Don Shula's advice for Joe Philbin: Find a QB

Get a QB.......and then put a team around him. Unfortunately Shula failed to do that in his waning years in Miami.

 

This guy is throwing Moore under the bus! He's worst than Marshall!

 

I can't believe Shula would do that to Moore. How are the Dolphins going to go on when the greatest coach in team history so deliberately threw Matt Moore under the bus?

 

Really? Don's sage advice is "get a quarterback,"?

This is the guy we consider the greatest coach of all time?

 

I'm 99% sure you guys are being sarcastic, but I addressed that point in the BMarsh thread. Matt Moore is a 27 year old man. If he can't take criticism without folding then he doesn't have mental toughness required to make it as an NFL QB anyway. The things everyone is saying aren't untrue. Ross knows we need to upgrade the QB positions as does Ireland, Shula, Marshall, every Miami Dolphins fan and Matt Moore himself. The challenge is for Moore himself to be that upgrade. The odds are good that we will bring in a QB this off-season to at least compete with Moore. If Moore takes that as an indictment of himself and gives up then he truly is nothing but a backup QB. If Moore fights to keep his job, but can't, then we did need an upgrade at QB. If Moore fights to keep his job and does either we screwed the pooch obtaining QB talent or he used this as motivation to step his game up.

Honestly, it seems people around here are taking way more offense to these remarks than Moore probably is.

 

What, did you expect him to go on a 15 minute diatribe where he fundamentally redefines the game of football for the Joe Rose show?

 

yeah...hey Shula, easy to TELL someone what to do huh? SHOULDA got a running back. SHOULDA got a decent secondary. SHOULDA let Olivadotti go years ago. SHOULDA ATTEMPTED to draft Marino's replacement. See how that works? Hello kettle. SMH. People put the Shula blinders on. Was he great, yes. But face it, he wasn't a genius for drafting Marino, Marino fell into his lap. How would Shula have been if he continued with Woodley? or Drafted Eason, O'Brien or Blackledge? Shula is just as responsible for the drought and trouble this franchise is in as anyone. But hey, thanks for throwing the current QB under the bus and telling Philbin something he already knows. These Dolphin old timers need to keep quiet. Support the franchise or keep quiet. Last thing Philbin needs is Shula telling him something he couldn't and didn't do himself. Now flame me for saying something bad about Shula, god forbid.

 

I sense much anger in you.

 

Unlike Don Shula, Brandon Marshall is on the team and is at the level of a teammate, which IMO means he shouldn't be speaking as if he is "above" his teammates.

Are you guys really unable to make these (IMO) simple distinctions in this matter, or are you just speaking in jest?

I mean if you really can't see the difference between Don Shula and Brandon Marshall in terms of this issue, I have to think it's little wonder you don't view Marshall's actions as problematic.

If to you Brandon Marshall's role in relation to the team is no different from Don Shula's, well then of course Brandon Marshall should be able to reach out to Matt Flynn and imply what he did about Matt Moore.

In other words, to you, Brandon Marshall should have the same permission as a non-teammate (such as Shula) to criticize his teammates publicly.

But can you really not make that distinction between Don Shula (a non-teammate) and Brandon Marshall (a teammate)? I mean seriously?

 

haha...no...i just get bothered by the shula can do no wrong crowd..and it's easy for him to criticize and give advice from the sidelines, when things he's saying are thigns he didn't do, but i digress

 

Shula did go to the Super Bowl 5 times with 3, really 4, different QBs.

EDIT: 6 times with 5 different QBs if you count Baltimore

 

Don't be silly...everyone knows radio shows go to commercial after 12 minutes...


Also, Don Shula, when asked what people should avoid to ensure a long life, responded with, "dying, they should avoid dying."

 

6 times with 4 different QBs, no matter if you count Morrall twice or Griese twice. It was Morrall with Baltimore. Griese in the first Miami Super Bowl, the loss to Dallas. Count the Super Bowl win against Washington either way. Minnesota win was with Griese. Washington loss with Woodley and San Fran loss with Marino. Since Griese played the win against Washington at the end of the 17-0 season, let's count him for that game.
That means 1 with Morrall, 3 with Griese, 1 with Woodley and 1 with Marino. Or if you prefer to count Morrall as the one in the 17-0 season, then it is 2, 2, 1, and 1.
Either way, Shula went to 6 Super Bowls with 4 different QBs.

 

Thanks for keeping me honest.

 

Matt Moore is not our quarterback. He is our backup. Remember he was Henne's backup for a reason.

 

He was Henne's backup because he was brought in during a lockout-shortened offseason and didn't get a chance to compete with Henne. If Henne stays for camp, we will see who is the backup.

 

This post actually made me laugh. Not because its funny what you wrote but because of the anger you showed toward Shula just because he stated what every living Dolphins fan already knows. But,it is admirable that you,and rightfully so, hold Shula to a higher regard then anyone else. Good job for that at least.

 

Considering the last four head coaches we've had and the teams they've fielded, yes, going Captain Obvious on the new guy is a bit necessary.

 

And after the break Don Shula had a fantastic quote that will stick with Dolfans for a long time, hopefully Philbin takes on his jedi-type level of intelligence from Shulas quote of :

Insanely deep stuff.

 

yeah, both of them.

 

Everyone knows Shula wasn't perfect, but he was one pretty darn good coach who set 8-8 as the bottom at the very least, and he won w/ two different systems in three different decades. His drafting - especially '84-'89 was HIGHLY questionable, and was one of the reasons we struggled so much in the late 80s, and couldn't capitalize on the talent we brought in in the early 90's. But the dude could flat out coach, and take whatever he had on the field and bring a competitive game each week. And, at one point, he did go to three straight Superbowls, and went to two outta three in the 80s, so he must have know something!

I mean, let's be fair, it didn't always work out under Shula, but each September, I always thought we had a chance to win it all, I really did. He instilled that kind of confidence!

 

Well QB has been the biggest weakness on this team since Dan Marino retired. That's 12 years. Since then not ONE first round pick has been spent on the QB position. So for those of you acting like Shula is being Captain Obvious here, how about forwarding your thoughts to Jeff Ireland? Because he hasn't gotten the memo yet.

 

We are lucky to still have Shula with us. Good to hear from him

 

One of the reasons Shula could get results was because he was known for grueling workouts. Players have said that the practices were much harder than games, so that the games were the "easy" part.

Nowadays, players are divas and complain about that. One of Sparano's issues was he didn't run great practices.....

 

Are you sure about that? Because he was always befuddled in post game pressers. "I don't get it. We had a GREAT week of practice..."

 

He liked fieldgoals over touchdowns.....a "Great" practice to him, may not be a great practice to reality.

 

Shula wasn't giving his advice to Philbin to find a QB. He was simply giving his assessment of the team, something all of we Monday morning arm chair QB's seem to do on a daily basis and he stated the only thing we're lacking is someone at the QB position...something many of you state on a daily basis...

And you blast Don Shula for saying the same thing you've been saying?

You should be patting yourselves on the back to validate your football intelligence, being equal to that of the winningest head coach in NFL history.

 

I think you have an argument that Wood-Strock can count as 2 QBs...

 

First, I will preface all of this as say that I do drink the Shula kool-aid and wear Shula shades. There's no need to flame you because a. I can be a dum-dum and b. we all have an opinion.

Does Shula get less credit for Marino? Marino had more ints than TDs his senior season at Pitt, and many considered drafting him after the first round, iirc. I though many considered Marino a risk that early. I was 13 at the time, and I remember my Penn St. side of the family telling me how overrated he was but that's part of the rivalry. What was the deal with Marino then? Was he considered a risk?

When Shula retired, Dan was 32 or 33 at the time. I'm not sure if Shula had the chance to try to draft Dan's replacement. I guess I put that on Jimmie Johnson because Marino retired 5 years later.

"How would Shula have been if he continued with Woodley? or Drafted Eason, O'Brien or Blackledge?" Wouldn't that actually be in favor of Shula for not continuing with Woodley? What does not drafting those other guys have to do with Shula? He took what was available. I guess I’m not following.

People want the legend players and coaches' opinion. 22 winning season out of 24; 4 super bowls with this franchise, most wins by coach, etc. people care what he thinks. He's an old legend who doesn't give a dang about pc stuff. He's like the crazy old uncle going on about today's kids and politics. The older he gets, the less he holds back but some inane stuff can come out. You aren’t going to get the rah-rah stuff.

 

Then again an argument could be made that together they shouldn't even account for 1 QB.

 

yeah because those are the only two options.

 

In order to remove that last 1%, yes I was being sarcastic.

As for the distinction, of course it exists, but it is also irrelevant here. Players recruit other players constantly. Cris Carter talked about it just recently. I doubt that Moore takes it personally, b/c it is so common. I'm sure he's not as sensitive as the many posters here calling Marshall a bad team mate or a cancer. I would bet that Flynn has been "recruited" in some fashion by almost every WR he knows on a team without a franchise QB. If Marshall hadn't gone to the pro bowl we probably would never have even found out about his recruiting.

 

Bottom line on Shula:

-Dolphin team was irrelevant before he came, immediately relevant after he came.
-Soon after, team played in three straight Superbowls, winning the last two, performing better in each appearance!
-Took a Ken Stabler miracle to keep us from a fourth.
-Still kept team competitive in late '70s after he was robbed of his talented backfield by the WFL (you'll have to forgive me if I'm a little off here, I was but a wee pre-schooler at the time). Perhaps if that didn't happen, there would be one less Steeler title, and we'd have three?
-Kept team at a high level with Don Strock and Woodley at QB, even getting to the Superbowl (and maybe winning that, had Theisman not been able to knock down that "was just about to be an" interception and TD by Bokamper).
-Drafted Marino when others thought Marino was a bad pick. Drug rumors, threw off wrong foot, more picks than TDs, etc. etc. He took a chance on Marino, and Marino paid him back!
-Went from a run-first, defense oriented coach to a pass-the-ball-all-over-the-GD-field coach, with very little defense once Marino arrived. Yes, we all know he neglected the defense a little too much by 1985, nobody is perfect. He has a huge share of the blame here, but those teams were at least competitive.
-Built a pretty good team 1990-95 that ran into one of the best AFC dynasties of all time in the Bills, in their own division no less. Laugh all we want at the four SB losses in a row, those Bills teams were better than us, at a time when we were pretty darn good as well. They ate our lunch, and that's just something we'll have to live with. Probably had a SB appearance in that time if not for the Bills.
-And, finally, TWO LOSING SEASONS IN ALL THAT GD TIME HE WAS OUR COACH. And both were 6 win season (one with 14 games!). There were no 2-14s or 4-12s that even some good coaches go through at times (Jeff Fisher). To put this in even more perspective, note that Bill Cowher suffered three losing seasons, Andy Reid has two, and Belichick for all his glory has five! Note, all of Belichick's five came w/out Brady (whistlin'). And none of them coached nearly as long as The Don!

No, he wasn't perfect, but Christ, who is! If he wants to tell Philbin that 2 + 2 = 5, he should listen!

 

I cant beleive some of you people you put Matt Moore on a pedistal then some of you throw a hissy fit when marshall and shula is telling you people something and that something is exactly what ousiders are saying .MATT MOORE IS NOT A GOOD QB HE IS A #2 BACK UP AND AT MOST PLACES HE WOULD BE THE THIRD TEAM QB . SOMETIMES i THINK DOLPHIN FANS ARE HAPPY WITH JUST BEING AVERAGE . ITS BEEN SINCE 2000 AND MAYBE EVEN LONGER and we are still having qb issues..Don Shula is 100000 % right , so face it if Don Shula thought that Moore is the answer at qb then he would say so ,so no Matt is not the qb of the future.I trust Don Shula at whatever age more then i would anyone here.

 

I agree that Matt Moore isn't above critcism (Matt Moore probably thinks that), but I think you're underselling him if you think he'd be a #3 in most places. Really? Have you seen some of the QB play in this league? What Moore did, especially over the last nine games, at least cements him as a solid #2 for the next 10 years if he stays healthy. Heck, I hope he stays with us as the #2 if we get Peyton or Flynn (beyond his contracted next year). I'd be very comfortable if he had to start 3-4 games due to injury, and I wouldn't feel the season was lost if - say - we start off hot and our #1 goes down like Shaub did in Houston.

Moore may even have more upside than we've seen, but it certainly isn't something to bank on, and it appears our FO realizes this and will sign/draft accordingly. That's fine, that's the way it should be. But don't discount what Moore has done - he's a kid who gets the most from his limited God-given gifts. We could do a lot worse (oh Hell, we certainly have!).

 

Matt Moore isn't a franchise QB. He's exactly what he was brought in to be, a backup. It amazes me how many people are unable to see this. Actually, I'm not. There's still people that defend Chad Henne. And John Beck. And people that still think you can win in the NFL by running the ball and playing defense and trotting out a bum QB. Yea, not surprised.

Don Shula is right. Brandon Marshall is right. Time to face it.

 

I was big on Moore as the season closed out, but w/ a little perspective now, I've come down off that to think he's really just a super back-up, and that's fine. I hope he is ours for years to come, but I suspect he'll at least try to be a starter in the coming years, and there will likely be a team or two each year that may give him a small shot at that. And that's fine, who are we to tell him to stay a back-up. But he's at least that, and I hope he stays with us for a while. Of course, I hope the guy he's backing up is a clear-cut #1 who we can hang our hat on for the next decade, or 3-4 years if it's Manning.

 

Exactly . But,the need to ***** by some people over shadows their ability to see whats right in front of their eyes.