Ricky Williams: I left the NFL due to Dolphins' bad QBs

"SICK wrote:

I remember being at a Ravens/Phins game where we won 9-6.....all field goals, Ricky, and Defense....it was pathetic. We won....but jesus man thats ridiculous.

I was at that game as well. Ya Pathetic is pretty accurate.

"schmolioot wrote:

The glorious Wannstache years....

Yet he was probably better than Philbin, lol

Wash your mouth out with soap, Bro. Wannstedt wasn't even better than Cam Cameron. Cam was incompetent from the word go. Wannstedt ran this franchise into the ground over a period of years, all the way stubbornly clinging to his view of the cosmos as the team declined before his eyes.

"cdz12250 wrote:

Wash your mouth out with soap, Bro. Wannstedt wasn't even better than Cam Cameron. Cam was incompetent from the word go. Wannstedt ran this franchise into the ground over a period of years, all the way stubbornly clinging to his view of the cosmos as the team declined before his eyes.

Not sure I would go as far as to say that Wannstache was worse than Cammy Cam Cam, but He is a close second. He is the primary culprit for running the Phins into the ground. How he ended up with final say over personnel is mind boggling. Wannstache and Cameron are the two biggest inditements on Huizenga's ownership of the Dolphins and the poor choices he made.

"cdz12250 wrote:

Wash your mouth out with soap, Bro. Wannstedt wasn't even better than Cam Cameron. Cam was incompetent from the word go. Wannstedt ran this franchise into the ground over a period of years, all the way stubbornly clinging to his view of the cosmos as the team declined before his eyes.

36-16 over his first 3 years.

He was a worse GM than coach

As others have noted, Ricky has given about a half dozen different reasons for quitting. They all may have some degree of truth, but it's pretty clear that lack of great QB play wasn't the only reason, or even the main one.

Ricky is a different breed of cat from most NFL players. That's pretty clear. But while there may be some truth in what he says, a player quitting because his team's QB wasn't good enough is certainly unusual/atypical. It is similarly unusual/atypical for a RB to quit because he is getting too many carries. I don't think I have ever heard of any other RB, at any level of football, complaining about too many carries.

All that being said, I also think there is a certain phoniness to these statements from Ricky. His last game before quitting was a meaningless season finale against the Jets. He was coming off a 29 carry game the week before. If he was so concerned about his health or longevity I'm pretty sure he would have either sat out that finale or told the coaches he wasn't fit to play or carry a big load. Instead he played and had 20 carries. In the middle of that season, coming off a seond straight week with only 13 carries and a struggling running game, Ricky said:

"I don't know," Williams said. "I think we're tired of pointing fingers and trying to figure out what happened. We just have to come back on Wednesday and get to work. Whatever it is, we're going to work through it. The only frustrating thing is we've lost two games in a row. I'm not a stat guy. Obviously, if we run the ball well, we seem to win the game."

That sounds to me like a typical RB who wants more carries, not one on the brink of retiring because he is getting too many.

"P h i N s A N i T y wrote:

Can't be proven lmao, like I said he failed the test and was facing suspension. He can say whatever he wants. He wasn't playing that year and it had nothing to do with his feelings.

You realize the suspension would have been for less time than he stayed retired right? If it was the suspension he could have just taken that time off to pursue his interests. He didnt.

Noone retires due to a suspension.

"maynard wrote:

I wonder how Feidler would do if he played in today's game with all the rules favoring the passing game

The arm would still stink, but he could move and was fairly accurate. Could he be a 90 rating passer if he played in 2014?

Fiedler's lack of talent/skill wasn't his only problem. He compounded that by seemingly thinking he was much better than he was, and would try to squeeze the ball into tight spots and get picked, and would frequently bypass easy first downs in order to try for the big play - and fail most of the time. His bad decesions killed us as often as Wanny's.

"Alex44 wrote:

You realize the suspension would have been for less time than he stayed retired right? If it was the suspension he could have just taken that time off to pursue his interests. He didnt.

Noone retires due to a suspension.

Retiring because one is abotu to be suspended for a year for drug use is much more plausible than retiring because the QB isn't good enough or because you are getting too many carries.

Retiring because one is abotu to be suspended for a year for drug use is much more plausible than retiring because the QB isn't good enough or because you are getting too many carries.

Wasn't it just a 4 game suspension he was facing?

"jdallen1222 wrote:

Wasn't it just a 4 game suspension he was facing?

There were rumors at the time that it was a year. Nothing official ever came out, and then when Ricky came back he had that really weird and confusing contract. He missed all of 04 & 06, and virtually all of 07. Then shared carries the rest of his career. Sad to think what might have been.

He could blame me personally, but watching him run was a thing of beauty. I still love ya Sticky Ricky.

"slickj101 wrote:

Gotta love when people say **** like this. As if every football player doesn't have their own interests ahead of the team (which is fine).

Dont you know he is the first RB to leave the game with something left in the tank? Damnit man he should be the walking wounded like the rest of the RB's ;)

Jim Brown and Barry Sanders come to mind. Hell i call it being smart!

"LiferYank wrote:

Dont you know he is the first RB to leave the game with something left in the tank? Damnit man he should be the walking wounded like the rest of the RB's ;)Jim Brown and Barry Sanders come to mind. Hell i call it being smart!

No, actually Barry Sanders left the game very healthy and with plenty left in the tank....if Ricky would not have missed all of that time and stayed healthy I think he would have stood a very good chance of leaving the game as the all time leader in yards running the ball..he was a pleasure to watch and I wish he would have had the desire to retire the all time leader of running backs.

"schmolioot wrote:

36-16 over his first 3 years.

He was a worse GM than coach

I highly doubt this record, that's an average of 12 wins a year and Wanny never had a season better than 11-5. With that being said, yes he is a better coach than Philbin, easily.

"Fineas wrote:

"Alex44 wrote:

You realize the suspension would have been for less time than he stayed retired right? If it was the suspension he could have just taken that time off to pursue his interests. He didnt.

Noone retires due to a suspension.

Retiring because one is abotu to be suspended for a year for drug use is much more plausible than retiring because the QB isn't good enough or because you are getting too many carries.

Losing one year of money is better than losing however many he did plus us filing a lawsuit.

Its possible the suspension was one of the last straws, I just doubt it was the reason.

"LBsFinest wrote:

I highly doubt this record, that's an average of 12 wins a year and Wanny never had a season better than 11-5. With that being said, yes he is a better coach than Philbin, easily.

Yeah, probably. But he inherited an amazing defense and Fiedler and Lamar Smith were fairly effective in 2000. Fiedler had his best year in 2001, such as it was, though Smith was terrible -- probably ruined by the 50-carry game against the Colts and general overuse. Wannstedt was death to running backs.

wait a minuet n 2002 we played Oakland in the second round and was leading until the Fiddler on the roof threw 2 interception s

I thought it was 2003 that we played the Ravens . which year was it where we were beating the socks of the patriots 27 -7 and then they came back and won it. that was the game Jamar Fletcher kept getting burnt .

"keypusher wrote:

Yeah, probably. But he inherited an amazing defense and Fiedler and Lamar Smith were fairly effective in 2000. Fiedler had his best year in 2001, such as it was, though Smith was terrible -- probably ruined by the 50-carry game against the Colts and general overuse. Wannstedt was death to running backs.

that's true its sort of Wannstedt was to runningbacks as Sparano was to field goal kickers

"Rosco 35 wrote:

wait a minuet n 2002 we played Oakland in the second round and was leading until the Fiddler on the roof threw 2 interception s

I thought it was 2003 that we played the Ravens . which year was it where we were beating the socks of the patriots 27 -7 and then they came back and won it. that was the game Jamar Fletcher kept getting burnt .

Of what? No playoff appearance in 2002 from our Dolphins.

Don't really care why he left...ancient history...doesn't matter.

"keypusher wrote:

Yeah, probably. But he inherited an amazing defense and Fiedler and Lamar Smith were fairly effective in 2000. Fiedler had his best year in 2001, such as it was, though Smith was terrible -- probably ruined by the 50-carry game against the Colts and general overuse. Wannstedt was death to running backs.

He did inherit a good defense but he got more from it than the guy he inherited it from (JJ). Someone somewhere deserves some credit for getting fairly effective play out of Fiedler and Lamar Smith. Maybe its not Wanny, but someone. As much as Dolphin fans like to wax poetic about those defenses and the running game, the overall offensive talent level was very, very low. And from my recollection, as good as those defenses were they did have a tendency to give up key plays at inopportune times.

Also, I don't believe any RB has been "ruined" by overuse in a single game. Yeah, he had a bad game the next week, but it was only 8 carries, and he had a lot of bad games before that too.

As to whether Wannstedt was "death to running backs," I guess it depends on what you mean by that. Ricky had his best years under Wannstedt. Lamar Smith had his best years under Wannstedt. So did Rashaan Salaam. And Raymont Harris.

"Fin4Ever wrote:

No, actually Barry Sanders left the game very healthy and with plenty left in the tank....if Ricky would not have missed all of that time and stayed healthy I think he would have stood a very good chance of leaving the game as the all time leader in yards running the ball..he was a pleasure to watch and I wish he would have had the desire to retire the all time leader of running backs.

I perhaps worded it wrong... That is what i meant.

"Rosco 35 wrote:

wait a minuet n 2002 we played Oakland in the second round and was leading until the Fiddler on the roof threw 2 interception s

I thought it was 2003 that we played the Ravens . which year was it where we were beating the socks of the patriots 27 -7 and then they came back and won it. that was the game Jamar Fletcher kept getting burnt .

In 2000 we beat the Colts in OT (and Lamar Smith had 50 carries and over 200 yards; Fiedler threw 3(?) picks in the first half; Peyton and Vanderjagt choked). The next week we got killed by the Raiders 27-0.

In 2001 we got smothered by the Ravens.

In 2008 we got smothered by the Ravens.

Unless I'm forgetting something, that's it for the playoffs for us in this millennium.

The Dolphins O-line that season was a meat grinder. If I were Ricky staring at that situation, I can't say I blame him.

"Fineas wrote:

He did inherit a good defense but he got more from it than the guy he inherited it from (JJ). Someone somewhere deserves some credit for getting fairly effective play out of Fiedler and Lamar Smith. Maybe its not Wanny, but someone. As much as Dolphin fans like to wax poetic about those defenses and the running game, the overall offensive talent level was very, very low. And from my recollection, as good as those defenses were they did have a tendency to give up key plays at inopportune times.

Also, I don't believe any RB has been "ruined" by overuse in a single game. Yeah, he had a bad game the next week, but it was only 8 carries, and he had a lot of bad games before that too.

As to whether Wannstedt was "death to running backs," I guess it depends on what you mean by that. Ricky had his best years under Wannstedt. Lamar Smith had his best years under Wannstedt. So did Rashaan Salaam. And Raymont Harris.

In 2000, Lamar Smith had 309 carries (honestly thought it was more) and 1139 yards (3.7 per carry). The next year, he had 313 carries, 968 yards (3.1 per carry). That was pretty much the end of the road for Lamar Smith.

In 2002, Ricky had 383 carries, 1853 yards (4.8 per carry). The next year he had 392 carries, 1372 yards (3.5 per carry). The next year he quit.

Maybe you can't blame Wannstedt for Smith. Lamar was 31 his last year in Miami, and that is very old for a tailback. But it was painful seeing him get fed into defenses and wind up with numbers like 23 carries, 42 yards (I swear that happened).

In 2003 Ricky was still just 26. I remember seeing an article in the 2000s that 375 carries or more in a season was pretty much death to a running back's effectiveness. Williams was Exhibit A, but there were a lot of others.