We Saw the Signs when we signed Cam

I agree. I was really dissapointed in hearing about his lack of late night work ethic.

 

It's easy to say now, after the fact. But Cam was my last choice of the possible candidates interviewed last season. I even thought guys like Mora Jr., and Gailey were better options. And those don't names don't exactly get your juices flowing either.

 

I disagree, most dolphin fans I know were excited about the new direction. LIke most i had some reservations about his record as a hc. GIve me a break with all this cya about cam. It's ok if you were wrong about cam. A lot of people were. It just didn't work out. Look JJ didnt get it done, saban didnt get it done. They both had better resume's than cam did. My expectations were a lot lower now than they used to be. Everyone wants to be they guy that from the begining predicted cam would be a lousy coach. It's just real funny how now after that fact eveyone seems to have known cam was a bust. People never want to be wrong about anything even if it means they have to strech the truth about what they thought about cam beforehand. This is not directed to any particular person just fans in general. I do know some didn't like him. But most did.

 

Yeah I agree, 99.99 % were Jazzed, myself included. And I still think both Cam and Randy deserve one more year!

 

if he goes back to be a Offensive coordinator i want him to stay in miami for sure he is a great O-Coordinator but not a HC

 

I will admit I was excited about there finally being an offensive minded coach...

 

I was happy that we were at last bringing in a coach that was on the offence side of the ball....I didn't know how he was gonna do as a HC.....now after this season I don't think he's the guy that's gonna get us there....all this doesn't matter cos Bill is gonna bring his guy and I'm fine with that.

Ozzy rules!!

 

He doesn't have the same first and last name. Malcolm is his first name!

 

we know the fact that he wasnt a succesful HC in college meant that he might be in over his head...and he has been awful...he was an offensive juggernaut and he turned into a kitten when it came down to making enough decent plays to keep his job....i really wanted him because he knows how an offense runs...i knew he wasnt what we wanted in a HC but i just wanted him to get two years to get the quick substantial bodies on offense....

 

Damn,Malcolm is even a worse name for a coach!

 

Concur. I wanted Cam to be hired and hope to see him back next year. Him and Mueller actually had the GUTS to start the rebuild of the Miami Dolphins. Yes, he made rookie mistakes, but what new HC doesn't.

What shocked everyone was how poor our defense performed. Capers was forced onto Cam in the hopes of maintaining a strong defense.

We need to stick with one coach and finish the rebuild. Then Cam and Mueller can really be judged - based on record and talent level. I perosnally think we can be a 500 ball club next year WITH Cam. We should be a playoff contender in year 3. By then we will have started to build through the draft and use FA to get that special player when needed.

 

Cam wasn't WH's first choice... but the choice he made just the same... at least WH took his name out of the next hire... I'll give him that... plus the fact that BP gets to fire Cam.. not WH... so that makes that a clean deal for both...

I can remember upsetting many VIP's here with my posts about Cams "botch" jobs beginning prior to the draft... no need to list them now.. the fact remains... Cam wasn't very good in any area.. including his position as OC... He'll go out by saying he did it his way.... and he'll have the record to back that up... deservidly so....

 

I think the contrast with Saban and Cam really helped Cam at first with the media and the public. Everyone hates Saban, so a totally different, MUCH more politically correct guy should be better, right? WRONG.

What bothered me about Cam was the college record, but much more the fact that the Chargers had just lost in the first round of the playoffs and he WAS calling the plays, not Schotty.

The fact that training camp was so much easier was a bad sign as well. I like Mora Jr., he always did well with the falcons and they were not a very good team with a runningback playing QB.

 

Not possible.

If Cam is in Miami, it will be as Head Coach.

If he's not Head Coach, he can't be part of the team any longer per NFL rules.

 

I like Cam as a person... I think he's a good man... I just think he's been a complete failure as a head coach. The Dolphins will be better off next season if he, Mueller, and Capers are all fired. Armstrong is another good candidate for an exit.

For goodness sakes... please let us retain Hudson Houck...

 

Cam started a rebuilding process like we all wanted. Now we're not winning, what else do you want?

Winning and rebuilding isn't a package deal. Cam deserves another year or two, he's simply being scapegoated by everyone for our pitiful record, when in reality it's because we have horrible players and leaders at the moment.

 

There's an NFL rule that says a coach cannot accept a demotion to stay with his current team? I don't think so.

Cam probably wouldn't accept a demotion and one probably won't be offered, but it has nothing to do with any league rules.

 

As I understand it there is one that says a Head Coach (and only a Head Coach) cannot be demoted on the same team.

Mularkey was demoted from OC to TE coach so I see your reasoning, but the rule extends to HCs only...

I'll see if I can round it up...

 

I don't see why everybody is hating Cam Cameron and Randy Mueller for. He started a rebuilding process. Name one team that was in a rebuilding process and made it to the playoffs.

What about the things they have done. They netted us 10 picks in the last draft and netted us a much needed extra 2nd rounder in this upcoming draft. They got us a franchise center, something we haven't had in years. They got us someone who could be our franchise quarterback, a great compliment to Ronnie Brown in Lorenzo Booker, someone who could develop into a great deep threat, and an offensive line that played better than it ever had the last two years.

Had they made their mistakes? Of course they have. But they started a much needed rebuilding phase. If you're going to insult them, at least give them their due credit.

 

Cam is a fired man coaching. He's as good as gone. Believe it.

 

Cam is a great OC. But not a Head coach. Hopefully we can find a way to keep Cam as an OC. thats were he belongs. We just wasted our time and his time.

 

You listed a lot of things to give Mueller credit for, but what has Cam done so well as a head coach? From his repeated clock and field position blunders, to his mishandling of the QB situation, to his weekly "we'll get those areas corrected" speech, to players being more motivated by the mere sight of Parcells than a full season of Cameron, to a 1-14 record when many of those games were winnable, to getting blown out by Jets and Bills teams that are not vastly superior in talent and his late realization of Ronnie being clearly better than Chatman, L. Booker offering a lot of value in a Kevin Faulk type of role, and not finding more ways to get Ginn the ball.

I'm not sure that Parcells or whomever replaces Cameron will finally get our team turned around, but I'm quite sure they can't do much worse than Cameron's 2007 Dolphins... only 1 team in history has. You are who your record says you are, and Cameron certainly hasn't done anything as a head coach to lead one to believe he's going to give a team a winning edge in the coaching department.

 

Actually Saban started the rebuild when he corrected the cap in two years and had some productive drafts with limited opportunities...

Let's remember Cam did'nt come here to "rebuild" he came here and thought the team was going to win 10-11 games and be in the playoff hunt... he drafted offense.. and "accessories" at that in the determination they had players in place to win now and with the addition of some needed team speed that may be the difference maker... well... we know how that turned out....

 

Neither does his record says his team will be horrible in '08. Remember, there a whole lot of head coaches that started with a bad record. Even Parcells himself started his first ever head coaching season with a record of 3-12-1. Bill Bellichick's first season was 1-15 himself.

 

What we've seen this year is the bottoming out of the franchise after the Wanny years. Saban, Mueller and Cameron have done a good job of putting the franchise in a position where it can improve in the future.

Cameron has been a mixed bag on the field this year, but there are some signs that he is worthy of being kept. The ones that mean the most to me are:
1) Remedying the long standing on field disciplinary problems. Penalties aren't killing us the same way they have been over the last 5 years.
2) The offence, when healthy, showed signs that it is significantly improving and since most of the core players are young that it will continue to improve.
3) He has motivated players like Ronnie Brown and Jason Allen into having career years.
4) He makes excellent second half adjustments to the offence.

Cameron has also been snake bitten with regard to random factors. Research has shown that injury rates from year to year are essentially random and that running "heavy" or "light" camps makes no significant statistical difference to injuries during the season. Also researxh has shown that winning or losing 3 point games is a coin toss and Cameron is 1-6 in those. At one stage, I think it was week 10, our opponents had made 100% of field goals against us. If those factors come back to average next year, as they generally do, then the 'phins will win an extra 4 or 5 games without being any better on the field or in the coach's box. OK that puts us at 5-11 or 6-10 which is a long way from where we want to be, but all what Im saying is that if we replace Cameron and go 6-10 next year that we really haven't done anything to improve the team.

What will determine Cameron's retention or firing will be things that are invisible to us like game planning, and how he runs practices.

 

The main arguments for keeping Cameron that I've heard are:
1. Other coaches have stunk in their first year too, so maybe Cameron is going to be like them.
2. This team didn't quit despite their terrible record (though history will not remember that the Dolphins "played hard" while continuing to lose winnable games).
3. It's not Cam's fault we had so many injuries (though even with the injuries we shouldn't be getting blown out at home by the equally bad Jets).

When you put those "pros" (a.k.a. excuses) up against all of the "cons", I think it's clear that Cam's gotta go. We'll probably find out if Parcells agrees sometime next week.

 

So many excuses, but yet you hadn't shown anything in your post that makes them empty excuses. Plus Pauly outlined some more "excuses" (aka pros).

 

At first I was on the fence as far as wanting Cam, but reading all of the good things people were saying about him on finheaven I was very optimistic.
My first reason for concern was the way he handled the preseason or lack of preparation. He kept saying he wasn't game planning and was not using certain players. We have the most people on IR I think than ever before or at least it seems like it. Can some of it be attributed to lack of conditioning and preparation? It was unusual that he let another coach be the head coach for one of the games and he watched. He is a rookie head coach and it seems as though he needed more experience in the preseason instead of handing it over to another coach.
I am not saying he should go but he needs someone to give him direction and maybe Parcells can take care of that.

 

1. Penalties aren't killing us, but Cam's poor clock management field position decisions have.

2. Our pass blocking, dropped passes, and turnovers have not improved. We need to upgrade at least 2 starting offensive lineman, our starting TE, a starting WR, our QB play needs to improve dramatically and we need to hope Ronnie Brown can return to form after recovering from his knee injury. We have just as many problems on offense as we do on defense these days.

3. He motivated them or was finally pressured/forced to use them? If it weren't for injuries Allen might still be the 4th string CB and it took 2 games for Cameron to notice Ronnie Brown is one of the top 10 RBs in the NFL and needs 20+ touches per game.

4. Really, for example? I must have missed these adjustments during those 14 loses, many of which where we blew 2nd half leads or were already getting blown out in the 2nd half.

 

I think it's time Miami stops making/justifying excuses and starts coming up with answers.

IMO, Cameron doesn't give the team an edge with superior coaching. When other teams with injury/talent deficiencies are blowing you out, your team has more problems than just those two issues.

 

With respect to your points.
1) Losing coaches are always criticised for clock management and field position decisions and winning coaches are praised for the same. To me this is lazy criticism. Not saying that it'c necessarily true or untrue but it seems to me that whenever somebody wants to bash a coach this is the first club they reach for.

2) Prior to Ronnie Brown's injury we were ranked #14 in total offence. Yes we need to improve more to be good offence, but the personnel we have is enough to run an average NFL offence. Remember we are in post Marino finlandia where a viable offence is as about as common as a white whale.

3) And if he's a bad coach who can't motivate them Ronnie spends half the year splitting carries with Jessie Chatman rather than exploding for an All-pro half season and Jason Allen is cut now.

4) We've scored more points in the second half than the first. The criticism you should be making is that the initial game plans onviously needed more work, not "I don't watch the games closely, but so what".

 

Cam needs to stick to OC. Thats what he does best. Wayne should have never hired him as HC. We just wasted a whole year exploring if Cam could be a Head Coach.

 

I think if you asked Cam... and he gave you a straight candid answer... he would say acting as the HC negatively impacted his duites as the OC and play caller.. he wasn't very good at either.. and importantly... he didn't get better as the season wore on... he was overwhelmed... period

 

1. Perhaps it's the first club they reach for because it's true? From the near disaster at the end of the first half in Washington to the WTF spike call last Sunday, Cam has repeatedly made mistakes that kept us from putting points on the board, helping us lose 14 games.

2. Our offense has only produced with Ronnie Brown, a player Cam had nothing to do with bringing to Miami and a player that would probably have the same success without Cam.

3. Ummm, no. Cam is one of the few people other than Chatman's family members that didn't think it was crazy for them to be splitting carries and for Ronnie Brown to be returning kicks. If Brown had more carries against Washington we might have won. Also, I fail to see how you're giving credit to Cameron for Allen's development. If anything, Cameron switching him back to CB and not playing him until 3 safeties went down was holding him back and Cameron lucked into having to play him.

4. Saying Cameron makes "excellent 2nd half adjustments" because one of the lowest scoring teams in the NFL scored more points in the 2nd half than the first doesn't make much sense to me (is it even true, looking back at the schedule I doubt it?). Where were the 2nd half adjustments against Wash, NYJ, Oak, Hou, Cle, NE, NYG, Buff, Phi, Pitt, NYJ, Buff, NE? I think we've had maybe 3 good 2nd half performances all year. Like I said, we've blown half time leads in many of those games, so I'm not sure what games you're referring to.

 

I read that the first choice was Pete Carroll..., Cam was a "reach" beacuse Cowher wasn't ready...,and may never come back to coaching...

 

I may be alone but I wanted Chan Gailey.

 

I'm not buying the motivation argument. Coming into the season, we had a pretty good record when we gave Ronnie the ball 20+ times a game. Even when Saban was here, we'd do great when we fed Ronnie, but for some reason we always had to get Morris involved. Cam had to do the same with Chatman earlier.

As for Allen, he played only cause Hill,Bell,and Tillman all got hurt. There was a week were Worrell adn Bryant were playing more than him. Him producing has nothing to do with motivation as much as him actually playing.

As I've said countless times, Cam has lost my support with some horrible playcalling. Here's a few...

1)MAX PROTECTION
2)Not giving Beck an open playbook
3)Not using Lo Booker
4)Not gameplanning during preseason
5)clock management
6)Not finding ways to get the ball to Booker or Ginn
7)Last week against the Pats

If we do give him another year, then we have to get rid of Capers and Armstrong. I don't know how much of our defensive problems is talent, but a lot of it has to do with poor schemes and poor positioning. And we've never had good ST, and the ST blocking and coverage this year has been even worse than normal

 

Me too. I wanted Chan along. I was never happy with the choice of Cam Cam.

 

Great coaches don't go 1-15. They just don't. A great coach is a coach who gets more out of the talent he is given. Cam isn't that guy. I've seen plenty from him this year that tells me he is a very good to great offensive coordinator, but he is not a great head coach. Great coaches don't go 1-15.

I've felt this way since Jimmy Johnson was so overrated in Dallas. I was skeptical but hopeful that he would be successful in Miami. But the truth is he won in Dallas with great coordinators and a roster that even Barry Switzer could win a Super Bowl with. Wannstedt, despite his failure as a HC, is a much better X and O guy than JJ was. And Norv Turner is easily one of the top 5 NFL offensive coordinators in the past 20 years. He has had success everywhere he has been an offensive coordinator. JJ was a solid defensive mind who knew how to draft defense, and offensive linemen. But the credit he gets as a head coach, and for his ability to draft offensive skill position players just astounds me. He inherited Irvin, Aikman was a no-brainer #1 pick, and he has publicly admitted that he preferred Blair Thomas to Emmitt Smith in the 1990 draft. JJ the head coach owes his NFL career to JJ the GM, who owes his quick success to Minnesota breaking the bank for Herschel Walker.

Without talent, JJ couldn't do more than go 1-15. Even Barry Switzer was able to march in and take JJ's players to a Super Bowl victory. But JJ was not a great NFL coach. Neither is Cam. Great coaches get more out of their players than what is on paper. Why do you think Shula went with only 2 losing seasons in 33 years? Because the man could coach. He didn't always have the most talented teams, yet he managed to win half his games in all but two NFL seasons.

Cam had bad luck and injuries this year. But he also made the early choice to pursue a way past his prime Trent Green, forcing Mueller to give up a draft pick for a player that would have been cut. He squandered the one player that actually got better this year (Ronnie Brown) by having him split carries with Chatman through the first two losses. He has continued the poor clock management that was somewhat excusable early in his rookie NFL season. But most importantly he has not fielded a team all season that seemed to believe they could win.

Any other Dolphin team I've ever watched I felt they had the heart to beat even the best teams in the NFL on any given Sunday. But heading into last week's game against the now 16-0 Pats, I had zero faith that they could pull off the upset to save their franchise's place in history. It was the first time in my life as a Dolphin fan that I've felt that way. Even when I should have known better I thought the Dolphins had a chance to beat better teams. But after watching 14 Cameron led games, I knew what the 2007 team was made of. Cameron is a world class guy, and a good to great offensive coordinator, but he has shown in his two stints as a head coach that he is in way over his head as a head coach.

Given our history, Dolphin fans should expect better. Giving this guy one more year to continue making the same mistakes and lowering expectations is not what Miami Dolphins football is all about.