Sparano's stubborn nature could hamper Dolphins' progress

This is what I've been saying all along; this guy is a meathead; he can't think past his own limited perspective.

Just look at the way he stubbornly backed the thoroughly decrepit Henning last season, to the detriment of his team and defiantly in the face of what was obvious to EVERYONE in the nation.

That he stubbornly backed his friend to the detriment of everyone around him who was depending on him to do what was right for the team, NOT JUST HIS ******* BUDDY, shows what a wrong guy he is for the job.

 

Vic Carucci should probably should have taken the say, 15 or so seconds to check if the Dolphins under Sparano have ever run more than they have passed before going through the effort of writing that article.

They have not.

 

Teams that pass too often tend to lose games.

The trick is to have a medium number of pass attempts with a high YPA.

 

Desides I'm curious who do you want as the QB pick this season?

 

1. Cam Newton.
2a. Blaine Gabbert
2b. Christian Ponder
3. Ryan Mallett

 

Sparno jumps up and down in excitment when there is a Touchdown.

 

You want them playing THIS season?

 

I love how experts cherry pick stats.


Guess what, Vic, I believe that the LOSERS of the last 12 Super Bowls also threw the ball more than they ran. lol

 

Yes. Any of those guys.

 

For marketing and fan excitement purposes I could understand why you'd want that. As for winning games and building a franchise, I don't see why you'd want ANY of them on the field once the preseason ends.

 

Can’t win without good quarterback play, and we lack that. Trotting Henne out again is not the answer.

This is the situation the Miami Dolphins are in.

 

I'd rather just see them play and see what they have to offer. Henne isn't suddenly going to be able to read a cover 2, nor is his accuracy going to become much better, nor can he evade the rush by side-stepping. His deep ball isn't even accurate. He's a limited player.

 

OK. But you're arguing against your own point. None of those guys are going to go out there and give us good QB play as rookies. And if you don't have the patience to develop Henne to his full potential, you probably won't have much patience w/ any of these guys either.

 

Can you give me next week’s lotto numbers, too?

You have absolutely no way of knowing which QBs will and will not perform well in 2011. No way whatsoever. You are simply dismissing the entire QB class out of hand. Like it or not, rookies at every position over the last few years have started and played well. That’s the growing trend in the NFL: rookies are thrown into the fire immediately. Several quarterbacks in this class will start week 1, and odds are they’ll play at least average.

And average is an improvement over Henne.

 

LMAO at Henne cant "read" Cover 2. How about we have no TE who can threaten the seam and keep the safeties honest. How about we have no RBs who can threaten the flats and keep the CB honest. How about we have no running game to force teams out of playing Cover 2. How about we habitually send 3-4 receivers into the pattern against 7 man coverages. You don't need Rosetta Stone to read Cover 2, but you do need the right play calls and personnel to have success against it. We had neither.

Henne was a 63% guy despite leading the league in throwaways so it's not like he's some overly inaccurate guy. Can he improve on his deep ball placement, absolutely, but its not like his WRs EVER helped him out in that regard. Any time the throw wasnt perfect, it was an incomplete, so both the QB & WRs need to improve there.

Its easy to say "put the rook" in. And that's exactly why I don't want a 1st round QB. No matter who it is, they wont be ready. But that wont matter b/c every time Henne throws an INC pass the fans will be calling for the Rook to go in. Hell it's not even April and you're already calling to see the Rook. Despite watching it happen for much of last year, the lesson of how not to rush an underdeveloped QB into action before he's ready seems to be lost on you.

 

Sorry, but no.

Of course I don't know, neither do you, neither does anyone else. What I do know is that QB's who are viewed as ready to play immediately typically go in the top 10 if not 5. This year however, even the top 2 QB's are not viewed as Year 1 starters by any credible source that I've seen. Yet you want "any of the above" first round QBs, which tells me you're more interested in replacing Chad Henne than w/ finding and grooming a successful replacement. Apparently you havent given much thought to what kind of system we'll be running, what personnel we'll have, or what QB is ya know, best suited for our team. It may be one the top tier guys, it may be one of the mid round guys, it may be the guy we already have on the roster. Who knows?

LOL. You're so blinded by your disdain for Henne that you're willing risk ruining the new QB just to get rid of the old one. It's an embarrassing level of shortsightedness.

 

If you have to start Henne you must completely change the personnel, the play calling, and the formations Miami runs. I doubt Sparano can fathom the 3 WR-TE-RB formation for long, but it's a perfect one for Henne. Give him an excellent offensive line, replace Bess with a flanker so that Marshall can play in the slot, and get a multipurpose RB with great hands to catch Henne's no touch short passes. Then we'll see if Henne can be a solid QB. I think he can but even then Miami could potentially do even better.

 

Define “credible source”. There’s certainly varied opinion on this year’s QB crop, but what else is new? By the way, we could see as many as three QBs go top ten this year.

Replacing Henne? Yes, absolutely. His performance does not justify continued employment as the starting quarterback of the Miami Dolphins. Grooming a successful replacement? We don’t have the luxury. No CBA means no trades. This means teams can only improve through the draft. Bringing in a rookie QB is the only option until there’s a CBA, and there’s absolutely no telling what the trade or free agent rules in that new CBA would look like. The draft is the only way.

The top four QBs in this class are better than Henne right now. Period. The blindness in this thread is on your end, where you believe that rookies shouldn’t play, or will never play well if they do play. Meanwhile, you’re a fan of a team that got immediate production from its draft classes over the last three years. Jake Long, Kendall Langford, Vontae Davis, and Sean Smith come immediately to mind. You’re also cheering for a franchise whose best quarterback started halfway into his rookie season.

Shrugging your shoulders at the QB position is not going to make this team better.

 

I wouldn't necessarily assume that those top four QBs can play better than Henne. Ryan Mallet would have hated last year's offense although he could sell its play action far better than Henne ever could. Didn't Henne throw 6 ints or so on nonsense 3rd and long play action calls last season? He threw 13 INTs between the Dolphin 25-50? Those are some strange stats. We've gone over Henne's odd inability to pass the ball when the Dolphins were ahead also. When you're down within a TD you expect a high number of passes if you're the defense. Henne did well in those situations. Same with Henne the year before and Pennington the year before that. Much of Chad Henne's performances were butchered by the coaching staff, personnel, and especially the play calling as well as lack of running game, no doubt. I don't think you can truly give up on Henne without placing him in the best situation possible unless you really believe that Ponder and Mallett are worth starting day one. That doesn't mean you don't pick those two, but waiting a year to pick a QB from next year's class isn't the worst situation either if you don't think Ponder/Mallett are exceptional.

Either way Miami will still have a young quarterback next year it can improve on.

 

You hit it right on the nonsense 3rd and long play action calls. With no commitment to the run those scenarios happened way too often. You put a young QB in a situation for limited success you would expect just that.
That is on Henning not Henne.

 

I think many of mistake Henning's play-action on 3rd down as a result of poor football IQ. Yes, many of the times the PA's were completely pointless. BUT, the point of the Play Action last year was to help the O-Line. Henning knew his O-line couldn't protect Henne for 3-5 seconds as he takes a 5-7 step drop on 3rd and long. How do you fix this? You call a Play Action. The play action allows the wideouts to get to the top of their route while the QB is carrying out the PA. Thus, the QB isn't taking a drop back and isn't screwed over by the pressure. at the end of the PA fake, the wideouts are usually at the end of their route and the QB just has to turn around and fire away. Henne's best attribute is to take a 3-5-7 step drop, plant, and fire the ball. Well the drops weren't going to work with the terrible O-line we had (I dont give a **** what anyone or any stats rank our O-line in pass protection, they were bad). The next best thing is to carry out a PA and this speeds up the process while giving the QB more protection in a different way.

 

On any well coached team Henne should have been able to throw for a better or at least close to the same efficiency while ahead versus being behind if not better. Go watch the Lions game and notice that in the second half the formations as well as Henne's play go completely south and the team places Henne in problem situation after problem situation. Now I'm not saying he's anything special, few are saying that anymore but there's no doubt they could have at least gotten a 85-90 QB rating out of the guy last year with a decent OL most of the season, a good but poorly fit together receiving corp, and no running game. Give him what Flacco had and the play calling of Cam Cameron and you're looking at a different situation.

Best option available? Draft a QB, let Henne start Drew Brees style, but improve the roster around him to reflect that of a team that actually has a plan on offense. Replace Bess with a speed WR like Jacoby Jones, sign DeAngelo Williams, use that late 1st-early 2nd from Bess on a guard, sign a receiving TE, draft a power back in the third and see what happens. Worst comes to worst you've already got a QB in training to replace Henne.

 

I am not defending Hennings play calling but you can not discount Henne's part in why we found ourselves in 3rd and long situtations. Henne did not play well.

 

I was always a big Henne fan. But after watching last year’s performance, he put me in the probably not group. I came away with the impression Henne may not be smart enough to be a franchise QB during this day and age.

If Ponder’s health is up to its 2009 form (and I know that's a HUGE if), I think he’s already better than Henne and Stanzi may be as well. Sorry, I just can't grasp how anyone thinks Newton will ever be any better than Young. Young took over his championship game, Newton not so much. Gabbert, Mallett, Locker.

Let’s just hope Irish gets his guy.

 

I am actually hoping he improves in all these areas. If he doesn't then he prolly won't get another shot at starting for some time, barring some type of injury wherever he is playing. I would also take Mallett or Ponder at 15 to hedge that bet.

 

Everyday I come on this board, more and more, I think guys WANT us to be the Cardinals or Panthers. They want to make the SAME mistakes that those teams made.

 

By credible I mean any of the mainstream news or blog publications/sites. If you've seen one that says any of these guys are Year 1 starters please forward it.

We don't have the luxury of NOT grooming our franchise QB. Building a system around him, giving him some play makers, a strong running game, and a license to play to his strengths and not the strengths of his predecessor. I'm not sure what criteria you're using to claim that Henne doesn't deserve to be a starter but I'm pretty sure it's paper thin. He was a late 2nd round pick to begin with, so common sense says he needs a significant amount of work before he'll be a solid QB. Expecting him to go out and work miracles w/o a decent amount of growing pains is the same kind of unrealistic expectation you're trying to place on the 4 random QBs you named earlier.

LMAO there you go talking in circles again. A few minute ago it was impossible for me to know how the QBs would perform. And a few posts later you've already identified 4 QBs who have yet to play a snap in the NFL, as better players than Henne. Why would you ask me for next weeks lotto numbers when clearly you already have them?

Waving a magic wand won't work either.

 

Agree w/ all of that. Apparently so does Ireland b/c the OC and the QB Coach were both let go, and Ross was out shopping for Sparano's replacement but apparently failed to land one or changed his mind.

 

QBs coming into the league lately have played immediately and played well. Even so-called "raw" or "unprepared" rooks. Just spitting out that no QB in this class will play until 10 years down the road isn't realistic. Unless your team already has a grade A quarterback (like Favre) on the roster, a highly drafted rookie isn't sitting long.

Sorry, you don't pick a kid in the first and pay him a buttload of cash to sit behind a mediocre QB like Chad Henne. Maybe in year 1 he won't be heads and shoulders above Henne, but as he gets a season or two under his belt he can start to flip the switch.

I personally think it is far more unrealistic to expect a team to sit a Newton, Gabbert, Mallet, Ponder, Ryan, Flacco, Freeman, Sanchez, Stafford or Bradford than it is to have them play year 1 or even game 1.

Do I expect a QB to come here and make a SB contender off the bat? No, and I fully expect them to make rookie mistakes, to struggle at times, but overall to show why we drafted them high, to progress and get better and set us up for the future.

 

Umm people should sometimes do a little research before they write....


2010 RUSHING (Plays) 445
2010 PASSING (Att) 557
2009 RUSHING (Plays) 509
2009 PASSING (Att.) 545

Maybe what he means by teams that pass more is by 200 or more attempts?

 

I would 100 percent agree with you here if the play actions on 3rd down were from 6 yards or less. Not 3rd and 10 or more which was done way too much. Teams were not biting one bit and all it did was keep Henne's back to the defense a second longer.

 

Again its not about biting, its about developing the routes and steps taken. Wideouts have a certain number of steps they must take before sinking their hips into their cut. This coordinates with the QBs dropback or PA fake routine. If you have a PA routine like Henning used, its not for teams to bite. Its to set up and develop your routes easier when your O-line sucks.

 

When playing ahead on points we threw 104 times all season
when playing behind on points we threw 289 times

I think teams playing from behind would have inflated passing attempts
like we did in 2010

 

I'm not just trying to argue with you since I've commented on a few of your posts tonight but the above I totally disagree with. You're either taking a 3-5-7 step drop no matter what right? So why, on 3rd and 10, would you want you're Qb taking his eye off the routes when the pass rushers are making absolutely no attempt to bite? It doesn't slow them down one bit and they also know the yards needed so they can just squat near the mark and keep a safety back. For timing?

I'd have much rather seen Henne keeping his eyes on the routes from the hike to the cuts or put him in the shotgun with a Rb next to him.

 

How many of those passes when trailing by 3-7 points were in the first, second or early 3rd quarters?

 

Dysfunctional......just like the thread I posted last week. But to some they just refuse to see it.

 

Not many argued that Sparano may not be the man for the job. They argued that you made a big deal out of nothing.

 

We'll have to see, I think a boring do-nothing offense will get him booted by the bye week. Ross made it clear he wanted to see a more exciting offense.

 

I agree with most of that column. Throwing the ball efficiently correlates much higher with winning than running the ball efficiently does. That's because even the best rushing teams are only going to gain 5 yards per carry, 3 yard being the median rush attempt. Even the worst passing team in the league gains more than 3-5 yards on average when they throw the ball. Its simple math that Sparano doesn't seem to grasp. He should want to pass the ball by nature.

And the gross number of rushing attempts vs. passing attempts doesn't really tell us much. A lot of that has to do with things unrelated to offensive philosophy, things like how efficient your entire offense is and even how good your defense is.