutch quarterback of all time and one of the smartest. Two, the Patriots pushed the ball down the field more than people remember.

In the draft room, Miami selected an incredibly raw cornerback — who has not dressed in multiple games this season — in the first round despite having two Pro-Bowl CBs. What does Flores love more than anything? Defensive backs.

They drafted two limited offensive linemen who are road graders — Kindley and Hunt — to impose their physical style of offense. Kindley is a backup, and Hunt has been “okay” at best. That doesn’t even get into the disaster Austin Jackson has been since getting selected at number 18 overall.

Some of the blame for all the on-field problems should be at the feet of the players, and general manager Chris Grier should get plenty of blame for the misses in the 2019 draft and in free agency, but all of them were in service of fulfilling Flores’ greater vision.

When Flores took the reins in 2019 he was given control over essentially everything. He shares personnel duties with Grier, a responsibility only a few NFL coaches have, and he is responsible for all of the coaching changes from the past three years. So, he’s the person on the hook for the team’s philosophy and how the roster is constructed more than anyone. He’s the captain of this ship, and it is sinking.

Flores is not the only problem, and I actually don’t think he’s a horrible head coach. However, his culture and philosophy are the foundation of this team and all the decisions it makes — therefore Miami’s foundation is inherently flawed and not sustainable.

They can not begin to fix what’s wrong on the field or in the draft room without acknowledging their overarching thought process isn’t getting it done, and that starts with Flores.

The Dolphins tried to zig when the entire league zagged, and for a brief and savory moment, it looked like it worked. But now, at 1-5 with massive holes at key position groups, a question mark at quarterback, a defense in free fall, and an uninspiring offense playbook, the writing is on the wall.

Miami needs to strip away the old foundation and build a new one.