What are your off-season goals for the Dolphins. Here are mine, rated by priority. 1) Keep the Front Office intact. I'm looking at you Bill Parcells. 2) Keep the coaching staff intact. 3) No off field incidents/accidents/arrests. Twofold reason, one is avoiding the disruptions by a Mike Vick like incident and secondly it reinforces to me that we've got a bunch of disciplined high character guys. 4) Keeping the free agents we want to keep. Whilst me may disagree on our assessment of who to keep and who to discard IMO the players you keep in FA are more important to your success than the players you sign away from other teams. 5) Drafting high character high workload players in the first 3 rounds. 6) Have a clear plan on what sort of talent we need and to stay focussed on that plan. My prioritized list is Interior O-Line, difference making ILB, tall jumping WR who will punish opponents if left 1 on 1, interior D-line, depth/projects elsewhere. 7) Being very targeted in FA and trades. I want to see us sign players who will be difference makers in Miami, not a random collection of big names (see Redskins, Washington). This also means bowing out of bidding wars once the price becomes too high. I want to see a couple of WTF! signings who go on to be positive players for us (eg the Fasano trade last year, a lot of us knew we got a good deal, but didn't realise just how good a deal) 8) For Miami to be a place where FAs come with the intention of signing. Over the last 5 or 6 years I've gotten the impression that a lot of the FAs visiting Miami were doing so for the purpose of creating leverage in their negotiations with other teams, not with the serious intent of signing with Miami.
In no particular order... 1. Bigger 2. Faster 3. Stronger By whichever conduit applicable. This season gave me a taste for it, now i crave it on the phins. I want teams to fear our trenches, in a sense the competition each week is praying for the offseason to rest by the 3rd quarter against the phins. But Pauly on a more tangible level, yes most of the items you posted are going to be very important in that order. Especially the character and integrity of the players that make up this team. The bar has been set, I hope the staff and players alike keep it that way.
more depth to the tranches, and more depth to the secondary. We have other positions to focus on but those 3 should make a significantly better team.
Watch for Don Thomas recovery news, watch FA visits, hope Bowles stays, and wait to see what pans out about Bell, Goodman, Carey and Crowder.. And with luck, here some nuggets up in Club about who is who, and what is what..
3 goals 1- Become tougher 2- Add playmakers on both sides of the ball 3- Upgrade the trenches If this is met we will be a very good team
Personally, I think this is the most exciting time of year as a fan...sure the games being played are what it's about, but the fun is watching that team get built....and, very important, and debating, arguing, speculating and predicting what Tunaland and Co. will actually be doing this off season... it's just my favorite time of year... So, here's to another controversial, long debating, ever-speculating off season with Bill, Jeff and Coach...
Bigger, stronger, faster, meaner are all great goals... We need more talent at the skill position of WR too though. we need to bring in a FA, or a young playmaking receiver through the draft. Also... continuity is key. Keep all the pieces of this staff in place if possible. Its the one thing we've been lacking for years.
Unfortunately, I think this will be one of the least controversial/debated off-seasons in a loooooong time for this franchise and as fans. For once 99% of the fanbase is on board with Chad going into the season as the starting QB. No Beck vs. McCown, Fiedler vs. Lucas, Fiedler vs. Feeley. Was Feeley worth a 2nd Round pick, why didn't we go after Brees, why didn't we go after Derek Anderson, Matt Cassell, why didn't we draft Quinn or Croyle or any other crappy QB For the 1st time in the past 9 years, there's no QB controversy in Miami. For the 1st time in a long time there's no coaching controversey. I could get used to these types of boring offseasons. Our biggest concern is what free agents do we re-sign, and who we draft. It feels good finally. To a lesser extent, this is what it's like to be a Colts or Pats fan
There are several things we need to do. The draft is to far away to predict atm so just looking at FA i would say.. 1. A quality OG back up. 2. A vetran WR. We have some good young receivers so a vetran will be good. Is Ernest the man or not. make a desicion and pull the trigger. I see those as the 2 biggest areas we need to address and be best addressed in FA.There are other positions but I just see those 2 as the biggest and the easyest to fill in FA.
We need some depth on the O-Line badly. Maybe a mauler at center. Vonnie is going to need a replacement eventually.... An upgrade at ILB would be another priority, someone who can bring pressure but also drop back into coverage. Another quality CB, possibly in the 2nd round. And finally, a true #1 WR. I'm hoping Hakeem Nicks falls into our laps.
Revisiting this list in light of the draft and free agency. 1) Done 2) Done mostly but made the needed change on special teams. 3) Done 4) Done with the exception of Goodman 5) Pat White fits my criteria. The CBs are a bit more of a gamble on physical ability being able to be coached up. 6) Well the FO's plan was different to mine but it was very focussed. 7) Done. Grove for example wasn't being mentioned on these boards as a possible FA pickup yet here he is. 8) Done. We're definitely in year 2 of a three year plan. We still have some weaknesses that need to be addressed (ILB and NT by my reckoning) and we need more solid depth at most positions. Next year I expect ILB and NT to be the draft priorities which should then turn us into a consistent playoff threat.
I really don't think we have worries on the CBs physical abilities. IMO any worries will be about smarts and attitude. The one bad thing about an NFL teams success is they always tend to lose coaches and I dread that.
Looking at mine.. we got the mauler. Picked up a good prospect in Andrew Gardener. Vonnie is gone now... ILB was addressed by resigning Crowder. CB was addressed very well. Only thing really ignored was a #1 WR.
