I don't. I think you're stretching to find a significant difference. I can associate the experiences I saw in grad school with Taylor. I went to one of the top graduate programs in the world in my field. I saw, over and over again, kids who were the brightest and best coming out of their respective colleges (Harvard, Yale, COlumbia....) get to grad school and start to struggle - big time struggle. The biggest thing to overcome? Dealing with the fact that they were no longer the best and brightest in the crowd. For some of these kids, they never experienced it before. I can't tell you how many times I had to have the conversation with them to explain the big picture and tell them to come back from the ledge and to try and persevere. Some of them couldn't do it (~40-50%) and ended up quitting, but the ones who did were stronger for it. Hopefully the fact that Taylor didn't quit means he fits into the latter category.
Wouldn't it have been great if our coaching staff could have been the one motivating him. After the last two games last year, I'm having a lot of doubt about Philbin and his staff. These stories don't help.
Good coaching will motivate you and make you hungry. If if you're not a starter, with the proper coaching trying to stear you there, you'll do your damnest to get there and never even think about quitting. I think things like this speak of the disconnect of the coaching staff to the entire locker room. Not knowing what is happening in the locker room, and having players publicly say these things to me all point to the disconnect with the locker room and players.
I don't know that you can assume he was entirely serious. It's possible he is simply being dramatic and not particularly media savvy.
I didn't take any real negative thoughts away from that piece when I read it first time. Just a guy being honest about his response to some major unforeseen obstacles. None of us know how we will react when faced with large and/or repeated set-backs until we face them. The question is what do you do when you realise they are there and not going away? Taylor chose to keep going forward, and that, for me, is great news. The fact he can be honest about it, and the fact that he clearly has solid personal support is even better news. The only thing this story proves is that the lad faced some unexpected trials and overcame them. He didn't quit when the spectre of defeat raised its head. No-one knows what the future holds but the Big Man himself but what we do know is Taylor faced these battles and kept going and is far enough past them that he can talk about them freely. Good stuff! What did surprise me on a second reading was how he seems to have spent time in Denver and elsewhere, rather than Miami. It might have been nice to hear that the Miami team played that role. Still, that might be more due to other factors like living arrangements, family etc, rather than the support itself.
This is just another instance why chemistry and leadership is crucial for this franchise to prioritize.
That's a good point. And it would fit within his personality from what I've seen on twitter. He tends to be dramatic. Sometimes he's overly defensive, sometimes pessimistic, sometimes extremely positive. Adam Beasley said on twitter that he can verify from his interactions with Jamar Taylor that he had a really hard time of it in 2013, emotionally speaking. I thought it was funny how Omar's initial reaction was him being clearly disturbed by the news that Taylor thought about quitting, but then he seemed to realize that he as a media guy should not be punishing a guy for being perhaps a bit too revealing toward the media...so he's kind of done a 180.
I wouldn't say that. How boring would this forum have been if we didn't have someone like Ireland galvanizing the discussions? He's the George Bush Jr of GM's.
The way he blew 5 picks in the first 3 rounds and 40 mil in cap space was pretty impressive. Not that I didn't see it coming. We can thank Stephen Ross for that.
Unfortunately, with most NFL teams, when a player is injured, he's personna non grata to the coaches; I don't think there's ever a lot of motivating going on between coaches and injured players who haven't proven anything. Add to that a head coach that thought the GM sucks, and there's less reason for the coach to believe in the player.
