Like I said in response to Fin D's question, there is no concrete proof, so I am forming my opinion based on the logic that by far most pro athletes take the contract offer that provides them with the most guaranteed money in their pocket. You can think that well it may be possible that Long is one of the minority who turned down more money for whatever reason. What he is quoted as saying after the fact is proof of nothing more than Long saying all the right feel good things.
What exactly is your point? You said yourself you've only seen 1 Rams game so by definition your opinion, WADR, is soaking in ignorance.
No one said it was. Any alienation that Long may have felt, would have been assuaged by a contract offer than contained more guaranteed money.
You looked at his best game and are making a decision based on that. If you looked at Mike Wallaces best game, you could have made the same decision. I do not agree that not signing Long was a complete and utter disaster. I do agree that replacing him was an utter failure.
St Looey is humid as hell in the summer. Hot, dirty midwest city. Maybe he likes that better than sandy beaches. More money in his bank account could help him like it.
Yeah. You'd think if it was just money and not liking Ireland, the decision wouldn't have taken weeks.
How do you know that it was his best game? What I do know is this: - Jake Long, in my opinion, played great football last night. - PFF has him rated #8 among Tackles - My opinion is that we screwed up mightily by not re-signing him.
Just trying to make a point. I drove through St. Louis once- wasn't terribly impressed but I wasn't there long. I know form personal experience that the Midwest can get sticky in the summer time. Maybe his wife liked St. Luis better, maybe he isn't a fan of sofla, I don't know. What I want to know is whether or not he left Miami in part because he didn't like the organization and resentment lingered- Philbin, Ireland, Aponte, et al. Annoying FO stuff (see Ireland/Aponte) and how the team was run (see Philbin/Ireland). That wouldn't shock me. Maybe it was all about the money, I don't know. If it was, then I'm much less interested in the whole issue and what it says about the Dolphins organization.
Hold that opinion close to you as you watch Tannehill get rocked on his a** in the coming weeks. No matter how you cut it, if we had signed Jake Long our OL and team would have been much better this year. That's an opinion of course, but think an accurate and obvious one. You can go all Dershowitz on this issue and argue as per who replaced Long and was that a good move (Clabo)- whatever, it doesn't matter. What does matter is what happened- we let Jake Long get away from us and that led to our OL sucking this year, and sucking mightily at that.
Long played well last night. Jeez that was a penalty city game! Poor from an execution and concentration point. Jake Long did decent. Watched him and I was waiting for him to screw up. Didn't happen.
That is very short sided. If Miami replaced Long well, we wouldn't even be having this coversation. It does matter. He was paid A LOT of money.
But the reality is that Ireland knew that he was taking a risk in not re-signing Long, and he lost. Big time. Ifs, buts, cherries, nuts, et al.- Christmas didn't turn out so hot. If we drafted a great rookie OT, problem solved. But we didn't. If we signed a good FA OT problem solved. But we didn't. You can make any player move and say "Well, if we would have replaced him well..." but it doesn't work that way. Now what we have is a historically bad Offensive Line. Our QB is getting butchered in the pocket. Not re-signing Jake Long proved to be a huge negative as we revisit the whole issue and the ramifications of what happened. Pretty simple stuff.
It is a risk resigning Long as well. If you dumped your girlfriend because she wasn't right for you. You then go out with another girl who cheats on you, it doesn't mean that you should go back with your ex. You are taking a situation and making it much more simple than it actually is. Plus it is way too early to say that it is a mistake. Like Omar said, "They didn't sign Jake Long to a one year contract." If Omar gets it, than anyone can.
0.9 is Dallas. -0.5 pass blocking, 1.0 run blocking, 0.4 penalty. 2 sacks, 3 hurries. Apparently, the -0.5 is for the one Ware sack. He must have had some good pass blocking reps to offset the other one. If you would like to go back and grade him on all his snaps in that game, I for one would enjoy reading it.
That's possible. However, he played in a zone scheme in college. He said so himself. His resume' that resulted in being the #1 overall pick was put together in a zone scheme.
Playing in one and liking it are two different things. Maybe he prefers it up north. Again, if it was just money and/or dislike of Ireland why would the decision take so long.
143 posts about a player who didn't want to be a Phin for whatever reason. Who gives a monkeys butt. He's gone!!! We are on 4 game losing streak and we griping over a player who is elsewhere who has no input on the here and now. Hmmmmm.
After his visit to StL, he returned to Miami for iirc a few days before making his decision. There were reports posted here iirc that he was seen at Dolphins HQ during that time. IMO, if he didn't want to give Miami a chance to better the Rams offer, he'd have signed while he was still in StL. IMO, he was hoping the Rams offer would entice Ireland to better it. He gave it a couple of days. It never happened. All the sudden StL was where he signed, and afterwards where he was quoted as saying where he wanted to be all along. Yeah. Sure. Okay.
Terrible metaphor. Long is playing very well, PFF #8 OT, so in your example the ex-girlfriend should be behaving wonderfully. A better metaphor would have the ex-girlfiend, Jaquee, making some other guy extremely happy as your new girlfriend, Clabette, ruins your year. About half way through the year you dump her and start dating McKenna, a 340 pound chick with a bad knee that your co-worker traded to you for a 12 pack of Schlitz. Let's check back in a couple of months and see how that worked out, Jaquee will probably be looking even better by then.
That's what you are going by? What some Rams fans said? If you really care so much why not go back and watch the game yourself, focus on Long, and grade every snap? He got beat a time or two by Ware, one of the top 2-3 pass rushers in the game today. It happens to the best of them. If some Dolphins fans say Dolphins player X played poorly, do you just take their word for it every time?
I hear ya, but what I remember is something like Ieland saying that he didn't get one last shot to pitch Long a better deal to compete with the Rams offer. Remember Drew Brees in the draft? "One time!, one time!, one time!" In FA years ago- he was there to be had, we chose Culpepper. He WANTED to be a Dolphin. I don't think that Jake Long really wanted to be here any longer, but would have stayed if the money was right. I really can't blame the guy. My questions are: 1. Does Jeff ireland make players want to go eleswhere? 2. Does Joe Philbin make players want to go elsewhwere? 3. Does Dawn Aponte make players want to go elsewhere? 4. Does this floundering organization make players want to go elsewhere? That's what's relevant to me, not a few bucks in this deal over that one. I would imagine that Jake Long would have a sense of loyalty if he felt that it was reciprocated- Ireland rubs people the wrong way, Aponte rubs people the wrong way, iirc Philbin kind of blew off Long as per the leadership council last year. If the money was right long imo would have stayed and played the part of the good soldier. With the Rams offer being better or close, he had a chance to raise his middle finger to the organization. And he did.
Jake Long had a good game last night, but is anyone doubting that Jake is a good LT when healthy? What you seem to fail to understand is that St Louis paid Long to be a premiere LT (he is the 9th highest paid tackle in the NFL) for the long term. Given that Jake hadn't finished a full season in three years and is below average when playing hurt, signing Jake to that contract was a gamble.
Au contraire! To a number cruncher we are paying a salary to Martin that is in line with the 93rd highest paid tackle in the league yet is giving us the amazing value of performing in the range of the 70th best!!! #FrontOfficeWin!
You are sphtoing too much time remembering the good times without thinking of all the bad. Thus creating a terrible metaphor.
