Honest answer. He keeps Sparano and Henne is a back-up. Ireland/Sparano know this job is on the line and gets Orton, Flynn, or Palmer. Just a guess but withe the CBA looming and getting a coach on a 2 year deal cheap. Again that is my GUESS.

 

I see Palmer as most likely. Bengals will probably release him right? Palmer is on a horrible franchise with a terrible front office and "Batman and Robin" don't help. I think a change of scenery may be a good thing like it was for Brees. If not, oh well, we need to try something.

Ross is frustrated. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/26/1989388/ross-upset-after-dolphins-loss.html He obviously doesn't want to see a 1-7 home record, fans booing[Hey, at least they showed up. The place looked more packed than last week, probably cause people unloaded tix cheap.], some even chanting "henne sucks" at one point. That doesn't look good. I don't think I'd want to be in his shoes though, it's a tough decision. You don't want to change coaching staffs completely too often. OC obviously needs a change, but HC and GM? tough call. Jimmy Johnson, Saban, Parcells didn't work out, so who knows.

Plus, I heard that a former Super Bowl winning coach whose gone on to coach a new team has never won a Super Bowl with that new team.[Parcells knows a thing or 4 about that]. If we do get Cowher, hope he changes that. If not Cowher, then stick with Sparano.

 

I would be willing to bet he fires Sparano.

 

I think so to, and to be honest, I think we should. He's lacking in so many areas, hasn't improved as a coach in many areas. Good coaches prevent epic meltdowns like yesterday. Teams shouldnt implode like we did, sure Henne threw a couple of picks, but what are we out there trying to throw the ball at will still, in the wind, with a 2 score lead? After the D gives up the 53 yard TD, why does the entire offense come out shellshocked? Shouldn't happen. Can't win with him. He's got to get everyone in the game at that point. This team comes out flat too much, and when we don't, and actually start a game as well as we did yesterday, we fall flat at the end. When's the last time we closed out a game easily in Sparano's time here? I don't think we have, other than the new endland wildcat debut game.

 

i like sparano. If it was my decision I would give them another year in that I dont think its their fault for what they had to work with on offense. That's all Ireland and by extension Parcells. Still like the saying goes "Offense sells seats, Defense wins championships". And by the performance of our offense we should sell about 16 seats next year. By concentrating solely on defense and trying to build an offense on the cheap you have almost guaranteed your own execution. Can Ireland fix the offense next year. Probably, its the only thing he needs to concentrate on and just about anyone could improve it especially when your entire focus will be on it.

But at this point, I honestly can go with either direction. Keep them all or fire them all. either decision is justified now

 

I would not be surprised if the regime is kept on for another year .Here is why.

A lot of Ross's wealth is on paper .He is a proponent of using OPM -other peoples money--for his investments.

Dont forget he applied for bailout money for his real estate investments.Not sure if he got any.

In this economy he may be a tightwad which would lead you to believe he may just keep this regime around .

If he fires this regime he would have to pay the remaining debt on their contracts plus fork out millions to sign their replacements.

He has to analyze how much that is going to cost him vs the losses he would take in reduced ticket sales and TV money.

 

There is no justification to keeping Henning. None. In fact, if he's back as OC next year, I may not be as a fan.

 

Sounds like an awesome owner.

 

I think we should keep Sparano and Ireland and run Henning out of town on a rail. I don't think I have the stomach to watch us change regimes and get into yet another rebuilding project.

Get rid of Henning, Make Henne a backup (all he'll ever be), bring in a veteren Qb and draft a young one with our 1st pick, if it makes sense with the talent on board.

 

CT does Ireland have a longer contract than Sparano ? If not, then they all have just one more year on their deals. With an average of $100 a ticket and 10 games a year (those 2 damn preseason games - this is not taking into consideration the 18 game season) you are going to take a $ 10 million hit in just ticket sales. That will be compounded with loss of concession sales, parking money, and loss of TV exposure (no sellouts and blackouts on TV). Do you keep Sparano & risk losing those season ticket holders ? Or do you fire them, pay them, and then keep more of those ticket holders by hiring a splasy name ? Ross has some very tough decisions to make.

By the by....Just listening to Joe Rose show, and Jeff Darlington is his guest, and he says that Ross was absent immediately after the game for 30 minutes not in the locker room like he usually is, even after losses. Bad sign for Sparano ? Ross didn't want to be there for his speech ? That is more smoke for the firestorm to come I believe.

 

well i think i have a much lower regard for our offensive personnel than most people on these boards. As soon as we score our first seven points I feel we have overachieved considering what we have to work with. So for me, the playcalling has never been the issue. Its always been the offensive line and Henne's lack of progress

 

I'm done with Henne too, but I believe Henning's erratic and ill-conceived play-calling has, in part, ******ed Henne progress.

 

While Ross has alot of wealth tied up in assets, he's still obsecnely rich.

And the revenue sharing covers most of your player costs, so it's not a huge issue. Point being, if he doesn't make a change it's not going to be money related.

The more I try and digest this, my hunch is that Ireland stays, sparano goes and a guy like Jason Garrett becomes the ehad coach. Carl Petersen, who is close to Ross, gave Ireland his first job so he has somebody likely in his corner. Moreover, Ireland and Ross spen much more time together than Ross and Sparano, which culminated in Ireland getting the promotion to VP of football Ops. I'm sure Ireland has been in *ss saving mode for a few weeks now and it will likely work.

You bring in Jason Garrett, who grew exponentially as a HC prospect in my eyes during his interim stint, you keep Nolan and find a QB.

 

who knows? when you cant beat people playing straight up you have to try to outthink them and fool them. That almost never works but when you have no choice you have no choice. Considering who he was given to call plays for I dont think Henning had any choice. Dont think it matters though since he's 90% gone anayway

 

which would suck from a justice stand point since its Ireland that loaded our offensive line with castoffs and backups and made Sparano be the fall guy

 

You're right, in the end nobody knows for sure. Either way I think the best thin for the Miami Dolphins going forward is to begin next season without Henning and Henne in the fold.
As far as Sparano goes, I think I am one of the few here who still like him. If he is fired I will understand why, but if he is back next season I won't be all that upset.

 

Meh, I can think of at least a half-dozen directions I would go before I look at Jason Garrett. Really, we may as well keep Sparano if we're just gonna hire a guy like Garrett.

 

Don't assume that sparano had nothing to do with those choices. These decsions don't get made in a vaccum.

 

He's as good a choice as any. First, he's an offensive guy who is familiar with the3-4 defense so maybe nolan stays on and he turned the Cowboys from a frat house to ana ctual professional, disciplined team.

He's a great choice if you're going the young, coordinator route.

 

I like everything you say, especially about Ireland. Likely he and Sparano have more tension between them now, if this is the case and Sparano has figured it out. If we can, then he probably has too. This means every loss then Ireland gets stronger, and Sparano weaker. Not sure this is fair, it probably isn't, but thats the way the world works. I think Ireland is probably as much to blame as Sparano in all of this mess. He does more of the talent procurement than Sparano. If things get to hot then Ross may have to axe one of them, to relive the tension, and Sparano is the more likely candidate, given what we know of the circumstances you laid down. This will be interesting to see play out.

 

Also in regards to Garrett I think thats a moot point, as Jones will probably hire Garrett full time. Barring another embarassing loss next week I think Dallas has their man.

 

Ireland and Sparano may like each other, but they like their jobs more.

Sparano's best chance to survivie is to simply tell ross, "I tried to bench the guy. I put Penny in and if he had stayed healthy we would be in the playoffs. It wasn't my fault that I had to put the guy who can't play back in there. Give me a real QB and we go to the playoffs."

Ireland's best chance is to point out the massive talent infusion that has taken place, particularly on defense. He can always pawn off Henne/Pat White as Parcells picks. And it's more about relationships. Ireland reports directly to Ross, thus they spend alot of time together. sparano reports to Ireland. He just doesn't get the "face time" necessary to save his butt in these situations

 

Yep, and this is what I thought would happen too. So does Ireland pick the next head coach or does Ross. That also will be interesting to see play out if Sparano is let go, as we assume will happen.

 

Hiring the coach is always ultimately the owners call. Ireland will likely get the list of candidates together and then they go from there.

 

Really??? I dont see Jones sticking with Garrett....he will revamp his entire staff.

Garrett as OC in Miami?

 

I don't see Garrett getting away from JJ. Didn't they have to promote him to assistant HC at one point to keep another team from signing him (and, wasn't it us)??? In other words, the only way we could've signed his was as HC, and he was being sought as a OC? Anyways, I just don't see it happening. I think he's probably already earned the job as their new HC. Of course, with JJ anything is possible, but that's my gut on Garrett.

No matter...Ross, assuming he has any business savvy, has to see the instability at the top of this FO. And, if so, he has to see that this is his opportunity to take control of the team he bought 2-3 years ago. His team. Fire Parcells, Sparano and Henning, and give Ireland one more year to turn it around.

JMHO...

 

Ross is a fan and the owner, he should in no way pick the coach in any circumstance