http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...bucs-should-quit-the-quest-for-a-quarterback/ I love this little article. The only thing wrong IMO is that he got the team wrong. He he should have wrote it with the Dolphins in mind. The Dolphins should not extend Tannehill. I think it may be possible that Hickey sees this but I would expect Ross to resist taking any major risks by changing the the team to radically. He has a viable product to put out on the market. That's what he cares about. I doubt he is now or ever has been a real Dolphin fan.
I mean, I'm all for the Bucs putting Evans on the trading block. The please god no is anyone coming to Miami with such a plan.
Spoken by someone who truely wants the Bucs to be awful for a long, long time apparently. (the author, not the poster)
Give me an elite QB and the playoffs will follow. You can be a very good team with an above average offensive line and a decent defense if you have an elite QB. With an above average offensive line, a decent defense and a mediocre QB, the best you can hope for is for your team to be mediocre and even if they make the playoffs, they won't get past the first round.
I'm not sure what's worse, the article, or the original post here. I'm really hoping both were written to be sarcastic pieces. I don't feel like thats the case though.
stupid. what the writer doesn't comprehend is that it's just as hard to build a true #1 defense in NFL as it is to get a real franchise QB.
The silver lining, well as I see it, with the Tannehill project is that he should not command a very large contract on the open market. Not one that we would not be willing to match anyway. Tannehill is quite serviceable and will be better every year. maybe not by leaps and bounds but better still. I would look into signing a new backup, in FA, for a lot less than Moore's current cap number. Then use the rest of FA and the draft to shore up and plug everything else as possible.
You guys don't get it....... The author pretty much described the 2013 SB champion Seattle Seahawks. Top defense.......preeminent running game.........Running QB; and the SeaHawks did with just the kind of OL he described, good run blockers but not an expensive elite pass blocking unit. Myself, I would add some things like QB intelligence. You don't need Peyton Manning to win the title but you do need a smart QB who can makes good decisions and manage a game. The guys he mentioned obviously wouldn't compare to Russell Wilson, who isn't by any means an elite passer but is one of the smartest quick thinking QB's out there. I think the author foresaw the knee jerk reactions to his content and had a legitimate retort close at hand.
The MDS post was ridiculous. You need a good to great QB to win the SB (or at least one playing great at the right time) Where the thinking may be changing on QBs isn't that you don't need one, but that you might be better off never paying the huge QB number and just keep trying to find a "good" one who is cheap on a rookie contract. Seattle can load up because Wilson is really cheap right now. Once they give him his $100 million the rest of their team will start to suffer. Baltimore had to let a lot of guys go because of Flacco's number. Same thing with Atlanta.
Problem with this is, we don't have an above average offensive line...it's not even average. And don't get me started on the defense. Did everyone just up and forget how bad Tom Brady looked to start the season? Did everyone simply forget that the Patriots were starting different guys on the oline each game, sometimes switching all 5 during games? Everyone was talking about how Brady was "on the decline" and was pretty much done. Then, magically, the offensive line gelled, and started playing like professionals, and all of a sudden, Brady is back to being Brady. Yet here in Dolphinland, people want to ignore just how important the offensive line is (let's not talk about the difference between having receivers that run great routes and actually catch balls), and pretend that Tannehill is some trash QB. Absurd.
Drop any of the writers QB's in there and you have nothing. Wilson is above average and far above anyone that was listed. You may not need a Manning or Brady for a SB, but you have to have above average, which in the NFL, is a big payday.
Trading Mike Evans and Vincent Jackson is the dumbest idea the author puts out there. Both Evans and Jackson are big guys and should have no problem being blocking receivers if that is what the plan becomes in Tampa (which I doubt). I do like the idea of Terrell Pryor getting another look as a starting quarterback in this league somewhere. I think he has phenomenal talent.
russell wilson is a great qb, a great player..they don't grow on trees, by all means if you find the next russell wilson, follow the seattle blueprint.
But Wilson wasn't outstanding in the rankings, he was just ............average; and he was only getting paid a little over half a mil and only cost his team a 3rd round pick. Wilson fits the paradigm to a tee.
Like I said, the odds of putting together that kind of team (#1 defense, great rushing attack + young smart, efficient QB) are no better than landing a franchise QB.
This. You need a good QB, but you should do everything you can to find one in the draft. Having a good QB on a rookie contract is the best recipe for success in the current NFL.
Lovie Smith got ran out of Chicago and lost in 06 because he didn't get that franchise QB. Why should he repeat that idiocy?
Wilson was a 3rd round pick who was getting around 700,000 in 2013. How is that investing heavily? That is an exteemely light investment by any standard.
They didn't just spend a 3rd on Wilson and call it a day - prior to drafting Wilson they brought in Whitehurst, Flynn, Jackson and Portis. They were very interested in finding their guy.
Actually, a situation like the Matt Flynn debacle only strongly reinforces the points the author was making. What do you think it will take to get that head unstuck and out of the box?
How was it a debacle? They ended up with a good QB. The author's point is that they should neither sign Flynn or Wilson.
While he isn't an elite QB, Tannehill is in the top half of NFL QB's at this time. If you look at what some of the QB's are earnings who aren't as good as Tannehill, I really don't understand why you feel he won't command a very large contract on the open market. Personally I feel that if he was allowed to become a free agent, he would probably sign for at least $15 million a year with another team. This also happens to be what he will earn in 2016 with the Dolphins if they decide to pick up the fifth year of his contract. It should be noted that they have to make their decision on picking up that fifth year by May 2015. One way or the other, Tannehill will be paid a very large salary in the next few years, whether he is playing for the Dolphins or not.
The point isn't that they spent resources on a guy that didn't work out, it's that they did not stop trying to find a franchise QB even if a guy didn't work out. They didn't let sunk costs deter them from finding their guy, and if someone wasn't working out they moved on.
Everyone is calling the author an idiot but isn't this exactly what Rex Ryan believes? So why are people lining up for Rex but laughing this guy out of the building?
How did you reach that conclusion? Even if you attribute every personnel move the Jets have made to Ryan, they've used two high picks on QBs.
No, you are losing focus. The point is that they moved on did almost the exact things the author suggested. They stopped spending big free agent bucks on a maybe baby gunslinger QB and found a low cost smart QB not in the traditional mold. They focused on a good run blocking OL and a strong running game while building the top defense in the NFL in 2013. The SeaHawks aren't the focus of this thread, the theory of building a top defense along with a sound running game and some other factors and not giving mega contracts to QB's who aren't the next Peyton or Rodgers or giving 60 million dollar contracts to mediocre WR's like Mike Wallace IS the focus.
This season went in the tank the instant Albert went down in Detroit. We all knew it, too. In one offseason, Hickey managed to put together a good group of starters on the O line but did not have enough time to fix the depth. Once we lost Albert and the shuffling began there was an increase in sacks that has only gotten worse. If your QB cant get enough time to throw he's not going to perform and your running game will struggle. Same story as last year now. My biggest question is the infernal insistence on playing Thomas at RT. What the heck did Fox do to piss off the staff?