I still cringe when I think about us trading 2 1st round picks for Ricky.

 

I still cringe when I think we wasted the best years of his career. 2002, we had the leading rusher (Williams), leading sacker (JT), leading tackler (Zach), and leading defense in the NFL and still missed the playoffs at 10-6 because of Jay Fiedler and Dave Wannstedt.

 

I like Ricky a lot. I did then and I do now. However, had we just held onto the draft pick, we could have just drafted Clinton Portis in 2002 instead.

 

At the time, I had a problem with Williams and his drug problem....until I heard the full story behind it. For those that don't know, teams are tested for marijuana once per season and the date is well known by everyone in the organization. Ricky transferred to the Fins two days before that date and had no idea the test was coming. Once he failed, the league random tested him several times that season which led to fail #2. And from there, he was tested hundreds of additional times...a UPS driver would show up at his home with a test and tell him he had 10 minutes to pee so he could take it back....it was almost daily and it really angered him. He claims the league knew pot was widely used and there was no reason to single him out.

The part a lot of folks don't realize is that almost every professional athlete smokes weed for pain, inflammation, etc. They know what happens with pain killers and Ricky was tired of being strung out by opioids...he said that he felt like a zombie since the doctors were always pushing for him to take more. A college teammate introduced him to weed and he said that it was the first time he actually slept and felt normal in years, plus he felt clear in practice the next day. From that point forward he was hooked, just like every other athlete in the locker room fighting bumps and bruises on a regular basis. He claimed it was all medicinal and now he's basically an ambassador for weed and it's health benefits, plus he owns his own dispensaries.

The other part to that story is that Williams always hated talking to the media, he was super shy and got nervous in interviews. People took that the wrong way and thought he was being stuck up or a diva, but players swear he was nothing like that. Ricky just hated interviews because he knew he was really bad at them.

 

I still cringe when I think about Wannstedt in Miami. He crippled this franchise for years, even after he was gone. The worst part was that we hired him after he did the same thing to the Bears’ organization.

 

I don't disagree. But its even worse and more painful that everyone hired after him so far has been even worse!

 

That and we over invested for a position that had lost its importance in the nfl. We were taking a 1980’s approach to 2000’s NFL. But that was the Miami Dolphins playbook for about 15 years.

 

There I disagree. I think that you need both a running game and a passing game to succeed. Wanny obviously greatly downplayed the passing aspect much to his detriment and ours as fans. But getting a high quality RB can only help. Its not Ricky's fault the offense failed.

 

You need a running game but you don’t invest 2 1st round picks in a RB. I’m not even a fan of drafting one in the first round let alone trading for one.

 

i enjoyed his interview on The Fight and The Kid.

 

Ricky is my all time love/hate Dolphins player. Leaving after the draft made me so mad I couldn't think about him without souring my day. But he was such a beast on the field, he literally gave us chance against every team in the league. Wannstedt is who I should have been :censored: off with. How could we not have had a much better team with Ricky AND Ronnie in the same backfield?

 

If he'd gone after a better QB, we would have. Fiedler was an anchor around our neck.

 

I have to be very careful when I think of that particular individual associated with the Miami Dolphins, let alone being Head Coach. If I even think about that individual a large number of formerly employed Naval euphemisms for inadequacy, lack of mental capacity, abysmal leadership, and a few other derogatory phrases come to mind.

 

He straight up won us games on his own. What more do you want?

 

Ricky is the reason why I am a dolphins fan (as crazy as that sounds) and will always be my favorite

 

To have had someone in charge that understood 1980’s football didn’t win championships anymore and that you don’t ever pay 2 1st round picks for a RB.

 

That's not Ricky's fault though.

 

Love Ricky, back then I was devastated when he „quit“, now I totally understand why he did what he did.

 

No, but you quoted my response to someone who was responding to my post regarding my original post about what a bad trade this was. I can’t fault Ricky for that. But it was an abysmal trade.

 

He was unstoppable at one point.

His 2002 season was probably the second greatest offensive season in Dolphins history.

 

I get what you’re saying about Fiedler and Wannstedt. While I agree with you about Wannatedt, I have to disagree with you about Fiedler and here’s why...

Fielder was a pretty tough as nails QB and even though he never lit the field up with 35-40 passes per game for 300+ yards and 3-4 touchdowns, that didn’t matter because that was not Wannstedt nor Jimmy Johnson’s MO offensively. We could have drafted Drew Brees in the 2001 draft and it wouldn’t have made any difference.

Sure, we may have won a game or two more each season under Wannstedt but the end result would have been the same.

Fiedler played the game as called by the Wannstedt regime, so I can’t fault him for doing what he was instructed to do.

 

Sorry, but that's a poor recollection of Fiedler's situation. It wasn't just that he didn't throw much. When he did throw, he threw poorly.