What are the lottery numbers for next week?

 

We have our health!

 

Two Pro Bowl players. Number of Pro Bowl players correlates with win percentage at 0.74, with the range being 0 to 9, and the average being 2.7. Yep, a good ways off.

 

We making the playoffs next year baby

 

Before the year, I thought we were close, after the way we closed the season this year (struggling with jets in first game, Baltimore kicking our ***, patriots destroying us, struggling with first year in rebuild mode Vikings team, and then the lowly jets dismantling us in second game), it is very apparent that next year is our destruction year... we used to be viewed as a team on the upswing but I dont think that's the case anymore. Coaching is holding us back and Ross doesn't mind our horrible coaching, ultimately, we are doomed.

 

As the WR corps, O-line and entire defense crumbles around him. Not to mention the ineptitude of the coaching staff.

I think Miami's going to be hard pressed to get back to 8-8 next year.

 

I'm excited about Tannehill as well...but that's literally about it. He and Lamar Miller are about the only two players who appear to give a damn week-to-week; I'd have said the same about Branden Albert, but he's been on IR for over a month. Yes, I'm omitting Wake and Grimes intentionally. Grimes has been dog$h!t the past month as well, so there's that.

This team's not going anywhere until Stephen Ross sells it or dies. Lord knows even if he does fire Joe Philbin - it'll be two years too late if he does during/after 2015 - he'll screw up the next hire. That is literally where this team sits.

 

That was said last year too, but our OL is still horrible. Miami is run by morons and that's a problem you can't fix this offseason.

 

Agree re RT but we could just as easily be sub .500 , and most likely miss the playoffs yet again.

Much much more concerted effort is needed to address the many holes , of course then we still have below average coaching imo . Tough to be overtly positive , though I certainly am about 17 .

 

Or the same?

 

Yup, if history has anything to do with it, we are in store for a lame duck season next year.

 

I will say I wasn't high on Tannehill but that's because it takes me longer to get to where I really like that player.

here is how it is good teams don't pull defeat out of the jaws of victory and that is our problem.

 

By far and away the Miami Dolphins are and will always be my favorite sports team. They strike me as being similar to one of my other favorite teams, the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds toiled under Dusty Baker and let the prime years of their then stud players, Joey Votto, Jay Bruce and Johnny Cueto slip by, often overpaying the wrong players in the process (Homer Bailey = Mike Wallace, for example). Now, the Reds are starting to trade off their pitching talent yet saying they're close and want to be competitive, but for all intents and purposes, are probably a last place team in 2015 with how the Cubs have retooled. They're relying on Joey Votto and Jay Bruce coming back to All-Star caliber form coming off knee injures (highly unlikely) and their farm system, which is for the most part bereft of talent after a series of trades in Baker's tenure, supplementing the bullpen and the bench. Oh by the way, they still don't have a starting left fielder in the fold.

Miami is similar as you're wasting away what is your best player's prime in Cameron Wake, and I think we're starting to see Brent Grimes go on the slippery slope the past month. You're banking on Branden Albert returning healthy (Votto) and Mike Pouncey going back to being a Pro Bowl caliber center (Bruce) while the rest of the defense is basically a bunch of bad to mediocre players with the exception of perhaps Reshad Jones and Jelani Jenkins. Free agency and the Draft (the farm system essentially) aren't going to supplement you enough to be [Super Bowl] competitive in 2015, and by the time you start to get there and pay large sums to Tannehill and Pouncey, your best player on defense is probably going to be winding down. I think this team essentially needs to be blown up and built around guys like Tannehill, like Lamar Miller, like Jones and Jenkins, but because people see 8-8, they assume they're "close" when in reality, I think both the Dolphins and the Reds are close to collapse than success.

My hope is that Garfinkel, Marino and Tannenbaum are able to get Ross to realize this before it's too late and you're stuck with a handful of guys being paid large sums and you're not able to replace a Cameron Wake, a Brent Grimes, retool the receiving corps and the interior of the D-line. All your money is going to be tied up into Tannehill, Pouncey, Miller, Jones, Jenkins, etc. while the rest rots away.

Compounding this issues is Ross' insistence on keeping Joe Philbin, a coach who cannot handle outspoken/sometimes troubled or trouble-making players (Bush, Dansby, Davis, Incognito, Long, Marshall, Martin, Smith, and presumably Mike Wallace), who makes bad hires and was damn near willing to fall on the sword for those hires, and fails to adapt in-game and in-season, you're going to be left with a mess.

You can get away with SOME of that when you've got a Brady, Manning or Rodgers at QB and while Tannehill is improving, I don't think he's going to hit that level any time soon if it all.

 

Hasn't that been the mantra for Dolphins fans every year since Marino has retired?

 

More grumblings about Coyle:

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/nfl/miami-dolphins/article5080476.html

 

Great post! I am a Mets fan, so you got me beat!

 

At least we can agree on the Buckeyes.

 

Im a Met and Dolphin fan...life has been really hard these last 20 some years or so!

 

But you're going to find some conglomeration of those sorts of issues on just about every team, and like you said very well, what gives you margin of error with regard to them is whether you have elite quarterback play. Unfortunately I see the league evolving such that the teams with the kinds of quarterbacks you mentioned are routinely competitive at the Super Bowl level, precisely because they have this sort of margin of error, while the teams without them are incapable of being that competitive because they do not.

 

Funny you bring up lotto numbers. winning the lottery is sheer luck. The way this franchise is run, it will take that same kind of luck for us to be a dominant team in this league. For all of you saying "but we found our quarterback," lol. Who cares? the quaterback we found led us to two consecutive eight and eight seasons. So we found a quaterback to lead a mediocre team. This is hysterical!

 

So the jets would be correct to say they can be optimistic because GS is blossoming?

 

The Bills, who finished second in the division are much closer to being a playoff team than the Dolphins. They have a far better defense and if they can add a decent QB to their roster in the off season, they are the team which will be the main competition for the Patriots next year in the AFC East.

I think the 2013 season is the closest this team will get to making the playoffs under this coaching staff. The defense needs to be rebuilt and it is obvious by what happened yesterday, Wallace and Gibson won't be back with the Dolphins next year. So along with upgrading the OL, now it appears the Dolphins will have to find more WR's for this roster.

With all the money the Jets have to spend in free agency, they are bound to be an improved team next year. So I think it is very likely the Dolphins will end up in last place in the division next year. Of course with the clueless owner this team has, he will probably give Philbin a three year extension and claim he wants continuity with his coaching staff.

 

Easily lol you are delusional.

 

I feel for you being a Mets fan. One of my roommates in college was a Mets fan and just seeing how depressed he was when Carlos Beltran struck out - I'm sure you know what I'm referring to - really sends it home. He's also a Jets fan, so I usually just tell him he's doing this to himself. But I feel like I'm doing it as well.

 

It is great to see that I am not the only one on this forum who sees that this team is headed in the wrong direction under this head coach. I just can never understand the agenda of those individuals on here who support him and the job he has done the past three years.

I swear his supporters have to be fans of the Jets, Patriots, Bills, or they just can't stand the Dolphins. Because there is no way a true Dolphin fan can justify Philbin coming back for a fourth year.

 

In all fairness, this year it was injuries that led to the demise of the OL. Losing your stud LT is a blow and while James filled in admirably, it left a huge hole on the right side, then the injuries of the various interior guys....

That said, the OL might be able to be corrected with Albert coming back healthy and one draftee or FA on the interior...the D, on the other hand...let me count the ways...one offseason is not gonna be enough...