Some quotes from Philbin and Coyle worthy of discussion.

You're fighting a losing battle Roy.

Basically you're dealing with a whole lot of people who believe Ireland was the worst GM ever and that Philbin is Cam Cameron bad, even though we were pretty close to the playoffs last year. Also, they don't believe Philbin wanted Cogs gone and Martin replaced even though there's sufficient evidence that actually happened. They also don't believe Parcells was in charge when he was here. They also think the beat reporters are always right when they report news and the team always lies when they counter that news.

 

Here is the quote from the OP

First off notice that its actually two quotes from two different players that the author strung together to give the impression of cause and effect. Also notice that the first quote says it was only part of the reason they watched the film. I'd wager it wasn't even close to the main reason they were watching film on the Seahawks. The second quote may not even be related to the film study and could have been given as a compliment ie "we try to stay as even keeled as possible like Coach Philbin, not getting to excited by the big plays or too down when things go against you". Am I reaching here? Perhaps but given the way the Miami media likes to spin things to their own agenda I could see it go either way.

 

I mean Miami has gone 8-8 or worse for five consecutive years.

 

I'm so happy you can explain these things better than I ever did.

 

I know it's quotes from two different sources, I can read. Why don't they show tape from the last two games they played and say, yeah there's the energy and emotion we need? The fact that two sources mentioned emotion and energy itself is telling.

Where there is smoke, there is fire:

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/spor...g-staff-fins-heat-chatter-umluke-problem.html

Yes I know, close associates.

Why is this guy here again?

 

Man I forgot about some of that stuff. Including how players pretty directly stated that Phil McGeoghan was doing a better job than his boss Ken O'Keefe.

Also one offensive player saying he's not learned a single thing from his position coach...telling. He probably was not referring to Jim Turner, Dan Campbell or Phil McGeoghan...all of whom I've seen spoken of in a positive light by players. You would have to think it is either Zac Taylor, Ken O'Keefe or Jeff Nixon. I'd say the odds are pretty strong it's either O'Keefe or Nixon.

 

I'll admit there are some pretty damning quotes in that article but it does seem they are mostly directed towards the offensive staff. Also if you notice the second part of the quote from the OP is in that article which is over 5 months old. So the author of the current tweet linked a 5 month old quote to something happening today to try and stir the pot some more.

Why is Philbin here? Because he sold Ross on the idea that the HC should be like a CEO, managing things from a high level and letting his coordinators manage the more day to day stuff. I think this is a concept Ross identifies with and likes.
Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/spor...eat-chatter-umluke-problem.html#storylink=cpy

 

because Ross struck out on Harbaugh, Cowher, Gruden, and Fisher?

 

Blessing in disguise. Fisher would have been Sparano 2.0.

 

The team is screwed then.

 

There's no such thing as an out of this world offense. But there are honey moon periods and Lazor seems to be in the thick of one while Philbin is pretty much on the outs w the fan base at this point. From reading comments it seems the script has already been written, increased success will be credited to Lazor and any failure to Philbin, if only it were that simple.

Im no Sherman fan but what OC could put a good offense on the field w what Sherm had to work with last year? Young QB, garbage OL, poor run blocking, worse pass pro, major injuries at receiver, no every down TE or FB. The OL stuff has been beaten to death but it wasn't exactly Montana-Rice-Taylor-Clark-Craig-Rathman out there, either.


Lazor is going to have a more experienced QB, a far superior OL, more RB depth, fewer distractions and less pressure to deal with seeing as how he's already being crowned an offensive guru by many. It's an entirely diff situation from what Sherm was dealing with and a lot of the credit should go to Philbin/Hickey for making the personnel changes.

 

That is one subject where I'm in full agreement with you.

I do hope Philbin improves. I don't see the evidence that he's even a good coach, but I can be convinced by improved results on the field this year. I don't want to see anything resembling the team that came out for those last two division games.

 

That will depend on how successful we are. Miss the playoffs or one and done and he probably sticks around for another year. Win the Super Bowl or just a SB appearance and he's probably the hottest head coaching candidate next off-season. And yes I am seriously talking SB, you donkeys better find a way to get over those last two games because the future is bright.

 

Not necessarily, it depends on whether he has the right people under him.

 

I agree with you except Sherman didn't make any adjustments to help mitigate those problems.

 

So a DC that was known for getting the most out of his DBs in Cincy has innovative ideas that he wants to mirror from the superbowl winning Seahawks defense......and Philbin is the polar opposite, and will demand crumpits and tea.

Then Young, innovative mind Bill Lazor comes in with a mindset of how he wants to run the offense.....keep defense guessing, on their toes....and Philbins worried about a couple of plus/minuses and is blatantly bucking the offense publicly in the media, already "tempering expectations".

Give me a ****ing break.

 

My thinking about what those notes told me were:

1. Joe Philbin really is the source of the no-motion thing, which isn't surprising as he hails from Green Bay where surprise surprise, they seem allergic to motion.

2. Joe Philbin is allowing Bill Lazor to install things that run counter to his instincts, but his language implies a short leash.

3. Someone took hold of Kevin Coyle's collar this off season and told him to stop being the borderline-negative-tell-it-like-it-is guy that his old boss Mike Zimmer always was, and instead be the positive-enthusiastic-lets-sniff-some-smelling-salts-together kind of guy you'd typically see in charge of a defense like Seattle's. Don't be surprised if the person that asked this of Coyle was Philbin himself.

4. On the other hand, I believe there's fairly widespread disapproval of Joe Philbin in the locker room. It's not reached a Cam Cameron type valley yet, but we might not be very far from that either. If Joey Porter were still on the team he may have already tried to dress Philbin down in front of the rest of the team (and subsequently been cut because unlike Cameron, Philbin wouldn't allow that to happen without repercussions).

 

At first I was going to roast you because I read this as comparing our roster to Philly's last year. But now I read it as comparing to what we had last year. Okay I getcha

I hadn't thought of it yet until I think CK brought it up, but it just might be a pride thing with Philbin. If Lazor comes in and installs his offense and it's lights out much improved, that runs directly counter to everything Philbin believed in, and installed here.

 

and it doesn't change the fact Sherman could've done more with what he had if he possessed a modicum of creativeness and innovation.
The second most double-teamed WR in the NFL that Sherman made life for defenses easier by lining up in the same spot ad nauseam? check
The fastest WR in NFL that Sherman made little effort to utilize in space despite his earliest attempt going for a 18 yard TD vs Indy? check
An athletic QB that Sherman made little attempt to utilize the feet of? check
Criminal underuse of RB/WR/TE screens, draws, delays, moving pockets, rollouts, jet sweeps, etc to help offset an inconsistent Oline? check

No excuse for scoring 7 points in 2 games with the playoffs on the line like his offense did.
Nor was there an excuse to falter in the second half of games we had the lead exiting half time like the 17 total second half points against NE, Carolina, Buffalo, and Baltimore despite a halftime total of 60 points.

Whatever success Lazor might have, it doesn't change the fact Sherman underachieved.

 

The Miami Dolphins were 1-6 against top ten defenses last season. The Miami Dolphins spent the least on offense last season (ok, second least behind Oakland who had no cap space left) while keeping the fifth most amount of money in available cap space, and the four teams that had more cap space had all just gone through regime changes. Think about that and let it sink in for a moment.

Do you think that maybe, just maybe, the fact that we spent so little on offense might be related to the fact we were terrible against the leagues top defenses? The one team we beat with a top ten defense was the Bengals, and that took overtime, and it took our defense to put up most of our points in that game.

 

On OvertheCap.com it appears Miami's spending on offense was 3rd-lowest in the league with the Browns and Raiders spending less on offense.

But that might be a little misleading as the Dolphins handed out new multi-year contracts to Mike Wallace, Brian Hartline, Brandon Gibson and Matt Moore. Those contracts were constructed progressively to where the immediate year cap number would be lower than the remaining years.

For example, those four players have a total cap figure this year of $32.7 million which is nearly half of the total $69.2 million being spent on offense. But a year ago those four accounted for only $9.65 million in salary cap.

Given that I'm not sure it would be wise to make arguments about the quality of Miami's offense according to how much they spent. How much they were ACTUALLY spending on offense was severely understated by accrual-based accounting principles.

 

At the time, according to sportrack the average spend was $54 M, we had spent $39 M and the next lowest was the Bills at $44 M. And keep in mind this is with still having $22 M in available cap space, so why didn't we spend some of that?

And that is also true of most, if not every team.

 

That very literally cannot be true.

 

Sure it can. Because teams can and do over-commit to what they are allowed to spend in the future all the time. And when that happens they are forced to either cut or restructure players. But the fact of the matter is by doing so they maximize their chances at that particular season, at least in theory.

 

C'mon, don't act like Lazor has been handed an entirely new offense that's loaded with upgraded starters across the board. Since when does potentially starting two rookies equate to a far superior Oline? What about an entirely new offensive line needing to gel together? There's a fair chance an Oline with 8 combined starts at both guard spots and right tackle takes as many lumps through the first half of this year as it did in 2013.

As far as QB goes, the offensive design and utter lack of innovation & creativity arguably held Tannehill back more than Tannehill did, especially the underuse of his athleticism. Philly's scheme didn't need a "more experienced" QB to average 31 pts the final 9 games, and as much as you praise Philly's O-line, their quarterbacks were sacked 8.3% of drop backs compared to Miami's 8.9%. Onoz. If we had Philly's scheme last year, the offense wouldn't have needed to average 31 points to be successful, especially not with the 8th ranked scoring defense. A conceivable 23 pts/game would've been a 50 point improvement, and considering we lost 4 games by 4 points or less and lost 2 more when our opponents were held to 20 or less, fifty extra points could've easily been the difference between a disappointing 8-8 and making the playoffs.

Seattle's Oline and WR/TE group were inferior to Miami's last year and you've made it clear you believe Russell Wilson isn't an elite QB and is no better than Tannehill, so what is your excuse for Seattle scoring 100 more points than Miami, including 30+ points 5 times more than Miami and 40+ points 3 times [which Sherman's never did]?

Distractions? Do you think Chip Kelly's first year in the NFL didn't come with distractions or pressure?
And how does lofty expectations of Lazor serve to reduce pressure? Wouldn't it have the opposite affect?

Whatever success Lazor might have, it doesn't change the fact Sherman underachieved..... and, just as it was easy to notice Chip Kelly & Co maximized Philly's offense, it should be easy to notice the reason behind Miami scoring 60+ more points this year [should that happen], because Branden Albert, better running back depth, and a still young, developing, and learning QB won't account for that all by themselves.

 

The Dolphins have jumped from #30 in the league in offensive cap figures to #13 in the league in offensive cap figures, and the only significant NEW cap figures appearing on the books (for players that weren't here a year ago) are $4.2 million to Branden Albert, $3.0 million to Knowshon Moreno and $2.5 million to Shelley Smith.

Yet there were 2013 cap figures for players that are no longer present in 2014 offsetting those, including Richie Incognito ($5.0 million), Dustin Keller ($4.3 million), Tyson Clabo ($3.5 million) and John Jerry ($1.5 million).

So in other words we've ditched $14.3 million of offensive players, gained only $9.7 million of offensive players in their place, yet their offensive spend ranking has gone from #30 in the league all the way to #13 in the league.

And you're going to try and say that's the same as everyone else?

No. No it isn't. The offensive cap figures of 2013 severely understated the amount of money being spent on the offense and that is not the case with every team in the league.

 

And the Dolphins still have $16 M in cap space, $20 M if we cut Moore. We could have easily spent another $10 M last season.

 

Not sure what your point is. Bottom line is attempting to correlate the money spent on the offense in 2013 with the way the offense performed is highly misleading as the actual money being spent on the offense even comparative to the rest of the league was severely understated and the ranking you see this year (#13 in the NFL) is much closer to what the cash spending was a year ago.

 

I would bet that the most teams that are above the Dolphins are paying their QB a lot of money.

 

My point is we could have added Albert or Long or whoever last season and not gotten into any trouble cap-wise, and Albert probably would have made a pretty significant difference to our offensive woes. And every team in the league kicks the can down the road when structuring contracts.

I agree that its more complicated than simply looking at the dollars spent on a year to year basis but we are still doing ourselves a disservice compared to the teams being super aggressive with their caps.

 

You're forgetting that cap space is something that can also be kicked down the road. The Dolphins have not allowed any of their unspent cap space to just expire since the new CBA was signed. They've rolled it all forward. The $16 million of cap space you see in 2014 is a cumulation of space space from 2011, 2012 and 2013, all of which has been rolled forward.

And the reason all that cap space has been rolled forward and keeps accumulating? Simple. At some point, if all goes according to plan, this quarterback they drafted at #9 overall is going to want his contract extended. And I don't know if you've been seeing the contracts that are being signed by quarterbacks lately, but it's not going to be cheap. The "middle class" at the quarterback position is basically disappearing because the position has become so widely accepted as being of chief importance that no team wants to give public sign that their quarterback is not actually competitive with the other franchise quarterbacks out there. That's how you get a Colin Kaepernick making well over $20 million per year.

The Bengals are caught up in that dilemma right now. They have Andy Dalton. It's clear Andy Dalton doesn't even hold a candle to Colin Kaepernick, let alone guys like Brady/P.Manning/Brees/Rodgers/Roethlisberger/E.Manning/Rivers/Wilson. Guys like Newton, Ryan, Romo, Stafford, Cutler and Luck are better too. But the Bengals are going to war with him and that means they think they can win a championship with him and so at the negotiations table the agent says you think he's a championship caliber quarterback so you should pay him like one.

As of this moment with Ryan Tannehill racking up passer ratings in the mid-70's to low-80's, laying 3+ turnover stinkers every fourth or fifth game, with a fan base that is extremely touchy, he's primed to be right in that area you don't want to be in negotiations with your "franchise" quarterback. Put the screws to him in negotiations and you're admitting you don't really have a good quarterback. If he has a passer rating in the low 90's this year, Miami won't want to lose him and they won't want to give a public admission that he's not all that good. They're going to pay him.

And they'll be pretty happy they have a $16 million coupon sitting in their back pocket when they do.

 

Most of them, yes. Of the 12 teams above Miami only 4 stand out as not having the QB position account for a large ($15+ million) amount.

And there are a good 5 or 6 teams ranked below Miami in offensive spending that have $15+ million allocated toward QBs too.

 

The problem is "they" won't be happy because its likely "they" will have been fired for being too passive with the cap before "they" even have to make that decision. I'm sure Hickey was happy to have plenty in cap space to work with though.

I agree the Dalton decision probably is (or should be) excruciating for them. I have no idea what I would do if I were them. It makes me glad we took Tannehill in the first and can utilize the fifth year option if need be.