The hatred directed at Miami Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland will never cease to amaze me. In the eyes of some people everything is Ireland's fault.
Did it rain today? Blame it on Jeff Ireland.
Did your dog die? Blame it on Jeff Ireland.
Did you oversleep and come into work late? Blame it on Jeff Ireland.
How about your dinner? Was it burnt? It must have been Jeff Ireland's fault.
No matter what, if something happens (good or bad) to the Dolphins it is Jeff Ireland's "fault". And frankly, it's pissing me off. Jeff Ireland is a good general manager. I don't care what any fan says.
Do you know what we do way too much of? We focus on the negatives. We look at the Pat White's, the Clyde Gates', and the Chad Henne's that he drafted.
Instead of looking at what we do have we look at who we don't have and what went wrong with that player. Well, news flash, that happens to every team in the NFL. There are picks that don't pan out, and it's as simple as that. It's not Jeff Ireland's inadequacy. Every NFL GM has picks that they miss on.
And please try and convince me that the Vontae Davis trade was a bad one, because it wasn't. Vontae was Miami's 3rd best cornerback. They drafted him late in the first round, got three years of production out of him, and then got an early 2nd round pick and possibly a 6th rounder, too.
I want you guys to look at our team right now. We have a great defense, we have a good offensive line, we have great running backs, and I believe that we now have our coveted franchise quarterback. You are all led to believe (because of lazy journalism, lack of research, etc.) that the Dolphins are an all-around bad team. Well they're not. They need one or two receivers. That's a problem that can be fixed by a little trading.
I think we can all agree that our biggest weakness right now is our wide receivers. Well, you can't blame our current receivers on Jeff Ireland. If you're looking for someone to place the blame on (which you shouldn't because Miami isn't done), then blame Joe Philbin. Miami had Brandon Marshall, but Philbin didn't want a receiver with potential off-field issues so they traded him. Then Ireland brought in Chad Johnson, but he had the first arrest of his NFL career so Philbin cut him.
I am not saying that Joe Philbin should be thrown into Riverdog's "doghouse", because I really like what Philbin is doing. I'm saying that Jeff Ireland shouldn't be in the "doghouse" either.
Whenever Miami has truly had a problem at any position he's fixed it. Last year Miami needed running backs, so Ireland drafted Daniel Thomas and brought in Reggie Bush. Now, one of the Dolphins biggest strengths is running backs. This year we needed a quarterback. Ireland drafted Ryan Tannehill in the first round and brought in David Garrard who, if healthy, would be starting for the Dolphins.
What about Kyle Orton last year? Everyone who wanted him raise your hand please (my hand is raised, too. I wanted him). What did Jeff Ireland do? He brought in Matt Moore. What did Matt Moore do? He turned the team around and won team MVP. Sometimes we need to acknowledge that the people who are paid to do this sort of thing know more about it than us, and that we should trust their judgement instead of whining about them.
Bad luck has affected Miami this year, not poor management. They lost starting QB David Garrard for all of preseason due to injury. They lost starting WR Chad Johnson due to an uncharacteristic arrest. Neither was Jeff Ireland's fault, and I dare you to say otherwise.
I challenge anyone to debate this with me. Please. My email is paul@dolphinshout.com. I will discuss this as much and for as long as you would like.
Thanks for stopping by.
