The reason the Dolphins did nothing on Monday

The Dolphins carried on Monday, business as usual, while other NFL teams undergoing change fired their coaches and one fired both their coach and general manager.

The reason for the relative calm?

According to a source familiar with the situation, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross had never expected Monday would be about possibly firing general manager Jeff Ireland or head coach Joe Philbin and so he wasn't prepared to do either.

The Dolphins owner instead expected Monday to be about his team preparing for a playoff game next weekend.

And that, Ross planned, meant the Dolphins brass would have remained status quo going forward -- with Ireland as the GM and Philbin as the coach in 2014.

But the Dolphins not only lost their penultimate game against Buffalo but their season-finale against the New York Jets as well. And that changed everything.

Suddenly an owner who expected to be making no change at GM or head coach this offseason was forced to begin considering just that.  And that, the source says, is exactly what is happening.

Ross is, as he told The Miami Herald Sunday afternoon, "looking at everything."

He is weighing all his options. He is consulting with trusted people. He is considering the ramifications of standing pat as well as making moves.

Understand that this can be complicated.

Fans and even media can call for the ouster of this person or that with no ramifications. Ross doesn't have that luxury. If he decides to fire someone, he has to have a plan in place that he believes will lead to a better situation than the current one.

He cannot, for example, simply fire Ireland and keep Philbin -- the sceanario believed most likely -- without weighing how he would replace his general manager. Would he conduct a search that would be hamstrung by the fact he's already got a coach on board? Would he conduct a search for a GM candidate to whom he'd give authority to fire Philbin? Would he promote a GM from within?

Ross also must consider if he wants to change the structure of the organization.

Does he want a GM and a coach who report only to him, which is the Dolphins current structure? Does he want to hire a czar of sorts to whom the coach and GM would report? Does he want to simply stand pat and not fire anyone?

The Dolphins did nothing on Monday. But apparently owner Stephen Ross was working.