What has he done so far?

resigned Grimes? I think that was a good move.

 

if the reports are true and we are getting albert, id like his opening salvos.

 

We're talking to the right players so far it seems. Resigning grimes was a good move. Talk to me next week.

 

You're right about one thing, it's too early to say.

 

I'm hoping he earns much praise in the next two months.

 

Glad to see you hoping again :knucks:

Let's hope that next year we turn it around. I can't begin to fathom a new QB search if we don't.

 

Five posts in and no one is demanding he be fired?

Yeah it's definitely too early.

 

To be fair, Ireland would probably have done the same things up until this point. Lets not get ahead of ourselves here.

 

I would like it a lot more if he cut/restructured Dimitri Patterson.

 

I have no doubt that decision is coming soon

 

I want to keep him, just not at 5.4 million. Restructure him to a new two year deal at 3 per and we have a great CB group even without Taylor or Davis being healthy and improving. With them improving, we might have a top 5 cb group.

 

He hasn't done enough to say.

 

If this Albert news the Herald is reporting is true I will be very pleased so far. Resigned Grimes at a reasonable deal and locked up a quality LT.

 

No need to bring him into the post. He had his shot last year and was really awesome at it.

As for Hickey, if we actually land 1/2 good oline players then he's going in the right direction but I'm still in the way too early camp.

 

Not if we sign 30 year old Brandon Albert with back issues and 0 upside to 9.5 mil a year when there are younger,better,healthier prospects, and it sounds like Veldheer is going to sign for a lot less.

If the Dolphins really did end up with another idiot GM then maybe the organization is just doomed until Ross sells.

 

Ill feel great with Albert if its a frontloaded 4-5 year deal that allows us to dump him with minimal cap penalty the last two years.

 

Way, way, way too early to be defining Hickey...at this point all he's done is sign a few UDFAs and re-signed Grimes...even the guy who used to be the GM here would likely have done the same...lets see how this offseason plays out. Wow...way too early...

 

basically...this thread is ridiculous.

 

I have hopes for Hickey, but so far he has only resigned Grimes which was a Ross mandate. Let's wait a month and revisit the topic.

 

Everyone thought Ireland had done a pretty good job last off season.

The proof of Hickey doing a decent job will be:
1) Decent O-line play
2) Lazor improving the offense, especially with regards to being less predictable.
3) Maintaining or improving the play of the defense. Ireland`s single biggest problem was that he would weaken one part in order to strengthen another meaning that the overall quality if the team did not improve.

Over riding all of these for me will be Development of Young Players.
Miami has sucked at this for over a decade. Some of it appears to be from coaching staff, some from the locker room culture, some from an antagonistic attitude between the FO and the players. Until young players are happy to be with the `phins, are taught fundamentals and given fair opportunities to play then we will be stuck on the 8-8 treadmill or worse.

 

I agree it's too early to start getting a grasp for Hickey. There are some things to glean. Some good, some bad.

First off with respect to Brent Grimes, his bedside manner was a plus. When you have the player and his wife specifically talking about what he did to help make the deal happen that's a good sign. The decision to re-sign Grimes though was in all likelihood made before Hickey was even hired, but I wouldn't understate his role in getting Brent to sign on the dotted line.

I'm leery of the decision to let the two DTs walk. I would want one back. They think there are plug and play options available on market and I don't think that's true. There are good draft prospects at the position but some of them are going to be higher impact than others as rookies and the one I would guarantee to be high impact should be long gone by pick 19 (Aaron Donald).

I think by showing a preference for Branden Albert (left tackle) and Rodger Saffold (guard), we see a confirmation of trends established in Tampa along the OL. He prefers big, wide bodied guys with a lot of strength at the guard and tackle positions. He seems willing to sacrifice mobility at tackle. Specifically I disagree with his choosing Albert over Eugene Monroe, Anthony Collins and Jared Veldheer...especially at the price tag being discussed. I think it's a mistake. They're not going to get Saffold but I wouldn't be surprised at all if they circle back to another favorite guard of mine, Geoff Schwartz...given the established preferences.

Given some other names he's interested in (Jairus Byrd among others) I think it just exemplifies his regard for consistent production and his not being afraid of veterans. That can go either way because valuing consistent production depends on what you define as production. This is where an analytics department would help the team to define that production. You get the feeling that for a guy like Hickey consistent production for a defensive end is just a sack tally, which is not something I'm going to agree with.

Not being afraid of the veteran player is a good thing as Miami seemed completely allergic under Ireland. That's a positive. But you can't swing too far the other direction either and judging by some things, we're a little close to that.

We'll just have to see what shakes out and who signs.

 

I said it before he was fired: I had 0 faith in Ireland's ability to resign Grimes to any kind of long term deal.

 

Tampa has made some FA splashes the last few years. I expect Hickey will this year as well.

If he gets Albert AND Byrd, I'll be impressed. If he then gets a solid DT in the draft and an upgrade at WR I'll be ecstatic.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

 

Albert seems positive, there may have been better choices available but at least we have made a start. Grimes staying is good. Lets judge him in a year.

 

I could be wrong, but I thought Hickey was an analytics guy.

I agree that the DT position is going to be an issue by not resigning Starks or Soliai. Maybe they've got somebody else in mine that's a FA.

I would be pretty happy if they could pick up Geoff Schwartz in addition to Albert. They'd still have work to do, but they'd be headed in the right direction. Schwartz would cost less and is healthier than Saffold.

 

I happen to know he's not. Or at least he was not, in Tampa.

 

Well, I hope they incorporate analytics somewhat into their drafting philosophy. That is a nice supplement (not a replacement) to traditional scouting.

On a side note, what's the deal with Mark Dominik...I thought he would be in Miami's front office shortly after Gaine left. I know he's doing a few spots with ESPN, so maybe he's just weighing his options for now.

 

why do you get that feeling with hickey about def ends and sack total?

 

Two possibilities.

The first is the Dolphins may not like the picture it would paint having Dominik join Hickey right away. They hired Dennis Hickey, not the Tampa front office. They have to recognize that the Buccaneers have not exactly built great teams over the last few years. They can justify Hickey's hiring by saying he wasn't in charge and his evaluations were actually good. But that naturally shifts the blame for everything bad that happened onto Mark Dominik. If they hire Dominik to be Hickey's assistant that gives them significantly less cover.

I mean, think about it. Mark Dominik and Dennis Hickey were in charge of a front office that produced 3-13, 4-12, 7-9 and 4-12 records to go along with one 10-6 record. That's a 28-52 (.350) record whereas Jeff Ireland's front office produced a 35-45 (.438) record over the same time period. Like I said it's one thing to extract Hickey out of that front office and pretend that his evaluations as the GM's right hand man had little to do with the team's poor performance. It's another thing to extract both the Assistant AND the GM and just switch up their titles and pretend everything's great.

The second possibility was raised to me when Dennis Hickey was first hired, by people that had a lot of contact with both Dominik and Hickey. Mark Dominik is a very well liked individual, within the organization and the press. He's affable, he likes dealing with people, and a lot of people respect him. Dennis Hickey was not so much. He could be very smooth in one on one settings especially when talking to people he knows he needs to impress. But within the facility he was less liked, considered more reclusive, more surly, etc. The press in Tampa disliked him tremendously as he seemed to operate under the presumption that they should be happy anyone even bothers to talk to them at all so they should accept him sticking obviously to completely opaque talking points. Certain media actually requested they not be given Dennis Hickey when they asked for someone to interview about the team's personnel moves. They same people they disliked Hickey generally liked Dominik.

So the theory that was posed to me within a day of Hickey's hire was that even though Dominik was considered a shoe-in to be hired as his right hand man, don't be surprised if he's not because Hickey might feel a little bit threatened by how popular Dominik would naturally end up with people inside the building and especially in the press.

Personally while I do think some of that is going on, I don't know that it will last long. I believe Hickey would like the opportunity to branch out on his own for a little bit without Dominik around. But that may only extend through the 2014 off season before he decides he's established himself enough that he can bring his friend Mark Dominik on board.

But the question is...will Steve Ross let him? Like I said. Ross wasn't buying Tampa Bay's 28-52 record during the Dominik/Hickey regime. He was buying Dennis Hickey, who was supposedly a good evaluator stuck in a bad front office on a bad team.

 

He made the right all on resigning grimes, but it's just way to early, sorry.

 

Im liking it all so far.

1) Resign Grimes to a deal thats fair to both parties and lets the Fins get out after two years if they need to.
2) Cut dead weight Patterson, freeing up money for more moves.
3) Sign Delmas to play FS, and pay him less than the going rate on a 1 year deal. If he works out, we reup next year.
4) Apparently, LT is solved tomorow.

so far, so great.

 

It's still WAY too early to say and in the end, it's results oriented. I believe it was the 95 or 96 Dolphins that had 32 former first round picks on its roster, from Marino to Trace Armstrong on its roster and we were being heralded as preseason Super Bowl contenders...which ultimately ended in yet another heart breaking season for the Phins.

In the end, it's the season's results that determine whether preseason moves were good moves or not but with that being said...

If the reports are true and he doesn't become another Albert Haynesworth, I do think the signing of Branden Albert helps bolster our seriously lacking offensive line

 

Still early but his approval rating is on the incline in my book, especially if we get Starks back. Just need more OL bodies.

 

Absolutely.

'95 season and it was more like 19 former first RDers. It was just a bad mixture of attitudes & injury histories. I know one thing, if we had 32 on 1 roster we wouldn't have given up 300 rush yards to the Jills.

 

It is way, way too early, but if you look at the early returns....

1) re-signed Grimes...good deal for both parties, but a move that HAD to happen.
2) Sign Brandon Albert...a bit high for my taste of his abilities, but not excessive and a certain position of NEED...He was the best out there. Monroe was staying in Baltimore...Ozzy doesn't make those kind of mistakes...
3) Sign Mitchell...Good solid player at a reasonable price. Replaced Soliai's spot with a guy that is more suited to Coyle's liking... Good move.
4) Sign Louis Delmas - reasonable stop-gap, but there is a question as to how much of an improvement over Clemons this really is...
5) Re-signed Starks...2 yrs, reasonable price for his ability and coupled with Mitchell, re-establishes a position of strength of this team.

So far, so good....however, let me remind everyone that we still have to replace LG, RG and RT along the OL... We need a #2 and #3 corner. We still need to bolster the RB position. Something still needs to be done with the LB position. At this point, what we did last year was a miserable fail...

So, I need to see some more 2nd tier additions to fill some of these holes before I go ga-ga over his moves to date...

 

Signing Patterson back for a discount with a healthy Jamar I think is feasible, you just need solid backups because very likely one of those guys get hurt.

 

That is the first I've heard anyone on this. What makes you think that Albert will tank ? His history doesn't show that ?? We certainly overpaid for him, but a) not that much of an over payment and it's the nature of the beast (FA) and b) while he's not a top 5 LT, he's certainly a to 10 LT... It's not a complete workover of the roster by any stretch, but it's a great start...

 

I had forgotten that they've expressed to Patterson that coming back was an option...that would be good. As to Taylor, yeah, I was just going off of what he did (or realistically didn't do) last year...