Davis hasn't allowed a touchdown in coverage since Week 13 of the 2013 season. Pro Football Focus, an analytics site which grades every play of every NFL game, recently ranked Davis No. 6 on their list of the top 101 players of 2014. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000495256/article/vontae-davis-a-lockdown-cb-colts-freeman-says
i loved me some VD man...thought he was a dangerous human being, so explosive and had all pro potential, best hitting corner in the game.
Well Philbin is the one that traded Davis and chose not to resign Smith..really we were set at CB for years.
VD is a pit bull in the secondary. Made game changing hits and plays. That is my biggest beef with Philbin, he didn't know how or want to work with players who need helped along to see their full potential. Hopefully that has changed. I'm not sure tho as we see Matthews sit and rot on our bench demanding trades.
Vontae and Marshall alone should have been enough to get the whole regime fired. That is when I lost any hope for Philbin.
Yup. And right now Mike Tannenbaum gets the credit for drafting Davante Parker, as long as he continues to look good that is, if it turns out he sucks then it'll be common knowledge Philbin was the one that drafted him...
One of Ireland's many cherries on top of a crap sundae. The worst part was not even getting a 1st round pick or TY Hilton out of the deal, which is what happens when you trade guys just to trade them
Brady blowtorched him in the playoffs, those stats are misleading...... I agree though dumb trade and so was the Marshall one as well.....
Davis shows up smelling of alcohol before a game (and may have had more incidents of in-house alcohol-related instances). Davis shows up overweight to camp. Davis was immature. This was Davis' fault; but blame the coaches, right? Yes, he's a helluva talent who is still young. He's finally showing it. Miami got good compensation. It's over. It's been over. This is a Dolphins Forum. Please move on from former players....
Jeff Ireland traded him, not Joe Philbin. Philbin can be blamed for being complicit in the deal and even contributing to the rationale by making a big deal about things that probably shouldn't have been such a big deal, but ultimately it was Jeff Ireland who took the phone call from Ryan Grigson, negotiated with him, presented the trade to the group and then pulled the trigger. It's just as big a knock on Kevin Coyle because before Vontae was traded, Coyle had bumped him down to nickel corner which is about a 50% participation position. And he did that in favor or Richard Marshall who was a bad free agent signing that I believe Coyle pushed for. Great case of pretty much nobody having a clue what they were doing and a bad decision resulting. Though credit to Ireland for getting a 2nd rounder for Vontae as that was a higher price than you'd usually expect in such situations. Then again, they got the high price because he was more than worth it.
That's true and the only time that Matthews gets is rare....but when you put him on the field he has the talent to have Big games and Philbin just buries him deeper all the time...this is a receiver that Philbin should have given him playing time so there would be a good shot at a trade for him...I bet C-Kaep would love to work with Rishard again.
[insert picture of Jeff Ireland looking like a jackass here] too lazy to go get the pic. You guys know what that soulless dumb **** ginger looks like by now.
I don't like Ireland, but if we're gonna lambaste him for the trade, then also credit him for the initial selection of Smith and Davis.
I remember being mad as hell when we traded him away. Mainly because I knew he had the potential to be a great corner. But unfortunately for us, our boneheaded staff thought richard marshll>vontae. I hate this staff
He is that good, I picked the Colts to beat Denver because of vontae more so than Luck. And Vontae made the difference that game. Also Sean Smith is a very good CB too, i would say he is top 10. This says a lot more of our previous regime more than anything.
Lol I swear you guys will reach for the stars to justify all the bad moves this franchise has made over the years, John Jerry over Graham, the Vontae trade, the Marshall trade, trading up for Dion Jordan, trading down too far in the 2010 draft and ending up with the Expendables Odrick and Misi, etc etc...hell you could argue Ireland lost every trade he ever did. Defending these moves is not the way you move on. You accept that it was one of many dumb decisions made by a dumb executive, and you simply hope the new regime makes smarter decisions. That's how you move forward.
I always did. Whenever I criticized him for it I pondered why someone would flush 2 of his best wins down the toilet. Jeff Ireland and/or Bill Parcells made some good selections for the team. Unfortunately he was pretty awful at retaining talent which rounded out his overall suckitude as a GM.
What are you talking about? Everything Colmax just said was true and it was why Vontae Davis was on the trading block to begin with. If Vontae didn't put the team in a bad position he would still be here... ...and by the way Brent Grimes would never have become a Dolphin. So, yeah, continually bashing all the negative aspects of Ireland and never giving any credit to the positives seems really biased. I'm not going to sit here and debate a GM that hasn't been here for 2 years, because that's not worth the headache and I know better, but it's insulting that you apparently view the world as a bunch of idiots who can't face reality when in fact it seems quite the opposite based on what you just said. There are reasons that things happen in this world...sometimes those reasons suck. Vontae Davis got himself traded. It's perfectly fine to say that being traded is what changed him. Maybe like how you getting fired from your job might change you?!
Sometimes guys need a wake up call. Vontae being traded was a major one for him and he turned himself around. We can play the blame game all day but in the end it's pretty simple what happened.
The trade made sense in that Coyle plays mostly off coverage and a lot of zone. That's not a strong suit of either Smith nor Davis. It's a major stretch to say either one of them would have performed as well in Miami as they have with their current teams. Same goes for Brandon Marshall.
This is why we let them go. At the end of the day, neither player was projected to be as strategically valuable to us as they were to someone else. Given who those two were at the time, I don't have a problem with that projection, in fact I think it was spot on. Vontae's aggressive instincts were horrible for his role in Miami. He'd make a great play and then turn around and leave someone wide open or draw a flag. Sean Smith was just never quick enough to handle his duties and I can't tell you how happy I was when Miami wasn't the team who paid him big money. Both were good players, above-average in my mind. That said, I'm glad Sean Smith is gone and I'm disappointed Vontae Davis isn't more mature because he could've developed into the more well-rounded guy he is now that still makes good plays without taking as much risk. That all being said...Vontae Davis gets hyped too much for my taste. If you watch him closely during games, I don't think you come away thinking he's half as good as anti-Ireland Dolphin fans would have you believe.
Philbin didn't even try to give him the wakeup call. Philbin has a history of wanting to avoid confrontation. Davis' own brother Vontae received his wakeup call and the Niners enjoyed the fruits of that. Yes, Ireland is the one who fielded the call, entertained the call, and executed the trade. But does he do so if Philbin didn't complain about him every minute?
You speak as if you know Philbin and Vontae personally. You also seem to have no issue shifting Vontae's short-comings onto other people. Interesting.
Point blank...what is your evidence that Philbin didn't give Vontae chances before moving on? If that's your assumption, say it. If not, convince me Philbin isn't a normal human being who would've tried to get the best out of a kid who was pissing his career away.
I've edited my post before your response, which answers these questions. You do realize there was a thing called Hard Knocks going on right.
You know that's a TV show right? Just checking for sanity here. C'mon, you don't know anything more than anyone else here and yet you are insisting you do by proclaiming Philbin never tried to help Vontae. Man...you are siding with the lesser of two characters there...defending the guy who we know broke rules and going against someone's character who you've never met. I'm just trying to bring this into perspective. Replace Philbin in that scenario with your best friend. Do you still assume the worst? No, so stop doing it to Philbin. What I hate is that people make stuff up or concoct a script and then they believe the stories that are in their own head. They say the same opinions 1000x and then treat it as fact when it's not. If you openly hate Philbin then your analysis doesn't mean anything. By assuming the worst you degrade your own reputation. I'm not lying. That's what really happens.
I know he never played a regular season game for Philbin. You do know that, right? I know that for a fact. And you know that. Yet you want us to believe nobody here really knows if Vontae was given a chance to grow up. How long was Sean Taylor immature before he grew up and finally got his act together before he was killed? Vernon Davis? Philbin once said of a player, his best quality is he keeps his mouth shut. That's the type of manager he is. Get rid of anyone who makes him uncomfortable. I'm not making anything up and it doesn't take a huge leap of logic to connect these dots.