Said it before and I'll say it again. NO coach..... I don't care who he is should be given full control. A good GM is as important as a good coach in the NFL. This franchise has suffered for a long time trying to realize this fact. We wasted a HOF QB's career, a championship defense and then finally almost suffered through a winless season with a roster that had been decimated by a bumbling idiot who had complete control. Never again......
Remember when the Rams were setup so much better than us? Ready to compete right now? All that cash, all those picks, franchise QB in place. Yeah. Granted, they do have Washington's #1 in 2014. At this rate it could be Top 5. But the point stands. They weren't better last year. We're better so far this year with what looks like a better, cheaper QB and better defense.
Don Shula, the greatest coach ever, had full control and promptly **** the bed. This is a coach who was famous for taking any group of players and making them great....but he couldn't do it with the players HE picked. Its down right blasphemous to believe Jeff Fisher could do something Shula never could...unless its growing a sweet mullet.
I do believe that the rule changes have forced defenses to up their quick pressure on QBs. That means that QBs have to have one of two skills to compensate. Either they can extend the play by being mobile or big (or both) and/or they excel at anticipating the rush and the routes that will be available given the play called and the D they read and can get the ball out quickly. RT is developing those skills. I don't think he anticipates the rush great compared to guys like Luck, Wilson, Rodgers, Brady, Peyton, Brees and CKap, but he is better than almost everybody else. RT is also more accurate than many of those guys so he's more effective when he does see it. RT has the physical ability to extend plays, but he seems to see the rush late so he doesn't use it often enough. I don't think Bradford has anywhere near the ability in either of those skills of RT or the others. I think you can win with him but you need better protection and play calling than you would with the others. I think that given the right pieces around him Bradford can be a top 15 QB, but I don't think he can be a top 10 guy.
At the time, I'll admit, I was a proponent of Fisher, but knew that adding him would cause issues with the FO, as he is a control freak and thruout his HC career, has always had the owners ear (yes, in St. Louis as well). My thinking then was that even tho he had never won any championships, his teams were always in the running. I also was thinking that he'd be an addition that would cement the organization from it's wavering ways (at that time), with or without Ireland... As it turns out, Ireland has secured the FO and the organization in general and Philbin is the kind of coach I want here so I'm not disappointed because we didn't get Fisher, just ambivalent to him as a coach for us... In short, I was wrong...
They probably wouldn't do it, but at this point, they might have to at least be considering the thought of replacing that franchise QB that's in place. Be interesting to see how Bradford does going forward. He's got a good TD/INT ratio, but only an 82.1 QBR. And a lot of his yards and TDs were built in a second half against ATL where the defense was in prevent much of the game and he threw it 55 times and against Arizona, which doesn't look to be very good. He didn't get much done against Dallas (240 in 48 attempts), and last night he wasn't good in what I saw. It was a Thursday night, so maybe I should cut him some slack. But he needs to get better fast. On the other point, the one about the Rams not getting better while the Dolphins seem to be, one of Philbin's major points of emphasis upon getting hired, if I remember correctly, was player development. This is basic and without much study behind it, but look at the Dolphin players that seem to be taking or have taken jumps since Philbin arrived: Tannehill, Hartline, Clay, Jonathan Martin, Matthews, Clemons, Odrick, Misi, even Egnew in his blocking... meanwhile, I see Bradford look like he's regressing, the Rams defense doesn't look as good as it looked last year, and though it's on a short sample size, the whole offense seems to be regressing with Bradford. The running game, usually a staple of Fisher's attack, looks anemic. So, yeah, point well-taken.
Finrunner, I saw those same 5 throws and all I thought was wow Bradford has 0 accuracy. The first one in particular was a mistake you can't make if you expect to win that game. Now maybe his protection is the problem, but I just do not see it. There are plenty of Qbs that have not had great pass protection that play better than that. Especially ones that have been the league for what 4 years now?
I'm sure we can agree the Rams performance last night put a huge smile on Ireland's face. It's nice to see people that he passed on, or passed on him failing on other teams.
They traded Ginn in the wake of the Marshall trade. Similarly to how they got rid of Bess after picking up Keller, Wallace and Gibson. I think Ginn would be a decent addition to the team now. Then again Richard Matthews performance late against Falcon proves all 4 of the current receivers are more than capable.*
Good point. They have a defense with the potential to be dangerous [albeit I bet they wish they could've gotten Soliai from us rather than Langford], but that offense seems like a bunch of mismatch parts. They have an Oline that couldn't push a baby in a stroller around yet they brought in another TE who can't block and draft a slot WR in the first round making two TE sets less likely. Then they've got a TE and pair of receivers who are among the fastest and more athletic at their respective positions in the league yet have a vanilla, unimaginative OC who seems clueless at figuring out easier ways to get the ball in their hands to make plays. Then their QB is the complete opposite of their speedy, athletic receivers/TEs. They need a new OC who's better at creating space for those playmakers, plus a mobile, athletic QB to accent that speed & playmaking ability. Could you imagine Givins, Cook, and Austin paired with DeSean Jackson & McCoy in Kelly's offense?
I love how you insist Ireland was responsible for all the bad stuff during Parcells' time just b/c he wore the GM badge but now that things are looking good you do a 180 and act as though the responsibility suddenly isn't his anymore even though he's now unencumbered and in more control than ever. Your contradicting actions show a clear bias, and at the expense of logic and reason..... which doesn't look favorably on credibility. My memory could be wrong but wasn't the McCoy stuff hearsay? I mean, did we ever hear from Ireland, Ross, or a legitimate Dolphins organization source that McCoy was Ireland's clear-cut preference? Do you think it's possible we may have used McCoy to lock up Philbin in the same way Harbaugh leveraged us to secure San Fran?
Yes. There was never any confirmation about the whole McCoy thing. It was during the whole Fisher turning us down (we turned him down), 2 separate coaching searches (complete and utter bunk), Cowher & Gruden turned us down because of Ireland (they turned EVERYONE that asked down), Manning wouldn't come here because of ireland (Manning didn't come here because we were a team in transition and not enough money), we lost Flynn as our starter (we offered him a contract commiserate with an unproven back up) lies that were debunked repeatedly. The media last year was at their absolute worst. It makes you wonder why people keep believing the sheer amount of lies that came out last offseason.
Bradford has lacks touch on his throws, and a has very bad pocket presense. Multiple batted passes by linebackers, no movement in the pocket. I can't remember seeing a QB look as lost as he did in the 4th quarter.
I was happy that Miami didn't get Fisher. I didn't understand how people who hated Sparano so much wanted Fisher so bad, when they have very similar philosophies. Yes, Fisher is better, however Schottenheimer is better than he is and most people don't want him.
Bradford is captain checkdown - he doesn't look for big plays at all. I do not see him being effective as a starter, I think at this point we see what he is.
Would love to know why Stedman Bailey can;t sniff the field for the losing Rams. My favorite WR in this year's rookie class.
I was thinking the same too last night while watching the game. Very glad we were not the team for him and he passed us by which allowed us to snag Philbin. Not that disappointed that Long isn't here either!
No to mention, why would Manning NOT want to play 8 games in the lightest air in the NFL after coming off surgery and weakened arm strength [compared to humid south Florida], and why the hell would he choose the duo of Bess & Hartline over Thomas & Decker.... or the ailing Long and a question mark at right tackle as his bookend protectors over Ryan Clady & Orlando Franklin? Believing that Ireland was the deal-breaking is ignorance at its finest. People who think we stood a chance against Denver's favorable situation are living in a bubble.
This dude obviously was in vogue with what the uninformed media was putting out.. I mean I get that Ireland has made his fair share of mistakes on the oline, but it's not enough to continue to hate on the guy.
And yet the media speculated that we were front runners, even though there was nothing to support us being front runners.
I've said all along that Fisher is a much better coach than his record indicates, and I'll stick to that. If you feel differently, then, you don't really know as much as you think you do about Jeff Fisher. You might think you know... but you don't. Period. I do think Miami got lucky and Philbin has turned out to be a very good head coach. After going through so many coaches over the past few seasons that didn't work out for one reason or another, it's nice to once again have a guy in charge I feel good about. I will admit, however, that I felt pretty good about almost every head coach we've had (outside of Cam Cameron) after week three of his second season. Philbin does give you the sense that he's different... so, maybe he'll turn out better than JJ, Wanny, and Saban. Maybe he won't. I just wouldn't start acting all cocky, puff my chest out, and run my mouth this early because we've won a couple of games. As Phin fans, we have been down this road before, and we should be fully aware how things can turn around very quickly.
Keep in mind that Peyton did pick Fox. Also keep in mind that Fox has won playoff games with Tim Tebow and Jake Delhomme at QB.
I disagree that manning picked fox, not that black and white imo, I think it was mostly Elway and the culture, I don't see Manning really caring who's coaching cause he gonna run the show regardless..
Right, but Elway and that culture chose Fox. Its not like the guy won a raffle to become Broncos HC. I do agree that Manning is going to run the show, but not all coaches could deal with that.