He had to change, It's not 1986 anymore. If he didnt change he would have been canned after the year. He still might, however, atleast he didnt have too much pride, and realized what he was doing wasnt working, and hes changing it.

 

I'll believe it when I see it in a tight game in the 4th quarter during the season.

We've been fed this kind of lip service by every coach since Shula.

 

I think its completely admirable of him. It takes a lot of guts to admit you were wrong on a national stage. As long as his conservative offensive philosophy has changed, with the way the team respects him, I feel good about this year.

 

I don't know that he thinks he was "wrong" necessarily. Even Cole pointed out that his only success as a coach thus far came running the Henning offense. That offense had a competent QB though.

And it wasn't that long ago he said that he believes in running the ball and he doesn;t care what anyone thinks.

So like I said, I'll believe it when I see it

 

Been saying a lot, that Sparano has it in him to adapt..He knows what his team needs and he's very in tune with their pulse..I watch every interview he does, this year he has made concerted efforts to treat the players from a physical standpiont much better relative to the last few..I have felt in the past that the team overworked a bit in camp and actually peaked too early in camp, so I think this different approach is better, and I think the players understand what he's trying to do.

 

http://www.thephins.com/forums/showthread.php?64456-Sparano-forced-to-drop-conservative-playbook

That includes a link to the story Hyde got the quote from.

 

Good to read he's at least trying to make the changes, that in itself is a big positive for this team.

 

The problem I have with it is that it took his almost getting fired to bring about this change. Remember, Sparano asked (or is it begged) Dan Henning to come back in 2010 to run the offense; I think that's telling. He's gone through an offensive coordinator (Henning), a defensive coordinator (Pasqualoni), and a Special Teams Coordiantor (Bonameg), in 3 seasons at the helm. When they drafted Mike Pouncey during the brief period where the lockout was lifted, they didn't give him a playbook, but rather they gave him Wildcat stuff to study.

I'd like to believe this change is going to be...bigger than I imagine (I don't think drastic is really the right word to use), but you have to recall that Daboll's offense last year had Peyton Hillis and this is all being pinned on Chad Henne. While I certainly think it could work, I'm still hesitant until we see it in a real game, against an opponent better than a Carolina Panthers team that had a lot of guys missing.

 

Words are one thing. When I see an effective offense on the field and not going bat **** fist pumping crazy over field goals, I'll give the man some credit.

It's nice he realizes we had to change, but I'm still not convinced hiring a guy who ran an offense less productive that ours last season who made a RB the focal point of the offense is the way to go about it.

We'll see though. I have a really really hard time imaging how the coach that nobody wanted, the QB that the team tried to replace, and an offensive coordinator who was run out of town in Cleveland is going to turn this offense around but like the rest of you I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

Here's hoping that the Parcellian 3 yards and a cloud of dust days are behind us.

 

Cleveland didnt have near the weapons we do. And Hillis was used more than just running. He was catching balls out of the backfield, and Daboll propelled Hillis into a star.....even when EVERYONE knew he was the main person to defend.

 

Always thought the conservative stuff was overblown, considering he comes from a run n shoot background and his history with Chris Palmer.

If I had to guess what our offense will look like in 2011, I would say something along the lines of what the KC Chiefs have been doing.

 

I credit the guy with realizing he has to change. Reality is that the NFL is continually changing and the successful coaches adapt with it. If you want to know where the NFL is going look at the college game. That's the way it has always been. Zone defenses first started in college and everybody said they would never work in the NFL. Spread offenses are predominant in college and many of the most successful teams rely on the same concepts to fuel that success.

 

All that might be true, but the man still led an overall ineffective offense weapons or no. There have been offensive coordinators to do more with less. We'll see. I'm not discounting him before he coaches a regular season game. I'm just worried. I think it's prudent to be worried when you replace an ineffective coordinator with one whose offense performed worse.

 

Anyone remember this:

“I think they’re still short some things. Tony’s going to have to make some decisions about how strong he feels about certain aspects of his philosophy and if he sticks with them. But I think they’ll make continued progress toward what Mr. Ross says, of being in contention on a regular basis.”

That was from a July 6th article by Ben Volin....

http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/thed...-his-tenure-tony-sparano-chad-henne-and-more/


Perhaps this is what Henning was talking about. Makes sense.....seems like this is something Sparano has given alot of thought to. Which means its not a change he is making that he would revert back to being conservative at some point.

I think Sparano realized he two choices to make:...continue being a head coach...or go back to being a line coach. If he wanted to be a HC in the NFL....he was going to need to model himself after a "Shula"..not a Parcells. You have to be willing to change with the game....and build a team around the players....not build a team around a philosophy. Take Hisn...and beat Yours.....Take yours and beat his.....

 

Really it was change or get fired. Ross made no secret he wanted the Dolphins to be more entertaining. Chunk inches until getting in range to kick a FG does not make for entertaining football or anything better than a 7-9 record usually.

 

None of this will matter anyway if they don't have the trigger man.

Unless we get alot more out of Henne than we've gotten the last two years, not much will change

 

I don't "credit" Sparano with **** until I see it happen consistently on the field in the regular season. Until then it's all talk.

Forgive me if I don't "admire" someone who had to be threatened with the loss of his livelihood, on the most public of stages, to effect the turnabout that the other six billion souls on the planet saw was needed; and only after causing us to suffer the most miserable season that I've endured as a fan of the team's in 40 years.

 

Well, I think you can apply the old line of "everyone has a plan, till they get punched in the face"....

this offseason, was Tony's face punch...he better change his plan!

this offseason, was Henne's face punch...he better change his plan!


....

It would not shock me to have the crazy zany offseason FACE PUNCHES this franchise faced, and then create the story line that the media loves to jump on....an amazing on the field production that takes a gutter-dweller to the penthouse!

 

Worse than 1-15 Nabo?

 

I give him half credit for showing it in preseason and not having a vanilla game for once.

I'll give him the other half if it's still there come regular season.

 

Absolutely.

When you suck, you suck...you see it, live it, learn to joke about it. We were bad, and there was nothing to be done about it except wait 'til next year.

Last year was horrible because we had the makings of a good team, but were mired in mediocrity by having a governor installed on the engine and not being able to get on the freeway because of it.

There is NOTHING worse than mediocrity...not losing, not losing a lot...and especially when the mediocrity is forced upon you by stubborn people with timid souls.

 

I don't see this as just the typical every year talk. This was obviously a well-considered shift in philosophy that was followed up with 3/4 of the offensive coaching staff changing. Further we've already seen the different schemes in the first two preseason games. People just hear the word "aggressive" and it's almost meaningless b/c it means different things to different people. I don't know if we'll go for it more on "X" percentage of 4th downs and I don't care. What I care about is that the scheme is different. It uses more of the spread concepts that most successful teams use. This is the "change". I see that as a more aggressive philosophy and I think that's what TS means by being more aggressive. And that's not something we have to wait for the regular season to see. Also those are the formations that Henne was already most successful in. We don't really need to get much more out of Henne than we got last year in those formations. Last year Henne had a 62% completion rate, 11 TDs and 10 INTs and a 80 QBR from 3 and 4+ WR formations. And about half of those INTs were on the OC b/c of the timing and/or the routes used. Even if Henne doesn't improve his decision making, but just drops a few of the INTs that weren't his fault anyways, the rest projects to approximately an 85 QBR. (I only subtracted five of the INTs or about 60% of the ones that I felt were scheme based. I did not drop any of the bad bounces or even bad calls). So I don't buy into this "we have to wait and see". Just looking at what Henne did in the same sorts of plays we already know we'll be using this year gives us a realistic and positive projection before we even consider the impact of a player like Bush or the impact of bigger results from check down passes.

 

I don't think he changed it but I do think he tweaked it. He 'evolved', which I'm sure was hard for him to do.

 

He says he's changing, but like anyone else you have to see the evidence of it. If we field a more agressive offense and are in the endzone a heck of alot more I won't even mind his fist pumps on field goals!

 

I think Sporano capitulated to Parcells and kept doing the same thing expecting different results.

CBS article by Prisco made the following comment

"Grind it out, play ball control and use the clock is as outdated a style of football as you can find. Yet the Dolphins held on to that under Henning, who did have success with that style in the 1980s. It was former team president Bill Parcells who urged Sparano to hire Henning. The link: Parcells and Henning are good friends who worked together on the same staff at Florida State in the 1970s".

"Indications are that Sparano wanted to hire Chris Palmer, whom he played under at the University of New Haven, but Henning was pushed onto his staff. Palmer is now the offensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans, and is considered a top quarterback coach".

Chris Palmer considered a top QB coach
Don't you wonder who Henne would be today with the right coaching

 

So is David Lee, who still works with both Peyton and eli Manning to this day in the offseason. He has also recently been credited with helping Brady Quinn improve to the point that he has seized the backup job in Denver.

Maybe it's the pupil, not the teacher.

 

More often than not, its neither...its just the various other random circumstances that impact performance and place labels on each as either successful or unsuccessful. Randomness is rampant in the NFL and claiming what is or isnt the reason.

 

I'm not a coach. I don't claim to know what goes into developing a QB, other than honing and sculpting whatever talent the guy already had when he gets to you.

I don't think Chad Henne was taught to shotput a ball at Fasano in the end zone against Baltimore when he was wide open and standing more than 10 feet from Henne.

I also don't think Chad Henne was coached to hit that longball to Ginn against the Jets on Monday night two years ago.

Chad Henne is what he is. He has basically the same strenghts and weaknesses he had while he was at college. Maybe he's dedicated himself to fitness and can now move around a bit more. That's great, but it's not coaching.

 

Coaching is about teaching the concepts and the reads. That's obviously reflected in the decision making that many people question about Henne. If better coaching improved just that one area then people would be debating whether Henne or Ryan is better.

 

Didn't Henne have a good QB coach in college? I can't think of his name but I remember alot of people wanted us to hire him during the off season.

And as I recall, making the proper reads qucikly was a problem for Henne in college as well. Perhaps he just is not that good at it.

And perhaps Ryna is simply better, regardless of coaching. I don't know why that it is such an impossibility. One guy was deemed worthy of a top 3 pick, the other would have been a 3rd rounder had we passed. Coaching or no coaching, some players are just better than others.

 

I don't understand why it has to be one or the other. It can be both.

 

Yeah I give him props if its a REAL change, or not just lip service at the beginning of the season. As it gets tighter and tighter in the season, lets see if he sticks with the changes or reverts to his more comfortable offense as the pressure mounts.

 

Before coaching Henne, Henne had two good caoches in the NFL. In fact, in 2009 both of those coaches were being hailed for his development.

 

You need that coaching to continue in the pros b/c your reads and keys are going to be different. And I've said several times that IMO Ryan is better, but that doesn't mean that the coaching isn't a huge factor in the difference in their production. In fact, I would say that the coaching and situation is as much as 90% percent of the difference in their production. B/c while Ryan is better, he's not a Marino. Both Ryan and Henne have the talent to put them in that next tier. The tier where the QB can't win it on his own but is good enough to win with.