Given recently personnel developments, I think it's time to revisit what Ireland has done. This was his first off-season where he had the bulk of the power as opposed to Bill Parcells, and I think that some of the decisions he's made that he's taken big hits on have turned around quite a bit.
Matt Moore- When the move was made, it was widely derided as a panic move, or something that did not adequately provide competition to Henne, and things of that nature. However, going into week 13, Matt Moore is by far the highest-rated quarterback who was available to the Dolphins this off-season, both in the context of free agency and in the draft. His closest competition in the context of free agency peers is Matt Hasselbeck, who isn't performing as well, and is nearly a decade older than Moore. His closest competition in drafted players is Andy Dalton, whom is performing encouragingly for a rookie starter but not all that well in the context of quarterbacking.
Kevin Burnett- Kevin Burnett was absolutely awful the first 5-6 games this season, but since mid-season has turned around and played pretty well. Given that there's been quite a few players who were bad in that time period(and significantly worse than their typical career performances) who have likewise dramatically improved, I think it's more likely an issue caused by the shortened off-season(be it through negligence or circumstance), than it is the individual players being a mistake or not.
Reggie Bush- Reggie Bush has largely outplayed the field in terms of who was available in free agency. He's averaging a better yards per carry than Ahmad Bradshaw so far this year, and produced more yardage. This is in part due to Bradshaw's injury, but I think in part that is mitigated because there are legitimate questions of both backs being able to stay healthy, and Bush has been able to do so. DeAngelo Williams has out-performed Bush, but was also quite a bit more expensive than Bush/Bradshaw and I don't believe has lived up to his contract so far.
Marc Colombo- Unrelentingly awful, but I believe that there is a solid argument that this was not Sparano's decision as much as it was Ireland's decision. Sparano was given some personnel power this off-season, and I don't think there is any circumstances where it is more likely to have been exercised than acquiring one of his former offensive linemen he has been quite vocal in supporting.
Jason Taylor- This is another guy who started the season off quite poorly, but has turned around pretty nicely since the mid-season point. He's nowhere close to the guy he used to be, and while I don't think he's an adequate complete Nickel sub, that's not what is being asked of him(He's rotating with others). I think he's performing at least better than he was with the Jets.
Not locking up Paul Soliai- He's another guy better now than he was to start the season, but I don't think he's playing to the level you'd expect a franchise player to play at, or good enough to justify a long-term contract in that salary range. I still believe that not franchising Paul Soliai was the right decision, because we were not really at loss for the salary cap, and there is still a legitimate question if Soliai is worth a big money extension.
The Draft- No one has been a consistently, dominant player, but the Dolphins have had significantly better than average rookie contributions, and it does not seem to be a particular stretch they will get multiple, quality starters out of the draft. Mike Pouncey has regressed from his initial dominance early in the season, and Daniel Thomas hasn't been consistently able to build on the flashes earlier in the season. Charles Clay looks like a legitimate project player who could be a very good tight end, and Jimmy Wilson was not out of place starting. There are no guarantees yet, but as far as the draft goes I think the Dolphins have done well above average this season.
While it's not really addressing moves that Ireland did not make, and the merits or lack thereof, I think what Ireland has done has stacked up very well vs. the field, and given this is the first year everything can be pinned on him, has made a legitimate bid to keep his job.
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ToddsPhins, Rocky Raccoon, electrolyte and 1 other person like this.
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Reggie over Sproles was an awful choice. I like Reggie and he has done well lately, Sproles is playing the way Reggie was always envisioned to.
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalkjw3102 and Disgustipate like this. -
Most of that can be blamed on the coaching staff. The Dolphins do not use Reggie the way New Orleans uses Darren Sproles. Sean Payton does a much better job of getting Sproles into space and getting him involved in the passing game than Miami does with Reggie Bush. They also use him on returns, which Miami doesn't seem interested in letting Bush do. Now that they are getting him into space more, Reggie Bush's performance has stepped up. They still don't use him in the passing game like they should though, and they don't use him enough on the jet sweeps.ToddsPhins, Frumundah Finnatic, Disgustipate and 1 other person like this.
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In Ireland's defense, Sproles would have been crushed into a fine powder running behind our offensive line the first few weeks of the year.
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I'm not sure poor offensive line play is really damaging to a runner. I'd tend to assume that open-field hits with both players having a head of steam being more problematic than the rusher running into the heels of the linemen.
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That's true, actually, I kind of blanked out on Sproles.
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Maybe also include Carson Palmer on that list. While the eventual asking price was extremely high, he is playing way better than anyone expected.
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Agreed. But I think if you look at their production in the same offense, then Sproles still out performs.
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I don't think Carson Palmer has been been better than Matt Moore, price and age aside even.
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Really? I haven't followed the Raiders a whole lot, but it was my impression he's been a good player for them.
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To be fair, Bush has gotten over twice as many carries. I'm not sure Sproles would be able to handle the type of workload that would have been required here.
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Soliai was franchised.
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Yeah, you're right. I meant long-term.
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Couple of comments. With regards to Bush being much better than the field, your forgetting about a guy that replaced Bush in NO. Sproles has been probably the best FA signing of all players this year (not only RB's). This just takes me back to wanting an elite FO. New Orleans is an elite FO. Drafting Jimmy Graham in the 3rd when we could have easily taken him ahead of the Saints (instead opting for John Jerry). I want a personnell guy that will make the elite smart choices.
Not sure what you were talking about regarding Soliai. He was franchised. Are you saying the best decision was to not sign him to a long term deal? If so, I agree although he has proven enough this year that he should be signed. NT's are very hard to find and he has been something like 12th out of 85 based on PFF. -
58% Completion %, 6 TDs, 8 INTs. He has been better than his first couple of games, but still not worth 2 1st round picks.
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Not bad considering he hadn't played football for half a year and had to learn a playbook in two weeks. Those first two games were awful as he threw 6 INT's but I think you have to look at in with a little perspective.
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Tell that to Barry Sanders. I know he would have given anything to have Emmitt Smith's offensive line...which led to his early retirement from being so beaten up over his 10 years in the league.
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Yeah, I missed Sproles. Someone pointed it out earlier.
Yes, the best decision I think was not to sign Soliai to a long-term deal.
I don't really think he's proven enough this year that he should be resigned to a market-setting or close deal, and I think it's quite possible we'll be running a defense next year where Soliai is not as highly valued, which makes it a little bit better to wait as well. -
Yes, you clearly did stop reading pretty early on. As in, before you understood fundamental aspects of what I was saying.
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You sort of proved his point. Barry got 2k behind that line and would have beaten out Smith for the All-Time title if he kept playing. The positives of line play might help more than the negatives hurt if you compare the two of them. Also, Barry didn't leave because of the line because it would help your argument. He himself said he was tired of losing in Detroit and the losing took away his will to keep playing. -
barry is a different kind of runner. once in a life time talent on a horrible team who chose the ability to walk later in life as opposed to getting his *** kicked. Atleast he didn't start blazing up and run away to india or whereever ricky williams went.
imagine if barry had a good line though. if he didnt have to make 1 or 2 people miss before getting to the LOS evry other play. Imagine if he was behind the cowboys line instead. emmit smith, most overrated running back ever. -
I'm not going to defend Jeff Ireland because we won 3 games. The team overall played well over a 3 game stretch. If they play this well for the rest of the season, maybe some of Ireland's moves desereve some more credit than they've gotten. But this team he assembled still lost 7 in a row. He still ignored the QB position. I get that the free agent options weren't great. But Andy Dalton was available. Yeah, Pouncey is good, but you don't take a lineman when you need a QB. Just my thoughts. I agree with you though, that Jeff Ireland's moves deserve more consideration now after the team is showing great improvement. Would we have been able to be competetive right off the bat if it weren't for the lockout? We'll never know.
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It's true, but you can assess the talent without that.
The coaching staff has done a bad enough job that they are being fired with cause, and the lockout to content with. I'm not suggesting the lockout is a pass, something clearly was not handled correctly on some level, and that's not the GM's responsibility. That in itself explains 0-7.
Andy Dalton looks pretty good early in his career, but he wasn't seriously considered by many an option at the time, and frankly based on what he's done he's neither outperformed Matt Moore, or given you reason to believe that he's a better prospect for becoming an elite quarterback.djphinfan likes this. -
wow, you just went from zero credibility to the negative credibility. not sure I've seen anyone do that so quickly.
Guess I didn't realize that Emmitt has everyone in the football world fooled enough to vote him in first ballot HOF. You're a genius to see what we all can't.
Barry had to make people miss because he spent more time dancing behind the LOS than Emmitt did. -
The fact is that the players Ireland has been responsible for selecting for the Dolphins since he has been the GM is 3-8 this season. They were 14-18 the previous two seasons. I have seen enough of Ireland as a GM to know that he needs to be fired, right along with Sparano. While Ireland has certainly had some success in free agency and in the draft, overall he has done a terrible job, as indicated by the teams record over the last three seasons.
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Team record is not an indication of GM performance.
Bill Polian has made awful decisions for several seasons and his team has been elite until this season, and quality coaching can disguise poor talent levels and bad choices. -
You forsee the new coach going back to a 4-3? I'm not so sure I agree. I think the new coach/gm lets Langford walk, re-signs Soliai and adds to the talent already on this defense. Starks, Soliai, and Odrick become your starting 3-4 D line and you rotate McDaniel and Merling/rookie in for Nickel situations. Dansby and Burnett are fine in the middle, add a better pass rushing LB, keep Koa for running downs and get a FS (Free Agency or Draft). Do all those things and the defense should be solid again. This team should not have cap issues since they underspent this year as well.
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Thats a good point, do you have any thoughts on what might of been handled improperly this offseason relative to the other teams?..My gripe is that there must of been ways to get some messages across to your players on what they should of been doing on their own during the offseason.
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Well, what interests me about Irish's 2011 offseason is the guys he signed, and whether they should be kept:
-Colombo...no chance
But if Burnett and Bush and Olshanksy are looked at objectively, they have turned into effective if overpriced players for us, Reggie's deal is backloaded, Burnett spent the first 1/3 3rd of the yr as the worst ILB in the NFL, Olshansky was one of the inseason pickups that panned out for us, do we keep them? Ask for paycuts if they want to stay?
But, the real key to this is..Matt Moore, who has done a fine job so far, far and away Ireland's best offseason singing, but with any thing, how he finishes the next 5 games is more important then how he played the last 5 games.
I'm not sure what happened with the Chad Henne situation this offseason, it certainly seemed like Sparano and Daboll did everything possible to set him up for success, but it just did not happen, that misplaced loyalty will probably cost Sparano his job, but will it cost Jeff "weasel" Ireland his job?
Ireland's draft classes have been middle of the road tbh, which in Miami is a huge upgrade over Wanny and Saban, but this maddening habit to move away from top talent for blue collar players is one check mark I do hold against him. -
Soliai is having a good year IMO. Problem is, opposing teams are running sets that are meant to take Soliai off the field, giving him limited action. He's effective when out there, though.
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record most certainly is a measure of a head coach and a gm. more so for a coach but still. dumping ricky and ronnie, paying bush and trading up for thomas was a **** move unless thomas ends up being a stud buuuuut he doesnt see the field.
pouncy might be good but we had to waste a first round pick on him when we had a center that was servicable a few years ago, basically swapped him (satelle SP?) for grove and cut grove because he sucked/couldnt stay healthy. pouncey will work out long term but maybe not. -
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Jim Harbaugh has a 6-10 Niners team with virtually the exact same talent at 9-2. They'll most likely finish 12-4 or better. -
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Wow. Put down the keyboard bro. Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams are worse this year than last. Reggie has outplayed both of them, COMBINED. Daniel Thomas has outplayed both of them, COMBINED.
Satele was athletic, but didn't fit the scheme of a power team. Grove, when healthy, was one of the best Centers in the league and our O-Line was top 5 with him in. Today I learned you don't know much of what you say.pacadermng67 and MrClean like this. -
I'm sorry, but you can't be overrated if everyone agrees you are a HOFer. By definition, it means you're already one of the greatest ever at your position. You can argue there might be a 3 or 4 other HOF RBs that might be better (Payton, Brown come to mind), but he can't be overrated.
If I had a team to build, with a great Offensive line, I would take Emmitt 9/10 times over Barry. Barry hit a lot of home runs, but he also danced too much in the backfield. and it wasn't always because of his offensive line. Emmitt hit the right hole, also had great field vision like Barry, was tough as hell and dominated no matter what defense he was playing. Barry did not. -
Are you kidding? Really? The record speaks for itself....Fire Jeff Ireland now. Worst GM in Dolphin history.
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