When do you think the Dolphins went down the tubes?

I give JJ credit for building our defense back in the days but left us Wanny. Who BTW is the Bills DC, lol. Maybe karma is going our way when we play the Bills this year.

 

January 15th, 2000

 

Ted Ginn family we still haven't recovered from that

 

January 7, 1990

 

it didnt help that the both times you have a top 1-2 pick , no franchise QB was available and we had to settle for ronnie brown and jake long


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The day Dave Wannstedt arrived at the training facility.

 

Even though we were not headed in the right direction at the time regardless, I just remember reading on ESPN that Ricky had retired and left us hung and dry. Our only offensive weapon was gone. Our answer....sign David Boston of course.


Also with Wanny as their DC, I really hope every Buffalo fan enjoys the flavor of vanilla.

 

When Joe Robbie died.

 

Fred Barnett in favor of Irving Fryar

 

When ESPN & he inernet became an influence on the decisions the franchise has made. Why was Shula fired? Because of he media & JJ basically lobbying for the job on FOX. Why were he Dolphins consistent for so many years? Because they were consisten in he fron office and coaching.

 

amusing how selective people's memories are. Don Shula basically was running the franchise into the ground with some of his piss-poor decisions wrt personnel his last couple of years. ANyone remember Eric Green? THere's a reason JJ had to gut the roster when he arrived, because (outside of Marino), not a lot of talent left.

 

I'd say it was Don Shula and Jimmy Johnson.

Jimmy Johnson because :

He failed to find Marino's replacement
He quit on us leaving the job unfinished
He refused to adapt his coaching to Marino's hall of fame talent
He recommended Wanstache......

it's been downhill since.


and Don Shula because he never fired Tom Olivadotti, and was absolutely atrocious in building a good enough defense to help Marino.

 

The team started on the downtick when Wayne H pressured Shula to sign expensive over the hill free agents in an effort to win the SB quick.This was necessary because the team had not drafted well for a number of years. When that failed the pressure was on to make a change .Enter JJ who at least had won a SB but ultimately had lost the will to continue building teams. We then went on a downhill spiral when Wanny was hired .The drafting during his years was horrible and it was a shell of a team when Saban took over.Saban also drafted poorly . In conclusion the main reason this team has been on a downward spiral is because of bad drafting IMO.

 

I remember the last 2-3 years and the FA sellout. I also remember a franchise that had respect and consistency. I'll take those 2-3 years with the belief that based on prior record Shula would have turned it around. A GM would have been forced on him and there would have been a competitive franchise over the CF we have enured for 13 years. JJ wanted the job and said on FOX that there was no reason the Phins shouldn't make the SB in Shulas final year. He also said there was a lot more work than he hought to be done after the Phins 1st scrimmage with the Skins when he took over. He then shackled & created a riff with his best player, quit on the team ( if nothing else about Sparano you can say he nevere quit), let Byars & Fryar go (probably the next 2 best players on the team), coached the Jacksonville massacre and proceeded to annoint Wanstadt.

 

62-7 which is what I believe that first date posted up there ^^

 

I don't think Jake Long was just settling on a pick, he was one of the only great decisions this team has made in quite a while.

 

I think you misunderstood the point. We all love Jake Long. I think we all would have preferred that a QB prospect a la Luck, RGIII, Cam Newton, Sam Bradford, Matthew Stafford, etc. were available the years we were picking #1 overall and #2 overall. To be fair to the Dolphins, when we passed on Aaron Rogers and Matt Ryan, neither guys were as highly touted as the 5 I've named above.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=2LJodA1-t0U#t=146s

 

A few thing have really precipitated our fall.

1) Don Shula was awful with personnel decisions, when he started making them the franchise started falling off.

2) Don Shula and the aforementioned Tom Olivadotti, The worst DC ever and Shulas blind loyalty to that guy was unexplainable.

3) Jimmy Johnson and his wishy-washy nature as the Phins headcoach.

And finally number
4) Dave Wannstedt. We could have survived all those things before; We were still a top tier franchise despite Shula's poor drafting and loyalty to Olivaduddy, Johnson had built an outstanding Defense, but once Wannstedt took over things went down in a hurry. His insistance that we could win with a subpar QB and a conservative offense, his unbelievable and unforgivable bad draft decisions ended up leaving this franchise decimated in regards to talent. That has led ultimately to a string of desperation moves and more bad drafting by subsequent regimes.

And still unbelievably every successive GM/Coaching combo has failed to invest in a legitimate QB prospect. As mentioned before it was our bad luck in the years we had the #1 or #2 picks that there weren't any great QB's there to be had worthy of the picks. However, it is one thing to step up to the plate and swing and miss on a QB prospect, happens all the time, but to fail to even pick up the bat is disgraceful. How many 2nd round picks have we spent on 2nd tier prospects or other teams castoff's in halfhearted ill-conceived attempts at putting a bandaid on the single most important position on the field?

Missing on Brees TWICE! WTF!

Many here do not like Ireland and he has made a few questionable choices, but this team was nearly completely devoid of any talent whatsoever when he came on board. No GM hits on every pick but he has done a solid job for us so far. Then again, until we he gets us a legitimate QB his grade is incomplete. And here we are again this year with our bad luck in the draft popping up again with 2 other prospects chosing to stay in school and thinning out what looked to be a pretty good crop of QB's in the draft. And where are we? sitting too far back to make any real attempt to grab one of the 2 remaining who look like the real deal. Peyton Manning holding us hostage and the only other free agent that looks like any one you might want to chase is a 4 year backup that you just don't know about. On top of that, by the time Manning makes his decision with us waiting around the other choice may be gone. Worse yet it appears that is Ross that is pulling those strings.

Just figures.

 

That last sentence, verifies the franchise's decline was when Shula took over as GM from Beathard, IMO.

Shula's personnel decisions were near the same level of bad as Wanny's. Which set in motion, the epic string of failure and panic-laden decisions that has lead us to now.

I believe (without anything substantial to back it up) that the best decision this organization has made since drafting Marino is hiring Philbin. I don't know why, but I feel like he is going to right this franchise.I understand I'm probably wrong, but I just feel like we are about to enter different but successful era, and I don't think it will take that long.

 

That, and the fact that Shula had complete personnel control is the origin of the current state of decline in which we find ourselves. Wayne tried to force Shula's hand... and that backfired abysmally... Then along came His Hairness... who passed onto us 'The Stache", and then, well, things began to flow down tubes even faster... Saban, Cameron & Parcells.

 

I remember an interview with Shula years ago when he said they drafted defensive lineman on the lighter side because the thinking was heavier lineman would wear down in the Miami heat, but what happened was the lighter lineman got worn down by the opposing team's bigger offensive lineman.

 

I think Philbin was a great hire. I'm still not a fan of Ireland though. Hopefully he is in step with Philbin on what the team needs.

I've always wondered if we had drafted Drew Brees back in 2001 would he have turned into what he is? In other words our offensive people just weren't up to the task of grooming a qb so would he have still developed or would he have been a disappointment because of the coaching he would have received?

We have the ability to coach and groom a qb now which is VERY exciting to me. If we get a qb with solid potential he has no excuses
on not growing into a solid starter.

 

Let mesay fellas that I dont dave 's coaching was that bad in fact Wanny was a much better coach then Saban , cam, and definately better the Sparano. we were winning 10 and 11 wins . MY problem with Dave is his Gosh aweful draft picks especially the oline and defense. why we took Seth McKinney , Wade Smith and the other cat is beyond me.

our problems really started when we hired the big fraud BILL Parcells and the idiots Sparano and Ireland . and Ireland is letting otherteams get the jump on us.

our problems will cease when Jeff Ireland is fired !!!!!!


I think drafting EDDIE MOORE , VERNON CAREY , JAMAR Fletcher , SETH McKinney , TODD WADE , WADE SMITH , TONY BUA , HURT US .


saban's draft pick s were not any better

our common problem is the draft we suck at it ,

passing on Aaron Rodgers , Dez Bryant , Kendall Hunter Anquan Bolden Drew Brees, Matt Flynn and two other qb's

I agree with every one but i think Wanny 's coaching wasnt that bad it was how he fired position coaches and replaced them with buddies.

Saban never wanted to be here , cam should never have been here and Sparano and Ireland i wished i never heard their names.

my compuor is acting up on me so i aplogizeforthe typing in bold.

 

September 4, 1994 - Start of the 1994 League year and introduction of the NFL Salary Cap.

It killed Shula's ability to get the team he wanted and it was all down hill from there.

 

End of topic. Post of the year!!!!!!!!!!

 

Bro, are you having a memory lapse?
You don't need a great QB to win. Stick with Fiedler.
Don't need to spread the field. Ball control and possession receiving will win games.
Get a small lead and let the defense win it for you.
It's no sin to punt.
Play not to lose.

 

I'm young so I'll say Wanny. So many frustrating heartbreakers in his tenure. It is because of him I got used to losing.

 

We settled for Ronnie Brown instead of taking the "risk" with Rodgers. Oh, how that Tedford QB thing still haunts me.
We settle for the less risky injury in Culpepper instead of the "risk" with Brees. Oh, how that decision haunts me.
And to a lesser degree we settled for the safer, less bust prone Jake Long instead of Matt Ryan. This one doesn't hurt as much.

But the trend seems to be that the thing haunting this franchise is their fear of taking risks at QB and losing.

 

Shula was never that good of a GM. If he was Marino would have several rings.

 

There are two points...one was the breakdown between Marino and JJ which I thought had more to do with Marino's declining skills than anything else. Remember his drops from center in 98 and 99?

The second was passing on Rodgers because everyone was afraid of a Tedford QB. Rodgers was projected to go 1st overall for much of the pre draft process but then slipped for no good reason. The reason we should have taken him was because we had no other long term QB option in the roster. Between Rodgers and Brees, Saban brutally mishandled the most important position on the field.

 

This right here is the exact moment the organization lost it. They went into full-tilt panic mode and have simply never recovered. He retired on August 2, 2004, right before training camp. So we went into camp in panic mode and have just made terrible decisions since.

 

I may be dating myself, but I think going back farther. The year that Marino held out was really when things began to decline. I remember ESPN talking about it before the start of the regular season, it may have been Ahmad Rashad: "negative spiraling down."

As for horrible defensive coordinators, anybody remember Chuck Studley?

 

IMO the loss of Beathard (due to Shula's power grab) was the point where we started going down hill. Shula was a great coach, but not a great personnel guy (arguably not even an average one). Marino fell in to our laps and that hid a ton of roster deficiencies (along with Shula's coaching), but it wasn't enough. JJ, Wanny, etc. all had their faults and failings, but they were just continuations of the problem rather (or guys who just couldn't fix it) than the point when things started going down the tubes. It's ironic (to me at least) that Shula is both the reason for our ascension and the reason for our decline.

 

Well it really kicked in in 2004 (yes I now look at 2000-2003 as a success compared to the current crap)....but if they had signed Brees instead of Culpepper they would be much better now and would have won some playoff games and maybe made a super bowl.

So i'll say the Culpepper over Brees decision is what we've never recovered from.

It may have started when Shula retired, but there have been times when the Dolphins made big mistakes that really sent the franchise down in the past 10 years. The big one is not signing Brees when he was ready to sign with the Dolphins. They let an elite QB go.

 

Frankly, I just don't see how you can blame too much on Ireland at this point. Aqua you list all these bad personnel moves and everyone of them happened before Ireland got here. Since he got here the talent level at nearly every position has improved markedly, with the notable exception of QB. As far as last year I put most of the teams troubles on the lock out and the players complete lack of conditioning (notably on the defensive side of the ball) and the former coaching staff not having Moore prepared in the least when he had to step in.

If you guys want to blame Ireland you're having a selective memory. This team stunk when he came on.

 

As far as Wannstedt being a good coach all I have to remember is 3 straight pass plays when all we need to do is kill the clock. We don't and The Pats go on to the playoffs and we go home. Who the hell does that!?