I have lost faith in this front office and team this year

Can we let the season play out first? The only gripe I have is the Oline and I know that is going to hinder us greatly.

 

Cutting Patrick Turner, David Martin, Nate Ness, Donald Thomas, Andrew Gardner make no sense to me. I'll admit that the FO has been doing some radical things but lets give them time. Building a SB team is not a two minute operation. I think by next year we will have all the pieces in place.

 

the only two i was surprised with were martin and ness. oh well.

 

we are a better team than last year..much more athletic and talented..

Do you think Sparano would retool 3/5ths of an offensive line that was top 5 last year if he didn't believe he was replacing them with better players?..give them 2 games of gameplanning and tell me what you think..

 

It's not a two minute operation, but we took a significant step forward and then regressed. What exactly are we facing this year? Who knows. I'm not jumping off of any ledges, but I'm not all that impressed with Ireland so far.

Granted, there's only two draft classes who've seen real playtime but they've not inspired confidence with their FA pickups either. I still can't believe the O-line is ****. Beyond Jake Long, they've done nothing right.

 

not fix the secondary? are you kidding? we had old guys in the first year. then rookies in the 2nd year with 1 good veteran that got injured. here it is a week before season 3 even starts and your complaining not fixing the position that has had some of the most turnover.

and i wouldnt worry about what henne didnt do this preseason. remember what he did last season and think how he will be with more work. and some better targets. moore and wallace should develope nicely with brandon marshall as their mentor.

 

Our team will be fine Dorfdad. I personally expect a 9-7 record (hopefully 10-6). We have a chance to win the division. Thats exciting as is.

We are still building for the future. Our team is YOUNG as hell! Have faith, and dont expect too much this year. We have an awsome foundation to build on.

 

Turner: could not fend off competition from Moore and Wallace.
Martin: questionable knees. Potentially could be re-signed after week 1 due to a rule that allows post-week 1 contracts to not be guaranteed.
Ness: bad player, couldn't outperform Benny Sapp and Nolan Carroll.
Thomas: landed in Sparano's doghouse last year for an undisclosed reason per Berardino, never came out.
Gardner: see Ness. The McQuistan trade spelled Gardner's doom.

Nothing wrong with any of these cuts. Martin getting cut is somewhat questionable, but the rest simply did not distinguish themselves.

 

If you feel that way go back and watch the 1-15 team, and then come back and say we are no way in a better spot. In 3 years we went from a team that was one of the oldest in the league and void in talent, to one of the youngest and should compete for the next 10 years (hopefully). The FO missed on some picks, but who hasn't? At least they will admit their mistakes and cut ties sooner than later, instead of wasting a roster spot.

 

Not a shot at the OP, but can we seriously wait for the regular season before we start planning how we're going to jump off the cliff?

I mean honestly, Sparano is 11-5, and 7-9 overall as an HC. He's above .500 right now, in his second year. I'd say overall on Offense, and on Defense, we are a better team than we were last year. Whether that translates to more wins or not is hard to say, but the point is they are making the team better.

Maybe I'm just drinking the Kool-Aid, but the talent we picked up in the draft is rather promising, we've got starters out of our first 3 rounds of picks, and some decent prospects for the rest. We've got an offense that, on paper, could easily be a top 5. The only real area of concern is the secondary, and even there it's more of an issue of inconsistency, because there definitely have been flashes of brilliance.

If we start 0-6 though, I'll race you to the grand canyon

 

What didn't make sense about cutting Patrick Turner? If anything, drafting him in the third round is what didn't make sense. He was outplayed all preseason by Marlon Moore, and neck and neck with Roberto Wallace who stole the show in the final moments of the final preseason game. Roberto Wallace displayed more promise on that final drive than Patrick Turner has shown in two years here.

And I know Nate Ness was impressive in the first preseason game, but the better competition he faced the more he was exposed. Who do you cut in place of him? Obviously not Davis, Smith, or Allen. They spent a 5th round pick on Nolan Carroll and talked him up all camp.... he's our only option at kick returner right now. They just traded Greg Camarillo for Benny Sapp; if the plan wasn't to keep him they could have released Camarillo or tried to get something else for him. Our special teams still sucks and Jason Allen is one of the few VERY bright spots. Where does Nate Ness fit in? We can't keep 7 CB's.

As for Donald Thomas and Andrew Gardner, meh, I definitely wanted to hold onto Donald Thomas but I think that's where this FO's infatuation with familiarity came into play.... rather than keeping these guys as backups, they went for a few familiar faces as usual.

I'm 110% with you on David Martin. I think everyone is.

Note that I am not a fan (at all) of this regime so I'm not taking up for anyone.

 

But its nearly impossible not to improve after being 1-15. But this front office and coaching staff I'd say, as of today, is about a C to C- IMO.

Yes they changed the mentality. They get points for that. But hitting on Jake Long? I am not giving them too much kudos...he was universally accepted as the best player...he or Matt Ryan (which would have been ok, too).

But the misses are glaring. Ernest Wilford, Gibril Wilson, Philip Merling, Pat White, Patrick Turner...and I am very close to putting Sean Smith in with Philip Merling...maybe they dont outrightsuck, but they are far from quality. Letting Nate Jones go when they could have resigned them.

The coaching staff should also be under scrutiny. Last year, they came out not ready to start the season. They looked horrible. Atlanta had their way with us and we just blew the game to the Colts. Then we got smacked around by SD. But even after all of that, we still had a chance if we would just finish strong against Houston and Pittsburgh, two non playoff teams. Neither game even competitive.

This year, we have not looked great in preseason. Now, of course we need to let the season play out. The only game that means anything, inspite of a poor preaseason effort, is Buffalo. That game will probably tell us alot.

And it will tell more to Stephen Ross. If we suck this year, I think he will be correct in making wholesale changes. This league is one of urgency. There are no more "five year plans". They aren't necessary with FA. We know first hand how you can go from 1-15 to division winner. Other teams have turned it around and gone to SB three years removed from 1-15.

I think Sparano and Ireland need to understand this year is it. We either win 11 games, go to the playoffs and win a game or they need to be able to make a damn good explanation on why things arent better. Otherwise, Mr. Ross is getting jipped on his investment.

 

Really? I recall quite a few people saying we drafted a career right tackle with the first overall pick. The clamoring for the other Long and for Glenn Dorsey was quite high.

Everyone strikes out a few times. We were a 1-15 team just a few seasons ago, with pretty no semblance of talent. We had to take some chances on guys like Wilford and Wilson. They didnt work out, moving on. At least we are willing to spend and make a move to bring in players that can help us. See Marshall, Brandon

We need to be more consistent, thats the kind of thing that goes with a team learning how to win. This is a young team, with a young QB. This is not a team that was going to challenge for a super bowl a season removed from 1-15 and no talent. If we come out flat and go worse than 2-2 to start then we can start dropping some better criticism.

Preseason indeed. We are 3 years removed from 1-15. Tell me with a straight face that you expect the Detroit Lions to contend for a Super Bowl next year. **** takes time to build.

That "urgency" has really helped teams like Washington and Oakland hasn't it?

This year is not "it." We have more than enough time. We are YOUNG TEAM PEOPLE! It WILL take time for this team to gel, get all the final missing pieces and get to the Super Bowl. One team a year, and there are a lot of good teams out there.

Some of you make it sound so easy to do, but its not. Have some freaking patience and lets see how this season gets going before we start moaning so much. Good lord this stuff is getting ridiculous.

 

We have yet to win a season game. WTH?

 

not trying to be mean but some of you people are idiots. the Cowboys first teamers have looked horrible does that mean they are garbage? Manning could care less about preseason and has looked bad, does that make the Colts and Manning horrible? NO BECAUSE ITS PRESEASON FFS!

when the games matter and we actually unleash Mike Nolans scheme and use ALL of our playbook, which we only used a fraction of in preseason, it'll be a different story. we are a much better team and we will make some noise this year I BELIEVE and next year i do believe we have a shot at the super bowl.

 

also, any of you remember the Lions in 08? they were 4-0 in preseason and how'd the season go for them? 0-16 correct?

we have won all of our preseason games the past 2 years correct? how'd that turn out? 11-5 one season and 7-9 the other. preseason wins mean nothing.

Henne has looked great and threw 1 int on a tipped pass and had a bunch of drops from his receivers which affected his completion percentage so don't give me that crap about Henne. hes a good QB and if im wrong we'll have Pennington take over the starting role, but until then can you all just shut the hell up?

 

I hate it when my team is degreasing.

 

Im waiting until the season starts and even then after a few games i will hold fire. Pre-season games mean nothing in regard to competitive games and true meaning. Lets give this team time to gel and actually play some serious football before we all throw ourselves off the nearest cliff. The team isnt a weak one. We have got the players to win alot of games. Its all about doing it. It gets serious from next Sunday and not before.

 

I hate this thread, because it forced to me thank Desides (on a non-Mac topic) because he's right, and even thank Rick, because that **** was funny.

 

Agreed.
I was high on Turner when he came out of the draft, but he simply doesn't have it.
Nate Ness is great against 3rd stringers.
Martin may very well be resigned after Week 1.
I really don't get the backlash about these cuts.

 

Dorf....IT'S FREAKIN' PRESEASON......

I mean, I'm not predicting us to be the next coming of the 72 Fins, but we haven't even played a real game yet. David Martin was out of football the entire year last year. Could it be that his injury rehab isn't quite where it needs to be ?? He's 31 yrs old and his best years are behind him. He wasn't Kellen Winslow (the original), even before his injury. The roster is by no means finished as of yet either, although major acquisitions are not likely. Our SB hopes don't/didn't rest on David Martin....

And you'd seriously think of paying Davon Bess Marshall money ?? Wow...glad you're not the GM here. Bess is a nice role player and that's it. He's a more than capable slot receiver and a mediocre to poor PR. Marshall is a player, period. You want them to open up the arsenal in the preseason ?? Show the league everything we have over some meaningless games ?? Now, exposing the starters to injury in that last game...that's punishable by death IMO....but worrying over our extremely vanilla offensive and defensive play in the preseason is out there... Adding Marshall won't make this offense comparable to Green Bays the last few years.

Think back to 2007 and how poor this team really was. Even with the on-going tinkering along the OL, it's certainly better than it was then. Is Henne better than Beck, Culpepper, Hamden, Lemon who were on the roster during that season. For that matter, so are Penny and Thigpen.

The sky isn't falling because of a poor showing in the preseason. This team is more talented in every phase of the roster than before this regime. Whether or not they can take us to the promised land is up for grabs, but let me remind everyone, in February 2011, only one team will be SB champs...everyone else will be runners up...

 

Ahh... you can tell its football season. We haven't even played a game yet, and we're already complaining.

The only people that have anointed Henne as the second coming of Marino are fans and media. He showed promise last year, and IMO he's improved his touch this year, and I think we're going to see a good year out of him. But the reality of it is, the fan base, and the media really need to let go of the Marino era. It's over. It's not coming back. It's probably not ever going to be repeated. The need to compare every QB we have to him is just ridiculous.

David Martin has two... yes, TWO bummed knees. Cut him now so his contract isn't guaranteed, try and pick up another TE that someone else cuts. If there's nothing attractive there, bring back Martin after week 1 so is salary isn't guaranteed. Its a pretty damn good football decision from the FO if you ask me. So, not sure what you're thinking there.

Im not sure why you're worried about Brandon Marshall. I don't think there's any reason to. So, why bother?

Pat White... I'll give you that one. He just wasnt cut out for the NFL, and we shouldnt have drafted him. That being said, I understand why the desire from the FO was there to make the pick. Put a guy who can run and throw (better than Brown) into the wildcat, and you take the formation to the next level and make it even more unstoppable. I get it... but more thought should have been put in to it. I get the idea, and in theory Pat is a perfect fit, he's just too small, and not good enough of a QB.

As for the inability to score, I think people are misunderstanding the goals of this offense now with Marshall here. I think people think now that we have Marshall, we're just going to air it out, and go deep. However, lets remember what this offense is based around. Ball control, and minimal mistakes. I think we're still going to be a run based team, with alot of short/mid-range passes. Move the ball in small chunks, eat up the clock.

I'll make my judgements on things after we play some regular season games.

However, if we want to talk about this FO and their ability, lets talk about all the great moves we've made? Marshall, Dansby, Pennington when he was a FA, Henne, Bess, Hartline (so far), Vontae Davis, Wake, Starks, Long just to name a few. I'd say thats a pretty damn good job rebuilding this team from what we were in the 0-16 year.

Lets look at the whole picture here, not just a few cuts and bad decisions.

 

Well, if beer does this to you, perhaps you should be taking a stimulant of some kind instead of a downer like alcohol. Dinks and dunks are what this team has lived off of since the day the music died (Marino retired)...what do you expect ?? Seriously, let the season play out some before we hang the Troika in effigy....

 

I like the direction the team is going. I just think some fans want things to go quicker. I'm patient enough to let it play out. I believe in five year plans, not three year plans which I believe are unrealistic

 

The only thing I don't like about the Miami Tuna's is the overzealous revolving door. People in - People out, People in - People out, People in - People out, People in - People out. At some point you must be satisfied with your talent and keep them long enough to let them gel together and learn each others first name.

We all know that some turnover is natural but we totally overhauled the defense and a good 1/4 of the team in a few short months. If we are ever going to enjoy a team that has an identity and a record to match this has got to stop.

The best teams in NFL history hung on to their players long enough so they looked upon each other as a family. The natural course of this business is a slow turn over of players as the years go by but we seem to be in hyperventilation mode. With that said; I understand why it is being done and I hope by next year it slows down.

 

Garbage thread.....

 

Dorf, by admitting this now at least you should have much more free time come Sundays.

 

What a coincidence! I have lost faith in humanity!

 

Get used to it.

 

While I'm not as far gone as you, I am concerned.

Our offense has looked anything but in sync. We're a smashmouth running team first and foremost, but our offensive line hasn't moved anyone and has struggled to keep its quarterbacks clean. That unit is bad right now. And its lost a core player (Garner).

The receivers are dropping passes in bunches. Our offensive coordinator showed he's in midseason from a flow and ill-conceived playcalling standpoint.

Our secondary is still giving up long passes, and reports are that the #2 starting corner isn't approaching the job as seriously as he should, resulting in multiple demotions.

All of this was summed up beautifully in Dallas, when our first team offense was getting handled by Dallas' second and third teamers.

I also question the decision by Sparano to play the 1's the entire first half. A few more inches and Sparano has all of South Florida breathing down his neck. He's damn lucky Jake Long is ok. Seriously, can you imagine if we'd lost one of the game's Top 2-3 left tackles in the second quarter of the fourth preseason game?

They've made some questionable decisions in player acquisition. But it looks like they've gotten themselves back on track and aren't straying from the blueprint anymore (kudos to Dave Hyde's excellent latest column).
Preseason or not, I would question anyone who is confident in this team right now. Defensively I think we're pretty good up front and have two solid starters in the secondary. But offensively and overall, they've got to prove to us they haven't regressed.

If the OL can gel (and they very well can) and Henne can take the next step, this team can be very, very good. Right now it's ugly. We'll see what happens!

 

Oh god. Why did I open this thread?

 

I hear you... personally, Ive marked game-4 as the crucible. I still have hope but it is measured against many concerns.
let's hope for a Sparano Fix & 'Quick Start" against Buffalo. got to play the games one @ a time...

 

so if we are 1-3 after game 4 you are done with them and there won't be blood in the water?
You said all off season we were headed for the big enchilada or something right but now you are back pedaling.
The season hasn't even started and you say you still have hope. Sorry but that is a ridiculous statement.

 

I think many are discounting the powdercake schedule we had in 2008 and a tuff schedule in the NFL in 2009 contributing to our level of success the last 2 years.

This year will be interesting as we have arguably the hardest first half schedule and easiest second half schedule....

If we're 500 halfway through this year, I'll be ecstatic and looking forward to the playoffs.

 

There's no such thing as the perfect team or NFL Front Office so I don't know why we concern ourselves with every single mistake that is made. Every team has picks that don't work out. Every team drafts a guy they shouldn't have all the while missing out on someone that really could've helped them (Willis, Boldin). People nitpick too much IMO. Crying over Patrick Turner being cut? Dude hasn't done anything to warrant a roster spot so why is it a surprise? Maybe b/c he was drafted in the 3rd round?

 

I am honestly not as worried as some people. My biggest concern would have to be on the o-line. Turner and White were bad picks that never developed as well as Thomas. I would rather they admit a mistake that was made than try to hold onto something that could never pan out. There are hits and misses in nearly every draft. Maybe Pat White was drafted as a wild cat option, but with Pennington's injury and the continious development of Henne, they did not have the luxury of keeping him for just that task. We never know what is going on in the locker room or in the coaches offices. I think that does play alot into their decisions.