If you give ron Rivera a good gm he will win, enter David gettleman draft one of the best young DT in the game and back it up with another dt add a special team player in Ted ginn, promoted Shula cut dead weight like amini Edwards and Chris gamble made some more moves for depth, stayed the course.. Now they are in position to make the playoffs... So why not surround joe with ppl that will actually help him.. What's the point in hiring gruden if he will only be successful if you bring in a great gm, why not jes give joe that great gm? And some time...
Regardless of who it is, we can't keep changing one without changing the other. If Ireland is fired, Philbin needs to be let go no matter what, for no other reason than to let the GM get his own people in here. I've had enough of forcing one on the other.
Good point and I agree that if you gave Joe Philbin Ron Wolf, the dolphins in general would probably look a lot better. I would like to point out that I never said I wanted Joe Philbin fired, nor for that matter would I be that upset if he does get fired. I was just giving choices that I would like to see interviewed if he does get fired. In all honestly I think unless the dolphins really tank the rest of the way, think 2-5 or worse. I think Joe is given another year with a new GM and as of right now I really wouldn’t have a problem with that. Joe has done some things I question but I don’t think up until this point he has done anything worth getting fired over after 1 ½.
Here's the problem I have with this kind of argument, it's only there to make the quoted poster try and feel ridiculous while keeping the poster on a high horse. let me ask you this Des, At what point was it ok to compare Belichick to some of the great coaches, i.e. Laundry Shula, Nolls, Parcells. Because whether you like it or not he is. So when the argument came up in NE about hiring BB how many people said "well He's no Chuck Nolls, he's no Bill Parcells" "What has BB ever won?". At some point you have to realize you are not going to hire a SB winning coach every time, infact statistics show that you are better of NOT hiring a HC with prior SB championships. Oh and did you just put Pete Carroll in the same breath as Bill Belichick?
When was that? His Cards did well when they had Warner, but after that I don't recall them outproducing their QB talent.
If the Dolphins hired Herm as head coach, it would be a good time for me to take a hiatus from being a fan of the team. I absolutely cannot stand anything about that guy.
I think the point was, after their first head coaching gig, few people thought either one would ever be any good as NFL head coaches.
A few guys that interest me: No HC experience - Mike Zimmer, Aaron Kromer, Petey Carmichael, Mike Pettine, Dirk Koetter HC Experience - Ken Whisenhunt College - Kirk Ferentz, David Shaw, Will Muschamp Pure fairy tail but IF by some Godsend he was available I'd give Mike Tomlin whatever he wanted.
Kevin Sumlin is #1 for me. I went to his camp at Houston and this man knows how to coach/motivate/and players love him. He's extremely intelligent and not stubborn at all either.
said the same thing about the cardinals and Vegas in another thread..for me it was because of Arians..that guy has the chance to be great.
Something you need to consider when it comes to evaluating coaches. Does making a coaching change really have that much of an impact on winning and losing? Here's a couple of links that suggest what I've felt all along, that it is more about the talent than it is the coaching: http://www.advancednflstats.com/2009/02/fighter-pilots-and-firing-coaches.html http://www.advancednflstats.com/2013/10/on-effect-of-coaching.html Relating this discussion to the Dolphins, the struggles the Miami Dolphins have had over the past 10-13 years is a direct result of poor decisions made in the talent procurement department and not so much on the coaching. Think about it this way. Dave Wannstedt was the GM and HC of the Dolphins from 2000-2003. In 2000, he inherited a very strong defense that had a load of talent that was brought in by Jimmy Johnson. Guys like Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas, Sam Madison, Patrick Surtain, Terrell Buckley, Brock Marion, Tim Bowens, Daryl Gardener, Trace Armstrong (a Shula acquisition). From a coaching standpoint, Dave rode that defense and made it his focal point, which makes sense since defense was his background. As the years passed by and age started effecting the performance of certain players while others may have left via free agency, the talent to step up and replace those players wasn't there. If you look at a study that was done on the NFL draft from 2000-2012, you will see that Miami has been the leagues 4th worst drafting team over that period of time according to career approximate value. As a result, the Dolphins have been to the playoffs once in the past ten years and have only two winning seasons. How much effect did coaching have? My hypothesis would be very little. If coaching had that much of an effect, then Tony Sparano would have had to been an elite coach to take a 1 win team from 2007 and turn them into an 11 win team in 2008. I don't think Tony made the difference there. I think the difference can be chalked up into regression to the mean, the fact that Chad Pennington had an elite year at quarterback for the team, and the fact that the team had a soft schedule. Since then, the team has essentially been a 7-9 team. I think in the long term, particularly at the NFL level, there are very few "great" coaches and very few "lousy" coaches. Lousy coaches don't last long in the NFL. The rest are all pretty much the same.
Let me add that Sean Payton is a great example of a coach that has a tremendous impact compared to the coaches that split time as the head coach in his stead this past season. This was a team that had the same quarterback, so the differences in quarterback play doesn't have as much of an effect here as it does with the Chiefs, who is a team that is winning due to the combined effect of going from an extremely poor coach in Romeo Crennell to a great coach in Andy Reid as well as going from an unstable quarterback situation to one that is stable. Alex Smith is playing a key role much like Chad Pennington did with Miami in 2008. He's not turning the ball over. I think Smith's play will start trending towards the mean though, and I have a feeling KC is about to drop at least 2 of their next three as they play Denver twice and San Diego once. There is only so much you can do when your quarterback is more of a game manager than a play maker. KC has played a very weak schedule up until this point. Back to Payton, I believe what he has mastered is the ability to not be predictable. I think predictability is the common theme among coaches who have a negative impact on their team, and I do believe that a coach's negative impact is greater than the positive impact he makes.
I would love to have Gruden on board. I think having a fiery personality on the side lines is a welcome change from the deadbeats we've had lately.
We had a player at Mississippi State a few years back whose name was Mike Hunt. http://www.hailstate.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=1507073
If we're looking at guys who don't have college or pro Head Coach experience then I think Mike Pettine deserves a serious look. He actually does have Head Coach experience at two high schools, FWIW. I know that kind of thing may be scoffed at but he spent 7 years as the lead guy with the whistle and I do think that's actually worth something. Mike Pettine would be another guy along with David Shaw and Jack Del Rio that might be at the top of Eric DeCosta's list if Miami were to make a serious run at him.
His track record with talent evaluation. Most notably in Tampa. He ran that franchise into the ground. Not by his coaching but by bringing in tons of crap talent.
As long as we don't dicker around with half measures then I'm cool with almost anything. Art Briles would be my top choice, but he justs igned a big extension with Baylor (not that it necessarily means anything but there is a $5 million buyut) Kevin Sumlin would be my 2nd choice. Then David Shaw. It's funny but I like the college guys more than the retreads or coordinators. Jay Gruden is really the only OC that interests me at this point
Well, here's the thing. You can hire Art Briles or Kevin Sumlin, but unless we get it right on the personnel side of things, it won't matter much. Neither Art Briles nor Kevin Sumlin would come into this job and win 12-13 games and make this team a Superbowl contender, and if you think the team has that kind of talent, then you shouldn't fire Jeff Ireland. I think the team's issue is and has been the talent procurement department. Fix that, and you will have a lot more success on the field whether you keep Joe Philbin, hir Art Briles/Kevin Sumlin, or bring in Mike Shula.
yeap, gm is the biggest issue. he just hasnt fixed areas that needed fixed. I remember draft day and taking Dion, I liked what I heard about him, but I kept thinking, this seems like a pick for long term, for a team that is building, not for a team looking to compete. Taking the tackle would have been for competing now. When the draft board has multiple positions as the BPA, then you go with need. I get the draft best player avail thing, but you cant just ignore need. If there is a player at a position of need that warrants selection at that pick, meaning he is one of the BPA, then you dont pass it up. We wanted Long but at a comp price and he chose Stl, so you need to fill that spot we did squat. Clabo is and was a RT and Martin was unproven. That is just an example of Ireland taking players at questionable times and passing on others. it isnt necessarily the players taken were horrible picks its just why then over that person? and they didnt fill positions that we have holes. letting Reggie go was a huge mistake, bigger than Long. reggie was the vet leader, the vocal leader, the one that woudl step in. Noone worked harder than reggie. I know it sounds rather simplistic but it is like building a house, you buy all quality pieces individually but they dont work well together in the structure of the house. A GM has to not only see the talent on the team but how that player fits together with the team as a whole.
There's something about Gus Malzahn that makes me think every team should want to hitch to his rising star. He's like Apple stock before Steve Jobs died. Really look into him sometime. See what he's done every single place he's gone. The guy is an absolute genius.
Anything with the draft is playing for down the road. I'm not sure how drafting Lane Johnson would have been for the present considering that he has given up more pressures and has a higher pass block-per-pressure ratio than either Tyson Clabo or Jonathan Martin at this point. Had we drafted him instead of Dion Jordan, we would simply be excusing Lane's play for being a rookie. Actually, we would be crucifying Jeff Ireland for drafting him that high and saying that he's a bust and can't play. He doesn't catch that flak in Philly because they know they are building towards a system there. At least not yet, because the kid obviously has to improve a lot.
The interesting thing about Gus is that, when you look at what he did when he was the OC at Tulsa, he adapted his offense to more of a passing threat at quarterback. He's done a better job than most of the spread gurus at the college level of maintaining his ability to run without having a legitimate run threat at the quarterback position. Now, granted, he did run Paul Smith 101 times back in 2007 at only 1.1 yards per rush, but Paul Smith threw for 5,065 yards at 9.3 yards per attempt and had 47 touchdowns and 19 interceptions on the year. This is an offensive coach that has always been able to manufacture a running game, and in 2007, his offense had 371 passing yards per game and 173 rushing yards per game, and in 2008, his offense averaged 302 passing yards per game and 268 rushing yards per game. It shows that he is adaptable, and I am convinced that very few coaches actually adapt their scheme to their players.
The rushing stats with Paul Smith are misleading. He took 31 sacks that year for -220 yards. His actual rushing stats are 74 runs for 339 yards which is 4.5 yards per carry. I'm sure that a number of those runs were Smith just scrambling, too. So the number of called run plays for the QB is probably not 74. Gus Malzahn absolutely adapted his offenses. I mean think about it. His first foray into college football was 2006 with Arkansas. That offense was all Darren McFadden and Felix Jones. The two players had a combined 447 touches whereas Mitch Mustain and Casey Dick had a combined 285 touches. Remember, that was the original Wildcat...that Arkansas offense. Malzahn introduced that to the Arkansas offense in 2006. Then he goes to Tulsa and unleashes this monumental passing attack. Tulsa was 1st in the nation in total yards per game, and it was mostly passing the football with Paul Smith. They were 3rd in the nation in passing. First team in the history of the NCAA to have a 5000 yard passer, a 1000 yard rusher and three 1000 yard receivers. And you know what? Not for nothing but Paul Smith leaves Tulsa and did they miss a beat? Not at all. They led the nation in total offense again with 8000 yards. That's 570 yards per game. They were the 2nd highest scoring offense in the history of major college football. They ranked 9th in the nation passing, 5th in the nation running, 3rd in the nation in passing efficiency. They came behind Oklahoma in most of these marks but Oklahoma had a future #1 overall pick QB Sam Bradford. Gus Malzahn had...David Johnson. He goes to Arkansas and once again adapts his offense to Chris Todd as his QB. If you thought Paul Smith and David Johnson didn't do a lot of running, Chris Todd only actually ran the football 23 times for 65 yards. He passed or got sacked 349 times. That offense featured a bunch of running by Ben Tate. Oh by the way they had the 2nd best offense in the SEC and 16th best in the nation that first year. With Chris Todd. The next year? Cam Newton. I don't need to say anything about that, we all know what happened that year. Oh and just so that we're tossing this one in for good measure...in 2011, ESPN selected Malzahn as one of the best recruiters in the SEC. They don't just hand those out. They speak to a lot of players and insiders and really find out who is responsible for what and what the kids and other people think before they come up with that list. Just in case you were thinking that all Malzahn is, is some egg head drawing up schemes. Nope. He does everything well. And that includes head coach. He took over Arkansas State, went 10-3 and won the Sun Belt Conference Championship. In 2011 they had lost to Northern Illinois in the GoDaddy Bowl. In 2012 with Malzahn they won it. The team's first game of the year was against #5 ranked Oregon (Chip Kelly still there). They lost the game, but they scored 34 points against Oregon. This year without Gus Malzahn, Arkansas State is 5-4. The offense is scoring a touchdown less per game. That's because Malzahn moved over to Auburn again to be their Head Coach, which he probably should have been while he was propping up Gene Chizik to look like a good head coach (which he wasn't, really). Wouldn't ya know it, Auburn goes from a pitiful 3-9 in 2012...to now being 9-1. They went from scoring 19 points a game in 2012 to scoring 39 points a game in 2013. Oh and for good measure, the defense has gone from allowing 28 points per game to only 20 points per game. It's not just the offense. The whole team is playing better under Gus Malzahn, including the defense. Let's not forget that Gus Malzahn was a defensive coordinator before ever he became an offensive coordinator. He was the defensive coordinator at Hughes High School in 1991, and quickly became the Head Coach in 1992. By 1994, he reached the State Championship Game with Hughes. They lost that game on an interception in the final minute. He went to Shiloh Christian in 1996. By 1998, Shiloh Christian set a national record with 66 touchdowns in a season. His quarterback nearly set a national record with about 5900 total yards. They won back-to-back state championships in 1998 and 1999. He moved to Springdale High School in 2001. He led them to two state championship appearances (2002 and 2005), winning one of them (2005). That 2005 team was 14-0, won the 5A state championship, outscored opponents 664 to 118, including a 54-20 win in the final game. Like I said...everywhere this guy goes, it's like magic. Whoever thinks this guy is just incapable of adapting his offense to the pro game...is making a huge mistake, IMO.
Right now I consider the Dolphins to be like the 0-10 team facing a 9-1 juggernaut. Don't play scared. You want to win, so take some chances. Kick that onside kick. Go for it on fourth down. What the hell have we to lose? The team has been awful for a decade. A DECADE. So why should we sit here and say no to an Art Briles or a Gus Malzahn...because we're scared and we want to go the conservative route? Going the conservative route hasn't exactly availed us. Try something new. (another reason why, once again, I love the Eagles hiring Chip Kelly)
And if the Eagles didn't have so many QB injuries and a decent defense, they would be a very dangerous team. Just in his first year.
I'd be willing to see if Bill O'Brien could be pried also. I dunno. I think people want to naturally attach Kevin Sumlin as Mike Tomlin because they look alike and can be fiery. However, I don't like the way Sumlin basically just bent himself over for Johnny Football. Not getting into what I think of getting paid, what he does off the field, etc. I think Sumlin just allows guys to run the asylum and I think Ross wants to get away from that.
Nick Foles has a 132.5 passer rating right now and LeSean McCoy is the most electric runner in football. DeSean Jackson is on pace for 1450 yards and Riley Cooper is on pace for 11 TDs. They've scored 29 points per game in the 5 games in which Nick Foles participated. Let's wrap our minds alllllll the way around that one right now. Anyone think the Eagles regret taking a chance?
I tell you what. You get a young, stats savvy general manager like a Howie Roseman, and you might just get a guy who could convince a Gus Malzahn to test his wares in the NFL. I think the big question is whether he would be interested in testing his stuff at the highest level like Chip Kelly was.
This is from memory from watching a game, but didn't they have over 400 yards per game in their first six games?
