Jake, Jake, Jake....calm down some...Let's see, Rivers is a pretty good QB, nearly as good as Brees has been, in fact individually better. Culpepper is/was a POS, we can't change that. Saban is long gone. Brees is going to Miami, ironically enough without the Fins, so exactly who gives a crap ?? The bottom line is that trade is long gone...I mean that wasn't the first stupid trade ever made. NO gave away an entire draft for one pick who isn't on their team. Eli Manning forced his way into Big Blue and isn't going to Miami. Some would even say our 2008 season was a direct result of one Chad Pennington dropping into our laps by shear luck. The bottom line is that NO and Indy aren't going to the SB because of their respective QBs. This is a team game...Marino only got to the big dance once and the bottom line is that the rest of the team just never was good enough. Same for Brees last season when he had all the single season records and no playoffs. Same for Indy that couldn't beat the Bolts in 2008 season... While a great QB will always put a team close, it takes the rest of the team to put them into the fray... As was said before, there are 30 other teams fans thinking the same things you are right now. Have patience. It'll come to pass....
But it was still his decision and he even said it was his gut feeling to go with Brees. He passed on him. So it ultimately IS his fault. And I do think that Brees is one player that could have made the difference. He would have had Chambers and Welker to work with, and this franchise certainly would not have had a 1-15 season with Brees at the helm. Of those 6 games we lost that year by 3 or less points, Brees would have won at least 4 of them, and we would probably have won several others we lost. The whole history of the franchise would have been different, and who knows who we would have drafted and others wouldn't have drafted (Saban would never have taken Ted Ginn for example), so we might have been 2 years closer to that elite status if not there.
It was Jamar Fletcher, the only CB in the history of the NFL to not now how to Jam a WR despite it being making up the first syllable of his name.
I think that is Miami had signed Brees, he would have struggled as much as any others in the QB carousel, and would have been cut by now. Cam would have cut him to bring in Trent Green.
Yeah, it sucks, and maybe might have done some different things for this team, but at the end of the day he's gone, and no longer our coach. At some point we have to stop blaming a coach 3 years removed from the Dolphins for the Dolphins' issues. If anything we've been screwed over by a boneheaded turnstyle of coaches, Nick Saban wasn't the first, nor the last of which. Who knows how many deals we potentially could have had, or made, over the last 10 years or so. I mean don't get me wrong, I still don't like the guy and think he's a total jackass, but I stopped blaming him for his incompetence as an NFL coach a while ago.
Dan Marino was a very special QB and he brought a lot of success and pride to Miami. A lot of people believe the next Dan Marino is right around the corner, but the truth is there will never be another Dan Marino no matter how bad we wish for it. We passed on Drew Brees twice and thats a fact but Drew Brees might have had his career ended sooner as bad as our offensive line was at the time. No doubt, Drew Brees is a great quarterback, but a great quarterback can look not so great with a terrible offensive line. I feel confident we will eventually have a good quarterback but don't get your hopes up for another Dan Marino because he was one of a kind and a truly great quarterback who made everyone else look good. I am hoping Chad Henne will make all of us feel good once again and take all of our minds off of the QB position and what could have been or what should have been.
Obviously it's easy to decide in hindsight what the right decision was, but if I recall correctly, Drew Brees had something like 12-15 pins put into his shoulder. That's a risky proposition, and when jobs are on the line, I can't blame docs for not wanting to clear him.
