Now that Jeff Fisher has accepted the Rams' head coaching job, the Dolphins' top three candidates have been reduced to Packers offensive coordinator Joe Philbin, interim coach Todd Bowles and Denver offensive coordinator Mike McCoy.

Surely, these can't be the best three men to lead the Dolphins, but Miami has little choice at this point.

In the last 15 years, the Dolphins have gone from a team that two-time Super Bowl-winning coach Jimmy Johnson coveted to chasing Nick Saban to settling for offensive coordinator Cam Cameron, followed by the hiring of little-known offensive line coach Tony Sparano.

Jim Harbuagh turned the Dolphins down last year, and Fisher did this year -- after Bill Cowher and Jon Gruden said they would rather work in television than come to Miami.

We're seeing the devaluing of a franchise, and the word is out around the rest of the league that the Dolphins's leadership is a dysfunctional unit that doesn't even know what it wants anymore.

Reportedly, the sticking point for Fisher was that owner Stephen Ross did not want to cede Jeff Ireland's control as general manager. And again I ask, just what has Ireland done to warrant such treatment?

I wasn't the biggest Fisher fan, but he's better than the alternatives.

Philbin has received credit for developing Aaron Rodgers, Greg Jennings and the rest of the Packers' high-powered offense, but he doesn't call the plays in Green Bay (though, with the way the offense looked against the Giants after Philbin missed two days of preparation to attend his son's funeral, maybe Philbin is more important than you think).

Bowles was 2-1 in his three games as interim coach, but he remains a question mark. And now, the Dolphins will also have to replace defensive coordinator Mike Nolan, who was hired by the Atlanta Falcons earlier this week.

Nolan turned what had been an abysmal pass defense into a solid unit over the last two years -- especially this season, after the horrendous start against New England and Houston.

Now the Dolphins will also have to replace him, and the new coordinator will be working with a defense that is aging and in need of upgrades at key positions.

The third candidate, McCoy, is a hot name solely because of what he did with Tim Tebow, which amounted to running an updated version of the single wing thanks to Tebow's nonexistent passing ability.

What can McCoy do with a real passing game? We don't know, because of the simplicity of Denver's scheme. Of course, if he comes aboard, the Dolphins will likely have to let Brian Daboll go, after Daboll did a nice job with Matt Moore and Reggie Bush this season. Which means the Dolphins will be back at square one, with an offensive coordinator who is an unknown quantity when running a conventional offense, and a new defensive coordinator.

Every time you think the Dolphins' fortunes have sunk as low as they can, they manage to get just a little bit worse. Here's to hoping they somehow don't ruin this opportunity to rebuild the franchise yet again, as they continuously have done since Don Shula left in 1995.