Monday after the regular season ends is usually a busy day for front offices across the NFL. It is when coaches and general managers are let go following the end of the season. The Vikings, Bears, Giants and Dolphins all moved on from either their general manager, coach or both after missing the postseason. That came in addition to Vic Fangio losing his job on Sunday when the Broncos’ season ended on Saturday night.

Most of these firings were predictable. Pressure had been building in Minnesota, Chicago and New York all season. Denver stumbled down the stretch and perhaps Fangio took too much blame for a team whose fatal flaw was at quarterback. That was not something he had control over. That being said, the Broncos went 19-30 in his tenure.

Then there is what happened in Miami, which cannot be classified as anything other than a colossal mistake. Brian Flores took a young, developing roster to the brink of the playoffs two years in a row. He posted back-to-back winning seasons, overcoming uneven drafting by the front office. Austin Jackson, Noah Igbinoghene, Liam Eichenberg have all gotten off to rough starts in South Beach. Then there are free-agent decisions like signing Will Fuller, who played in two games and recorded four receptions, and releasing Kyle van Noy, who had six sacks in 14 games for the Dolphins in 2020.

Sure, you can hold not reaching the playoffs over Flores’ head at this point, but that feels incredibly unreasonable. Tua Tagovailoa has struggled at times early in his career, but seemed to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem down the stretch for Miami. Just as he was finally settling into his role as franchise quarterback, this now removes any sense of stability for him heading into his third season.

Beyond any of that, Flores was beating the Patriots! He went 4-2 over his three seasons against his former team, including sweeping them in 2021. Former Bill Belichick assistants have rarely had success against him. It is truly inexplicable for the team to move on from him, especially at this point. Yes, the Dolphins started the season terribly, but they have so many young players in key positions. I think the second half of the year is closer to what that team really is right now: a wildcard-caliber team that seemed to be headed in the right direction.

This is just hard to understand. Miami does not need to look far to see what true futility looks like. The in-state Jaguars had the biggest distraction in the league as their head coach, secured their second consecutive No. 1 pick in the NFL draft and largely wasted the first year of Trevor Lawrence’s career. Then there is the team in their own division. The Jets have had one winning season since 2010, have finished last in the AFC East in five of the past six seasons and are in the midst of at least their third rebuild in the past 12 years.

Flores is one of the most-respected leaders in the NFL. He inherited a team headed nowhere with a huge question mark at quarterback and a roster that needed to be torn down. This is going to be an attractive head coaching opening with a young quarterback, tons of cap space and a talented defense.

For Flores, I hope he gets picked up right away. The Bears, Vikings, Giants, Broncos and Jaguars should all have him on their shortlist of coaches to interview. He would be an upgrade over most of the coaches that were previously in place, with Mike Zimmer and Fangio standing out as potential outliers.

As a Jets fan, I should be thrilled by this news. I don’t really see someone well-suited to take over this franchise and guide them to immediate success. More likely than not, the new coach will likely run Tagovailoa out of town and send the Dolphins into another rebuild.

However, I am more disappointed that a good coach was unjustly fired. I think Flores had done enough to deserve at least one more year to show he could get this team over the hump and into the postseason. If he failed to do that again in 2022, then I think it would have been fair to make a change.

All in all, this is a shocking move. Miami will be one of the most interesting teams to watch this offseason as they search for a new coach and look to take the next step.