...and all that while keeping our Wide receivers corps. perfectly hooker-mom free!

 

Not many like Irish, but I think he's done a very good job with our roster. He's added a lot of talented pieces. I think he could have done a better job this off season, though. He had some money to play with.

 

I don't see Henne in the future if he doesn't progress.

 

With respect, I am not ready to anoint Thomas the next Emmit Smith. It's only 1 game. As for Ireland, for every nice move he makes, there is a boneheaded move. For example, letting Edds go to sign Rosario and then releasing Rosario a few weeks later. I realize Sparano has a lot of input with the roster and depth chart, etc, but with moves like that it is hard to have confidence in either of them.

Steve :)

 

Means nothing if the QB can't get him the ball. Which is why I give Ireland no credit until I know the most important position on the field is addressed.

And before anyone calls me a Henne Hater, I acknowledge Henne might still be the guy. But I'm not as convinced as some on this board seem to be. 170 yards doesn't win games in today's NFL.

 

Jeff Ireland SHOULD be hitting on his 1st and 2nd round picks, IMO. So far, it seems he made a good pick in Daniel Thomas. He should also get criticism for the Pat White pick.

So far, he gets a passing grade from me, but... he hasn't exactly blown the doors off.

 

We have talented players. We don't have a good roster.

 

Jeff Ireland is pretty dramatically underrated in terms of what he's done as a GM. Especially on the context of the draft, where a lot of people don't seem to have any idea what a realistic success rate on draft picks actually is. Those people who are saying we need to be drafting like the Ravens or the Steelers need to actually look at what the Ravens and the Steelers have drafted as of late vs. what we've done.

 

We do not have a good enough quarterback to make up for the weaknesses of the roster

 

You can buy some pretty amazing incredients and still fail to come up with an edible dish.

 

I want to draft Luck as much as anybody, but I will say this about Henne. IMO, the light has finally come on. He knows what he wants to do, now he need to develop the confidence to do it. Whether he will or not is hard to say, but if it does he should end up being a pretty decent QB. That said, if it were me, I would do everything I could to draft Luck next year including giving up picks and/or players. We need to start with a franchise QB and go from there. Even if it means taking a step backward in some other areas. For me, gone are the days of trying to get by with chopped beef. We need steak!!

Steve :)

 

LOL. That's pretty good! :) Yes, a lot of it does fall on the chef. We could probably use a new one of those too! :)

Steve :)

 

I think coaching has a lot to do with a lot of our issues. I think he's brought in some talent, but the coaching staff has done a poor job.

 

Ireland doesn't get a free pass here imo.

Coaching and management haven't been as strong as they could/should be imo.

The trend isn't upward and that in and of itself is a concern for a GM .

 

Yeah but it's not just QB. I mean, we've had the resources to help the roster in other areas, we just haven't done so. We're what, $12 million under the cap this year? Would've been more if we had gotten an extension for Soliai?

 

I believe we're 8 million. Had Soliai accepted his contract, we'd be 12 million under the cap. That's my one issue with him. I haven't liked his approach this free agency, but overall, I think he's an above average GM.

 

If you are an incompetent cook.

 

:lol: "Irish."

Yeah, let's thank "Irish" for three, four, five corpses (whatever, I stopped counting) we have at TE and for repeatedly passing on opportunities to improve us one iota in that area.

Let's thank "Irish" for not understanding the role of the Free Safety in the NFL for the last 30-40 years, and for repeatedly passing on opportunities to improve us in that area.

Let's heartily thank "Irish" for an Offensive backfield of a guy who's been injured more than he's been healthy in his pro career (who, apparently, is already injured now, only 2 games into the season), a rookie on whom he spent 3 draft picks, and Lex ****ing Hilliard.

Hey, but most of all let's give "Irish" a round of applause for addressing the Quarterback in such a determined and aggressive fashion, as befits the importance of the position. After all, who can argue with Chad Henne, Pat White, Tyler Thigpen, Matt Baker, Josh McCown, Matt Moore and Chad Pennington.

 

The last I heard when PFT was updating (every week) the new league-wide salary cap numbers, the Dolphins were $11+ million under the cap. And yeah, if we'd renegotiated Soliai successfully that probably could have been more like $14 million or so.

Free agency, as far as acquiring NFL players from other NFL teams goes, if you exclude the success/non-success of adding former Cowboys and players they've coached before (Pennington included)...it's been an abject failure.

I think Irish is a good college and semi-pro evaluator. But that's it. He's not a good team builder, and that's different.

 

I'm glad we are under the cap. Ross can take that extra $$$ and purchase 50,000 seats to "sell out" the next home game.

 

Where the hell would this team be if Pennington didn't sign in 2008??? Still in the cellar with a new coach and GM? Sparano got a 2 year gift because of Chad.. I wonder how bad this franchise would have been without that one year anomoly

 

Is that akin to an incompetent coach? ;)

 

Have no idea where the team would be in that case. Terrifying to think about. Probably would have a new coach by now. Would it be Jim Harbaugh? Maybe. Would Chad Henne be our QB? I doubt it. Sparano has said that if Pennington didn't fall in our lap then Henne would have started as a rookie. That might not have gone over well, and if he still sucked in his second year I think that's when they would have started to look to get someone better, probably a veteran. Who was available and semi-attractive back in 2010?

 

Not Trent Green. :chuckle:

 

Anthony Fasano is an above average starting TE, and running a 2-TE set isn't important to do just because the Patriots do it.

What does this even mean?

Ah yeah, why would you ever expect a heavy usage of a rookie at one of the least cerebral positions with the quickest learning curve?

PS- Daniel Thomas is outperforming every other rookie back right now. How are those picks unjustified in the context?

Chad Henne clearly isn't a dead issue at this point. Why are you complaining about a bunch of third string quarterbacks and then one of the better FA pick-ups in the last several years?

 

Where would this team be if Pennington stayed healthy?

 

Not sure , but it doesn't really matter because he didn't and more importantly should never have been counted on to do so. It was a matter of time , sooner or later , but inevitable sad to say .

 

In a much better place.. Pennington was unbelievable.. Then again 2009 started very poorly..

 

I kept scratching my head as Ireland failed to execute the moves I would have expected if he thought the Phins could make a run this season. You know, things like adding veteran depth in the secondary, or getting some help along the O-line. The fact that he didn't make those kinds of moves despite being comfortably under the cap leads me to a few hypotheses:

1) Ireland didn't believe this team would compete, either because he doesn't have faith in Henne or Sparano, or because larger plans at QB just didn't pan out the way he planned (Orton, Palmer).

2) Ireland believes his job is secure but doesn't want Sparano as HC. Therefore, he didn't give him the personnel help he could have used [to save his own job] DESPITE having plenty of cap room.

I sense a rift between Ireland and Sparano.

 

The Dolphins, since Ireland took over as GM are 25-25. This includes 2008 when the team went 11-5 because of a soft schedule and having Pennington as the QB. The last two years the Dolphins have been 7-9 and now has started out this season 0-2. I believe much of this can be blamed on coaching, but I also think that Ireland hasn't done enough to remain the Dolphins GM if the Dolphins once again finish 500 or below. While some of his draft picks have worked out, as well as some of his free agents. The fact is that Ireland hasn't done what he was hired to do. He was hired to bring in talent which could compete for the playoffs. Instead the Dolphins have lost ground, talent wise, to the Patriots, Jets, and it appears the Bills, since the Dolphins won the division in 2008.

Ross needs to clean house, starting with Ireland and Sparano and bring in a new GM and head coach. With a record of 14-20 since 2009, neither Ireland or Sparano deserve to keep their jobs. There are 14 games left and unless the Dolphins win at least 9 of their remaining games, there is no way Ross can justify keeping either of these men.

 

2 games under .500 each of the last three years , of course we "could" turn it around this year still.

 

Reggie Buch expounding upon leadership and what this team needs, "We got to change the culture, leaders need to step up and hold everyone accountable."

That's a nice tag line. The 4th year into a regime, they need to work on changing the culture.

 

Even though I hated the Jake Long Pick, I liked the Pouncey pick. Look at last game, he pancaked all the defenders on the Daniel Thomas runs.

 

You can like Pouncey without liking the fact that a 15th overall pick was used on him. That's allowed.

 

We're not fans so we can affect the team; not that it's a very realistic notion anyhow—we're fans of the team so it can affect us.

 

Can you blame them?

Everyone knows Year 4 of a rebuilding job is the year you start working on the team culture. [/sarcasm]