They've got to address the OLB position via undrafted rookies or Free Agency whenever it starts.

 

Padre, lots of teams (or aspects of a particular team: pass rush, run game, deep ball, etc) are in deep kimchi if one particular player. There are only so many resources available in a given year.

With that said, let's at least give them FA before claiming the FO is poor at predicting needs or making plans for them. Because it sure seems to me that each offseason they've addressed multiple needs that have arisen.

 

Is getting to double digit win some kind of grand accomplishment?

This is year 4 for this regime. Shouldn't we be talking about how close we are to the Superbowl by now?

 

Great point, the Colts, Saints, Chargers, Texans, Packers, Giants, Falcons etc are all in deep doo doo if they lose one player.

I think the FO did a great job of retooling the defense, though on offense they have struggled. I'd like to see how these new additions pan out before making any judgements.

 

No.

 

aren't they close to being the same discussion?

 

Wow, I thought getting to the Super Bowl was the goal of teams that compete in the NFL. Thanks for setting me straight.

 

Not really.

We won 11 games in 2008 and weren't anywhere close to a Super Bowl caliber team.

We're closer now in some areas, but still not all that close.

 

If the Cardinals can be a Super Bowl caliber team, then the 2008 Dolphins were a Super Bowl caliber team.

Superbowl is not what it used to be.

 

Who said it wasn't the goal? Its just not realistic to have such expectations.

The bottom line is, we basically started from scratch 3 years ago. You can't expect to be on the same level as teams that have been well-managed for a decade. Sure, we have a chance at the Super Bowl. But by no means should we be good enough to be "expecting" to contend for a Super Bowl. That distinction is reserved for teams like the Steelers, Colts, and Patriots. Hopefully in a few years we can get to that level.

 

They had a hall of fame caliber QB, two of the best receivers in the league and a solid defense. They were loads better than we were.

 

Why not?

It's year 4 for this regime. Rex Ryan is 2 for 2 in AFC Championship games for the Jets.

My expectation for this regime was that we'd be a legitimate SB contender by eyar 4. Well year 4 has arrived. If we're not in the AFC Championship this year this regime should be shown the door.

 

Are we comparing coaches here, or GMs? Since Mike Tannenbaum took over as GM, these are their win totals: 10,4,9,9,11. And I hardly think Tannenbaum took over a roster as bad as ours was in 2007.

 

I think Tannenbaum has done well overall. He's aggressive, which I like, and yes I think Ryan is a superior coach to Tony.

But all that is irrelevant. We were supposed to have made enough progress by now to be a SB contender. It doesn;t appear that we actually have. And that is highly dissapointing to me.

Let me give you some perspective. I'm 31 years old. I'm married and have 2 kids. I've been an attorney for 7 years. The last time the Dolphind made the SB, I was 6 years old. They've only made it to 1 AFC Championship game since I've been old enough to pay attention. I'm tired of waiting. We weren't supposed to be the Lions or Cardinals. We weren't supposed to go 30 years between SB wins.

And we were supposed to be a hell of alot closer now than we are. And it's because this regime either through fear or incompetence has failed to find the right QB.

 

Were we? Was I riding a unicorn too?

 

I don't know why you feel the need to be ridiculous.

In a league that demands parity 4 years should be plenty of time to make a SB contender if you find the right QB and are at least averagely competent in all other areas.

If you think these guys deserve ten years to get it right, just say so so we'll know where we stand.

 

You'd have to define "get it right". How many years did it take the Steelers to find Roethlisberger? The Ravens to find Flacco (event though I don't think he's anything special)? Personally, I'm more than happy with a front office that hits a good percentage of their draft picks and doesn't keep bad contracts on the books. When you do that long enough you'll eventually reach the level of the contenders.

 

The fact that we want the Passing Game from '08, the Running Game from '09, and the Defense from '10 should make last season an indictment mainly on the coaching staff. I'm hoping that they put it together this year and am willing to give Sparano that chance.

 

I thought we were close to double digit wins last year. If they play just as well but have a bit more luck or at least less bad luck they're probably there. Once you're at double digit wins then it's mostly luck that determines the outcomes in the playoffs. The Jets last year didn't get any better QB play than we did. Their defense was about even with ours. I think they just did a better job of play calling. They didn't abandon the run and didn't ask their QB to win the game while calling plays where every defender knew where it was going.

 

hall of fame caliber QB years after he was hall of fame caliber. One of the best receiver and another who were hurt and the rest of the team close to terrible. The only made the playoffs because they were in the worst division in the league. They were loads better than no one.

 

Luck cuts both ways. You continually bring up this argument while conveniently forgetting that we were very close in several of our wins where luck or a funny bounce in the other sirection means a loss.

We played terrible against the Bills Game 1 and if not for a punt that goes to the 1 yard line we might lose. If AP doesn't fumble on the goal line we likely lose to Minny. The Jets game in NY was just a slop fest that we almost lost, the game in GB was complete luck in that we caught Rodgers coming back from a concussion and still needed a bizarre (yet correct) call on a FG attempt to get to Ot and win it.

At the end of the day, your luck evens out. We were good enough to be a 7-9 or 8-8 team last year and that's where we ended up.

 

They were better than us and they proved it during the regular season.

 

now, to find that veteran QB to compete with Henne...

 

So the Dolphins are loads better than the Packers, last year?

 

No. We played them in a close overtime game where one or two plays made the difference. And Rodgers was just coming back after a concussion.

The Cardinals demolished us that year. Perhaps if we played them ten times that year we might have won 2 or 3 times just based on the funny bounces that happen in games, but they were better. I don't think that's in question.

 

I do not agree, that is in question. Dolphins weren't playing at their best at the time.

The Cardinals were terrible that year.

 

I don't believe our luck evened out last year. As I stated before, I felt we were clearly on the negative side last season. I see a Jet's team that had the most potential interceptions dropped by opponents and a Dolphin's team that had the fewest interceptions dropped by opponents. Despite that Henne and Sanchez were fairly close production wise. The difference is simply that Sanchez had better luck. So if the Dolphin's simply had better play calling and even luck they could get get as far as the Jets did last season and the fans of simplistic analysis would then say they were close to the SB. But really they are already at that same level talent-wise if they just use that talent better.

 

If it wasn't for a bogus call, disgusting special teams, poor running back production, the natural mistakes a young defense is going to make in its first year within the scheme, and severe issues with our offensive coordinator were a ten win team..

A lot of these issues have been addressed this offseason..we nail 2 big free agents, and were gonna shock a lot of folks.

 

So the OC has been addressed with the guy who ran a worse offense than Henning?

The special teams didn't improve all that much under Rizzi yet here he is.

In the most important year for Henne, we move our WR coach to QB coach.

I appreciate your optimisim DJ, but I'd advise not getting your hopes up.

 

now, to find that veteran QB to compete with Henne...

 

I won't say that I think Daboll is great or anything, but I do think he did a better job of using the talent he had than Henning did last year. I think Henning was just an old guy who had already retired once and he kind of mailed it in last year. I don't think he adjusted his offense at all. I don't think he took advantage of the players he had. Basically, I think that we'll have better play calling next year regardless of the OC b/c last year was about as bad as you can get.

 

Really? I thought our 7 win total was generous for this team. The defense played their asses off, but boy, the offense was... well, offensive. If that doesn't improve this team won't go anywhere. It almost looked like a pop-warner team could stop the offense last year. Also, the game management on Sparano's end needs to drastically improve. Dear god, what a disaster that was. Heaven-forbid we ever need to do another 2 minute drill, also.

 

I think history has shown that a good defense and a good running game will get you to double digit wins and the playoffs most of the time. I think that if we get strong center play this year we can easily have both of those covered. I actually think our defense played well enough last year to just about get us to double digit wins if we had just had about the league average of interceptions against us dropped rather than the league low. That's why I think that simply with average luck we were about there.

I agree that the offense was offensive, but I think most of that was on the OC. While I've never been a Henne fan, I do think he proved he can be about an 85 QBR passer like he was for most the year until Hartline got hurt. After that, defenses just started jumping our predictable routes especially after we abandoned the running game.

 

Now that you're an attorney, you can probably afford to "pay" attention more often.


Carry on.

 

here's to hoping you're right... I just want to see a competent, complete team effort in every game next year.

 

have at it. :hang:









:shifty:

 

And of course you chime in with some nonsensical comment that has nothing to do with anything, except insulting people. Which seems to be your second favorite hobby, after defending Chad Henne

 

IMO there's a lot of bad luck involved when your QB leads the league in least amount of dropped INTs while you defense leads the league in MOST amount dropped INTs. That's worth a few games all by itself. Regression to the mean should rear its head up this upcoming season.

 

Anyone who thinks we are going to get to double digit wins this season is in for a horrible disappointment. We will be extremely lucky to avoid double digit losses. This is Sparano's last season as coach.