Omar Kelly: How much would Jim Harbaugh and Herbert have changed Dolphins?

Omar Kelly, Miami Herald on Oct 11, 2025

Published in Football

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MIAMI — It’s dangerous to live life with regrets, but we all have them.

Two of the Miami Dolphins’ biggest second-guess specials will grace the Hard Rock Stadium field Sunday when Miami plays the Los Angeles Chargers, and their presence in South Florida should make us all wonder what if.

What if Jim Harbaugh had picked the Dolphins instead of the San Francisco 49ers when owner Steve Ross and a continent went to recruit him to leave Stanford in 2011, and become Miami’s head coach, despite the fact that the Dolphins still had one (the late Tony Sparano)?

What if Miami had selected a healthy Justin Herbert with the fifth overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft instead of drafting an injured Tua Tagovailoa, one spot before the Chargers chose their franchise quarterback.

Even though Tagovailoa and Herbert have had comparable careers to this point when it comes to statistical accomplishments, overall winning record and playoff wins (zero), nobody will debate that Herbert’s more durable, and a superior athlete.

What if Ross hadn’t made a pledge to not pursue Harbaugh for the second time, luring him from the University of Michigan in 2022, the offseason Miami illegally courted Sean Payton, who had recently stepped down as the New Orleans Saints head coach and top executive, and then settled on Mike McDaniel to replace a fired Brian Flores in the middle of what turned into this franchise’s failed seven-year rebuild?

We can’t place the blame for these two uncomfortable decisions on the feet of one (Ross) or two people (general manager Chris Grier). These are organizational decisions that actually require willing dance partners.

Not everyone is enamored with South Florida, and that’s their right (just ask Nick Saban, who couldn’t leave the Dolphins fast enough to joint the Alabama Crimson Tide).

With that said, It’s fairly understood in the NFL community that Harbaugh would have only left the Wolverines — Ross’ college franchise since he’s one of the University of Michigan’s biggest boosters — for a California team.

Other NFL franchises had pursued him for years, and the former Chicago Bears quarterback-turned-head coach consistently turned them down, with the 49ers and the Chargers — two California teams — being the exceptions.

And from a quarterback standpoint, for years sources have told me Flores wasn’t exactly in love with Tagovailoa (which is clear from how he treated him in hindsight), but he didn’t want Herbert, either. Flores’ preference of quarterbacks was Green Bay’s Jordan Love, who was selected later in the first round of the 2020 NFL draft, but he failed to sell the rest of the franchise’s decision-makers on Love.

We can second-guess every decision this franchise has made for three decades, and some are smack-the-forehead bad (like drafting Ronnie Brown over Aaron Rodgers, passing on Drew Brees twice, or not drafting Lamar Jackson).

But these specific second-guess specials will be on the field coaching and playing the Dolphins on Sunday, and their performance will likely be a constant reminder that South Florida’s NFL franchise likely won’t exit the mediocrity merry-go-round until better decision-makers are put in place.

At this point it’s hard to justify that Harbaugh has the Chargers further along than the Dolphins after two seasons.

Sure, Harbaugh led Los Angeles to an 11-6 record in his first season, but McDaniel did that in his second season (2023), and both teams lost their only playoff games.

Outside of having a superior arm, significantly more rushing yards and touchdowns (1,370 and 13 rushing touchdowns), and playing more games (84), there’s nothing quantifiable that proves Herbert’s the superior quarterback when compared to Tagovailoa.

Herbert’s team issues are always placed on someone else, while Tagovailoa’s on pace to become the third quarterback in NFL history to produce a fourth consecutive 100 passer-rated season, and has a better winning percentage (39-28, which equates to 58%) than Herbert, who is 44-40 (52%) as a starter in the regular season.

Maybe Harbaugh and Herbert make the Chargers a Super Bowl contender in the next five seasons. If that happens it will serve as a constant reminder of “what if” this franchise finally got their act together, and made better decisions. But there’s no guarantee the Harbaugh’s rebuild of the Chargers roster won’t age quickly like Miami’s did.

Only time and their upcoming success will dictate that. But whether the Chargers get to the mountaintop or not, we need to let their presence at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday serve as a reminder, an encouragement, that this franchise needs to make better decisions, the kind of decisions that will help, and not hinder this fragile franchise’s future.