Whenever the Dolphins face New England, we’re always reminded how Bill Belichick can take players that the Dolphins deemed expendable –-- specifically Wes Welker (now with Denver) and Rob Ninkovich (19.5 sacks over the past three-plus seasons) – and turn them into key starters.

This raises a larger disconcerting issue: Of the veterans that joined the Dolphins from other NFL teams in recent years – via trade or free agency – several have become less productive after coming here.

Conversely, several key veterans who recently bolted Miami have become more productive elsewhere.

What does this say about the Dolphins? In many ways, it’s a reflection of coaching, of personnel evaluation, of the player’s maturity, of the quality of players around them, among other factors.

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/spor...s-heat-marlins-notes-um-wake-postscripts.html

 

ps

What a great article, every Dolphins fan should read it and hopefully Stephen Ross will, too. Barry Jackson nailed it, this part sums it up well:

It used to be, as per Bum Phillips (R.I.P. Bum) Shula would take hisn' and beat your'n and take yourn' and beat hisn'. Well, the wheel certainly turned on that one- let's face it, that quote describes over the last 15 years or so what Bill Bellichick and the Patriots have been doing to us. Things haven't been the same down here since Wayne Huizenga dumped Don Shula- add Dave Wannestedt, Cam Cameron and Tony Sparano to that mix and it's easy to see in hindsight what happened to this franchise. Philbin- the jury is out.

I'm not a fan of Jeff Ireland, I don't necessarily hate the guy either, but I certainly think that we could get a better GM in Miami.

I was just thinking of all that Shula did for Miami despite the Joe Robbie issues and then getting dumped by Huizenga and dumped on by Jimmy Johnson. And yet he took it like a man, kept his head high, moved on to great success with his restaurants and remained a loyal part of the Dolphins family. Shula wasn't perfect, no one is. His drafting lacked, but then again we lost Bobby Beathard due to a feud with Joe Robbie and Robbie let George Young go to the Giants. It's embarrassing as a Dolphins fan, looking back, to think about how Shula was treated at the end- hard to believe that was 18 years ago. And the last 18 years for the Dolphins? That's probably karma kicking the franchise and Wayne Huizenga in the ***. What a terribly trade for Huizenga- he dumped the best of coaches in Shula and what he got in return was a succession of crappy pretenders to the throne and more than 15 years of misery and frustration.

 

True, but how many of them should have been training for the head coaching job in the first place? Cam Cameron? Tony Sparano? Will Joe Philbin be added to that list? Not sure, but I'd take him over Cameron and Sparano- on the downside, he seems about as charismatic as a handful of dirt. And the almighty whiff of behind known as Dave Wannestedt- I'll never know how Huizenga approved, or Jimmy Johnson recommended, Wannesdedt for the HC job after he screwed up the Chicago Bears- then again, the Jets hired Sparano as OC after his cloud of dirt/field goal run with us- talk about a head scratcher. Anyway, Wannestedt he had a barely acceptable run at Pitt- was of course fired- and now he's the special teams coach at Tampa Bay- that's a career in reverse.

Hindsite is indeed 20/20, but from almost any angle, past or present, there have been a number of coaching and FO moves that seemed anywhere from questionable to downright stinky. We used to be one of the teams that took our talent and the castoff, discarded talent from other teams and won with it, made the best of it. Now we're one of the gems of the garbage pile, teams picking through our roster and throwaways to find players with talent that we weren't able to extract. That's at best coaching and FO misjudgement, at worst downright incompetence. Man, the 80's- we had Shula, Marino and Sundays and Monday Night Football were the best shows in town. I didn't know I had to so good.

If Philbin flames out it might be time to get a name coach, if possible. Maybe a guy like Bill Cowher- actually Andy Reid worked out well. Jon Gruden- I just don't know. If Shula were younger I would say bring him back if he wanted to give it a go, try to undo the disaster of his firing 18 years ago. I still cringe when I think about that one.

If I read correctly Don Shula's health is declining- Mr. Shula, wherever you are, thank you so much for the winning, the games, the memories that I enjoyed for so many years of my youth. You are truly missed.

 

Shula's drafting wasn't great, I addressed that, and he made that big free agency push in the last year or two that didn't work out. JJ was around for 4 decent years, then we had the Wanny/Saban/Cameron/Sparano Age of Disaster. You'd take that over Shula? If you're looking for just plain stupid when it comes to this issue, there's probably a mirror around you, stop by for a look.

Bobby Beathard was a big part of Miami's success in the 70's, then we had George Young who was instrumental in the Giants run of the 80's and 90's. We lost them both, and that hurt- I wasn't a big fan of some of Shula's drafting and personnel moves either. But having lived through the Shula years of the 70's and 80's and being able to compare that to the parade of clowns- Wannesdedt/Cameron/Sparano- and the clownish drama of Jimmy Johnson and Nick "The Dick" Saban- there is no comparison. I was too young to remember the 1972-73 Super Bowl years, but some of those 80's years were great with Shula and Marino- we won a lot of games, the games were exciting and Shula ran a solid, stable ship. Sundays were great and Mondays were great with the Don Shula Show and Monday Night Football. And when the Dolphins were on Monday Night Football- forget about it, as the saying goes.

Nothing is ever simple- Shula did screw the pooch on several drafts and some free agency moves. Marino would eventually have to retire, time change. But if I could magically wipe out JJ/Wanny/Cameron/Saban/Sparano and have Shula for all of those years? Hell yes I would.

 

Seriously?

5× Pro Bowl (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012)
2× AP First-Team All-Pro selection (2009, 2011)
2× AP Second-Team All-Pro selection (2007, 2008)
3× NFL receptions leader (2007 (tied), 2009, 2011)
2× AFC champion (2007, 2011)
2× Ed Block Courage Award (2007, 2010)
AFC receiving yards leader (2011)
Mosi Tatupu Award (2003)
New England Patriots 12th Player Award (2007)
Pop Warner Inspiration to Youth Award (2008)
Longest reception in NFL history (tied, 99 yards)
New England Patriots All-2000s Team

Receptions 805
Receiving yards 8,958
Average 11.1
Receiving TDs 46

Wannestedt refused to get a QB who could get him the ball, who's fault is that? This is about talent recognition and development. Bellichick knew that Welker was talented and a major thorn in his side who played against hime twice a year for a division rival. So he got him- do you think that he cared about spending a 2nd round pick on an undrafted free agent? No, because he was judging by talent and what Welker did in the NFL, not by his draft status. Bellichick was smart, and as with Larry Izzo, Rob Ninkovich and all the others he used his intelligence to acquire good players from us, develop them and use them to help build winning teams. Our coaches since Shula have been a clown college in comparison.

 

Is there a "Worst Post of the Month" award? if so, I nominate this one. Beyond that, it's not worth responding to.

 

That's part of it, missing on him twice. The point of the article is that there's a lot of evidence that this franchise has been mismanaged, and I agree with that. That being said, I could have voiced my disagreement with you otherwise, sorry about that.

 

I don't look at it that way. The story is especially relevant with us playing the Pats today given that whole drain of talent in their favor, and Jackson was stating facts more than giving scathing opinions. Case in point: "So Philbin probably was too hasty in judging Davis." I would't call that a harsh assessment.

I think that Jackson was spot on with this article, and I certainly hope that Stephen Ross reads it.

 

They're all playing better, even Ted Ginn. And conversely, Mike Wallace is playing worse, Ellerbe is a questionable acquisition at this point- I'd rather have Misi in the middle and Jordan at OLB. The Colts had Vontae Davis in press where he belongs, and he looked outstanding against the Broncos, I watched that game and enjoyed keying on him. In this year and previous years I think that it's pretty cleat that we've gotten the short end of the stick in this whole talent swap issue.

 

Well said.

 

The point of the article is, are we maximizing the talent that we have, and is the talent that we let go performing better under different management? Signing players, resigning them, letting them go- those are big issues.


As was mentioned in a different post and this article, look at Evan Mathis- that is a hefty swing and a miss, especially considering the stae of our offensive line. We could have had Mathis and Donald Thomas at Guard- combine that with Jake Long and we're a RT short of an outstanding OL. I like Incognito, but this was possible prior to the Dion Jordan trade (and I do like Jordan):

Long/Thomas/Pouncey/Mathis/Menelik Watson.

I'd take that in a heartbeat.

 

Stating the obvious but stating is well imo, excellent article.

 

Evan Mathis and Wade Smith both developing to Pro Bowl levels (All Pro for Mathis) surprised me for sure- Donald Thomas developing onto a solid starting OG, not so much. But then again, I'm not getting paid to evaluate these players. Those in charge of coaching and managing these players screwed the pooch, bottom line.

 

Yikes.