I hope not. I hope Ross keeps his senses and lets this coaching staff keep going without disruption.

 

Are you really suggesting the team hire a guy who went 10-38 in St. Louis and gave up a league HISTORY amount of yards last year as D coordinator of the Saints? Please no retreads at head coach.

 

Philbin is objectively doing better than Spags.

 

While I am against most retreads, I think I could could be swayed to have support for Lovie Smith.

 

So you want a piss poor HC?

 

Steve Spagnuolo as head coach would IMO be a very, very bad idea.

I know absolutely nothing whatsoever about Vince Newsome other than his last name is the same as Ozzie Newsome's, which makes me suspect he's related to him, which makes me suspect the only reason his name is even being brought up is because he's related.

Eric DeCosta is the name in Baltimore people like to bring up but he's not leaving. Ravens have made it clear to him that he's there to stay. He's not only one of the highest paid executives in the league (even though he's not technically a GM), he's got contract clauses in his deal making it binding that he's Ozzie's replacement. Ozzie just got taken away from a game in an ambulance so I'm sure he might decide retirement is the best thing soon.

 

What about Zak Taylor? Tannenhill albeit a little slowly has developed under his watch....I wonder what his style is offensively?

Can anybody elaborate on him? CK?

 

I have no idea if Philbin will eventually turn out to be a good NFL head coach. I get frustrated with his coaching at times, but I certainly prefer him over Spagnoulo. I wasn't impressed with the job he did as the Rams HC. Spagnoulo appears to be one of those coaches who are excellent as coordinators but just don't have what it takes to be a head coach.

If Philbin is to be replaced after this season, I certainly hope the next GM can find a much better replacement than Spagnoulo.

 

Agree with you on that CK, that Spags was not a very head coach and if memory serves me hasn't really had success as a coordinator since then. Never heard of Newsome either but DeCosta is a stud but I think he is entrenched in Baltimore as any as a GM in waiting could be.

With that said, I do think that we need a cohesive group between our GM and HC. There are quite a few including college coaches who have ties to potential hot name GM candidates. Call me crazy but I wouldn't mind seeing a combination of Nick Cesario from NE and a reuniting with Bill O'Brien from Penn St. I love the fact they have some years where they worked together especially with Cesario not only being a FO guru for the Pats but also experience on the field coaching as a WR coach. O'Brien having NFL experience and being a pretty darn good Coordinator with NE. If we do look for a GM I truly hope he comes from a strong FO who has had years of tutelage under a successful GM.

 

What is this based on?

 

He only has the job because he is Shermna's son in law.
And I thought Dave Wanstedt was an advocate of cronyism.

 

His style is marrying the daughter of a famous coach

 

How does that prove he is bad at his job?

 

I don't think that would be any kind of upgrade. While Ireland hasn't been fantastic, he has been better than most fans are willing to admit. Philbin seems to be a pretty good coach imo. I think he's had pretty good poise with everything that's happened this year. I would at least like to see him stay HC for another year to see what he can do. It would be nothing but a complete waste to fire him at this point. We need the team to have some familiarity with the coaches, the system and if we keep changing it up on them we will be doomed for many more years. If next year isn't an improvement than we move on from there.

 

Hint. Quit whilst you are ah...actually you not ahead. Take note.

 

Please back up these claims that Ireland is better than we admit? What has he improved upon in his 5 years that would justify improvement.

With Philbin what makes him a good coach? What aspect of coaching would you say he is above average at? His poise? The guy has offered one piece of feedback on the bully gate that would lead you to believe that it was his own thoughts.

It also wouldn't be a waste by any means. We have talent on our roster. Do we lack depth at key positions? Yes, we do but it correctable. We do have pieces on this team that are able to be built around. We also have pieces/units that need to be prioritized to be fixed (OLine, LB, etc). This team is not responding to familiary and more importantly we've seen signs of frustration and struggle with this "system" we utilize.

My real question is as a Dolphin fan can you sit there and say honestly, that the quality of play this year should keep us at the status quo with our Front Office and Coaching Staff?

 

Exactly, nepotism is a huge part of the NFL, this isn't an isolated situation.

 

This is a terrible idea. I'd rather rehire Cam or Wannestadt.

 

I should have been more specific when I said "no retreads". I meant please nobody who has done nothing but fail as an NFL head coach. Lovie Smith had quite a bit of success so I wouldn't be devastated with that choice. "Spags" would be a terrible idea. Can't believe any Dolphan would want to get rid of Philbin for a guy who has been a complete failure in his only stint as head coach and was pretty recently embarrassingly awful as a coordinator.

 

I've been posting a lot about how we overrate the actual effect a coach has on the game, and I have stated that the largest effect you get is when you have an unsually bad head coach.

Well, Steve Spagnuolo is an unsually bad head coach.

 

You do remember what happened last time we went with an ex-Bears head coach, don't you?

 

You mean that Bears ex-coach who run the Bears organization into the ground and left it in shambles? Is that the coach your talking about? I think his name was Dave something?

 

Well, two things.

For one, this ex Bears coach has a lot more success and coached the Bears to a Superbowl. Second, this Bears coach would likely be coming in without the personnel power that the previous Bears coach got, power that ultimately did him in.

Everyone loves to rail on Dave Wannstedt, but I think it gets forgetten that Dave is the most successful head coach we have had since Don Shula. Dave actually is a tenth of a percentage point better than Jimmy as far as winning percentage. Now, he did that with the players that Jimmy brought in. He rode Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas, Sam Madison, Tim Bowens, Daryl Gardener, and Adwale Ogunleye to a great defense, and outside of Ogunleye, those players were acquired by Jimmy. What Dave didn't do is augment that defense with any sort of explosiveness on offense. The fact of the matter is that up until the 2004 season, the Dolphins were winning 10 games a season with him as a coach. I'm sorry, but you aren't winning 10 games if you are a lousy coach, much less average 10 wins a season.

 

Dude, I understand your argument, and it's a reasonable point of view if you look at just the numbers, but I still have a hole in my wall from Wannstedt. I'm talked out on Pornstache ancient history, but just remember the scared conservatism, the playing not to lose, the keep it close and let the defense win it for you, the it's no sin to punt. Compare what he left with what he found when he got here. I'm done.

 

This is why I say Dave the personnel guy ruined things for Dave the coach. There was nothing inherently wrong with his philosophy at that time. At that time, it was effective. He did try to minimize the quarterback position too much and wanted to avoid a controversy at that position at all costs.

Dave the personnel guy was pretty horrific at adding talent to the team in those years, and the talent that was left on the board may have vaulted this team into the Superbowl with Dave as the head coach (Drew Brees or Reggie Wayne in 2001, Anquan Boldin in 2003...etc.) Heck, he did actually draft a pro bowl player during his time here in Wade Smith, but the team foolishly tried to make him a left tackle initially.

 

I disagree entirely.

You've made the argument, quite frequently, that for the most part coaching isn't as relevant to W/L as we tend to assume. I think with a competent coach, the Wanndidiot years would have at minimum a couple of AFCCG appearances. He's the same guy that had the leading rusher and leading sacker...and missed the playoffs. That simply does not happen with a competent coach. I guarantee if Philbin had the leading rusher and sacker we'd be in the hunt.

His record here is no more a testament to his pro coaching ability than that ring is a testament to Barry Switzer's pro coaching ability.

 

As far as Ireland being better than most fans admit, no he hasn't been better. He is a very mediocre GM who has had six years to rebuild this team and all he has done is build a very mediocre team.

As far as the team needing familiarity with the coaches and the system . The Chiefs, Eagles, and Cardinals all have a first year HC and they seem to be playing better than the Dolphins. What the Dolphins need are better players at several positions and a coaching staff that can develop these players into consistent winners. If the Dolphins finish this season at 9-7, Philbin will have earned another shot. Anything less than 9-7 and the next GM should be the person to determine if Philbin stays or not.

 

I do not understand why Lovie Smith is not employed in the NFL.
I'm not saying Dolphins..just saying.

 

maybe the fact that he isn't says something. in the NFL, if you really wanted someone, you usually get them if you are willing to pay for it.

 

Sorry, but I disagree. Joe currently does a very crappy job of putting players into a position where they can succeed because he is so adherent to his system. That alone has cost Miami at least a game or two this season.

If Dave was as bad as you try to say he is, then he would have had a tremendous negative effect on his team. Those Dolphins teams had great defense and a great running game, but they had the worst starting quarterback in the NFL at that time. That alone held them back and kept them from going to any championship games. Had Dave made ONE move, the drafting of Drew Brees, he might still be Miami's head coach.

 

Jamar Fletcher and Eddie Moore will always haunt me. Maybe this franchise as well.

 

Got to say I disagree with part of this. I am on board that coaching is a big part of the success of a team in the Win and Loss column. Wannstedt was garbage but when it's hard to argue that he was our most successful coach after-JJ you know your fan based has been deprived of quality coaching. Do I think we had talent those years? Absolutely. But let's pump the breaks even in those 2000-2004 years the NFL was shifting to a high powered offensive attack. Look at the "Greatest Show on Turf." They were certainly more balanced than today's pass happy offenses but our Dolphin team couldn't have been farther from the truth. Here are some Jay Fiedler stats:

2000 - 2,400 yds 14td/14int 74.5 QB rating
2001 - 3,290 yds 20td/19int 80.3 QB Rating
2002 - 2,000 yrds 14td/9int 85.2 (11 games)

There is a big reason we weren't able to content. When you have teams stacking 8 in the box against he likes of Lamar Smith/Ricky Williams its hard to be a balanced attack without a threat at QB and lack of weapons at WR. Funny thing is these problems have persistent to modern day.

Also here are Wannstedt's win/loss records:

'00 = 11-5 / 1-1 (playoffs)
'01 = 11-5 / 0-1 (playoffs)
'02 = 9-7
'03 = 10-6
'04 = 1-8

Pretty Sure I'd take 4 straight Winning Seasons right now over the lack of progress I have seen under this current staff.

It's one thing to give a staff a chance to improve but when you watch the game week in and out and see the same ole B.S. how can you sit there and stand up for them?

Philbin is about as incompetent as it get's right now. The mistakes we make are the fundamentals of coaching. Even for everyone calling for Schiano's head early in the season, I respect his in-game management and strategy much more than Philbin. Not saying I'd rather have Schiano but for goodness sake at least he imprints an identity on his team.

 

Well that's a subjective thing to say...

 

Steve Spagnoulo? That guy was terrible for the Rams and was known as a douchebag within the organization. The Rams fired him not just because they were losing but because he was an abusive and bad front office employee. He's good at what he does, coaching players, but giving him power like head coach is pretty much the keys to the entire organization and he simply can't handle that without being a control freak.

 

Depending on how the investigation turns out, the new GM may already be a part of the organization. I'd think that Carl Peterson is definitely on the list, considering his ties to Ross and his success in building KC's roster. He could also be a link to Lovie Smith as a potential head coach. The other possibility could be Mike Sherman, he was the GM of the Packers from 2001-2005. I think he'd do a better job at identifying the players needed for the offensive system Miami runs than Ireland could. Also, Sherman could focus on the player acquisition part and leave the business side to Aponte.

 

He did have a tremendously negative effect on the team, we weren't contenders when we should have been for all the talent we had. Those teams dramatically underperformed. A skilled coach would have made it to at least the AFCCG.

 

All I was saying is that Wannidiot is the third best coach we had by default. Yes that's a sad commentary of our team, but its shouldn't be an endorsement of the job Wannidiot did. A competent HC accomplishes way more with that talent than Wannidiot did.

 

None of this makes sense. Those Wanny teams had some pretty poor skill position talent -- Fiedler, Lamar Smith, Gadsden (who I liked but he was an Arena league guy), Bert Emmanuel, James McKnight, Hunter Goodwin, etc. But he still won 10-11 games with that group, which is actually a pretty impressive feat. The whole idea that it doesn't count because he did it with guys JJ brought in is silly. The coach's job is to win with the talent he is given.

I'm not sure what the real basis is for denigrating Barry Switzer as qa coach either. He won with the talent he was given. Yeah, it was good talent. But there are have been dozens of good coaches who have had great talent and didn't win Super Bowls with it. Switzer won 3 national championships at Oklahoma and has the 4th best career winning percentage in college football history. And he had a 40-24 record in the NFL (5-2 in the playoffs) and won a Super Bowl. What is the evidence that he was not a good coach?