Is Ross (Or Ireland) Being Too Cheap To Field A Better O-Line?

I guess from a Free Agency standpoint, a good question would be...what was available that was reasonably priced and wouldn't put us in the same situation we had with Clabo?

 

I don't think you can accuse Ross of being cheap, and I think I think the salary cap has been managed quite well. You'll need that cap room in order to make good decisions and keep the roster well managed next year, and you're always going to have holes.

I think in retrospect you've got to figure out what was available and passed up on to say something should have been done differently.

 

Why didn't they move up cash to this year?

 

I just don't want to overpay a cat that isn't worth the money by a wide margin. It's free agency, it's a given that you are going to overpay. Just don't want to see us giving a guy who's clearly not worth it, a kings ransom. So if Eric Winston falls into that category then its not applicable. But form a comprehensive standpoint, what was available? From a ...money is no option standpoint...who should we have signed?

 

Cap can rollover to the next season.

 

Yes, as was mentioned, cap roll-over. Having 20 million to roll into 2014 is a big deal.

 

Winston's PBE has been about the same as Clabo's before this weekend.

 

The cap next year isn't going to help Ireland or Philbin if we wind up having a bad year.

 

That cap room will need to be evened out but there are two reasons it had to stay high in 2013:

1. A few of the contracts feature artificially deflated first years followed by artificially inflated second years (most glaring example is Mike Wallace's),
2. Once again next off season will see us having a lot of expiring contracts and holes on the team that we must either fill in free agency or fill by re-signing expensive players.

I do expect the cap spending to even out over time. On a CASH FLOW basis, which is ultimately what is most important, Steve Ross spent plenty of money this off season and there's no reason to believe the team is operating under any directives to attempt to stay as close to the salary floor as is possible.

 

Who cares about the long term cap structure, if it means you field a mediocre team, year after year. The Ravens were in cap trouble after last season, but who cares, they won the SB last year. Of course they also have one of the best GM's in the NFL. So even though they lost a lot of players from last years squad, they were still good enough to handle the Dolphins today.

The problem for the Dolphins is that even though they are doing okay with the salary cap. They remain a very mediocre team with lots of holes on offense and defense. I would rather them be in salary cap hell this year and win a SB than have a lot of salary cap space and finish around 500 again. Ross is being cheap, but with how bad Ireland has done in signing free agents this past off season and in his previous five years as the teams GM, you really can't blame Ross if he doesn't want Ireland spending anymore of his money.

 

It won't surprise me if the new GM decides to trade Wallace after this year. The Dolphins will take a cap hit, but hopefully the next GM will do a better job selecting free agent talent and especially in the draft. Ireland has clearly shown that he has no idea when it comes to the college draft. As far as free agent signings go, he has had for more misses than he has had hits.

 

Generally speaking, contrary to common belief among many disgruntled Miami fans, building a great offensive line isn't an easy accomplishment in today's game when the most talented linemen now often opt for the defensive side of the ball early on in their playing careers. Much of the NFL struggles with fielding a strong offensive line. Teams like the Niners are far from the norm, and even when you think you have a strong oline, its nature is so volatile it can change in a heartbeat. Obviously that's by no means an excuse to settle for mediocrity, but fans shouldn't kid themselves into thinking this is an issue exclusive to the Dolphins organization.

What does our $19 million jump to when we extend Pouncey for $50 million'ish? I think it would behoove us to keep his future contract in mind when considering current Oline contracts.

 

Nobody says it is easy putting together a great offensive line. I think the fact Ireland has been here for six years and the only quality offensive linemen on the team are Pouncey and Incognito clearly show that he isn't even capable of putting together a mediocre OL.
In fact this isn't even just about the OL. In six years Ireland has never been able to provide this team with a quality secondary and the LB's have always been average at best and the TE position has always needed an upgrade. The only decent RB drafted or signed in free agency since Ireland has been the GM was Reggis Bush. He let him go in free agency and kept Thomas. What a joke.

Tannehill may or may not end up being a good selection. The WR position this year is better than it was last year, but I would take Marshall over Wallace. I think trading Marshall to the Bears two years ago and signing Wallace this past off season were not good moves. Marshall is a better WR than Wallace and I don't think he was any more a diva than Wallace.

Ireland seems to be best at selecting punters and kickers, and he has done fairly well in selecting defensive linemen. Other than that, he has been a below average GM in the NFL for the past six years.

 

The team is 3-2, it's NOT the end of the world, that is true. But it's NOT headed in the right direction. It's mediocre, it IS mediocre.

It reminds me of 2002 when people on FINNHEAVEN overreacted to the 5-1 start while ignoring the deficiencies we were able to see on the Offensive side of the ball, primarily the fact that we FINALLY had a Running Game, finally, but Rick Spielman couldn't evaluate a QB and thus Jay Fiedler was chosen to run the offense- this was Rick Spielman's answer to, "no Dan Marino, now what?". We have to improve on that position we yelled in Forums despite an 11-5 record in 2001. But our pleas were ignored. Rick Spielman deserved the benefit of the doubt for the playoff season but we didn't like his reluctance to improve at QB and after going 4-6 the rest of the way The playoffs were missed despite the HOT start.
Spielman you must get off your high horse and get a QB.

Then in 2003, we started off 4-1 and people were CROWING, "leave Spielman alone, we can win with Fiedler, our defense was competent enough to do so", gave up lot of yards but not a lot of points (Bend but don't break). Our D was heralded, indeed but the organization wouldn't budge on Fiedler. We missed the playoffs again after falling apart late season. Some expected it, most were baffled. "but we started off so good, how can this be...Fiedler is a winner". Spielman remained and I was upset, as were many others because I knew if the Fiedler project didn't end, the Spielman project needed to end.

And finally in 2004, Spielman compromised and pulled the trigger on upgrading at QB, despite not cutting Fiedler, he got himself a reprieve. A big draft steal! Prized Free agent! No, they traded for AJ Feely, the Philadelphia Eagles back up QB. Facepalm. It wasn't that Fiedler and Spielman were in a love fest, he legitimately thought Fiedler was a real good QB. The light bulb went off in most fans head. He was BAD at evaluating that position. The homers couldn't see past Spielman's ineptness. I actually thought the 4-12 season was good for us, we can get rid of Rick and rebuild this thing. We did the right thing and got Nick Saban, I then became the Blind Loyalist, every move Saban made I thought was genius. I was wrong about the Saban era, I saw Superbowls and lots of parades. It wasn't as much Saban's regime was bad, it's just that he turned his back on the team so unexpectedly.

Why the walk through memory lane. Because this team is repeating history. An incomptent GM who refuses to address a glaring need (this time O-line). A defense that keeps the team from being the Browns and Jaguars of the world, and a fan base who keeps yelling, just as it did on Finnheaven, "give it time, give it time, give it time".

Jeff Ireland- TIME IS UP!

 

Fielder got hurt.

 

So are the Arizona Cardinals.

 

Very well stated. I agree with everything here except one very minor point.

When you use the term "mediocrity" to describe what fans are being forced to settle for along the offensive line, I think that may be overstating the situation by a significant amount. There's nothing "mediocre" about the current offensive line play.

 

I'm not sure you can factually say Ireland isn't capable of putting together a mediocre Oline when 2 of his 3 drafted linemen still have some developing to do. Jon Martin & Dallas Thomas are still well within a reasonable time frame as far as the developmental stage goes. They may go on to see unspectacular careers, however it's a terribly flawed argument to label them failures just b/c they haven't had sufficient time to reach their full potential.

 

We were SO good that year.

 

Speilman wasn't the GM in 2002 or 2003, that was Wanny.
If you are gonna spout a bunch of **** at least be accurate.

 

my bad. I meant settling for mediocrity as more of a stock phrase rather than specific to Miami.

 

How about making a pitch on Jared Veldheer next year from Oakland? he's an FA tackle

 

How is Dion Jordan a dumb decision in terms of cap space ? Makes no sense, they had a top 10 pick with basically a locked in price...and Wallace may end up being a dumb decision, but way too early to declare that.

 

There is we just extended Ireland. This guys a joke and we will suffer until he's gone. He thinks he's smarter than he is and tries to get diamonds from ****piles which works like one in a hundred free agents.

 

Problem with trading Wallace is who is going to take on that bloated salary?

 

If both players are still on the team then how is it dead money?

 

Jake Long: 1st overall pick, $58 million guaranteed
Justin Smiley: 5 years, $25 million, $9 million guaranteed
Shawn Murphy: 4th round pick
Donald Thomas: 6th round pick
Jake Grove: 5 years, $29 million, $14.5 million guaranteed
Andrew Gardner: 6th round pick
John Jerry: 3rd round pick
Richie Incognito: combined 4 year, $13.8 million, $3.25 million signing bonus
Mike Pouncey: 1st round pick, $9.25 million
Marc Colombo: undisclosed contract
Jonathan Martin: 2nd round pick
Dallas Thomas: 3rd round pick

That's just a partial list. That's hardly trying to build an OL on the cheap. If anything, it's an excessive amount of resource allocation to the OL. You shouldn't have to spend that much money and that many picks to field an average OL, and we can't even do that. In fact, so many resources were allocated to the OL that other positions began to hit a glass ceiling or even regress because of a lack of resources. How many times have positions been completely remade in the last four years? Since 2008, this regime has never returned the same five OL starters from the previous season. You can't churn the OL that way unless you're allocating a lot of resources to it.

So no, the problem isn't cheapness. The problem is incompetence.

 

The money is guaranteed as a cap hit, it's not live, it's fixed, it's dead.

 

It will help next season when Wallace's cap hit rises by $14 million and Ellerbe,Wheeler's,and Hartline cap hit
rises a combined $13 million...that's just $27 million and there's more

 

ftfy.

 

Richie is better than a "meh"
It is too soon to pass judgement with any finality when it comes to Martin and Thomas.

 

said a few times, there's definitely a weakness there in that dept..

A big sign for me when it came to Ireland was when we signed Steinbach.