This is a long read, but I wanted to post this for forum members to better understanding the draft and direction Miami/ Parcels is trying to go....as we get confused from time to time on why we aren't drafting certain players etc. This is a model on how to instill and operate a successful Sports Franchise. Many of you veterans already understand this, so don't feel like it's an insult to your intelligence. LOL. Please feel free to express any concerns or questions... ;) IE: Feedback is great.
First off, Football is exatly like Chess. Its origin is from a combination of Rugby and chess. If you don't understand chess, then you don't understand how to win in football. If you want to win in football, then you have to understand chess as there is ONLY 1 WAY to be a dominant chess player. The tactics and strategies transcend eachother. It's you vs your enemy. There is offense vs defense and defense vs offense.
1. The greatest chess players in the world can see many moves ahead; can anticipate what their enemies are doing. In football this applies to the coaching staff developing a successfull offensive and defensive scheme that can be carried out long term and drafting or acquiring the appropriate players who fit the schemes. Miami had a quallity Defense with mediocre talent last year because Parcels is a guru at finding guys who fit his system.
2. They take their time, as they know rushing a move will quickly kill them; they are very exact and deliberate- one false move (poor trade, draft,or FA pickup) can cost them the advantage and possibly the game. Poor drafting, or drafting that doesn't apply to this model, can set a team back years.
3. They know that building their foundation is paramount to anything else- you slowly bring out your pawns (this is your O-line and D-line) who set up your defense and protect your offense before you move any of the exciting pieces (drafting WR/RB/ QB in some instances). Bringing out your mobile pieces before your pawns are established exposes you to defeat. IE: drafting a RB/WR before your OLine or DLine have become a core strength is counterproductive to maximizing success.
4. They know that after you make a move, especially a big move like bringing out a Queen (acquiring a franchise QB), you protect that move or you dont make the move in the first place... or else the enemy will see your weakness, exploit it, and destroy your move. Business 101- First rule of business is to ALWAYS secure and protect your investment first. If you can not do this, you do not make your investment. In football, this means you protect and maximize your investment as quickly as possible or you risk losing/injuring that investment. The greater the investment (IE top draft pick, high salary player), the greater the priority, need, and urgency to protect the investment. If you want a top QB, then you should either already have a line in place to block for him or get one ASAP. Opposite example of this is the Bengals drafting Carson Palmer and not protecting their mega investment in him.
Question: If you were given $120 million in cash and you had to keep it in your house, would go about your regular business and allow doors to be unlocked...or would you immediately buy an awesome alarm system to protect your money so you dont risk losing it... or....I don't know...keep it from getting a blown out knee, destroyed elbow, or broken nose. Cough Cough Bengals!
(you cant get an "alarm" for Carson, but you can make "getting a line to protect him" a #1 priority.
Your largest investment should be where your greatest strenght will lie, otherwise it's counterproductive and wasting money.
This is a fact- Teams, businesses, etc become great by building their strengths first, and not by trying to repair weaknesses. Once a strength is built, you now have a true "core" and a means to build a foundation. This is much stronger than having talent thrown all around the field. Example: The US Olympic Basketball team with the most talent in the world loses to Greece and Puerto Rico. Why? US had no foundation, cohesion, or identity; Greece and PR did. So it doesn't matter how much talent you have or draft if you don't have a core, foundation, or identity establlished first to build around? Miami had needs all over the field prior to last draft. Did we address all of those needs in the draft? How about half of them? How about a quarter of them? NO. We spent 6 picks on linemen to build a core and help develop a team strength. What was the result? We won 11 games without addressing all those other needs.
If you have money/top draft pick invested in a QB/WR etc, you don't prioritizing drafting defense ahead of protecting and maximizing the said player's production, otherwise you're wasting their potential. Lamens terms, you don't draft Calvin Johnson if you're not prepared to make a huge, quick effort to get him the ball. By drafting Calvin that high and paying him that much, you've committted yourself to maximizing and protecting your investment in him.... which means you now need a strong armed QB who can get him the ball. You now need a solid #2 WR to help maximize his production, which in turn maximizes the production of the #2 WR. Then you need a quality TE to keep the Safety honest so that you can get Calvin the ball deep more often. Don't forget you need the line to protect the QB to allow him the time to get Calvin the ball. Last but not least, you need a complementary running back to keep the defense honest. See how the trickle down effect works! The end product is a machine that runs like the Saints offense with Brees will be capable of. Would this be possible if you went away from your strengths? No.
Once your strength has blossomed into an identity/ foundation- if a piece goes missing from a foundation, you know exactly what piece you need to fill the void, which makes it easier to avoid a poor draft choice. If you can narrow down what you need, then you can narrow down you list of candidates who can fill that need. Again, it's not the most talent, but who can play well the best according to your strengths, under your foundation, and as a team.
Remember: This is not a 1 year fix. It is a 3-4 year plan. Following this model, by year 3 and 4 you should now have your strengths and foundations on offense and defense to completely build around. You should be at the point where you are now drafting to add positional depth rather than need.
And you will be superbowl caliber. Your offense and defense will be a self-sustained unit, and you will only need to plug in the correlating pieces when one is removed... and it will continue to run itself, much like an assembly line.
The other way of doing it- you continue to draft talent to fill needs or draft players who don't contribute toward building your "team strength" (Ted Ginn) and in 4 years still have no foundation on offense or defense, leaving you with a bunch of overpaid guys who cant play as a team b/c there is no foundation established. (Cough Cough... Dallas this year.) When you draft for need rather than for depth or for building a strength, you usually go for BPA for that need, right? But BPA doesn't necessarily mean that he will be the best fit for your scheme. There could actually be a 4th rounder who is better suited for your "foundation and strength" than this guy you just spent a 1st rounder on. Now you just wasted a 1st round pick and the extra $ to sign him!
The last part of this is assessing the risk of future missing, integral pieces, as these will cause the foundation to crumble without a replacement. There is roughly a 2-3 year maturity curve for rookies in the NFL. These pieces need to be drafted and groomed ahead of time so that they can make an impact as soon as they are called upon. When you are drafting for depth, you have the ability to do this. This is why IMO I feel it's most productive to address immediate needs through FA and use the draft on players that will fill obvious needs 2-3 years from now.
5. If an enemy makes a threatening move, you counter that move FIRST before you go on attack or else his move will devastate you. EXAMPLE: Miami wants to become a power running team, right? Well, New England has Wilford; the Jets picked up Jenkins, and Buffalo picked up Stroud. This is a threat to Miami's foundation for at least 6 games out of the year, so Miami's first need is to counter this threat and acquire a massive Center who can help fend these guys off and keep our "run-blocking foundation" in tact. Miami has many other needs and a pass rusher, for instance, would usually be more important than a center, but not when a breach of your foundation is involved.
6. In chess, whoever controls the middle of the board, usually wins the game. This applies to Miami's running game. We saw it collapse this year with Samson against the larger DLinemen, causing us to devise trickery (Wildcat) to compensate for it.
7. After you counter the threat, and your foundation of pawns (linemen) is established...ONLY THEN do you start with the offensive and defensive attacks (drafting your flashy players), or else you leave yourself vulnerable to attack from a smarter opponent.
Conclusion: A quality chess game against a strong opponent can take days to win. You rush it, you lose. So it doesn't matter how long it takes to win. The key here ABOVE ALL is to win. Figure out what scheme you want to run; bring in your "core" players to make your scheme a strength, creating a foundation for the future... while cutting or trading players who don't fit for ones who do. Then proceed outward.
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Hmm...I was always from the "just beat the heck out them" line of thought, your way seems much much better..:up:
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good post even though i only read half of it. i'll read the other half tomorrow. LOL
the 23rd likes this. -
great analogy
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Great post. It's amazing that even by looking ahead a few years, you can make yourself better in the present. The best players are the players that fit the system you have in place the best. It's not necessarily the players who have performed the best in the past. I believe that is why a team that changes coaches (and usually coaching philosophies) every few years truly struggle to win.
The interesting part about your analogy is that the reverse of it is also true. Are you listening Dan Snyder and Al Davis? -
Much of what you say is basic fundementals, but very very sound in your approach and delivery. Can't argue with the philsophy of very purposeful and well thought out strategy.
I like the analogy you have used in comparing the QB to the Queen. Very intriguing indeed. The pawns are largely in place, and now you have a board set for success.
Going into the draft, I still think we address my favorite chess Piece, the Knight. We already have 1 in Joey..time for another :hi5:
Nice thread, and yes, welcome to the site :up:ToddsPhins and cnc66 like this. -
http://www.nfl.com/draft/history/fulldraft?teamId=0920&type=team
Good post though.ToddsPhins likes this. -
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Larryfinfan 17-0...Priceless Club Member
This is a nice analogy. I've read in the past how football is like chess and this post draws the lines appropriately. While I agree with your premise, the NFL is slightly different than it was 20 yrs ago when Parcells was at the G-men...FA has change how quickly you can build/destroy a team, making the expectations of a quick turnaround the norm (see our rags to riches story from last year).
The question, for this franchise now is how much of this is due to the Tuna and how much of our rebuilding is being structured by Ireland and Sporano. We all know this time next season Parcells will be back on ESPN. Can they carry this structure on ?? Obviously, Jerrah and Little Bum didn't learn much from those guys. I have no issues with the talent evaluation process that the Trio is using now, but how much will it change come next offseason ?? This process that the Tuna uses to build a franchise will and has worked in the past. Jeff and Tony have the responsibility to carry that forward or we will be Dallas South, circa 2011....ToddsPhins likes this. -
If anyone knows the answer to that, I would love to hear it.... especially with how much Sporano is spoken "in passing", like he's merely a cardboard stand-up on the sidelines. That answer is definitely worth a case of beer. LOL.
I think you should start a thread on that topic, if no one has yet to. -
Todd great work and welcome to the site.
Club member worthy. We hope to see you posting there soon. While still contributing to the main board as well.Bpk and ToddsPhins like this. -
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The Rev Totus Tuus Staff Member Administrator Luxury Box Club Member
Out-standing, Todd and welcome to the board.
I look forward to more of your posts. You are quickly becoming one of my favorite posters around here. Keep up the good work. :wink2:ToddsPhins, NJFINSFAN1 and cnc66 like this. -
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chess is a great game, been playing it since i was 5, its a good metaphor for the NFL game..nice post.
Parcells is the Bobby fischer of football.ToddsPhins likes this. -
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The Rev likes this.
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What OT disruptions? If you were referring to RickyNeverInhaled.... he's a friend of mine from our old forum. He's just giving me crap because I said the exact same thing to him on one of his posts there. LOL.NJFINSFAN1 likes this. -
I didn't do the OT stuff, but can answer that for you. As Mods, we try and keep the threads on topic (OT), once someone starts off topic posts, the thread gets derailed and the main topic is often lost. So when we see a person doing it, we often will either delete the post, or PM them about it. If it keeps happening than we use our super duper Mod powers, than everyone has to duck!
So now, lets get back on topic before another mod comes after me!:couch:ToddsPhins likes this. -
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Larryfinfan 17-0...Priceless Club Member
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Now we need a defensive perspective. LOL.cdz12250 likes this. -
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So how did that conversation go to take Grove over Alex Mack? Or even Grove over Brown? LOL. -
Sparano sees something in Grove. Even if we can't see it. I have to believe that some half-pint offensive lineman from a fifth rate football school in the middle of Hartford, Connecticut who had less than zero chance to play football at a high level himself, but somehow became first the offensive line coach of the Dallas Cowboys and then head coach of the Miami Dolphins, both under a football mind like Parcells, got where he is today because he sees all kinds of stuff in offensive linemen (with relation to the system he's trying to build) that other people don't immediately see. At least I sincerely hope so.
djphinfan likes this. -
This thread is missing an interpretation of each chess piece so i will attempt to do it.
we know the queen is the QB.
I'm thinking we're gonna have to assign chess pieces to the offense and defense, in other words one chess piece will be an offensive player and a defensive player.
lets start with the offense
Queen- QB
King- Coach
knight- Tight End
Bishop- WR's
Rook - RB
Pawn - O Line
Defense
Queen - MLB
King - Coach
Bishop - DB
Knight - Outside LB's
Rook - DE
Pawn - DT
I'm thinking that Bill Parcells would be the human moving the chess pieces.
Let me know what you think or if anything needs to be changed.
P.S you must have an explanation for any changes b/c i have an explanation for the reasoning behind the list i made.ToddsPhins likes this.
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