I have no love loss for Ireland Padre but I don't think he has mis-managed the DB's. After getting rid of Smith and Davis, we're in line to be as good or better at DB then we were with them, only now we have a future. Who cares if he cut Marshall, he isn't a long term solution to anything on this team. If your so hell bent on winning this season, then there are more glaring issues to bring up with Ireland than Marshall. It's like a turtle swimming thru quicksand with Ireland, but he has improved the team. I don't know about you, but I loathe to start over yet again. Give this moron another season and perhaps the turtle will finally cross the finish line. He has key acquisitions out there, that are going to make or break his #$% by then anyhow. Believe me, I understand your frustration. I think Ireland has blown a lot of resources but he has hit. The DB situation isn't one of his mistakes. He had nothing after Smith/Davis, now we seem to have a little something and a bright future.
Eh, not every move is going to work, it seems to me that Ireland's singular weakness is not understanding the rule of 3, if you need to keep your pants up you use a belt, suspenders and buttons. Instead we go all in on one guy, he does not pan out, there is no plan B that ends up working Instead what he is really good at it is finding gems when he has to, not via design. As for the cap, how many millions is a win in 2013 worth towards the 2014 salary cap?
I can't answer that, but I can tell ya every loss in 2013 will mean a higher draft position in 2014. Think positive. HAH.
I'm not gonna get too gassed up on Jamar Taylor or Will Davis...we all thought Vontae and Sean would be the next Madison and Surtain...we saw how that turned out. For all we know Taylor could end up never being better than a solid nickel corner while Davis never cracks 3rd on the depth chart.
Since he did not play in all 16 games it is just speculation as to what the quality of those games would have been had he played.
36 snaps. In coverage, PFF rated him our 2nd highest, after Grimes. He was thrown at 6 times, allowed 4 catches for a 5.5 yd avg, and a 73 QB rating.
Well yeah, it's also speculation as to whether John Beck would have been a bad quarterback for the Dolphins if they'd stuck with him as a starter, but the games he played were pretty bad so it's pretty good speculation.
Ugh, to me it is not the YPC avg, it is tackling efficiency that should be looked at, one will not see a long play without a missed tackle unless there is a broken coverage, and yet that aspect is always overlooked. If the league wants more passing, and makes completions easier, then the next evolution is the Db who can then limit the damage of RAC/YAC. In fact imo that should count as a negative against the D's YA avg, for example if a D gives up say 350 yds total offense, but missed 5 tackles for 60 additional yards, that should be added as a sub category of the 350 yds.
Chicago Bears linebacker Jon Bostic's tackle forces incompletion... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kD6h4tPNCk Give me some of this on the Dolphins... This is how a Rookie lets you know you drafted well.. I'd pay his fine if he played for us...I swear it.
Brent Grimes, Randy Starks, Paul Soliai, Chris Clemons, Dustin Keller, Incognito. We're going to have some monetary decisions to make. Sent from my GT-P3110 using Tapatalk 2
Carroll is a very mediocre NFL player. Taylor hasn't been able to get on the field because of injury and Davis may eventually be a decent CB in the NFL, but he isn't ready to play on a consistent basis at this time. That leaves Grimes and Patterson and not much else at this time. Marshall may not have been worth the money he signed for last year, but he at least gave the Dolphins a quality nickle back if he wasn't going to be the starting CB opposite Grimes. The secondary has once again become a huge question mark headed into the 2013 season. Marshall now also becomes another high priced free agent, signed by Ireland over the past six years, who has failed to have any success with the Dolphins.
Out of this group, the only players I see the Dolphins signing after this season are Grimes, Incognito, and either Soliai or Starks, but not both of them. Clemons didn't have much interest from other teams after the 2012 season and I don't see him having a lot of interest from other teams after the 2013 season. He certainly won't be a player the Dolphins would offer a large contract to keep him in Miami. Keller will probably be signed for a minimum salary by a team willing to see how he recovers from an extremely serious knee injury. This may be the Dolphins but probably not. No matter which team it is, it won't cost the team signing him much money against the salary cap. The Dolphins will have plenty of salary cap money to sign Grimes, Incognito, and either Starks or Soliai. In fact they will have enough money to sign both Starks and Soliai, but I don't think they will want to sign both of them because of all the young defensive lineman they have on their roster this year.
Starks and Richie I are likely gone, Keller will have to find his way through the rehab wilderness. Really Grimes and Clabo are our two key FA's atm, Soliai is a good DT, however a run stuffing DT does not command a mkt premium, Clemons is very replaceable as well. Losing Keller, whom I expected to have a huge season for us, clarified 2014, he would have commanded a serious premium as of now only Grimes assuming a big season is likely to draw a huge contract. Which makes cutting Marshall in favor of Davis/Carroll/Taylor/Stanford even stranger.
I really thought we all agreed, forgone conclusion, it was Marshall vs. Patterson so long as Grimes held up. Ideally Marshall would have won, because cutting Patterson had no cap ramifications. Eating cap on Marshall is the stinger, but the key is that the better player won. Aside from Carp, This was the cut we were supposed to see coming. I was rooting for Marshall.
The difference is a healthy Marshall in previous seasons had shown he could be a decent #2 corner. Beck had never proven he could be anything in the NFL. So, IMO, not a good comparison.
You'll have to define 'decent' because the Carolina Panthers let him walk willingly and then a year later the Arizona Cardinals only wanted him back as a nickel corner and willingly let him walk to a higher bidder. Marshall himself stated that the Dolphins and Cardinals were the two teams bidding on him and the Cardinals' offer was a lot less than the Dolphins' offer. He is what he is. He's always been a liability playing on the outside. He walked into Miami with demonstrated weakness on the outside and on the deep ball, being prone to penalty flags. Then in Miami he got beat on the outside, allowed touchdowns, and got penalty flags. No real surprise there. He didn't survive two training camps here just like he didn't even make it to two training camps with the Cardinals before they let him walk.
I haven't given up on Vontae. I still believe he can be a very good CB. I don't know if trading him was the right move. Certainly, im not as high on Will Davis as some are. Well see about Jamar Taylor...
3/5th's of our starting OL are free agents next year. 2 of 3 starting DT's (and it's only 3 if Odrick proves in the regular season he can do the job), both our starting CB's and our starting FS and starting TE. That's 9 starting spots. That's significant.
None of that changes the fact that since he was not able to play the entire 2012 season injury free, it is speculation to say how he would have performed. The coaches saw enough in him as the #2 corner that they were comfortable with trading a proven commodity in Vontae. He got hurt in the 2nd game, played that way for 2 more. After that we'll never know. I just don't get the timing of cutting him now. Granted that due to contract sizes it was an either/or situation between he and Patterson. If that is how it was, if it were me, especially considering Taylor hasn't been able to play much, still doesn't seem like he is 100%, and Davis is still inconsistent, I'd have waited til after the last preseason game to make the choice of whether Patterson or Marshall. We're an injury away from having Carroll as a full time starter again and he's one of the worst starting corners the team has ever had. I'd rather have Stanford or Wilson starting than Carroll.
So, it is surprising to me they didn't try to rework his contract. Until we see what the rookie have, he was one of our top 3 corners from a talent standpoint, based on how he was working as a starter alternately with DPatt
