Out of the mouth of babes ... Don Shula was the man in charge. A wonderful HC who couldn't pick a good RB if he was given one on a Silver Platter! The only time he lucked out "Overstreet" the kid was killed in an Auto accident.

He also put us in CAP hell with his loaded 1995 team of over paid vets!

With all that being said he was one hell of a Head Coach!

 

What our major problems have been revolves around the lack of players developing in Miami, it really is that simple.

Since the Shula days:

Zach
JT
Wake

Think about all of the draft busts and FA busts since Shula packed it in, for the Dolphins Ted Ginn is more the rule then the exception, until that changes we just won't be very good consistently.

 

It's sooooooooooo much better IMO. :lol:

 

Shula picking JJ was the beginning of the end. Another defensive minded coach in an era when QBs were becoming more and more important. He couldn't draft offense to save his life.

 

Jimmy Johnson being Shula's replacement, should have been here longer than 3 years. That was the first problem, then Wannstedts refusal to legitimately upgrade our QB position during Fieldlers run. The Ricky trade robbed us of 2, 1st rd. picks. Also, all our drafts were crap during Wannstedts run.

Saban taking Daunte over Brees. Saban high tailing it when he realized he screwed up.

Cam Cameron.

Bill Parcells getting blindsided by Wayne selling the team and then bolting cause he didn't like Ross.

Basically, it's been a mess because of bad personnel decisions and flighty coaches who think their **** doesn't stink.


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Shula didn't pick JJ, Huizenga did. Shula was forced into retirement. JJ at least built a defense that made this team competitive. He just didn't do well enough, but he left a team with a solid core. He should have drafted a possible successor to Marino, but I don't think the team truly started to go downhill until after Wannstadt took over.

 

In my strong opinion, player development, personnel decisions, and 3000 qbs since Marino is definitely part of it. Just some terrible drafting in the first decade of this century. I read a post yesterday that Miami was rated the worst drafting team over the last three years. When you look what Wanny did to this team through the draft it set the franchise back for a long time. Player development has been spotty at best. Guys like Bess have done well, but for every Bess there are three that don't develop. If you had to group all the issues into one category it goes to personnel decisions made over the last 15 years.

 

The beginning of the end was when Shula became GM.

Whether Ireland and/or Philbin sucks or not, at the very least the team is structured correctly for the first time since then.

Padre is right, we don't develop talent and that happens when starting with Shula's "Great FA Grab" we have either coaches calling the draft or theirs too much pressure to win now.

 

Shula wanted Schotenheimer(Marty) if I recall correctly.

 

I don' think it's any one person or regime's fault but perhaps the Wanny years were the biggest dip in lack of developing players as any era in any sport. We were just successful enough (although those of us who followed the team knew we weren't built to win late in the year) that Wanny's lack of personnel skills were overlooked by ownership. Since then, we've had several regimes that have failed. The thing is though, the NFL has changed greatly during this time as well. The ability to rebuild/retool quickly is now a reality, but we've either not had the right guys in place (Mueller, Saban) or they've done well, but quit on us (JJ, Parcells). Coaching on the field has not been adequate (Wanny, Cam-Cam, Sparano). Each successive regime has had to rebuild again from the previous group. Saban, for all the hate we have for him, probably did the best in retooling the franchise with talent (after the disastrous Wanny years and Cam-Cam's quick pass thru Davie). Ireland has been up and down because of the turmoil in the FO (now a completely new coaching staff, on-again--off-again Quitcells, Sparano not utilizing/developing players, new ownership/direction).

There is no one problem that has caused our lack of success since Shula retired. If you had to name one thing, bad personnel acquisition is the culprit but it goes further than that. The combination of poor ownership, poor NFL business and poor coaching has been just as important to our lack of success as bad personnel...

 

Wanny was the worst mistake this franchise ever made in my opinion.

That is correct.

 

Jimmy Johnson needed to clean house when he arrived. And yes, that meant trading Marino and putting his stamp on the team. They never meshed well together and it hurt the development of the team.

Even Jimmy couldn't face the backlash, and the rest is history.

 

This isn't true. Parcells was aware that Huizenga was going to sell the team when he signed his deal in 2007.

 

Most of the posts here have it right. Shula was a great, great head coach - and an utter failure as a GM.

Jimmy Johnson should have never been hired as the Dolphins Head Coach. He is not as good as his reputation was.

Dave Wannstedt should never have been a head coach. Anyone who watched what happened in Chicago knew that his tenure as coach was going to 'kill' the dolphins. Some of the posters on this board were on other boards with me at that time, and we were the decided minority in holding that opinion.

I would have given Bates some time, and put a strong GM in place. But Huzienga had stars in his eyes.. Wayne is a good business man, but does not know football.

Collectively, Cameron, Saban, and the Parcells experiment were unmitigated disasters, and not worth the powder to blow them up. The only one who seems to have any real current understanding of the game is Ireland - and I can just about imagine that Ireland working under Parcells was about like being Bob Cratchit working under the early Scrooge!

I have hopes (well, I AM a fan!) for the current leadership organization. I will not hold my breath, though. But I don't have the feeling of gloom, dispair, and agony on me I had with everything after Shula left.

 

Armando had a different version of events that he tweeted about a few days ago. https://mobile.twitter.com/ArmandoSalguero/tweets

Basically he claims Parcells was told Wayne wouldn't sell the team, but then several months later Wayne changed his mind again.


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This would be news to Parcells, who stated that Huizenga told him he was planning to sell the team. That's a big reason why Parcells was able to get that golden parachute built into his contract.

 

Jimmy Johnson's mother dying which got him to lose his fire for coaching. Which caused the Dolphins to bring in Wansteadt to help him out. Then turning over the keys to Wansteadt who is a terrible GM.

After that it is not finding the right guys.

Cam Cameron was put in a terrible situation, Nick Saban just liked the college game more and Parcells was a little too old school in thinking.

 

Huizenga giving head coaches total control.

 

Well, it wouldn't be the first time Armando was wrong, but the time line he lays out makes sense. You can read about it in the link I posted... Go back 2 days or so.



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Let's look at some of JJ's genius drafts picks on offense...

John Avery ( over Randy Moss might I add!)
JJ Johnson, worthless
Yatil Green, even more worthless
Cecil the Diesel, rapist
Karim Abdul Jabbar, at least he got 1000 yards once. Then he became worthless.

That's just the ones I remember, I am sure there are even worse examples.

 

Passing on Brees so we didn't hurt Jay Fiedlers feelings.

62-7

Late season collapses

Dave W and his drafts (remember when we traded up to select Vernon Carey when the Vikings bluffed us?)

 

Yea a 4th to move up 1 slot

 

Avery was a huge mistake.

Yatil Green did blow his knee out twice.

Cecil was a 5th round pick.

JJ and Karim were 3rd round picks.

No GM is 100%. I thought he did the best drafting in Miami for the last 20 years. He did an excellent job in getting defensive players. Drafting two really good to great corners, and two arguably hall of fame players in Zach and Jason Taylor.

 

I specifically said OFFENSE, not defense. Defense was all he knew.

 

I like this answer.
I believe if Jimmy Johnsons heart could have stayed into coaching he would have found a good QB he did have Troy Aikman in Dallas and he knows you need a good QB. Marino was a folk hero here and Jimmy was stuck with Marinos last years packing a foot brace around. I loved Marino but it seemed awkward.

 

I would also add the Death of Joe Robbie (He really DID have a clue) and the loosing of Bill Arnsparger to LSU. I can't remember his name(Bobby Beathard)..but he was the barefooted,surfing dude from Calf. Our GM until poached by Washington (iirc)

 

It's simple; other than Jimmy Johnson, no other coach or GM Drafted well. Johnson certainly hit on Defense but the offense had nothing to speak of, that remotely looked like a Pro Bowl player. Drafting has really lacked in Miami even when Shula was heading things up.

 

Yes, who can forget "Billy-Bob Milner from East-West Texas State??? Worst pick ever!

 

I agree, if Miami won a super bowl without Marino it would have been bitter sweet. Well of course, that is my opinion. Even though Marino was not at his best, I do think he was good enough to win a Superbowl with if he had the right talent around him.

JJ did have a comedy of errors plus misfortune on offense, such as letting Irving Fryer go, not going after Andre Rison, Larry Shannon AND Yatil Green blowing out their knees, pushing KAJ when Parmalee was a better runningback and better all around runningback, pissing off Keith Byars and drafting John Avery to name a few.

 

The 3 time World Championship Dallas Cowboy teams he built disagree with that statement.

 

I was beginning to wonder about you Rick.

 

Poor talent evaluations.

When we had a Qb, we had no defense or run game, when when we had a defense and running game, we had no Qb.

I don't like how we've drafted for 30 years.

 

Dave Wannstadt. Making him Head Coach with all the power over personnel decisions was a killer. After that Sabans wishy-washiness and Fail Forward Fast Cameron was just one disaster after another. The complete and utter lack any real attempt at a franchise Qb til this draft is another.

 

True enough, Even Shula should never had control over personnel. Head coaches should never play at being a GM.

 

Shula had a decade of HORRID drafting. Go back and look, it is a horror show.

If he had not hit on Marino we would have hit rock bottom in 1984 instead of going 14-2. Marino made us relevant and competitive.

The title of the thread is "what went wrong since the Shula/Marino days". There was a lot going wrong DURING those days and Shula was the cause of it all.

Shula:

- Failed to address the running game during Danny's entire career in an era when running the ball was a necessity.
- Missed on COUNTLESS high draft picks on defense. He failed the defense for years and years.
- Failed to address the offensive line. Yes, the sack numbers were low but that was all about Danny's ability to slide in the pocket and get rid of the damn thing. The offensive line was mediocre or worse during Danny's entire career.

Jimmy:

- Bad luck with his offensive picks (Yatil Green, JJ Johnson etc.)
- Not addressing the need for a young quarterback to groom.
- Being stuck in cap HELL left behind by Shula.

Wannstedt:

- Sticking with Fiedler. "There is nothing Trent Green can do that Jay Fiedler can't do". Having a trade for Matt Hasselbeck in the bag and passing on it.
- Being ULTRA conservative.
- Allowing the depth Jimmy had built on defense to all walk away and not replacing it.
- HORRID drafts. This could go on forever. Picking Jamar Fletcher (when we had the best corner tandem in football locked in long term, passing on Drew Brees). Picking Eddie ****ing Moore. This list could take all damn day.
- Overpaying out the *** for Ricky Williams.

Wayne Huizenga:

- Begging Jimmy to stay when he wanted to quit.
- Allowing Jimmy to hand the keys to Dave Wannstedt, who had already failed miserably when he had the keys to the Bears.
- Not firing Dave Wannstedt after the 2002 season. We were the best team in the AFC and had to win our last 2 games against the poor Vikings team (lobster trap) and blew a big lead in Foxborough. He should have fired Wannstedt on the plane. Instead he allowed Wanny to run the core into the ground for another year instead of allowing fresh ideas into the room. This was the biggest failing of the last 20 years of this franchise in my opinion.

Rick Spielman:

- AJ Feeley. I still think this was worth the chance but was the wrong player.
- Getting desperate and trying to save the season when Ricky retired on us.

Nick Saban:

- He listened to doctors instead of his gut.
- He was never able to make a final decision.
- He was an *******.
- He did not want to "rebuild", he wanted to win.

Cam Cameron:

- He was hired.

The rest of the story has yet to be written.

 

Cam Cameron might as well have just stepped in front of a buss following what Saben left.

I'd wish that on no one.