He needs to defend himself. Hes consistently (and unfairly IMO) bashed by these guys. Glad to see him standing up for himself...
Ireland usually doesn't say much but he's being honest in answering the 'pick you regret the most'.....Pat White. Also says there were 'issues' with Merling last year AND during this offseason. I think they got sick of his laziness and not showing up for the optional workouts. The Dolphins were NOT aware of the Koa Misi incident until the charges. This explains why Koa is in the doghouse and they've been looking at a lot of LB's.
Like to know who was responsible for taking a lazy unconditioned player with poor work ethic in the first place with a precious high draft pick.. Maybe Gm's better start taking into account intelligence on nutrition, and strength training as part of their questionare for future prospects.. If your that stupid where you don't know how to do both as a potential professional athlete, or you don't have the motivation to change yourself into it, then maybe you should'nt draft or aquire such player. Damn it.
In this interview, Ireland addressed that. He made it sound like they tagged Merling in hopes that someone would sign him as a RFA and give us a draft pick... but when it looked like no one was going to, they cut him.
You tender the guy, shopping him around to see if we can grab a late round pick for him. If there are no takers, you cut bait and move on. Didn't cost a dime, and could have nabbed an additional pick. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Misi wasn't aware of the charges.............The Dolphins weren't even aware of the incident. Big diff.
Jeff Ireland: "I don't feel pressure to draft a need position." Translation: "I don't feel pressure to address the most important position on the field." Why not, Jeffrey? Assuming what he's saying isn't a smokescreen, this is why Jeff Ireland is a failure as a GM and will continue to be a failure. I've been saying for years he does not place the appropriate value on the QB position. A Parcells disciple through and through arrogantly building a team that could only be a contender in pre 2005 NFL.
Let's see what he does in the draft in a few days. Otherwise show him the door. I wonder if Philbin knows what he is getting into.
How about the only players he could mention as being happy with - Jake Long - First overall pick. Kendall Langford - no longer on the team. Great work, Jeff.
Good for him standing up for himself with PFT. Now some feel he should do the same for posters here. Truth is it doesn't matter what he does, some people will always hate.
Kendall chose to go to St. Louis. Is that Ireland's fault too? Maybe Ireland should get in Langford's brain and force him to choose Miami?
You've got to remember the thing with Merling is that he had hernia surgery just before the draft. I believe he only weighed 276lbs at Clemson his last year there and was widely thought of as a top 15 pick. He gained weight after the surgery and never really got smaller - I'd guess in part due to Miami wanting him to be a 3-4 DE, and then the laziness; he obviously kept getting bigger. I remember the article that stated he lost like 22lbs or something like that, and was still listed at 295lbs on the team website, which means he was probably in the 315-320lbs range prior to that. He's had some off-field troubles as well, so I wouldn't account his release as strictly on being lazy.
To this day I still think we mishandled Merling. He was never a 3-4 end and I said it since day one. Also Ron, not sure where he was widely thought of as a 3rd rounder, but as far as the NFL goes, that's false.
Langford wanted to stay in Miami. He said as much countless times on Twitter. If all things were equal, he'd have stayed. The Dolphins weren't going to pay him 4 years 24 Million, however. So Ireland was happy with him, but not happy enough to pay him that kind of money, I guess.
My fault there - I meant to type top 15 pick. I was chatting with a co-worker about Kendall Langford, and I told him he was a 3rd round pick and simply typed that as we were talking about it in my last post. Yes, Merling was never considered a 3rd round pick.