So Wallace throws a fit, Wallace is benched (some could agree, rightfully so); the next day, NOTHING of worth comes out of South FL on the incident from Wallace (no bad-mouthing the coaches, team, etc.), and you are telling me he cannot CONTROL Wallace? Wallace's speaker (Gibson) even intimated that Wallace was not necessarily selfless at times during the season. He KNOWS he was somewhat selfish and admitted it. The first step is knowing your own faults. Wallace, in a weird sort of way, did exactly that. His somber answer on whether he will be back next season with the team shows he is, in a way, sorry and knows that he ultimately hurt the team. For all of Philbin's supposed failures, handling Wallace is not one of them. Yes, the team is frustrated. Philbin certainly knows this. Wallace showed some underlying frustration before the season regarding the deeper routes, and Philbin supported Wallace's frustration by saying Wallace needs to get the ball in those situations. He has Wallace's respect, this is precisely why this incident did not get out of hand. Just because a story is published, it isn't "headline news". As with the Odrick thing, it was swept under the rug and nothing else was mentioned days after. Give Philbin credit: he does have the respect of his players. The outbursts were not directed towards Philbin, but at the assistants. Give me an incident where a player has verbally shown frustration directly towards Philbin. I am not sure you can. I am not defending him as a coach, but rather, as a person. His players do respect him. This, at the very least, is apparent. **And on Gordon, I welcome him. I think you have a good nucleus of players who champion professionalism. Gordon is either on board, or he isn't. And as with the Wallace benching, I do not think Philbin would hesitate to bench ANYONE. He benched a $60M player in, what could be said, an important game for the morale of the team, fans, and the city. Gordon would either shape up, or get cut....
I'd love to have Josh Gordon's talent but I would have to pass on him personally. Market value for a WR of his caliber 13 million dollars or so. You can't allot that kind of money to a player incapable of stability. Josh Gordon is going to be the kind of player that holds your organization hostage, financially. One false step, and suddenly he's suspended and you can't appropriate $13 million to improve a Gordon-less WR corps in August, responsibly. The problem with Miami (as usual) is lack of foresight. At least, Jeff Ireland's lack of foresight. Giving Mike Wallace that 63 million dollar contract and NOT doubling down on rookie WR's was idiotic. Go back to 2013 and I repeated many times that Miami needed to draft a young WR (and there have been some good ones over the last 3 years) in case Wallace didn't work out. In fact, Ireland seemingly knew it might not work out. Which is why his contract is structured like a 2-3 year deal. And yet, Miami made no efforts to secure the future of the position until drafting Jarvis Landy. While I like Jarvis, he's not a true #1. Maybe not even a true #2. I'd like to think he can evolve, but we'll see. We should have used the Green Bay model since day one. Use those 2nd and 3rd round picks to draft a young WR corps and signed Greg Jennings as a stop gap. If we lose Wallace, there aren't many better options to replace him. That's why we're forever 8-8.
no sane GM is going to pay him anywhere near 13 mill a season, that is the point of trying to pick him up on the cheap. I would pick him up on the cheap, no way I would pay him 13 mill a season.
Oh I beg to differ... There's no way Josh Gordon doesn't command big FA money. There might be clauses or stipulations to retract guarantees in the event he acts like a tard. He will get paid though. He's young and incredibly talented. Someone with cap space and need will pull the trigger to improve their football team.
