I'm honestly failing to follow you. First, who the **** cares about preseason public opinion? And why would signing a guy to compete for one of your last roster spots be considered laughable? Having a "premium perception" is meaningless when the players take the field. All that matters is wins and losses. Perception takes care of itself from there... And again, I dont see why this is "embarrasing"? Did we just sign him to a multi-million dollar deal and make him our starter?
If you don't like it, please feel free to put me on "ignore". Nabo can join you since he felt compelled to give you a fist pump.
Maybe he wants to retire a Dolphin. I have no f clue here either. But to media and other fans we just look like we are so crapy we'll take anyone off the old scrap heap. We take cast-offs who are used up, out of football, and done. Because we are so desperate we'll consider anyone. That's the message this sends. So I'm hoping he wants to retire a Dolphin, despite never having played a snap for us. Otherwise, I'm embarassed by this move.
I guess instead of picking up acorns Ireland was down at the beach picking up seashells and found Johnson under one of those.
The part here that worries me isn't that we cut Kory Sheets... it isn't that we signed Larry Johnson to be a 3rd RB on the depth chart behind Bush & Thomas... It's that this move stinks of Carl Peterson's involvement possibly. That concerns me more than anything.
Good lord, people, who gives a rat's ***? He's a cheap vet brought in to compete for the 3rd running back spot. Some of you are acting like we traded a first round pick for him and signed him to a long-term contract. The guy may not even make the team. High risk, low reward? Really? More like low risk, low reward. If he works out, we've got a competent third running back. If he doesn't, we cut him and sign another cheap vet or rook or whoever to take his place. Even if this guy makes the team, he's not going to get a meaningful carry in a game this year unless Thomas or Bush gets hurt.
It just adds to the perception of it as a whole, starting last year when somebody said after one of the games, that it seems Miami drew up their offense gameplan on a pizzabox with crayons (or something to that effect), to the offseason nonmoves at coach, etc....
And who gives a damn about what the media says about us in the damn preseason? What difference does that make? Are you really losing sleep because the dopey duo of Mike and Mike thinks we're a joke?
I feel like they just signed Larry Johnson to a 5 year deal worth 46 million dollars because of the responses here, but they didn't. Relax people.
We'll have to differ, I suppose. I know at least a half dozen football buddies I can almost guarantee will laugh their asses of at the Dolphins (and not in a 'laughing with you' way) over this. Or they might feel bad for us. I know because they already did so when we brought Tiki Barber in for a look. So, I guess the difference is you don;t care about others' opinions. And that's valid. But understand that Ross DOES care and emphasizes all the time that his goal is to create a brand image for this team. And, it seems, that goal would relate to having some prestige. Some WOW factor. These perception things are whey league schedulers deny you national games. If your team is not a premium product, do NOT expect premium product placement. And the audience rules everything. The majority of money for the NFL comes from TV, sponsors and advertisers, not local fans buying tickets. So perception of the team can (and does) affect how well you can sell that brand to sponsors, advertisers, and upsell it for wide TV audiences. If you've heard the phrase "Perception is everything." then that would apply to some aspects of running an NFL brand. I don't hate this as a football move. I hate it as a business move... especially on top of Tiki a few weeks back. It sends the same message as our restrained-desperation wanting a QB while Henne was in house. Or pursuing a coach while one was in house. At least in those cases when we showed we weren't 100% confident in the men who we already had, we pursued better replacements. In this case, it looks like we need scraps just to round out the roster.
Perhaps. It's more like this on it's own would be fine. But in the context of an accumulation of embarassments (Imploding in ugly fashion in Patriots game in Miami on national TV when it was a chance to make up for previous home embarassments, Harbaugh debacle, home record, chasing QBs and landing Matt Moore, considering Brett Favre, however briefly, bringing Tiki Barber in) it now doesn't take much to exacerbate the wound.
If I'd never been on a Dolphins message board before and hadn't followed the team, and I wandered into this thread and saw this reaction to that low level signing, the first thing that would come to my mind would be that the team has somehow managed to exhaust all benefit of the doubt from its own fan base.
Yeah, and it was probably a laughing joke to some when we looked at CFL player Cameron Wake. Who really gives a flying fin what other people think? Kick the tires and see how he looks on the field. Whats the worst that comes of it?
Exactly. Reputation is an opinion formed by people based on accumulated track record of actions. We've been acquiring ours for awhile and this furthers it. No it's not a big deal. But our reputation doesn't seem to be improving league-wide, nor mainstream. I care because I love this team and want it to gain some respect. I guess the field is the last place, and best place, left for them to do that. So I hope they come out kicking *** on Sundays. If they do, that's the biggest factor in changing perception. Who wouldn;t rather see their franchise respected instead of mocked by the mainstream?
Either that or we picked up a cheap, big, formerly extremely productive running back who can serve as a backup and short yardage specialist. Occam's Razor usually wins out in these situations. Baltimore signed Ricky Williams-I don't hear anyone crying desperation over there. For what it's worth my preference, easily, would have been to resign Ricky.
Win games, win superbowls, earn respect. Who gives a **** if people laugh at our franchise? It could be worse, we could be the bengals or Raiders or bills. Larry Johnson is a 4th string back. Vet minimum, and probably wont even be on the team in September.....who gives a rats ***!?
Who cares about perception? Why don't you ask ALL of the first-tier free agents this offseason who stayed away from the Dolphins in droves? And then ask any of the upcoming cutdowns that they're saving the $9M cap money they're sitting on for.
Thank you, because THIS is exactly what has happened. As I copntinue to say, it's an ACCUMULATION of events that leads to this reaction. A year of small humiliations as a fan who loves a team. Do you think I enjoy hearing that cornerbacks call our plays before they happen then mock our players about it because our coaching staff was pathetic at calling plays? No, I don;t swell with pride. And no, that ONE THING is not what upsets me today. It's dozens of pin pricks like that over time, plus a few haymakers like the Harbaugh thing. I just want to go a whole month where we don;t end up hearing something that makes you shake your head and sigh deeply.
Or ask Karlos Dansby why he signed here last year.....or why Chad Pennington (a highly respected nfl player) signed here.
Perception can certainly impact signing people. Great players will sign for less on winning teams, certainly. I'm glad we DO have enough respect within football itself that reggie Bush signed with us. I mean, we'll never know if FA's are avoiding us. Maybe some are, but I can;t really make that argument because it's guesswork for me. Wouldn;t surprise me, though, if agents had a harder time selling them on Miami now than they did a couple of years ago.
My only question here is, where is the foresight? On this and the #2 TE situation...what exactly has happened over the last three weeks or so, that wasn't anticipated? Mickey Shuler, Jeron Mastrud and Dedrick Epps have looked we all knew they would. Charles Clay has worked primarily at fullback the entire time and so naturally you should have anticipated that he not look so awesome when you put him on the line as a Tight End, since he's not really practicing the position much. Kory Sheets looked like he always did. Lex Hillaird looked like he always did. Daniel Thomas has looked about what you should expect of a rookie 2nd/3rd round runner. Nic Grigsby has looked like a UDFA runner. There have been no significant injuries, no inexplicable and sudden onsets of suckitude, no arrests or eligibility issues. So why are we stuck begging for scraps now, when we could have been making better choices back when better choices were available? That's my issues here. Where's the foresight? Where's the anticipation? Where's the old "Be Prepared" boy scout mentality?
That was so last year. And obviously since we didn't make any big free agent acquisitions it proves by default the free agents stayed away from us because we looked signing tiki barber and signed larry johnson....
Each NFL season makes the last and anything that came before it ancient history. Tell me why we had over $12M cap space and NONE of the top guys signed here? You know, since we were able to attract Pennington and all.
Most of the league would rather have Ricky. he's been in football the last few years. Maybe there IS upside, but I still think the business side (perception) isn;t worth that small chance of upside given the state of this franchise's reputation. I'd be curious, for instance, how season ticket sales were looking this year. Because perception sure as hell influences that.
Exactly. And it's why perception does matter, especially when you're talking about the negative. You think Deion and Sapp and all those guys aren't coming up with jokes about this ****? And players watch ESPN, and they watch NFLN. Players who we're waiting to spend that remaining $9M in cap space on. How many are going to be just busting down the door to sign in Miami? And before you answer that, keep in mind how many players we know have taken less money to play on a team that they thought had a shot to win.
Well, it's weird. In some areas they seem to have foresight. They got Thomas so they could let Brown and Williams go. Although, you're right, even there it would have made sense to have had that RB a year ealrier so he had been brought along already. They do often 'react' to needs. But maybe that's because we had so many holes that it's taken a few years to fill the roster at starter positions, so they never had the luxury of drafting talented #2's to 'bring along' behind starters. We needed Vontae and Sean Smith and Clemons ASAP when they came in. Same with our O line guys. And so on. Once our starters are all solid, then I guess you can 'plan ahead' better. I will agree with you on this, though; it seems like they do not have the best power to accurately assess what a player they already have really IS. It's like they expect them to change. I mean a great staff DOES develop players enough that they massively progress. I guess this staff waits to see that if that has happened first, then if it has not they go outside to find other talent.
Top guys? Charles Johnson? We have better. DeAngelo Williams? Ahmad Bradhsaw? did you see the money those guys got? Oft injured, older running backs which are dime a dozen.....I am glad we didnt throw a truck load of money at them. Who else? Asmosough? We have 2 young corners, no need to invest in the most expensive one. Plax Burres? pass. Who did we really MISS OUT on?! Free agency was a cluster-**** this season, you make it seem guys took less to stay away from miami as they went running away with their index fingers crossed to condemn our pathetic franchise...........
Bradshaw signed I believe a 4 year deal worth $4.5 million a year. Reggie Bush signed a 2 year deal with us worh $5.0 million a year.
Larry Johnson really doesn't have the carry workload to be "done". He might not have the work ethic to do what he did, and he's an idiot, but its not an unreasonable stone to turn over.