@ 26:10 mark "what you cant underestimate the is the level of TOUGHNESS he would have brought to the team, he would make them tougher." Speaks volumes about Sparano in many ways. Since he says w/Sparano we should be 4-5! Points out the biggest problem is that MIAMI beats itself. Again, volumes about the coaching and leadership from staff, GM and the ownership errors. Anyway, found it interesting....thoughts?
Hahahaa....it's not BS as in Bull****!.....it's the B.S. Report as in Bill Simmons! The point by Lombardi is its more about the coaching, than the talent...its about the leadership of the coach.
I was thinking about this the other day. What if we landed Harbaugh? Alex Smith sucks as much as Henne. But apparently, Harbaugh is smart enough to build a system around his minimal strengths. Clearly, coaching is our #1 problem, with or without Harbaugh.
Nate Garner would be starting and so would Chris Clemons. We'd have won the game against Denver and Cleveland, probably the Giants game too and pulling out another one out of the other five losses would not be ridiculous.
Alex Smith is way better than Henne in his nfl career hes 37tds to 1 int in the red zone. Hes played on horrible teams with coaches who would yank him all the time hard to succeed in the NFL like that. Is he elite not really but hes playing better than Henne wishes he could play atm and he scores tds in the redzone.
In an earlier interview Michael Lombardi also revealed that the ultimate reason Jim Harbaugh was not interested in the Dolphins was because of Jeff Ireland. In Lombardi's words, "Steve Ross brought the wrong person on the plane with him". Lombardi is close friends with Harbaugh. So close that Jim insisted that Lombardi be interviewed for the 49ers' GM position, and convinced Michael to go ahead and interview for it, even though in Michael's own words he knew he didn't have a shot at getting it. So Lombardi knows what Jim is thinking on the stuff. The interesting thing he revealed is that San Fran never upped their financial offer to Harbaugh. Harbaugh ended up taking it because it was the best situation for him.
The biggest problem is that Miami doesn't have a quarterback. The coaching staff and front office all thought Chad Henne and Matt Moore were acceptable options and that they could make the Super Bowl with that sort of listing at the QB depth chart. Give me a quarterback and I'll give you a team that doesn't beat itself.
I would love to know who was available at the QB position for the Dolphins. Anyways the point of the thread is shoulda... coulda... woulda...... Total speculation.
According to BS, the biggest problem with this 2011 Miami Dolphins squad is that LeBron James lives in Miami.
Guys who were realistically available to us, either as draft picks within tradable reach or free agents, since Parcells took over? 2008: Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco. 2009: Josh Freeman, Michael Vick. 2010: No one, unless one considers Sam Bradford to have been within trading distance. 2011: Andy Dalton, Ryan Mallett. Contrast that with the QB acquisitions made since 2008: 2008: Josh McCown, Chad Henne, Chad Pennington. 2009: Pat White. 2010: Tyler Thigpen. 2011: Matt Moore, Pat Devlin, Kevin O'Connell, Sage Rosenfels, J.P. Losman. Notice the huge spike in acquisitions in 2011. Yes, Rosenfels and Losman are injury-related signings, but the sheer volume hints at desperation in the front office. Remember, Ireland also tried to sign David Garrard and Trent Edwards as well. This type of behavior is symptomatic of regimes in their final days: having failed to properly address quarterback early on, they throw crap against the wall and hope that something sticks. After all, if it doesn't work, they won't be around to deal with the problem of rebuilding depth. And that's absolutely what this team has to do. Matt Moore is a keeper as a backup, but the team passed over multiple legitimate options for largely arbitrary reasons—not wanting to lose picks in trades up, not wanting to deal with media coverage, not wanting to invest much in the QB position for fear of a bust, and so on. On a final note, I'd like to point out that we don't have a QB on our roster who was present before this season. (Henne's on IR, he's not on the roster.) That to me is a very damning bit of roster negligence right there.
Safe bet I know all the history with our QB's and the process. I asked who would we could have signed or traded for or drafted that would have made the 2011 season better. So you wanted more desperation?
http://www.thephins.com/forums/show....Happy...Happy..Happy..&p=1632332#post1632332 http://www.thephins.com/forums/show...e-We-All-Thought-We-Had&p=1631347#post1631347 http://www.thephins.com/forums/show...ll-Things-Suck-for-Luck&p=1622566#post1622566 Just a few of them. You can read at your leisure if you choose to, but I've been pretty much saying the same thing all season long.
And yet Mike Pouncy is heralded as one of our better players and a "keeper" if we were to clean house....him and Jake Long both...drafted the same years as Matt Ryan and Ryan Mallet.
Get over what? You asked who was available, and I gave you a player. The fact that he went in the third round just means we passed up one more opportunities to draft him. Another option was to trade up for Ponder or Locker.
Who cares what the record would be if Harbaugh was the HC of the Dolphins. The fact is that he is not the HC and the Dolphins are 2-7 right now. What is important is who will be the new GM and HC next year and will the new GM actually be able to draft a QB who will be the long term answer for the Dolphins, at the most important position on the team. That is the only thing that concerns me about the future of the Dolphins. Talking about what might have been is a complete waste of time.
I beg to differ, but I remember Mike Shanahan being called a genius when he had John Elway as his QB. Once Elway retired, Shanahan suddenly didn't seem so smart. Bill Belichick was an average HC who was fired by the Browns. Along comes Tom Brady and now he is a genius. Peyton Manning certainly made Tony Dungy and Jim Caldwell appear to be excellent head coaches, until he was injured and out this year. Now Caldwell is on the hot seat. I admit that having a good head coach is certainly important, but having a franchise QB is by far the most important position for an NFL organization. This may not have always been the case in the past, but with the rules the way they are today, a team must have a great QB to win the Super Bowl. Harbaugh has done an excellent job in a very weak division. I give him all the credit in the world for what he has done and I certainly wish he had come to the Dolphins. That being stated, I have no doubt the 49er's will make the playoffs and will lose in the playoffs because they lack the true franchise QB needed to get to the Super Bowl. Smith has done a decent job of running the offense this season but the 49er's will never get to the Super Bowl without a top NFL QB. I am sure Harbugh understands this since he was an NFL QB himself. I suspect that Harbaugh will do everything in his power to upgrade the QB position in the off season.
The Dolphins biggest problem is we have a mediocre GM when it comes to aquiring talent and a mediocre HC when it comes to everything. I would much rather of had Harbough here the4n endure another year of Sporano. The guy just does not have what it takes to win on Sundays.
Horse manure...Lombardi obviously didn't watch this group of players the first 5 weeks of the year. They were, to a man playing terrible. The biggest difference is that the OL is playing more consistently....not good, but better than the first 5 games. That's the real difference. Even with that, Moore was rushing nearly every throw against the Chiefs. They did a bit better against the Skins. That and Marshall has, for the time being, stopped dropping very catchable passes...I think he secretly wanted Henne out of there anyway....(just a smart azz remark, no real basis).... I don't buy the team being in better shape with Moore in there for a heartbeat... They've simplified the O, given him one and two reads instead of tree reads and he's responded well, but that wouldn't have changed the first few games, based on how poorly the rest of the team played...particularly the OL....
I still think we should of picked up Vince Young. I guess we will see if it would of been smart or not this sunday. Going into this season with only 2 QBs on our roster was a big gamble.
If Marino ever had a decent running game to complement his passing, as well as an above average defense, I have no doubt he would have secured some Super Bowl titles. While I think Shula was a great coach. He never was able to put a team around Marino which was good enough to go all the way. Joe Thomas was the best GM in the history of the Dolphins and he was the man who put together the talent which dominated the NFL in the early 1970's. Shula was able to take that talent and create one of the top teams in the history of the NFL over a three year period. Unfortunately for Mario and Shula, there was no Joe Thomas selecting players for the Dolphins while the two of them were together. Instead Marino played his entire career with an average to below average defense and not one top tier running back during his entire tenure with the Dolphins. Elway never won a Super Bowl until he had a top ten defense and a great running back. During the years Marino played for the Dolphins, he was forced to win games with his arm because the Dolphins didn't have anyone else on the team they could rely on, especially on defense. So Marino may have zero rings but that also means Shula had zero rings during the Marino years. It was up to the GM and Shula to select the players to complement Marino. Neither the GM's or Shula did an effective job during the time Marino was the QB of the Dolphins selecting the right players on defense or at running back. That is the reason he has 0 rings.
I was unaware that Hasselbeck could play defense or catch passes for Brandon Marshall. Before you go shooting off shall I remind you that I have said many times we should have taken Matt Ryan. Michael Vick is a QB who gets his dick knocked in the dirt by the minute. He would be dead here by now. Ryan Mallett would have solved all our problems. That is a ****ing joke. You would be *****ing about him by now. People can't seem to get over the fact we didn't take him. I bet some are still pissed we didn't draft that twit of a QB Brady Quinn. Doesn't matter who have at QB because he won't be Marino. You'll bash the next guy too. Seems to be the nature of Dolphin fans.
There are so many variables that come into play when it comes to succeeding that it's too hard to pin point what the most important component is. Head coach is certainly important. QB is important as well. But all the parts around them have to perform to make the over all machine crank out the necessary results.
Thats my point. Shula failed to get the right talent around Marino. No matter how great of a QB you have he can not do it by himself. HC is the most important postion on the team. It was his job to get the pieces he needed and put together the staff he needed to win and as great of a coach as he was he failed in that regard. I could of just as easily used archie manning as an example to counter your remark or I could of talked about how trent dilfer has a ring. Ultimately it is a team sport and no one person can single handedly win games by themselves but the HC has the most influence over the teams overall performance more then any other single person. Steve young looked like hell in tampa and brett farve wasnt so hot in atlanta. The list goes on and on. I will concede to your point that a great player can make a good coach look great. They are exceptions to the rule though.
This is so blatantly absurd and false that it's almost appalling. No Dolphins fan has ever bashed a post-Marino QB because he's not Marino. Those QBs have been bashed because they've been awful. The one bright spot since Marino was Chad Pennington in 2008, who frankly had an MVP-caliber season and deserved the nod over Peyton Manning that year. People here universally love what Pennington did in 2008; hell, we've even forgiven him for being a former Jet! That's incredible for a fanbase you claim rejects all QBs for not being Marino.
So you draft a QB with what everyone knew was a lame duck HC. Makes zero sense. Thus status quo. I'm glad we went with what we had. Thigpen left. Moore is playing his *** off considering the situation. Would you want to trade for a QB or try to develop one under the Sparano umbrella. I wouldn't.
