USA Today Power Rankings: Dolphins top-10 (Bills higher?)

Well, in Rexxy's defense, he did win with the Nacho, he has always been able to rally his team for a couple of years.

 

Heard Eddie George today say that Murray had 1200 pre contact yards. Wow, that's a great line. Murray should still be pretty fresh.

 

It's always one or the other on the internet. How about, BOTH are important. There are many pieces to a successful team. They're not all mutually exclusive.

Look at 2013 Cowboys vs 2014. 2013 Cowboys already had a strong offensive line. They had Dez. They had Romo. They had Murray who missed two games but was there for 14.

What do they do? Look at Romo's past 3 years, as his attempts went down his performance has gone up. Correlation doesn't equal causation but a move towards a balanced approach has done wonders for Romo's performance. That's a coaching decision. Their defense was slightly better but not by much y/p. It's both. It's all of it.

 

We are rated a top ten team yet only third in our division .Tough division

 

Take solace in the fact that these offseason rankings have almost no correlation, nevermind causation, in our actual performance. We could take the division or go 5-11.

 

why, didn't Ryan just get fired and what was his record last year,I hate the way we finished last year we'll see how these 2 do it wasn't all on Philbin.

 

couple of years or a couple of games to save his ***, don't forget all the crap he caused in NY, don't forget how a couple of years ago he completely lost the team.

 

I know right, if you can win with that dude, then damn..

 

It's too early to predict and kinda awkward to seeing fins at #10th but hey...im not gonna lie, i like it

 

Brian Billick won it all with Dilfer. He's not a great head coach.

Rex Ryan is a good defensive coach, nothing more. If he was half as good as everyone made him out to be as a head coach, his teams wouldn't have regressed so badly.

 

philbum called timeouts when we needed to run out the clock for a win. The coach has more overall influence than the QB. Tanny supporters say he didn't lose those games and I agree. He did enough to win, but the coach lost those games.

 

There are lots of different aspects to, and discussions within, all this. My comments were concerning just one facet of team responsibility and influence, specifically that the HC is more influential in team progress than the QB (or any other single player). The problem with analysing almost anything in football is that there are so many variables and it becomes almost impossible to pin down. Additionally, the tendency is to compare extremes or look at the influence of outliers like legendary talents.

It of course makes sense that a legendary QB can make a HC look better than he is, and perhaps even an average defense with an average offensive supporting cast with a legendary QB can do wonders, although maybe not with a below average defense. However, it must be pointed out that the opposite point (a legendary HC making an average QB looking good) is actually the job description of the Head Coach - and that's important - the comparison is apples to oranges, in a way. The type of influence a player has is different to the influence a coach has, and in one way the influence of any coach on player performance is always secondary. Their influence on setting up the plays, though, can often (is usually?) direct, and play composition can have a big impact on success.

What makes a great QB? I think most of us could rattle off a list of items most people would agree on.

What makes a great HC? Harder to define. So much is tied up in personality, style, design, and a HC will be at the mercy of the performance of his players. Still, I think most people would agree that a good coach will try to identify, and make the most of, whatever players he has, whilst also changing/building the team to improve overall. That's not easy, but to whatever extent they can do that (by their own power and according to the ability of the players available) they can influence team in every area, and to the extent that they fail to do that, they can seriously damage a team.

How often have we see poor play composition, or players used in wrong roles? Those would be examples of the influence of bad coaching that are most easily seen, and I think they can often speak for themselves has to how they can frustrate any player or team, QB included. Yet there are other ways the coach has influence and they are, by the nature of it, hard to see.

Maybe the easiest way to look at this is to imagine a perfectly average team - average players, average coaches, average owner, average GM. Then imagine adding either a massively skilful HC or QB, and also a very poor HC or QB. What affect would it be reasonable to expect each one have?

Assuming the ability of each to bring out something more from those around them and their areas of responsibility:

Average team + Skilful HC = Reasonable to expect a better overall performance of the whole team as he finds ways to help the team gel, inspires a lift in whole team morale, designs plays that work/fit better.
Average team + Skilful QB = Reasonable to expect a much better performance from the overall offence, especially passing offence, a lift in morale, and better performances from his offensive team mates. Reasonable to not expect an improvement in the defensive side of things, or the other coaches.
Average team + Poor HC = Reasonable to expect a worse overall performance of the whole team, lower morale, worse plays and worse fit.
Average team + Poor QB = Reasonable to expect a worse offence, especially passing offence, lower morale, but not reasonable to expect a worse defensive performance outside of fatigue if they're on field all the time.

If we take that average team and then give them either a skilful QB + poor HC OR a skilful HC + poor QB - then I think it would be reasonable, again, to expect a lift in performance from everyone on the team with the skilful coach, but a worse offence overall, but reasonable to expect a poor HC to see a worse overall team and a better offence. Of course, here's where we see difficulties because none of this is in a vacuum. Just how good was the team to begin with, especially as relates to the other teams? It's possible you add a poor HC but a great QB and the improved offence is sufficient to either maintain the status quo or even improve the overall result. Things like that become almost impossible to measure.

The point, however, is that the head coach's responsibility touches every aspect of the team, and does so in a position of leadership, directly and indirectly, and has the potential to sway the entire team, it's just that there aren't metrics to measure it. The QB is influential, but simply doesn't have the responsibility or role to have that same type of influence. I think the very fact that the HC carries more responsibility says something, any I also think that anyone who has studied leadership understands the very significant role that all leaders play (and so the QB, as a leader, is very significant) but especially those in full command. It goes beyond football to business and every other aspect of teamwork and family and group dynamics. Depending on franchise hierarchy, a case could be made for the GM, or Exec, and then owner, to be even more influential than the HC and QB.

The bottom line is that the HC's decisions affect everything on the team, directly and indirectly. The QB's decision do not. That is the very definition of influence. Influence is the HC's job, but the QB's job is execution with a little bit of influence. We can measure performance better than influence but we should never underestimate it.

 

I just want a coach that "can take his'n, and beat your'in, and take your'in, and beat his'n". If that turns out to be Philbin this year....Great !! If not, Que Ser rah,Ser rah......

 

just saying,...sanchez sucks...dilfer was better.

 

I think we'd all love to have a coach like that but the reality is that they come around less frequently than great QBs. I think in the history of the NFL you could count the coaches that truly fit that description on one hand.

Think of it this way. Since Marino retired how many QBs have there been that you would consider comparing against him; Manning, Rodgers, Brady just to name a few. Sure you could debate the merrits of each and the impact of rule changes but it would be an honest debate. Now, since Shula retired how many coaches would you consider naming in the same breath? I think the list starts and ends with Belicheck. Anyone else would just be a silly debate.

 

This is so true VManis....I just hope we get the next one..or Philbin turns out good..either way, I am happy.

 

I have a ton of respect for Rexxy the Coach, the problem is he likes vet in the Cap era, and he does not develop talent ie "win now".

Put it this way tho, he took a 9-7 team to the AFC championship game, we head into the playoffs with a 9-7 team, with Cautious Joe, we think "first round exit".

A sadly true statement, this is one of the reasons why "ol Joe" does not have my confidence

 

Carolina is probably riding a wave from finishing the season with four consecutive wins and then adding a playoff win on top of it.

You can make a bull case for a lot of teams in this league and I think they're one of them. Jonathan Stewart was a big difference-maker when he came back I thought, big part of that run at the end of the year. They have a really interesting approach at the wide receiver position with Kelvin Benjamin and now Devin Funchess in addition to Greg Olsen. They've got some speedsters like Stephen Hill and Ted Ginn too, but they don't figure to be anything but role players. It will be interesting to see how that pans out. Where you start to lose me is Michael Oher and Jonathan Martin at tackle.

But there's plenty of talent on defense now, particularly the defensive line with Star Lotulelei, Kawann Short, Charles Johnson and Kony Ealy. Luke Kuechly, Thomas Davis and Shaq Thompson should be interesting. They start losing me in the secondary though.

 

I like the Bills roster. The quarterback position should be interesting to say the least but I have a feeling they could come out of it still looking decent if they make the RIGHT call at that position.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, for Dol-Fans) I don't trust Rex Ryan to make the right call there. Maybe Greg Roman does, but I'm not sure how much I like him either. The two QBs on roster that I like the best are Tyrod Taylor and E.J. Manuel. But it wouldn't surprise me if at some point they cut E.J. Manuel in training camp and Tyrod Taylor becomes third string to Matt Cassel and Jeff Tuel. That's how little I trust them to get it right.

But if they do get it right, man. Sammy Watkins, Percy Harvin, Charles Clay, Robert Woods...a pretty good OL and then LeSean McCoy and Fred Jackson? Probably the best DL in football. I really like Preston Brown and Nigel Bradham. Surprising number of good corners. Safety could become an issue. But they have a guy that shouldn't be awful in Aaron Williams and another guy in Duke Williams that a I genuinely like as a dice roll.

I actually like the Jets roster too. We can sit here and talk about Geno Smith blah blah blah but the guy had a perfect day against us in Week 17. Literally. Perfect passer rating. Zac Stacy, Chris Ivory and Stevan Ridley. Plenty of competence there. Eric Decker, Brandon Marshall and Devin Smith is downright dirty, to go with Jace Amaro and Jeff Cumberland at tight end. They have pillars on the OL in Nick Mangold and D'Brickashaw Ferguson, then they have some fun dice rolls like Dakota Dozier, Jarvis Harrison, Wesley Johnson and Oday Aboushi. Then they have failsafes like Breno Giacomini, James Carpenter and Willie Colon. A very well-structured situation along the OL and it's so good I'll be scanning their waiver wire.

The defensive line is...damn. Davis Harris and Erin Henderson are good enough. Bowles will install a 5-DB defensive base and he has plenty of DBs to do it. Darrelle Revis, Antonio Cromartie, Dee Milliner, Buster Skrine, Darren Walls, Marcus Williams, Marcus Gilchrist, Calvin Pryor, Jaiquawn Jarrett, Antonio Allen. Again if you're smart you're scanning their waiver wire.

Both teams have good head coaches too.

 

It's pretty much a given we have the worst coach in the division, and arguably in the conference. I can't think of a coach in the entire league I would rather have Philbin over. Last year, Dennis Allen was by far the worst.. this year... it has to be Philbin... If we had a coach worth a damn, believe me we would be respected and have all the praises you all wish to have. Too much talent on this team to always come up short in December, every. single. year.

 

Yeah, both the Bills and Jets look like they'll be good indirect tests of how much a good surrounding cast helps make a QB look good (as well as how important the QB position is in today's NFL).

I can see some opinions on several topics in different threads around here shifting based on how the Bills and Jets perform, assuming they don't fix the QB position. Exactly how good a QB Russel Wilson is, or whether it's better to overpay a good QB vs. shifting resources to other positions, are examples.

 

The Browns have talent but with that quarterback situation they're going to be the whipping boy of that division. Lightning doesn't strike twice this year. They're not going to have Josh McCown rise from the ashes and be awesome and I have zero faith in Manziel to be anything but an entertaining train wreck. It's too bad because they have talent. But it's just enough to lose.

The Texans could be in trouble. J.J. Watt is incredible but he can't do everything himself for another year. And without him having one of the greatest seasons ever, they win a lot less often. Going with Hoyer and Mallett is really pushing it and I wonder if Bill O'Brian is basically doing exactly what all the Belichick disciples have done before him which is show promise and talent, but also show too much faith in their ability to coach wins as opposed to players winning.

The Jaguars and Raiders remain teams that everyone beats up on, IMO. The Jags will blame Fowler's injury even though it won't be that relevant. Tennessee probably also a doormat, but I have a little more faith in them to do something interesting.

Philip Rivers and Melvin Gordon could be a hell of a pair in San Diego. It's too bad their front office sucks so bad at surrounding Rivers with pass catching weapons. Just up and down that roster, no wonder Philip Rivers has told them he's not signing an extension. He can't wait to get out of there and I bet they end up a doormat in 2015 by virtue of Rivers making business decisions about staying healthy rather than putting everything on the line to keep pushing a bad team toward mediocrity with his ability. There are players on the Chargers I really feel bad for, that I like. Philip Rivers, Jason Verrett, Melvin Gordon, Eric Weddle, Orlando Franklin, Corey Liuget, Ladarius Green and Melvin Gordon. Too bad they're surrounded by crap.

I'd call for the Chiefs to go into decline but I'm tired of underestimating Andy Reid.

 

Never been a coach basher, well.... Cam Cameron, ... and there's a lot of things about Philbin that indicate he tries to learn from his mistakes, but watching those GD timeouts...GEESUS, we had the games in hand. IIrc, it was to allow for scheme substitutions. Supposedly, that's something they're going to cut down on by the new "simplified" defense. If you're going to do that, a/k/a Jimmy Johnson, better have the horses. I have a feeling we're going to see a reversion to more disguised schemes with frequent package substitutions returning before long.

Agua out