Our future is playing against the Washington Huskies Saturday night at 8:30 pm on ABC.

Keeping Sparano might be the best way to secure that future. Whatever we are doing right now is "working", for lack of a better term. Why upset the apple cart? Young guys are playing, like Thomas. Let the man captain the titanic. If he delivers Luck he will earn a place of respect in all our hearts.

 

Well, there are a few more young guys that could be getting some time. Marlon Moore, Roberto Wallace, Charles Clay....etc. IMO, they should even look into bringing Pat Devlin up to the active roster and getting him some skins on the ball, and I would also like to see Ray Fienga get a shot to play some guard. Hell, if we are going to keep John Jerry on the roster, might as well play him to see if he may scratch himself a future here.

 

I see it as unimportant. Sparano or whomever interim coach we bring will try to win now rather than playing for the future. Ireland knows that the future depends on whatever QB we get in the next draft and the next HC that is hired after the season. He has to act as if he's going to be around for that. It's not like he would improve his chances of staying if he made some big trade before the deadline that took us up 3 or 4 wins.

 

They'll be gone in January. Patience. 3 more months and the future begins. Hopefully it begins with the #1 draft pick, which is why we should keep Sparano and Ireland right now. The team is done, let it be until January. It can only go up after that!

 

It's not ridiculous DJ.

There is only one goal left that this team can accomplish this year that is of any importance. That goal is getting Andrew Luck. The best way to accomplish that goal is to simply change nothing

 

We have to keep Sparano and Ireland on until the end of the season. Sparano hasn't secured Luck yet and Ireland hasn't met his quota of 24 former Cowboys to have played for the Dolphins.

 

I think Schmolioot has a point; just as I don't have to root against the Dolphins to wish that they get themselves in position to have the choice of whomever they want at the top of the 2012 draft—they are bad enough to do that on their own—Ross may not overtly bag the season by keeping Sparano on, but it has to factor into his decision that if the meathead is so "successful" at accomplishing the overall goal that his players won't even play for him, then that may be the path of least resistance.

And after Wednesday, Sparano and Ireland can only do minimal damage to the team because they can't make any stupid trades, and Ross probably has Ireland getting his approval on any acquisitions.

With those two idiots in place, Ross doesn't have to do anything; just stay the course and let this bad team with a bad HC and a bad GM do what they do best. Lose.

 

I assumed he would have gotten the axe during the bye week.Not sure what Ross has in mind but he might make it till the end of this season.

 

That is so pathetically inspiring.

 

I agree. Lately I've found Tony Sparano an oddly sympathetic figure. It must be because I have a feeling he's going to deliver Andrew Luck to our door. Honestly if he does that I think he will in my mind be the best coach we've had since Shula.

 

He has truly been a terrible head coach. On one level it's good to leave him because he'll try to win but fail miserably anyway. On a different level you're basically leaving someone who is probably a genuinely good and hard working person in a position he has no business being in out there to humiliate himself and the team every weekend. As much as I want Luck Tony Sparano should have been fired earlier today.

 

I was feeling bad for him last night. There was one moment where Hartline made a nice catch, Tony stuck his hand out for a high five and Hartline left him hanging there for a bit. In that long awkward pause I thought to myself, "Poor guy. He's just trying to enjoy the comradarie (sp?) he has with his players for just a few more precious moments."

 

I think our owner showed what kind of integrity he has last January.
Do you really believe Ross is above letting Sparano last the entire season if he thinks it land him Andrew Luck?

 

Well, I think we need a bit more then that Ck, I'd much prefer to be in Atlanta's 08 situation, a team that was largely settled, added a Qb and Rb, and have been a consistent franchise since then.

Over say the rubble that was in Detroit, Luck may be a great Qb, BUT even Manning had some pieces when he came to Indy.

Which means the team has to show more to even give a "well, it's been nice Tone, thanks for Luck".

 

I think we have talent, but the team is in the dumps and has quit. We had 215 yards of offense against the Jets defense at Halftime, and were still losing 7-6. So there is talent like Daniel Thomas, Long & Pouncey, even Marshall (yeah he's had the dropsies but did have 100 receiving yards). But if the team has quit then their talent won't matter.

But I believe they can turn it around quickly with a new staff and Luck and other rookies and free agents.

 

It looked to me that after the first half, the team just wanted to get out of there. Sparano has lost the team. He has to go.

-Ed-
sent from my EVO 3D

 

I feel no sympathy for the man; he was made painfully aware that the owner was looking to upgrade him in the offseason. The way Ross went about it was underhanded, absolutely, but Sparano was the one who agreed to stay on. Had he any pride he would have walked away from the situation and moved to college, which I think would have been the better move for him.

Instead he took the money and the contract extension, getting back into business with the very men who had tried to knife him behind his back. That was when I started to have a really bad feeling about this year - and that appears to have been well founded.

No sympathy from me. He can take his medicine because he was sure willing to take a paycheck.

 

Also consider that Ross' options are limited at this point. Fire Sparano and replace him with an interim guy; fire him and pursue someone, possibly be rejected and humiliated on a national stage, making even harder to successfully make another approach.

It's a bad situation.

 

It's too bad that the Miami Dolphins we've seen over the last 12 seasons have had nothing but bad luck.

Everyone should be prepared for the consolation prize

 

Oh I agree, the Jest loss equates to 5 losses..all in the AFC, which means we are more or less eliminated from the wildcard.

That said, I still want to see this team show some heart, it would be worth it to me at least.

 

Good point. I guess I can't really feel sorry for him anymore.

 

So… you expected him to coach this season for free? Of course he took the money. You would, too. Why are we faulting him for this?

I'm with CK, Sparano is a pretty sympathetic figure. No, he's not a very good head coach; yes, he's had some very bizarre moments (Sam Shields pre-draft interview comes to mind); no, he never seemed to learn from his mistakes (conservative play calling) at least until it was too late (this season); but I think he at least genuinely felt like he needed to make this team work. I never got that vibe from, say, Nick Saban, who always seemed to be aloof and, in retrospect, actually was. Saban didn't care as much because he knew he could go back to college if the NFL thing didn't work out, and that's exactly what he did.

At the very least, the players wanted to play under Sparano. That's a big step up from Cam "my prize free agent led a locker room rebellion against me" Cameron and Dave "I need to run a hand through my hair, that'll fix our problems" Wannstedt.

And if Sparano leads us to Andrew Luck, however inadvertently, then it was all worth it and I'll buy a pair of sunglasses to go with my Luck jersey.

 

Ireland is acting as though he is going to be around next year.Unlike R.Speilman he has not traded away future draft picks and he has been signing the cheaper alternatives to fill roster spots ,much to the detriment of the team.He is also quite a bit under the cap.

Obviously he is following Ross s instructions .Since GM contracts run through the following years draft he may be around for the most important draft in recent Dolphin history which is disquieting.However one hopes that we will have a new head coach by then with authority over Ireland actvities.

 

When you go into an NFL season with Chad Henne and Matt Moore as your quarterbacks, and Reggie Bush as your starting RB, I think its pretty clear what ownership is trying to do. I'm not sure how all the blame can be placed on Sparano here, or expect another coach to succeed when set up for failure.

 

Child-proof the locks to all the cabinets, put the sharp objects up high, unplug the accessories not in use, put up the stairwell guards, and sit back and babysit!