I never said this team wasn't going to get my full support. All I'm saying is a team must prove they are good on the field. it's not just anointed to them.
I've yet to see the thread where someone suggests just that we just anoint the team a championship. What I do see very frequently is threads where someone posts positive information about the team and the self-appointed guardians against any optimism come in to try and quash such positive information.
I never tried to quash anything. All I said was I thought it was better to use the phrase "things could be changing for us" instead of "things have changed for us."
Things have changed. - We have a competent coaching staff. - We are targeting playmakers. - Players are choosing to come here. - Optimism is returning to the team, from even a national perspective. - We have an actual offensive and defensive plan. - We had to seemingly solid drafts in a row.
I'm as optimistic as I've been in about 3-4 years, but everything you've listed in the bullet points above, we thought happened in recent history - We have a competent coaching staff. most thought after 2008 that Sparano was a homerun. - We are targeting playmakers. We did this with Marshall after having 3 100 catch seasons in a row and only 26 - Players are choosing to come here. See above with Marshal and Dansby too - Optimism is returning to the team, from even a national perspective. After 2008 and even 2009(with Henne) there was optimisim - We have an actual offensive and defensive plan. We don't know this for sure yet - We had to seemingly solid drafts in a row. We all thought 2008 and 2009 were homerun drafts at the time too I have no problem with the optimism, while at least there is reason for it this year. And I stand by the fact that Ryan Tannehill is a lot more promising at this point in his career than Chad Henne who seems to be the same player now as he was as a sophomore in college. There's progress, whereas with Henne, there was almost 0 progress. BUT, I also understand those with the wait and see approach. I, myself, want to at least have a winning record by mid-season before I even think of competing with the Patriots for the division crown.
I can't understand holding this team responsible for past teams failures. I mean if what happened in the past has any bearing on this team, then why not apply the hope of 72 team?
It's not just Miami's past that I'm holding against the current team. It's the history of the game that I'm also taking into account. I rarely, if ever, take any team serious that hasn't won a playoff game in 13 years or hasn't been to a playoff game in 5 years. If Cleveland wins 7 games this year and goes out and signs a few big name free agents, are you going to believe in them as a playoff team in 2014 because they improved slightly under a new coaching staff and young* QB? I know I won't. I, personally, think we have something brewing here. All of it feels right. But I still wouldn't be surprised at all with a 7 win season given the gauntlet of a schedule and the fact that Tannehill is still only 30 starts of college and pro ball deep. I still think we may be a year away from a true playoff contention.
I dunno, i guess. New teams crop up every year, its the nature of the league. A person becomes a fan to experience joy and hope. I feel like a lot of people swat the joy and hope down. What's the point of your team winning if the whole time you're refusing to let yourself enjoy the ride.
I'm not even sure it's hope that's being swatted down. I don't think I've predicted more than an 8-8 with a chance to go 9-7 in at least 5 years, probably longer. And a few of those years I expected we'd be under .500. So it's not like I've been overly optimistic. Usually what's swatted down is anything positive at all. If I say, "player X has a chance to be good this year b/c the offense fits his skills" you can pretty much expect someone to say, "I'll wait until he does it on the field." To be honest, my thought is generally that they should have waited to post too, b/c that added nothing to the discussion. That doesn't mean I only want to read positive things. A post that says, "I don't think player X will be good b/c he doesn't do ______ well" would add something. But a post that says you're not saying anything is useless.
It's a defeatist attitude imo, and can only affect the team in a negative way.. I truly don't understand the inability to wipe the slate clean when you change a regime, for all the right reasons it makes the most logical sense.
Some teams just have tendencies. Hope is hope. I have it every year. The day I don't, I'll stop being a fan. One of my best friends is a Raider fan and he's hopelessly optimistic every year. Imagine being a Browns fan. Jet's fan even after two conf championship game appearances, what were we, dolphins fans, saying? Wait till it all comes crashing down, right? It's, "show me first." You can still be hopeful.Just ... cautiously hopeful.
I know what you're saying, i just don't understand wanting to be cautious. What's the point of being cautious? I mean we aren't the Browns or the Raiders or the Jets, we have legitimate reasons to be hopeful this year, so why temper that when we haven't had reasons for so long?
Now see, I don't see the parallels... I never thought Sparano was a homerun. I always felt he was a Quitcells wannabe and never his own coach. And on top of that, Quitcells was HC, GM, and Exec. VP all in one ball... Marshall was a boon until his attitude, locker room cancer and off field issues came into play. There was reason for optimism at that time for the WR spot. Marshall was traded here, not exactly choosing where he comes...he may have had some say and could have resisted any move the Bronks made, but he didn't have a choice but to leave Denver...not the same thing as FA acquisitions. Dansby played well enough for the time he was here. He no longer fits here due to some of his deficiencies...that doesn't mean it wasn't a good move for the 3-4 yrs he was here... But it was time for him to move on...That doesn't make either move a mistake when they were made. Optimism returned to this team when Penny dropped into our laps. It was a stoke of pure luck that kept Quitcells and Sparano here an extra year or two... We're still looking for a QB and perhaps Tanny is that guy and that's why there's optimism now. I disagree about your assessment. Sparano was a "this is the way we've always done it, this is how we did it in Dallas, we'll do it that way here". That doesn't account for the fluidity of change in the NFL. One thing that has stuck out about Philbin is that he has a plan. They could have tried to force their system onto the players that were here, instead they've systematically rebuilt the team to what they envision. That shows planning and detail we never saw from Quitcells... Every draft is a homerun until you see how those guys develop. We're looking to see several 2nd and 3rd year guys breakout. Whether they do or not, we don't know but that is the nature of the draft. We have some rookies that may come into their own. Every draft looks great in May and June...we'll see about this one. The comparisons are not as valid as they seem on first look. Sure, it's early. Sure, there are likely going to be some guys that don't quite make the grade for us. That does not change the fact that the optimism of these moves and changes aren't valid because we were optimistic in 2008??
Good ish. I think there's some intellectual laziness going on, and it's being couched in cliches' like "until they prove it on the field". Well, DUH!!!
Alright ladies...reach down...grab your nuts...puff up your chest...and repeat after me..."The Dolphins Are Going to the Super Bowl!"
*puffs out chest* *grabs nuts.........faps because he can't help himself* THE DOLPHINS ARE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!!!!!
Not in todays NFL. Also I read a report a while ago that stated how flawed this logic is because the data gets skewed by the winning team often running the ball late in the game to wind down the clock. So lets say prior to the 4th quarter the team with the lead ran 45 plays with 25 being passes and 20 being runs; well if they have the lead in the 4th quarter and run the ball to run the clock down they may run the ball 12 times and pass the ball 3 times. So in the end the numbers are 32 running plays and 28 passing plays. It gets skewed the other way too by the losing team passing the ball more in the 4th quarter trying to come back too. So the data set is getting skewed both ways, which means this is a huge fallacy in football.
im a little lost UCF, what was Nez talking about? Att?.......I'm sure it's obvious and I'm having a brain fart.
