Well, lost in the past week's uproar and the departure of Henning and Lee as well as the revelation about "who" wanted Pat White and Pat Turner is: With Bill Parcells gone, and most of the original Staff gone, Jeff Ireland is now in charge of the entire offseason from the Draft to Free Agency to resigning our own Free Agents. Now I am a huge fan of the Weasel when it comes to talent acquisition, granted he has the vertebrae of a common garden slug, but the man can spot talent and this yr there is no one who can veto any move he wishes to make. And Ireland has made some good moves so far, from trading a 7th for McDaniel that Tuna demanded he recover from somewhere, to finding some plug and play veterans, but either way though this is Jeff Ireland's yr to have his hands on the wheel of the franchise. Good thing? Bad thing?
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/09/2007070/canes-golden-impresses-on-the.html Hmm, I've heard different versions on who wanted Turner, like Lee wanted him but Dorrell did not want him. Anywho, all of the doubt has been removed now, Ireland is the Alpha Dog in Miami now, maybe Dawn Aponte could dispute something assuming there is a Salary Cap in place, but otherwise it is all on Tuna's Weasel until he leaves.
Bad thing. Anytime you put something as large as that into play your going to have problems. Kind of the same reason we have a Congress....no one person controls it all. What is to happen now????, We are mediocre and Sparano blames it on Ireland not providing him with enough talent, or not the right talent fast enough. This is the very reason Cowher was not interested in coming here and the very reason coaches feel this way. I was not aware this was the deal until just now. Does anyone think Bellicheck would put his fate in someone else's hands, no he wouldn't for obvious reasons.
Well keep in mind one of the near deal breakers for Sparano was control over player personnel moves, so he does have input and some power in that regard. Belicheck had a GM for his SB teams. Will be interesting as Ireland to me has been an excellent finder of talent, by every possible means, in that sense he is like Peterson who used to sign guys from the Arena League.
Did BB teach his GM the ropes........If I was guessing I would say........yes.........another part of the "system" was it Scott Piolli I believe if memory serves me correct......possible it isn't though I am over the edge now at 41.....lol
Regardless of who's idea it was...... those players all ended up with his stamp of approval. He's hardly blameless... And taking suggestions from David Lee isn't exactly a gold star on his resume' At least "the grocery shopper" is gone, that could only help.
In the thread in Club the other side of the story was told. And that was the process they used, a Coach liked "their" guy, now it is just Ireland for better or worse.
I would think you are overstating his power and simplifying the dynamic, Nolan will have a Strong Influence on the D personnel b/c he is a strong leader and the OC to be will have a Strong Infuence on the O personnel (or else that means they hired the wrong guy) and Sporano will have the same. In reality these will be group decisions, if Ireland strays from the pack (pun intended :-) he will be eaten! If the pack takes down the wrong or too few prey they will starve! :-)
Okay, so for argument's sake, let sjust sya those picks that we wasted weren't Ireland's choices and he had to either be talked into them or they were taken under protest. I am more interested as to who Ireland wanted in those spots instead. If we could obtain that and see how those players did, then we would probably know more if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
Good point as usual Sammie, I will say that they won't make that public, we can look at the UDFA's that were signed as that would be directly on Ireland and the Scouting Staff.
I don't buy that bs about him being spineless. When your boss tells you to do something, you either do it or lose your job. I wish he had a spine though, we could have gotten Cowher if he got fired.
I've read that Ireland wanted Matt Ryan over Jake Long as well as Flacco. The obvious point is he did not agree with many of the player moves that Parcells made the final decision on including FA's Gibril Wilson, Jake Grove and draft pick Pat White in addition to having to be sold on Henne. Yes he made some mistakes including Pat Turner like anyone does but this will be his year to prove what he can do or not do for that matter because nobody other than the owner can over rule him.
According to this article Sparano was given an "expanded role" in player personnel decisions (whatever that means) and has final say in choosing coaching staff. http://forums.thephins.com/showthread.php?58604-Jeff-Ireland-is-now-running-everything
Exactly, what does that mean? To me, it means Sparano can hire his staff and more than likely has some power over who is chosen early in the draft, the last thing from his pov he would want is to go into a make or break season with a Rook Qb he pretty much is forced to play. That was the message from the Carolina 2-14 season, they did not keep Delhomme, Clausen was terrible, have a nice career elsewhere John Fox.
I think that this is a great thing, especially considering one of, if not the greatest current GMs, Ozzie Newsome; has had next to complete control over their personnel moves. In my mind, yes the coaches need to have a say, but most successful organizations allow the GM to make personnel moves without someone tinkering with what they were trying to create.
Thomas Dimitroff. Currently with the Falcons and finding the talent to turn them into a dynasty. Every team needs a GM. Coaches have tried to do without it in the past, Holmgren did it in Seattle and reportedly may do it in Cleveland. It doesn't work out. It's too much work for one guy to do it all. And just because the team has a GM doesn't mean the coach has no say in who is brought in. As long as the two have a good relationship, and the GM is willing to compromise at times instead of simply doing whatever the hell he wants ala Jerry Jones and Al Davis, it can be very advantageous.
For this to work Tony and Jeff have to kiss and make up! The player and personnel falls between the 2 of them. I really think the majority of our draft and free agent bust our because there was way to many Chiefs and not enough Indians.
More or less, what would happen (imho) is say David Lee would set his heart on a player, he would go to Henning, who would go to Parcells, who would buy in and Ireland was cut out of the process. I've noticed that our later rounds look very different from our earlier rounds in the draft, which always had me curious as to why that happened, I'd just assumed Parcells ran Rd #1 and Rd #2 maybe rd #3, and left Ireland to handle the third day of the draft and signing UDFA's.
KC's Scott Pioli was involved as well, he is Parcells son in law. As for their system, keep in mind they had 3 drafts that washed out save for their #1 pick, even then one of their #1 picks was Laurence Mulrooney.
I think it safe to say Parcells acted like Dr. Frankinstein here. He totally trolley us stole a butt load of cash and left! The pathetic thing is another dumb team will line up again.
Actually the whole player personnel thing has me wondering if he had the ability to bench/play who he wanted. I get the feeling who made the 53 man roster wasn't his outright decision, who played on game day and who got benched etc wasn't his outright .......right.
To me, that is a shallow view of what Parcells accomplished in Miami, we went from AFCE cellar dweller to around a .500 team. That is unpleasant to type however it is the fact of the matter, Sparano's 25-22 run is better than the combined wins from 04-07. 4 wins, 9 wins, 6 wins, 1 win. As fans we tend to forget just how terrible this team was during the mid 00's.
It is reality be signed on here under the promise of building a Championship caliber Dynasty. Then the story slowly changed and in his first year he made sure he power played the new owner for a Golden Parachute in his contract. Then at the beginning of year 3 he pulls the rip chord on that parachute in a attempt to distance himself before it blew up. You are not going to sell me on a mediocre team that is 1-7 as some great accomplishment only Parcells could build. Going into year 4 we have 3 possibly 4 positions on the oline unsettled, still need a athletic play making te, still have no speed threat at WR, 2 old slow RBs, Channing still starts, and nest of all no QB just a bunch of what ifs. All while blowing $92,000,000 on draft picks and free agents while he was the Football Czar. So either he was approving every move or he wasn't doing his job. It is laughable he gets to walk and get paid!
Hard to say when the only things being leaked to us are "I wanted Matt Ryan and was vetoed!". I am sure Parcells saved Ireland from some stupid mistakes too, but no one is about to leak those to make our own GM look bad. "I was dead set on trading up into the top ten get Sergio Kindle til Bill slapped me!!" or some such nonsense. If you go on what we HAVE heard though, it certainly paints Ireland in a favorable light. Which may have been the idea.
If true, Lee is a total idiot. And you should defer to the position coach who will be working with the guy. AND who coached across town from the player when Turner was at USC and Dorrell at UCLA.
I didn't know that part of Parcells job discription, and as what you call accomplishments, was to leave us as the laughing stock of the league after 3 years...nice job buddy''...what a punk that man is.
Henning and the QB coach wanted White and talked Parcells into it, saying that they could turn him into a NFL QB! So you can lay the blame of Turner on Jeff, but only Turner. I'll take the trade off of a miss on a third round pick for two hits on firstround QB's any day, don't know about you. Remember it was Jeff who wanted Ryan and or Flacco!
According to Sports Buzz in the Herald today, Ireland is signed through 2011 and he and Ross are working on an extension. Ireland apepars to be pretty safe as he and Ross have developed a good relationship over the last year. So the question for me is, can Ireland do his job, which is to look out for the future of the franchise, while catering to tony's need to win now? I think he can for this reason, I don;t think there is a make the playoffs ultimatum hanging over Tony. I think he gets two years. What I think Ross wants this season, and Tony's comments in the Sentinel I think reveal this, is for the offense to take a step forward, behind a QB that the staff and fans can have faith in. Tony can't survivie 7-9 with Chad Henne as the starter. He will absolutely survive 7-9 with Blaine Gabbert or Cam Newton starting games. I am convinced that we will be drafting a QB in the 1st round and will trade up if necessary. I would also suspect,as Padre has stated elsewhere, that Thigpen, and not Henne will be the proverbial "training camp starter" before he is replaced by the rookie. If there is a CBA prior to the draft, Henne will be moved off this team completely. I am almost completely convinced of that
First of all the team was 7-9, second of all Parcells signed on for Wayne H, not Ross, he could have left after the 08 season. The Oline? That was not why Parcells was here, his job was to pull us up out of the dregs, that he did do, what happens next, who is who on the Oline or at Qb is up to the Current Mgt, sooner or later the hand holding had to stop. Which is why I brought this topic up, the future of the Dolphins is in his hands lock, stock, and barrel.
Goodness sakes Deej, do you really think if Parcells was attached to the Franchise Ross's Big Adventure would have ever have happened?
There's no way Thigpen starts over Henne if Henne is still on the team. But, I probably shouldn't be surprised if it does happen. Decisions like that are par for the course with this regime. It'd be one thing to start a rookie, but I think people are blind to Thigpen's abilities (or lack thereof) because of how bad they think Henne is. The guy's done nothing.
Thigpen did better on a 1-12 team with it's lack of talent, than Henne did on a 7-9 team. Today's sports buzz: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/12/v-fullstory/2011690/former-dolphins-bemoan-state-of.html
If Henne improves and the cornerbacks actually learn how to catch the ball, it could be argued that Miami will not go 7-9 next year.