DAVIE, Fla. -- Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross thinks years of instability in the coaching and quarterback jobs are over, and the team's losing will end soon, too.
Speaking with reporters Monday, Ross said he was pleased about the work of first-year coach Joe Philbin and rookie quarterback Ryan Tannehill, even though the Dolphins went 7-9 to finish below .500 for the fourth consecutive season.
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"The two biggest ingredients in a winning team are your coach -- and I think we have our head coach -- and second is a quarterback you can build around," Ross said. "This is a quarterback-centric league, and you see every great team that is there consistently has a quarterback. I think we have our quarterback.
"Once you are there, it is a lot easier, I think, to put the building blocks around them."
Ross believes those blocks can be in place in 2013. When asked the organization's plan for the coming year, he laughed and said: "Win."
Philbin was hired a year ago as a first-time head coach - and Miami's seventh coach in eight years - after Ross unsuccessfully courted Jim Harbaugh in 2011 and Jeff Fisher in early 2012. While Philbin wasn't the first choice, Ross said he was impressed by the coach's organizational skills on the job, and the way he followed through on the plan he laid out before the season.
"We have a really solid head coach here, and a guy that I think will be here a long time and hopefully bring all those victories that everybody wants," Ross said.
Tannehill, the first quarterback drafted in the first round by Miami since Dan Marino in 1983, became the first Dolphins rookie QB to start all 16 games.
"What really impressed me is his intelligence and the type of person he is," Ross said. "He's a high-character guy, and that's what you want."
Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press
