Highly doubt he cares about that. The beat writers are simply the mechanism that he uses to get his message to the fans. And his message was pretty muddled, but I guess amounted to "Jeff Ireland is a smart, hard worker and I really think we have a good coach and good QB so buy tickets." That's a reasonable message I suppose, but he didn't do any convincing, just stated his opinion and said "trust me", and unfortuantely he hasn't earned a ton of trust.
You're acting as if he traded down and took two scrubs who were cut a year later. Odrick and Misi were good draft choices. As you pointed out, hindsight is 20/20 and everyone is a draft expert two years after the fact.
No, as painful as it may be, a lot of fans are influenced by what the beat guys write. Best to get on their good side. His message was very clear too. They aren't going to deviate from their plan to build through the draft, and they aren't going to look for quick fixes or shortcuts.
Short of announcing the death of Ireland and his soul's subsequent decent to Hell, what could he have said that would have made you happy?
I liked what he said. Especially when he said he is basically a hands off owner, and lets the people supposed to worry about the draft pick the players.
Thanks for the quotes schmo. I wonder if Ross is reacting to the Hitler reacts video? the timing is uncanny.
I am happily reassured after the PC myself. Good to know he isn't looking at this offseason as some "make or break" offseason, or an opportunity to "make a splash" in FA. Both of which would be bad directions to go IMO.
He also said money was no object and that all financial resources were available, which is irrelevant unless you plan on going out into free agency. And signing one WR isn't a quick fix or a shortcut. It's a standard, reasonable part of building your team.
Here's what he could have said. "I know that we have dissapointed our fans for far too long. While some criticism of myself and Jeff Ireland is valid, I believe we are on the right path. However, I also believe that we need to produce results this eyar, as four consecutive losing seasons are unacceptable for this franchise. If my expectations are not meant by the end of the 2013 season I assure you I will re-evaluate all front office and coaching personnell and will make full scale changes if that is warranted. Your expectations as fans should be that we will be in the playoffs next year, and if we fail to reach that goal then no stone will be left unturned."
This should be a "make or rbeak" off season though. We've had alot of "break", it's time to get to the "make" or a certain GM should be shown the door
I don't agree with the premise. Putting things in such granular terms if not a good idea. What if Ryan Tannehill blows out his knee and the team goes 6-10 with Pat Devlin? Are you firing Jeff Ireland? I have a hard time seeing him putting everything on the GM.
Because we should make the playoffs next year, considering he thinks we have a ton of talent. Going 5 years without the playoffs is pathetic in this day and age and has been reserved for the worst franchises in the elague like Buffalo and Cleveland. It should not be ok for us to be lumped in with them. And if ross isn't going to say that, then don't say anything at all.
I can hear the Ross haters now "Ross doesn't even know how to use a cell phone, how can he operate a football team"
Yep, because Pat Devlin will have been deemed good enough by Ireland to be the backup, and thus should competently fill in for Tanny should the worst happen, and if he doesn't it will be just the latest example of Ireland's roster negligence.
He's the guy picking the players. If we don't have enough good players who else should take responsibility?
He's the guy that is part of a process to pick players and a bunch of other things. You characterize this as Jeff Ireland just sitting in an office picking guys he likes and guys he doesn't. His position is largely administrative, and relies on a lot of different moving pieces. And all this goes without the obvious fact that he's responsible for more than just players.
I have no problem with Ross sticking to the plan of building through the draft. I have a problem that's he's trusting a guy with a pretty bad track record to carry out that plan.
What do you mean Ireland is a great gm, just ask his many fans on this site. We only need about 3-4 more drafts to get that extra 2-3 wins we need considering he gets one good players or every five crap out non factors.
My point is though... that statistically speaking... whats to say we would have got 1 "excellent" player? The odds of getting an excellent player at 12 are still going to be around or below 50%. So, yes... they could have done better at 12 with hindsight. But they could have done better with hindsight while trading down as well. There are always going to be players that you look back at and can say "Man, we c ould have had so-in-so! But, looking at the class as a whole and comparing it to the average return for a draft class, it was above average. And that IMO is how you should grade a draft class, b/c if you are going to use hindsight, I don’t think any draft class would be considered “good” by that standard b/c there will always be players you could have picked with any pick that turn out better than expected. But that is just my opinion…
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolp...hen-ross-gives-his-state-of-the-dolphins.html A little more in depth on the Pc here
He has the final say. There certainly is a lot more to it than Jeff Ireland making the final decision. There is an entire process of actually gathering, interpreting, and analyzing information. There a lot of different places where the process can breakdown. In reality, nobody here has the requisite information to evaluate the process. All people can go off is what the final result is. It certainly is fair to base your opinions off that if you would like, but Stephen Ross absolutely has a much clearer view of how things operate.
So if you don't end up picking or signing enough good players to win, then what do you do? someone needs to be held accountable, even if it's the entire scouting staff. But again, the buck has to stop with somebody. Jeff Ireland is in charge of personnell. If he thinks a scout is performing poorly it is his job to find a new scout. If he doesn't, and continues to rely on that scout and we pick bad players, that is Ireland's fault Would you stand for this type of lack of accountability in your own business or your own life, that you are proposing here?
This post exemplifies the only thing that Ireland has proven to be truly good at during his time with the Dolphins. Putting the blame somewhere else. If there is a problem with the process, that's Ireland's problem. He put the process in place.
So what are you saying is if you hire a guy, the guy makes a deal with a company, the company is destroyed in an earthquake which ends up losing you millions. You will still fire the guy because he can't predict earthquakes.
No, that's a ridiculous analogy. If this team has as much talent as many claim, we should be able to survive and continue to win with a QB not named Ryan Tannehill. Many teams do it during the course of the season. Sure, maybe you're not quite as good as you might have been, but nor should you necessarily be a complete disaster. If you choose say Caleb Hanie, or Curtis Painter as your backup, you reap what you sow. Ask Jerry Angelo and Bill Polian about that. If Pat Devlin played like them, you're damn right the guy who put him in that position is getting fired.
And what good would cranking up the heat on Irelands seat like that do? Would Ireland “try harder” b/c of that? Or would fans be more willing to buy tickets to a game in September b/c Ross turned up the heat on Ireland in January? Really… what good would that have done? I don’t see a positive coming from that. There are a couple of negatives though. First, it would create a non-positive “story” that the media can run with, and consistently be nagging Philbin, Ireland, etc on their job security. 2nd, with teams knowing that your GM is on his last legs, they can use that as leverage in trade talks as they know you’ve “got to get something done” or else you’re fired. That doesn’t help the team at all. The only good it would have done is temporarily make the fans who dislike Ireland feel a little better. And that good feeling would have lasted about a week and would immediately be replaced with reactions to whatever moves are made this offseason. If Ireland goes and gets Greg Jennings and Mike Wallace, the fan base would be thrilled with Ireland. If they don’t get any WR worth mentioning, more Naanee types… they will be furious with Ireland. So, what Ross says now isn’t going to really make any significant impact in a positive manor. However, what he said could have made an impact in an negative manor… and he avoided doing that. Which is a good thing IMO…
Tannehill- promising yes, world beater no Martin- not very good Vernon-promising Egnew- lol Miller-promising Matthews -ok Meh draft Worst free agency period I have see in a while though.
Again, Ross overestimates the aptitude level of many of his fans. Now if he said: "Super BOWL in 2013 or Ireland is fired, I guarantee it" Wolves: "YEAAAAAAHHHHH" Hey, if you're not going to say something incredibly dumb, why say anything at all?
No, it doesn't necessarily have to stop with someone. In my own business, there are always issues that need to be fixed. That doesn't necessarily mean someone should be fired. If I fired someone every time my company didn't meet a goal, there would be nobody left. Often it takes operational changes, re-allocation of resources, better support for certain people, or maybe bringing in someone else. ETA: its also ridiculous to assume that Jeff Ireland has the ability to just fire an entire scouting staff as he pleases.
Who exactly did I blame??????? My point is that nobody here has the information available to make an informed decision. How in the world do you know this? How do we know Stephen Ross isn't putting the process in place???
Tannheill alone makes it a "good" draft. Martin, Miller, Matthews, Vernon have shown they can be role players, even as rookies. If they improve they can be solid contributors. Egnew is Egnew. We'll find out this year whether it was a playbook issue or a talent issue, or both. Not a meh draft IMO. As for FA, not much ventured, not much gained. If you like big name/big $$$ FA's I don't think this is the team for you.
