Would you make Dan Marino the GM and replace Ireland?

Zero. Nada. Zilch. Zip. Goose egg.

He's a borderline drunk and is functionally football illiterate compared to most QBs. Trent Dilfer knows more about football and football players than Dan. His ego is bigger than Parcell's.


And BTW, if Clabo didn't surprise literally everyone by sucking as bad as he has, we're not having this discussion.

 

Personally I like Section126's idea.

People bring up that he took on a job with Miami before and didn't last very long.

Well, I say good for him. That was a bad deal, IMO. Dave Wannstedt all but chucked Dan off the Dolphins when he took over in 2000. As I recall, Dan had an expiring contract (because he opted out of the final year) and Wannstedt refused to even call him, trying to pretend that it should be up to Dan to come to the organization and say I want to come back. I remember eventually Wayne Huizenga had to step in and say this is absolutely insane, Dan Marino is a legend and if Dan Marino still wants to play football for the Miami Dolphins then god damnit he's going to play here.

So now you've got Dan Marino stepping into this vague, undefined position. The position was stated to be ABOVE Rick Spielman (newly hired as the General Manager that off season), ABOVE Dave Wannstedt (who was the General Manager before Spielman and did his best to chuck Dan off the team), and BELOW Eddie Jones (who had been General Manager for a decade in the 1990's).

That's just a bad mix. I'm sure his relationship with Eddie Jones probably would've been ok but at the same time Marino is placed above two experienced General Managers and below another experienced General Manager and yet his position is kind of this undefined authority figure where he's supposed to go to the Senior Bowl and evaluate quarterbacks and all that.

Dan had only retired as a football player like four years prior. I think his kids were still young.

That was not the right time. That was not the right role. That was not the right mix of personalities.

Don Strock really said it best back in 2004 when the news came out:

I think what he could bring to a position similar to Elway's first off is credibility. I just think there's more credibility standing in the room when you've got an imposing former NFL legend weighing in. That credibility issue absolutely for certain 100% came into play when it came to Peyton Manning's decision on where to play football. That was a unique situation, but not THAT unique. There are a lot of coaches out there that were peers of Dan's, or coached/played against him, with him, etc. There are a lot of players that grew up idolizing him.

Yes, that could have been said with Matt Millen as well. But Matt Millen became a joke AFTER he royally ****ed up the Lions, not before. If Dan does that with the Dolphins, so be it. He'll make his own bed that way.

The other thing it does though is re-connect the team to its fan base. And that is SORELY needed.

Yet another thing it does is remove owner Steve Ross from the football operations by one more layer. And I think most people would PROBABLY like that very much.

You have to remember that this is the same guy that worked hard enough at his position that he became the best at it. People like to pretend he was always just pure natural talent. I think Elway was always more of that.

Dan just has a tendency to work and succeed at what he does. Was a hell of a quarterback, decides to play golf and becomes a hell of a golfer, decides to get into the restaurant business and Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza becomes a wildly successful chain, decides to go into broadcasting as an analyst and just continues working his way up there and consistently being on television while other guys come and go.

And yeah, I think it's pretty damn interesting that in JANUARY of 2004 he made the evaluation that Phil Rivers was better than Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger. I think it's interesting because I remember that draft season very well, and I remember that Rivers was considered essentially a 3rd rounder at that time, a guy nobody wanted to touch because of his funky release.

 

I was hoping Dan went to the Vikings. I'm a die hard Dolphins fan but wanted to see him with Randy and Cris. Would have been a sight to behold.

When I came into the draft scene that year, Rivers was consistently pegged in the bottom 1st, top 2nd. But this was right after the senior bowl I believe

 

Dan quit on February 3rd. He'd been on the job for 3 weeks. So somewhere between January 13th and February 3rd he decided Rivers was the best quarterback in the Draft. And at that time, I could swear to you Rivers was considered 2nd/3rd round material, though his stock was "rising" so to speak.

I believe the Senior Bowl by the way was January 25th.

It's not the king of all evaluations for him by any means. I came away from the Senior Bowl saying that Phil Rivers was the best player in the 2004 NFL Draft. That didn't make me right about Brady Quinn three years later. But it was a pretty keen evaluation by Dan.

 

I agree CK and I don't think anyone would expect Dan to be poring over hundreds of hours of tape or criss crossing the country on college scouting trips. I don't think Elway does this either (though to be fair, Elway did gain some football executive experience through his ownership in the Arena League team).

But what I think Dan can do is figure out who would be a good coach and general manager. He has worked with those people virtually all of his life. He has had experience with some of the best coaches of all time. He has sat next to Bill Cowher for several years now.

And he would certainly bring a needed jolt of energy to this franchise. For whatever reason, we just can't seem to make the move that will really get people excited again. I was a huge proponent of trading up for RGIII if possible, not only because I liked his talent, but I think he would've rignited this fanbase. Same thing with Peyton Manning. This is not a knock on Tannehill. He may yet be rgeat, which is the oonly thing that matters, but he came with the least cache of any of the 1st rounders. Even Weeden was a more interesting player due to his unique background.

 

I think what it could help do is insulate the organization a little bit from the wanton hatred that has come from the fanbase over the last couple of years. The fans adore Dan Marino. If he's listed at the top of the organization and he makes it clear he's the one with accountability, that should really insulate the organization a little bit and reinvigorate the fanbase.

Part of the reason Jeff Ireland has such a negative effect on the fanbase is because he still feels like a Parcells lackey from Dallas. In retrospect, importing "Dallas" onto the Miami Dolphins wasn't a good way to make the fans feel connected to the team. And even though Parcells and Sparano are both gone, there's no closure on that episode of team history while Ireland is still around.

 

I think that this is likely to happen. If you notice in the segment James Brown specifically points out that Marino was talking about re-joining a front office off the record before they started filming, that leads me to believe that something might be up behind the scenes. Ross likes to go after big names and no one has a bigger name than Dan in South Florida and it could also very much help Ross with the stadium renovations having Miami's favored son as the visible leader behind the entire thing.

 

I agree with that, but for me personally, I wouldn't have any leeway for him just because he's Dan, I mean if he's a figurehead of sorts, that's fine, but if he's making personnel decisions that's a different story, I don't think that's a good idea.

 

Don't think Ross is too keen on the largesse that a figurehead would entail.

 

If I can get Cowher in the deal I'd sign up for that if we don't see the improvement this year.

 

Whatta ya mean?

 

where was that?

 

The official team website has the segment.

 

In hindsight I certainly wouldn't take rivers over Berger.

 

That's a tough decision, I like them both equally.

 

I don't want Dan Marino for a figurehead. I want him in charge of the organization.

 

Dan Marino should be in charge of the entire organization....because he thought Rivers was good coming out of college and he sat next to Cowher????!?!!!!?!?!??!!

Someone tell me I'm imagining this.

 

What exactly would Ross pay him to do? Marino has no administrative experience. He'd essentially be paid to share his opinion. That's a figurehead.

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Because of his long resume of financial, administrative, and managerial experience?

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Our solution: Science. We need to clone Pat Riley

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Yes when I came on board (to start paying attention) It was Eli/Big Ben. Then at the bottom of the first top of the 2nd was Rivers and JP Losman neck and neck. As time went on Rivers shot up the draft. Some had him pegged to the Dolphins at 20. By the time the draft rolled around, he was way up above our draft position.

 

Who said anything about hiring Brett Favre? And why does every argument have to end in an enema offer?

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That's probably because he saw some of himself in Rivers. Particularly his release.

Didn't Rivers say once that he tried to emulate Marino's quick release as kid growing up?

 

Sounds like he would make a good scout.

 

He'd be paid to make the decisions that Ross doesn't want to make or is unqualified to make.

The same way Parcells was paid to make those same decisions for Huizenga.

None of this is to suggest that Marino would ultimately make good decisions, much like Parcells, but Ross hasn't shown much ability to make good football decisions either.

In fact, this was essentially the role that Huizenga wanted Marino to perform back in 2004 except huizenga gave him the job AFTER already reshuffling the organization and giving Spielman and Wanny new roles. Instead of letting Marino pick the guys to run the organization he basically wanted Dan to watch them for a year and then decide if they were doing a good job. I don't blame Dan for quitting. Particularly after Spielman showed him virtually no respect at the Senior Bowl that year and mentioned something to the effect that he "assigned a few players to Dan". Keep in mind, Marino was his boss.

Moreover, if yout ake the Denver example, this is exactly what Bowlen originally intended for Elway to do. Bowlen had just made two blunders in firing Shannahan and then hiring McDaniels, who ran off Cutler. Bowlen was getting old and simply didn't want to deal with those things anymore so he picked a guy he knew he could trust (Elway) and told him to hire the coach and GM and make sure they're doing a good job.

 

And what exactly are Marino's qualifications in any type of administrative role? Making a decision is merely the endpoint to an administrative process. I don't see anything that would indicate that Dan Marino is qualified as an administrator, or even has the type of experience with finances that would be required in the type of role you describe.

John Elway and Dan Marino aren't even really comparable in this context either.

 

He really went there huh..lol

However, if you really want to be a part of an organization I would think you would already have your mind made up and have serious convictions about your intentions, not, passive while saying, "I would consider it"

 

Stringer obviously has never watched Marino play if he thinks he'll just sit back and be a figurehead.

 

He was certainly successful in the restaurant business for a long time, which is very difficult to do. I don't know what other roles he has played at other companies.

What I do know is that he knows how to be the leader of a team. That he knows what it takes to be a good coach and talent evaluator. And I know that he'd be mroe than capable and willing to be the public face of a franchise that desperately needs one if it is to ever regain its former stature.

Even if one presumes that Ireland and Philbin are execellent at their jobs, neither of them has anywhere near the personality, or even seemingly the desire, to speak on behalf of an entire organization. Everytime Steve Ross has to give a press conference he reminds you that he hates giving press conferences.

Plus, having Marino around would be good for whoever ultimately is the GM/HC. Nobody in Denver is seeking interviews with the GM (except when he got a DUI). When the Broncos need somebody to go out and explain why a move was made, they send Elway, who's word is virtually unimpeachable in Denver. Marino would do the same thing here.

I don't know why you think this role requires poring over scouting reports, or P&Ls.

 

Care to share your reasoning besides protection from a bitter fanbase.?

 

Tis a testament to the level of knowledge of those always blindly crying about the GM.

" maybe p. diddly is available, couldn't be worse than Ireland "

 

A public face? Explain why moves were made? These are not the duties of a president of an organization. These are pretty much tasks of a figurehead or spokesman or public relations person.

 

Gotta think about this one

 

If you really want to get Marino involved with the Dolphins, just make him a Vice Chairman like they did with Shula.

 

So now we are bad mouthing Dan and wishing he went to the Vikings . Com on man Wayne H. should never sold the team to Ross in the first place.

what angers me somewhat is that some people seem hell bent on making excuses after excuses for the losing.

the moral high ground should be wanting Randy Moss and and Joe Horn to team up with Dan in Miami instead of making other teams better.

had Marino had Ricky or Ronnie and then had Chris ,Wes and Gadsden Dan could have won a superbowl in Miami .

 

Shouldn't you be out scouting players, Jeff?

 

If you're going to attack other posters, please be original and accurate. Most importantly, at least make it somewhat humorous?

 

Right, because the best GMs were always superstar players themselves when they played the game.

 

You know this how? Hearsay or hanging out together?