Who else expects the team to take a step back next season?

I never ripped Camarillo and Bess, just Ginn. I haven't seen Ginn do much to become more QB friendly like Camarillo and Bess in the short time thy've been here. JMO.

 

Then start watching the games cause you're obviously not.

 

Just saying, a legit #1 ought to have better results than he does, especially as high as he was picked. It's fine if you like him and you are entitled to, I however do not and would like to see him elsewhere while he still has some trade value.

 

I saw him wait til garbage time to start showing up today, but nothing that ammounted to much. The rest of the game, he was invisible.

 

No that's not what you're saying. You're saying that Ginn is a bust. A bust is someone who has no business in the NFL. Someone who can't play. Someone like Ryan Leaf or Eddie Moore. If you want to say that Ted Ginn isn't a legit #1 WR right now I'll agree with you. But by the same token, we have no legit #1 WR and have not used anyone as a legit #1 WR. He's doing what he can with the opportunities he gets. He messes up some routes and makes some mistakes but he's only a 2nd year guy and has made tremendous strides from last year. Almost doubling his receiving yards from last year, doubling his touchdowns, gaining 2 more yards per catch and catching 22 more passes. He's improving and next year is the magic year for WRs. So for God's sake can we give our young players time to develop before we throw them away? That's the way of the old Dolphins. How many of our former players do we really have to watch succeed elsewhere in the league. Or worse, come back and beat us. If you keep throwing away players because they aren't superstars 2 years into their career we're never going to have stability on this team. And we're never going to develop a superstar so fans are going to be left *****ing about us not having any superstars. It's a vicious cycle. The only way to stop it is with patience. In other words, learn some patience and stop trying to jettison every player we have just because they don't exceed your unrealistic expectations.

 

mmm...guess it's a little pointless to quote the entire thread, but it looks like my points have already been made.

Record-wise we may step back a little, but I see us becoming a better team next year because we have better personnel people. Of course we have to wait until after the draft and then the subsequent training camp before we have a solid idea how good we will be next year.

I don't see us having a losing season if we remain as injury-free as we did this year (however unlikely that might be in this day and age). However, like most teams, we are only a couple of injuries away from disaster. Let's hope we get a great draft next year and our players all stay healthy.

We'll take the season one game at a time, just like our players did this year.

 

Ginn needs to play better and with more consistency, but I'm not ready to give up on him yet. WR's generally take time to learn the nuances of the game and we should all hope that the flashes Ginn has shown throughout the year turn into steady starlight in 2009. Let's not forget, Michael Clayton came out like gangbusters his rookie year and has done jack since.

 

Here is how I see next season playing out:

Split with NE, and sweep Jets & Buffalo. So we are looking at 5-1.

Home: Houston we never beat at Houston. I think we win a home. Indy will be a loss, with or without Dungy. New Orleans is a win. Tampa Bay will be a win. Pitt has to be a loss at this point. So now we are looking at 8-3.

Away: Jacksonville should be a win. Tennessee will be a loss. Atlanta is a toss up, but go ahead at this point I will say loss. If it was a home game I would say win. Carolina is the same thing as Atlanta. So a loss right now. SD will have to be a loss at this point. So it looks like on paper that we are facing a 9-7 season.

Now the odds of a couple wins being a loss is good and vice versa. So we easily could be 7-9 or 8-8 and could see it be an 11-5 season if we really just play over our heads.

We have some holes we still need to fill. We need tons more depth at WR. Going into the playoffs with only 3 WR's is horrible...with 1 of them being a practice squad WR. Count on Ginn, Bess, and Camarillo being the top 3, unless we sign 1 main WR like TJ Whosyourmomma. We desperately need help at CB, S, and could still beef up the OL. I love the fact we have 3 picks again in the first 2 rounds and can fill all those needs in the draft. We also need to bring in another QB just in case we don't believe that Henne is the answer.

The team is shaping up nicely. I would hope Parcells stays at least a couple more years to see this thing through. However, I feel confident with Ireland and Tony running the show. I would not blame Bill if he walked for 9 million. I wish I could do the same thing with my job.

I would expect some drop off with the schedule next year, but I don't see us falling to 5 or 6 wins. I would hope we can maintain this momentum that we got this year, but we need to scheme past the wildcat formations and be able to beat teams with a vertical game as well as a strong running attack. With Ricky sharing the load, we might get about 2 more years out of him. That being if he can stay off the wagon and out of trouble. I would hope so because a two headed monster backfield is crucial in todays game.

We have lots of good young talent. Bell needs to be locked up long term. We need to find a replacement at MLB for Crowder. He is not the answer and over pursues way to often...while not creating the turnovers that I would like to see from that position. We also need to find a potential replacement for Porter and he doesn't have much longer as well.

We are on the right track. Now the key is to progress rather than regress. Hopefully there won't be a hangover from todays loss.

 

They absolutely will not take a step back. It's easy to forget that they are rebuilding. They will have a chance to add depth and solidify weaknesses through the draft and FA and to maybe cut away a little dead weight. They will have another training camp together to continue to grow as a team. I can't imagine they will step back. They have a great chance to win the division again next season.

 

right now Patrick Willis seems the best pick we could have made at that spot, because Willis is already playing great ball.

I'm happy with Ginn though.
A flat comparison between Willis and Ginn can't be made IMO because Willis was much more of a 'NFL-ready' prospect than Ginn.

Ginn came a bit raw. Looking at his couple seasons, he def got better, under (much) better coaching. He had some helluva catches this season.
He does those stupid mistakes, and I bet that will be the coaching staff (and his) focus this offseason regarding improvement.

And, lastly, though no less important, we know receivers usually reach their full potential on their 3rd year. So I'd patiently give a free-pass for Ginn next season to prove us he can be our number 1 WR.

 

Bro, it really doesn't matter what you and I think, bottom line is has he done enough to impress this new regime to stick around? Besides it's not unrealistic for a 1st round top ten pick to come in and produce. That 1st coould have been put to better use, bottom line. Develop a WR with a later pick. JMO

 

I'm as hard an evaluator of Phins talent as one will ever find..

Ted Ginn is a weapon, no doubt about it.

I'm happy to have him on our team next season, his ceiling has yet to have been scrapped.

To the ginn haters..STF...the man is a baller for us.

 

I begged for us that day to trade down and then select Willis. I was irate that we didn't and I still am. Sure, Ginn has come on as of late. However, Willis is a 14-20 tackle guy per game. THAT JUST CAN'T BE MATCHED. He is a going to be one of the best when it is all done.

 

In the words of Ron Burgandy "Wow that got out of hand really quick!" I never meant to hijack this thread with my opinion, so let's let it go because no one is going to change their minds and let this thread return to the original topic. It's the right thing to do, I trust this is something we can all agree on.

 

That's TRUE. But, as the world is not perfect....we got Ginn. That's why Cam Cameron is Cam Cameron, the garbage HC.

Actually considering Cam Cam dumbness I appreciate we got lucky having Ginn...think about it, we could end up with another Jamar Fletcher, or another Jason Allen..

Willis might have been the PERFECT pick, but Ginn was a good one IMO. And it's early to judge him as a bust. He's def improving.

 

Us having a worse record dosen't necessarirly "stepping back"
If Pennington goes down early in the season (and by no means I wish that upon him, i love the guy) And Henne steps in wand we go 9-7 with THAT schedule, I will consider that progression.

 

We'll be facing a schedule that looks on paper to be tougher than last year, and we scraped in with a lot of clase wins this year. We will have to be better just to maintain our record from this year.

However we have a front office that
a) has a plan;
b) the plan is a proven winner on both sides of the ball;
c) sticks to the plan; and
d) has everybody in the organisation following the plan.
which is a recipe for success.

I honestly believe you have to go back to the pre-Marino dolphins where we had a setup like that in place.

 

I don't know how anybody could see what they accomplished this season and how far they came and think they won't be better next season. The NFC South should be concerned they have to play Miami. I know it doesn't look like that today b/c of the game but I believe they will be significantly better when the 09 season kicks off.

 

You and I are exactly on the same mind wavelength.

Can't say I disagree with a word of that and after the sting of this loss wears off I think more people will realize that.

 

I think they were just very unfortunate to draw Baltimore immediatley in the playoffs. That was the worst possible matchup for them. If they draw Indy we might be talking about the divisional round right now. Things like that happen. Indy beat Baltimore this season and we beat San Diego. Who knows what things would have looked like if the matchups were switched. That defense was our kryptonite.