These two ex Dolphins are coming up in my head huge the last 2 days. JT was sat next to Ross for crips sake. Would he want to take on the challenge? That picture on ESPN says what JT thinks. What is Pennington up to these days? If The Dolphins Offensive coaches want Tannehill as a pure pocket passer which is pretty obvious right now then i know who i would want in his ear. Get it done. Would be a big PR and professional decision if we can get them onboard.
I was actually thinking about JT in a management position as well watching him up there with Ross. Everyone talks about giving Marino a VP job, but I would have no issue if Taylor were given that sort of job. He's bright, he is charismatic, and he was a leader. Listening to him on TV it also seems like he knows what he's talking about. I'm not saying make him GM, but I would be all for giving him a management job with the organization. I'm also not against the Pennington idea either.
Mourning does mentoring and community outreach. He isn't really involved in the basketball operations. Certainly if you want to make JT in charge of community outreach, I think that would be suitable. EDIT: his role does fall under basketball ops, but it does not appear to be an administrative one
I love Pennington. He can lead men, smart, and personable--threw parties for teammates, rallied the team. The question is whether he'd want to work long hours sorting through player profiles, films, and contracts.
Replace Zac Taylor with Pennington, have him develop a playbook and then eventually move him up to offensive coordinator.
Alonzo Mourning's title is Vice President of Player Programs. From his Heat profile page: This is about as obvious a managerial position as it gets without slapping the words "Chief" and "Officer" at the beginning and end. You're on a pretty awful streak of bad assumptions tonight.
Alonzo Mourning is the VP of Player Programs. He is intimately involved with the players. He is basically a "Chaperone". Making sure the guys are on their workout routines, mentoring, etc. He was put there, because Riley considers him the "perfect" player in attitude, work ethic, etc... Sound Familiar?
No, its an executive position. Its not an administrative position. The description is pretty clear. He provides "direct" support and "one on one" mentoring. He represents the Heat. He isn't administering anything. If he had a large team he was directing to implement these things, that would be administrative.
There is a big difference between player development in the NBA and the NFL. Alonzo Mourning is a great person. He was a great professional. He understands and relates to players. That translates into him being great in player development. But an NBA team only has around 15 players that Mourning is working with. He has the capacity to work individually with everyone. The NFL is much different, simply because there are 5x as many players he would be responsible for. He wouldn't be working directly with players. He would be managing people that would be executing his plan. That requires a lot more than the skills I mentioned him possessing. Completely different ball game.
So you give him two lieutenants. But there would be a FIGURE there for players to emulate, and JT would be good about telling the GM/Coaches of who is crap and who isn't.
Jason Taylor would be a great defensive line coach and a good influence to Dion Jordan who has a similar build as JT does.
I think if he had any interest, he'd start out as a coaching intern. Just from experience of working with a former athlete. When I worked with Anthony Munoz he used to go out to USC all the time when Pete Carroll was there during the regular season for games and would work with the linemen. I know that two NFL teams contacted him about being an assistant OL coach (neither was the Bengals) while I worked at his office, and I think he would've preferred that capacity if he were interested. He wasn't because his whole family and lots of very young grandkids are in Cincinnati but said it's something he'd consider when they got older. I think you have to spoon feed former players in to coaching as interns. Miami has even done that with Dan Campbell, Al Harris (wish we still had him), and Blue Adams in recent years.
I don't know a damn thing about basketball but if Pat Riley thinks something is a good idea, maybe just MAYBE the Dolphins should look into duplicating the idea and implementing it into their program. I mean, it's Pat ****ing Riley, dude basically defines winning.
Chad Pennington is easily one of my favorite dolphins, and I love JT as much as the next guy...but do we really need them tarnishing their reputations/memories if things go sour?
Why would you want JT's legacy to be tarnished more than it already has been. This fan base would eat this guy alive in two years. Taylor isn't qualified for a damn thing in this organization. This damage control stuff is cracking me up. Worse thing is people are buying into it.