197-197 since 1994, Miami Dolphin fans understand these numbers all too well, Adam Gase - 21-21, Ryan Tannehill - 40-42. It comes as little surprise the Dolphins head into the bye week 5-5. Every Dolphin-centric media site has been posting these numbers in one form or another. 25 years is long enough to be what your record says you are…
Mediocre…
Don Shula was forced into retirement after the 1995 season and the Dolphins have wilted into average ever since. There are so many data points to analyze in a quarter century, but perhaps the most basic is correct.
Occam’s razor: The simplest solution tends to be the correct one.
Since Shula, ten head coaches have taken over the franchise and none has broken the chain of mediocrity. Adam Gase obviously falls into this averageness, but for him to be 21-21 is astonishing considering what he’s had to work with. This season, the team has been decimated by injuries, outgained by 787 yards, outscored by 57 points, ranked 28th in offense and 26th in defense. It’s nothing short of remarkable Miami is 5-5 given how statistically bad this team actually is.
Adam Gase is not the problem…
Occam’s razor: The simplest solution tends to be the correct one.
Since drafting Dan Marino in 1983, the Miami Dolphins have drafted only a single quarterback in the first round of the NFL draft. Ryan Tannehill was picked in 2012. It could be argued that with Marino manning the position, there was no need to draft another QB. That makes sense except Marino retired in 1999 and the Dolphins didn’t draft a 1st round QB for another 12 years…
Historically, great teams are led by great QBs. As the NFL has matured into a less violent and more score happy league, the dependence on the QB position has become paramount. In truth, only one position on the football field can realistically be responsible for winning football games.
It’s not to say, the QB is solely responsible for winning football games. It means, in many games the QB is the difference between winning and losing. Statistical averages show, 23% of games will be decided by 3 or fewer points and 46% of games will be decided by 7 or fewer points.
23% is roughly 4 games in a season, for Adam Gase, it’s the difference between being a great coach and an average coach. It’s the difference between ending the season 8-8 and ending the season 12-4. It would be much less than bold to say a QB like Tom Brady is worth 3 points in any given game.
Occam’s razor: The simplest solution tends to be the correct one.
This entire article is an attempt to look at the simplest solution to a 25 year problem… At 40-42 it’s clear that Ryan Tannehill is not worth 3 points per game and this is historically correct for this player. In 2011, Tannehill’s senior at Texas A&M, the team was a pre-season darling, ranked 1st overall by many pundits, they finished 7-6. Three of those loses were by 3 points or less, only one loss was by more than 7 points.
Ryan Tannehill is mediocre because he is not worth those 3 points that are the difference between winning teams and average teams. There’s nothing wrong with Ryan Tannehill, he has all the skills, attitude and potential any coach could ask for. Those attributes are what Adam Gase sees in him and why Gase believes Tannehill is an NFL caliber quarterback.
Clearly with the 28th ranked offense and 26th ranked defense, Miami should not be 5-5. This means Adam Gase is actually a very, very good coach who could easily be great, but he’s missing those 3 points from a great QB. Gase is stubborn and maybe to a fault if he does not take a long look at how to break the chain of mediocrity.
Other players understand this concept, it’s the reason veteran free agents will go to New England for less money and why they came to Miami when Dan Marino was behind center. Players in the NFL are all good. The fine line between winning and losing is the confidence gained when 23% of all games are won by 3 points and the winning team has one guy who can make that difference.
Occam’s razor: The simplest solution tends to be the correct one.
Do the Miami Dolphins truly want to break the chain of mediocrity? Does Adam Gase truly want to create a legacy as a great coach? The simplest answer is most likely correct. Don Shula had John Unitas, Bob Griese and Dan Marino as his quarterbacks, Shula won more games than any coach in NFL history. All of those QBs were worth 3 points per game and have a bust in the Hall-of-Fame.
Maybe the “IT” factor is not some mystical force that one guy has and another does not. Maybe “IT” is simply 3 points. It doesn’t seem like much, but when you narrow down another sport, like swimming where a race is won by 100ths of a second, or golf where 1 stoke wins a 4-day tournament, 3 points should not be taken lightly.
This is what happens with a QB like Ryan Tannehill, the 3 points he lost by in college were taken lightly in the wrong direction. If not for a faulty defense, his team would have won those games. If not for a penalty, an injury, a slip, a fall, a fumble… His team would not have lost by 3 stinking points. In reality, they lost because he’s not worth those 3 points a game.
Occam’s razor: The simplest solution tends to be the correct one.
If the Miami Dolphins truly wish to break the chain of mediocrity, get a QB worth the 3 points of “IT.” Do not stop trying until that player is attained. It really doesn’t matter how good Minkah Fitzpatrick is, or Laremy Tunsil, or any other player at any other position, they are not worth 3 points. Those players only have value, once the 3 points of “IT” are secured.
Ten head coaches have come and gone, with multitudes of schemes and assistants, they obviously are not the difference. Miami has drafted only one 1st round quarterback in a league that is defined by quarterback play. It seems so simple…
Maybe it is…
Maybe the simplest solution is the correct one.
Showing posts with label Don Shula. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Don Shula. Show all posts
For Adam Gase in the Words of Don Shula
Adam Gase has serious potential as an NFL head coach, but he must learn from his mistakes. Coaching in this league is a tenuous profession where success is fleeting and failure is one poor decision away. There are certain obvious keys to success and most great coaches have field generals that are an extension of themselves.
Don Shula once said, "People you're responsible for are always looking at you. You want to make sure that all the vibes you give off, all the examples you set, are good ones. You want to be living the life you're talking about."
That same vibe happens with the field general, the quarterback of the football team and extends to the players around him. If the field general has an unemotional almost detached vibe on the football field, by extension, the players around him will emulate that vibe.
“The most important thing you can do, is be credible. That's something you always have to weigh, the credibility part."
If coach Gase sees Jay Cutler as the best extension of himself on the field, but Cutler makes critical mistakes, then Gase loses credibility.
It’s a fine line as Shula pointed out, “Too often coaches want to do the popular thing with the players. Sometimes, though, that's not the best thing you can do.”
So how does Adam Gase overcome this contradiction? What’s popular with the players or the fans may not be right, but at the same time, how does a leader recognize when he’s making a mistake.
It’s tough to be a leader, it’s tough to be a man. The toughest thing for a leader to do, is step back and be critical of his own decisions and realize his own mistakes or shortcomings.
Shula said, “The superior man blames himself. The inferior man blames others.”
Adam Gase thought he could turn Jay Cutler into something he is not, a good quarterback. “Luck means a lot in football. Not having a good quarterback is bad luck.”
Shula knew that because he understood winning in the NFL is overwhelmingly predicated by the play at one position, QB. Shula averaged over 10 wins in 33 seasons for three reasons, Unitas, Griese and Marino.
Cutler and Tannehill have won 10 games 3 times in 18 combined seasons.
“The ultimate goal is victory. And if you refuse to work as hard as you possibly can toward that aim, or if you do anything that keeps you from achieving that goal, then you are just cheating yourself.” Well coach Gase, trying to make winners out of losers might qualify as cheating yourself.
There is nothing wrong with confidence, “Leadership implies movement toward something, and convictions provide that direction.” The goal is winning.
Sometimes coaches get caught up in the fantasy of football, where stats become more important than victories. “What coaching is all about, is taking players and analyzing their ability, put them in a position where they can excel within the framework of the team winning.”
The theme that reverberates through all of these Shula quotes is winning and that’s where tangible abilities meet intangible results. A quarterback can throw the ball a hundred miles, run faster, jump higher and even sometimes be smarter than his competitor and still lose, why? Is it innate?
“I have no magic formula. The only way I know to win is through hard work.”
Well even hard work for a player does not always lead to victories because there’s an intangible that comes with the quarterback position. It’s called leadership.
“Lots of leaders want to be popular. I never cared about that. I want to be respected.”
Many pundits point out that football is a team game and a single position cannot determine victory or defeat. It’s absolutely true except for one flaw, leadership…
Leadership on the field… Bob Griese did not throw it a mile, he did not run very fast, he was not very tall. Yet he bought into the concept of "over learning."
That's Shula’s term, “to emphasize how important it is to not only know what your assignment is, but the assignments of everyone around you and why you are being asked to do what you are asked to do.”
Field generals, don’t bumble and fumble around in critical moments because they have "over learned." They can see the situation with clarity because the plays and defenses are second nature from previous study.
Now they can go about the art of winning. These are the qualities of winners and though much of these rantings imply that perhaps winning can be learned, the truth is, the will to win is the most important gift of all.
Gift... A natural ability or talent.
“When you're there, it's not good enough to be there.” The NFL is the pinnacle of tackle football, but getting to the National Football League is not the highest point, winning once you get there is what determines greatness. There’s a peculiar thing about winners, whether it’s ping pong, horse shoes or football, they win.
Adam Gase can teach his offense, he can instill his philosophies, he can “demand perfection and hope for excellence,” but he can’t teach winning. He needs to go find winners and then teach them his philosophies, that’s the key.
Don Shula had to make those decisions, “deciding at cut-down date what the final roster would be. Everyone would give their opinion, and very often character would enter into whether we kept a guy or not."
So there’s a bottom line to all this drivel, Jay Cutler and Ryan Tannehill have never been winners. Don Shula knew one when he saw one, he filled his teams with them, winners.
Cutler and Tannehill are incredibly talented men, they learn well, they have all the tangibles any coach could ask for. They don’t win, it’s not an indictment on their abilities, it’s not a knock on who they are or a questioning of their character. They both are really good people, they just don’t lead teams to victory more often then they lead them to defeat.
The quarterback position is not about fantasy stats...
Terry Bradshaw threw as many interceptions as he threw touchdowns, but in the end, he won. Adam Gase, please take a peek at history… Great coaches and great QBs together, create winners. Find a winner and mold him, follow the great man’s footsteps.
“If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.”
Don Shula once said, "People you're responsible for are always looking at you. You want to make sure that all the vibes you give off, all the examples you set, are good ones. You want to be living the life you're talking about."
That same vibe happens with the field general, the quarterback of the football team and extends to the players around him. If the field general has an unemotional almost detached vibe on the football field, by extension, the players around him will emulate that vibe.
“The most important thing you can do, is be credible. That's something you always have to weigh, the credibility part."
If coach Gase sees Jay Cutler as the best extension of himself on the field, but Cutler makes critical mistakes, then Gase loses credibility.
It’s a fine line as Shula pointed out, “Too often coaches want to do the popular thing with the players. Sometimes, though, that's not the best thing you can do.”
So how does Adam Gase overcome this contradiction? What’s popular with the players or the fans may not be right, but at the same time, how does a leader recognize when he’s making a mistake.
It’s tough to be a leader, it’s tough to be a man. The toughest thing for a leader to do, is step back and be critical of his own decisions and realize his own mistakes or shortcomings.
Shula said, “The superior man blames himself. The inferior man blames others.”
Adam Gase thought he could turn Jay Cutler into something he is not, a good quarterback. “Luck means a lot in football. Not having a good quarterback is bad luck.”
Shula knew that because he understood winning in the NFL is overwhelmingly predicated by the play at one position, QB. Shula averaged over 10 wins in 33 seasons for three reasons, Unitas, Griese and Marino.
Cutler and Tannehill have won 10 games 3 times in 18 combined seasons.
“The ultimate goal is victory. And if you refuse to work as hard as you possibly can toward that aim, or if you do anything that keeps you from achieving that goal, then you are just cheating yourself.” Well coach Gase, trying to make winners out of losers might qualify as cheating yourself.
There is nothing wrong with confidence, “Leadership implies movement toward something, and convictions provide that direction.” The goal is winning.
Sometimes coaches get caught up in the fantasy of football, where stats become more important than victories. “What coaching is all about, is taking players and analyzing their ability, put them in a position where they can excel within the framework of the team winning.”
The theme that reverberates through all of these Shula quotes is winning and that’s where tangible abilities meet intangible results. A quarterback can throw the ball a hundred miles, run faster, jump higher and even sometimes be smarter than his competitor and still lose, why? Is it innate?
“I have no magic formula. The only way I know to win is through hard work.”
Well even hard work for a player does not always lead to victories because there’s an intangible that comes with the quarterback position. It’s called leadership.
“Lots of leaders want to be popular. I never cared about that. I want to be respected.”
Many pundits point out that football is a team game and a single position cannot determine victory or defeat. It’s absolutely true except for one flaw, leadership…
Leadership on the field… Bob Griese did not throw it a mile, he did not run very fast, he was not very tall. Yet he bought into the concept of "over learning."
That's Shula’s term, “to emphasize how important it is to not only know what your assignment is, but the assignments of everyone around you and why you are being asked to do what you are asked to do.”
Field generals, don’t bumble and fumble around in critical moments because they have "over learned." They can see the situation with clarity because the plays and defenses are second nature from previous study.
Now they can go about the art of winning. These are the qualities of winners and though much of these rantings imply that perhaps winning can be learned, the truth is, the will to win is the most important gift of all.
Gift... A natural ability or talent.
“When you're there, it's not good enough to be there.” The NFL is the pinnacle of tackle football, but getting to the National Football League is not the highest point, winning once you get there is what determines greatness. There’s a peculiar thing about winners, whether it’s ping pong, horse shoes or football, they win.
Adam Gase can teach his offense, he can instill his philosophies, he can “demand perfection and hope for excellence,” but he can’t teach winning. He needs to go find winners and then teach them his philosophies, that’s the key.
Don Shula had to make those decisions, “deciding at cut-down date what the final roster would be. Everyone would give their opinion, and very often character would enter into whether we kept a guy or not."
So there’s a bottom line to all this drivel, Jay Cutler and Ryan Tannehill have never been winners. Don Shula knew one when he saw one, he filled his teams with them, winners.
Cutler and Tannehill are incredibly talented men, they learn well, they have all the tangibles any coach could ask for. They don’t win, it’s not an indictment on their abilities, it’s not a knock on who they are or a questioning of their character. They both are really good people, they just don’t lead teams to victory more often then they lead them to defeat.
The quarterback position is not about fantasy stats...
Terry Bradshaw threw as many interceptions as he threw touchdowns, but in the end, he won. Adam Gase, please take a peek at history… Great coaches and great QBs together, create winners. Find a winner and mold him, follow the great man’s footsteps.
“If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.”
Miami Dolphins' Future is Now
Where do the Miami Dolphins go from here? Is it a question of talent or heart? Forget about coaches, the coaching carousel has changed enough times to be certain the problem is in the Miami locker room. Questioning players always leads back to one position, the quarterback.
Throw a few names at the wall to begin analyzing these players. DeVante Parker for instance, he has all but disappeared when he was proclaimed to be some kind of freak in the off-season. He is a first round pick and obviously a mistake. It doesn't really even matter whether he performs well the rest of the season; the season is over for all intents and purposes.
Next season will be his fourth and when a first round pick takes four years to make an impact well, it's a mistake. Two interceptions happened Sunday against the Patriots on passes intended for Parker. The effort shown to avoid those picks and make a play was abysmal. The quarterback will get the stat, but it was on Parker to make a play and he did not, even in the endzone. Just say it... Bust.
Ryan Tannehill, okay, we're not supposed to talk about him because he's injured. He's a first round pick. He's 37 and 40 in 77 starts. The only winning season since he's been in Miami was one he couldn't complete. Whether it's fair or not to pass judgment is irrelevant, it will be his seventh season and there's virtually nothing to show for it. The fact is, six seasons and the first round pick has done nothing special...
Mike Pouncey, a first round center. He's supposed to be really good, but the Miami offensive line has never been dominant with Pouncey. We're not supposed to talk about him either because he's always injured and the coaches proclaim him to be great. Well he's not. He's at least playing this year, which has to add some value. The thing is, his future is uncertain, at best, and this article is about the future...
JaWuan James is not too bad for a right tackle. Here's the thing, when intentionally drafting a right tackle in the first round, the player should be dominant. It may not be easy, but right tackles can be found in other rounds. James is injured, James was injured last season. He's not a bad player, but as a first round pick, he's a right tackle and he's not exceptional...
Laremy Tunsil and Charles Harris, as recent first round picks, these guys are a little too fresh to throw completely into the fire. Tunsil is not playing like a dominating left tackle. Harris has flashed a little as a rookie, but it would have been nice to have a real monster show up in Miami, he didn't. The dominant tag cannot be placed on either of these players yet and the word bust would be premature, but the signs all point to nothing special...
Maxwell and Alonso, the big trade a couple years ago from Philly for our eighth pick and their thirteenth. Maxwell is gone. Alonso is marginal against the run and cannot cover anybody, meanwhile Tunsil is in question. Looking at the two teams from a personnel decision-making point of view, Philadelphia is rising like a rocket and Miami is plummeting like the Skylab.
Philly knew one thing, the NFL is completely predicated on quarterback play. There is no other barometer that comes close to determining how good an NFL team will be year in and year out than the player at that one position.
Philadelphia had traded for Sam Bradford and knew he was not the answer. They then gave up four draft picks including a first rounder to swap the first round pick they acquired from Miami to trade with Cleveland for the 2nd pick in the draft. They did this because they knew, without a great QB it didn't matter. They could draft a Parker, or a Pouncey, or a James, or a Tunsil, or a Harris, just keep naming them, and it wouldn't matter.
They had to draft a quarterback because Bradford was not the answer...
Like Ryan Tannehill, he was never going to be a great quarterback...
They knew, a team in the NFL without a great QB, really doesn't matter in the long run.
Miami can have fifty coaches, Miami can have fifty directors of personnel and fifty tackles and centers and wide receivers, it just doesn't matter. Teams will not win consistently in the NFL without a great QB. There is no other quantifiable way for a team to be great over the course of many seasons. A team can win now and then without a great QB, but never consistently.
The argument against this premise is myopic and really just plain denial.
Don Shula knew this emphatically, he drafted Dan Marino the year after going to the Super Bowl with David Woodley. Unfortunately, Miami never won the Super Bowl with Marino, but they certainly were in the hunt every year. They certainly were more exciting to watch than anything in Miami since. They always had a chance because of one player.
So what's the point of this article?
Miami must not sit back and think that losing Ryan Tannehill was the reason for this lost season.
Tannehill has never been great, never in six seasons. Carson Wentz, year two we see greatness, Jared Goff, year two we see potential. We knew it right away with Marino, Brady was leading his team the the Super Bowl by his second season. This is not rocket science. Even Drew Brees is no longer a viable excuse for thinking Tannehill will change his spots.
It is not about liking or not liking Tannehill, he's a nice guy and seems like he could be something, but that's the trap. Projecting after a certain number of seasons becomes a fool's game. The NFL is not a place to project a player at thirty years old. Isn't the injury to Tannehill's knee reason enough to understand that every year he becomes more vulnerable and it will only get worse.
Adam Gase has the potential to be a very good NFL coach but he will never attain that in Miami unless he's given the primary tool he needs for success. There's no magic. Belichick - Brady, Shula - Marino, Walsh - Montana, Lombardi - Starr, there's no magic.
Gase desperately needs his own quarterback. Not these inherited quarterbacks. He's confident to a fault and a good general manager and/or personnel director must save him from himself or lose him. Allow him to go out and find the guy he likes and find a way to make it happen. Just like Doug Pederson did in Philly. Pederson played for Shula, remember?
No one can project greatness at the QB position, many have tried and most have failed. If ever there was an imperfect science, this is it, but Gase knows what he wants. Miami knows what it has in Tannehill just like Philly knew what they had in Bradford. The difference is that Philly figured out Bradford was not going to be the guy before spending seven years trying.
Philly did not cut Bradford, but they did extraordinary things to make sure they got a guy they thought could be great. Miami does not need to cut Tannehill. They need to go find their future QB and do extraordinary things to make it happen.
Miami cannot continue to waste first round draft picks on tackles and centers and WRs when none of those players is ever going to make this team great. These players only compliment the one person who can make the Miami Dolphins great again, a quarterback.
This blog is a perfect example of what is happening in Miami. Here I sit writing these little soliloquies to myself because no one is listening or caring any longer.
The only way Miami can win back fans is by going out and finding a great quarterback for Coach Adam Gase. The tackles will suddenly look better, the center will suddenly be great again, the wide receiver will play like he wants to make a catch because they don't want to let that guy down.
It doesn't matter if Miami wins another game this season, it means nothing and therefore it is not worth the NFL's price of a middling draft pick. Yes, I'm saying Miami should lose every game the rest of this reason and set itself up to do the right thing.
Draft Adam Gase a quarterback, or lose him to a team that will when you fire him for not being able to make Tannehill into something he has never been.
It's time Miami... Go and get the player this city has been begging for since Dan Marino retired.
Then maybe, I can stop writing to myself...
Throw a few names at the wall to begin analyzing these players. DeVante Parker for instance, he has all but disappeared when he was proclaimed to be some kind of freak in the off-season. He is a first round pick and obviously a mistake. It doesn't really even matter whether he performs well the rest of the season; the season is over for all intents and purposes.
Next season will be his fourth and when a first round pick takes four years to make an impact well, it's a mistake. Two interceptions happened Sunday against the Patriots on passes intended for Parker. The effort shown to avoid those picks and make a play was abysmal. The quarterback will get the stat, but it was on Parker to make a play and he did not, even in the endzone. Just say it... Bust.
Ryan Tannehill, okay, we're not supposed to talk about him because he's injured. He's a first round pick. He's 37 and 40 in 77 starts. The only winning season since he's been in Miami was one he couldn't complete. Whether it's fair or not to pass judgment is irrelevant, it will be his seventh season and there's virtually nothing to show for it. The fact is, six seasons and the first round pick has done nothing special...
Mike Pouncey, a first round center. He's supposed to be really good, but the Miami offensive line has never been dominant with Pouncey. We're not supposed to talk about him either because he's always injured and the coaches proclaim him to be great. Well he's not. He's at least playing this year, which has to add some value. The thing is, his future is uncertain, at best, and this article is about the future...
JaWuan James is not too bad for a right tackle. Here's the thing, when intentionally drafting a right tackle in the first round, the player should be dominant. It may not be easy, but right tackles can be found in other rounds. James is injured, James was injured last season. He's not a bad player, but as a first round pick, he's a right tackle and he's not exceptional...
Laremy Tunsil and Charles Harris, as recent first round picks, these guys are a little too fresh to throw completely into the fire. Tunsil is not playing like a dominating left tackle. Harris has flashed a little as a rookie, but it would have been nice to have a real monster show up in Miami, he didn't. The dominant tag cannot be placed on either of these players yet and the word bust would be premature, but the signs all point to nothing special...
Maxwell and Alonso, the big trade a couple years ago from Philly for our eighth pick and their thirteenth. Maxwell is gone. Alonso is marginal against the run and cannot cover anybody, meanwhile Tunsil is in question. Looking at the two teams from a personnel decision-making point of view, Philadelphia is rising like a rocket and Miami is plummeting like the Skylab.
Philly knew one thing, the NFL is completely predicated on quarterback play. There is no other barometer that comes close to determining how good an NFL team will be year in and year out than the player at that one position.
Philadelphia had traded for Sam Bradford and knew he was not the answer. They then gave up four draft picks including a first rounder to swap the first round pick they acquired from Miami to trade with Cleveland for the 2nd pick in the draft. They did this because they knew, without a great QB it didn't matter. They could draft a Parker, or a Pouncey, or a James, or a Tunsil, or a Harris, just keep naming them, and it wouldn't matter.
They had to draft a quarterback because Bradford was not the answer...
Like Ryan Tannehill, he was never going to be a great quarterback...
They knew, a team in the NFL without a great QB, really doesn't matter in the long run.
Miami can have fifty coaches, Miami can have fifty directors of personnel and fifty tackles and centers and wide receivers, it just doesn't matter. Teams will not win consistently in the NFL without a great QB. There is no other quantifiable way for a team to be great over the course of many seasons. A team can win now and then without a great QB, but never consistently.
The argument against this premise is myopic and really just plain denial.
Don Shula knew this emphatically, he drafted Dan Marino the year after going to the Super Bowl with David Woodley. Unfortunately, Miami never won the Super Bowl with Marino, but they certainly were in the hunt every year. They certainly were more exciting to watch than anything in Miami since. They always had a chance because of one player.
So what's the point of this article?
Miami must not sit back and think that losing Ryan Tannehill was the reason for this lost season.
Tannehill has never been great, never in six seasons. Carson Wentz, year two we see greatness, Jared Goff, year two we see potential. We knew it right away with Marino, Brady was leading his team the the Super Bowl by his second season. This is not rocket science. Even Drew Brees is no longer a viable excuse for thinking Tannehill will change his spots.
It is not about liking or not liking Tannehill, he's a nice guy and seems like he could be something, but that's the trap. Projecting after a certain number of seasons becomes a fool's game. The NFL is not a place to project a player at thirty years old. Isn't the injury to Tannehill's knee reason enough to understand that every year he becomes more vulnerable and it will only get worse.
Adam Gase has the potential to be a very good NFL coach but he will never attain that in Miami unless he's given the primary tool he needs for success. There's no magic. Belichick - Brady, Shula - Marino, Walsh - Montana, Lombardi - Starr, there's no magic.
Gase desperately needs his own quarterback. Not these inherited quarterbacks. He's confident to a fault and a good general manager and/or personnel director must save him from himself or lose him. Allow him to go out and find the guy he likes and find a way to make it happen. Just like Doug Pederson did in Philly. Pederson played for Shula, remember?
No one can project greatness at the QB position, many have tried and most have failed. If ever there was an imperfect science, this is it, but Gase knows what he wants. Miami knows what it has in Tannehill just like Philly knew what they had in Bradford. The difference is that Philly figured out Bradford was not going to be the guy before spending seven years trying.
Philly did not cut Bradford, but they did extraordinary things to make sure they got a guy they thought could be great. Miami does not need to cut Tannehill. They need to go find their future QB and do extraordinary things to make it happen.
Miami cannot continue to waste first round draft picks on tackles and centers and WRs when none of those players is ever going to make this team great. These players only compliment the one person who can make the Miami Dolphins great again, a quarterback.
This blog is a perfect example of what is happening in Miami. Here I sit writing these little soliloquies to myself because no one is listening or caring any longer.
The only way Miami can win back fans is by going out and finding a great quarterback for Coach Adam Gase. The tackles will suddenly look better, the center will suddenly be great again, the wide receiver will play like he wants to make a catch because they don't want to let that guy down.
It doesn't matter if Miami wins another game this season, it means nothing and therefore it is not worth the NFL's price of a middling draft pick. Yes, I'm saying Miami should lose every game the rest of this reason and set itself up to do the right thing.
Draft Adam Gase a quarterback, or lose him to a team that will when you fire him for not being able to make Tannehill into something he has never been.
It's time Miami... Go and get the player this city has been begging for since Dan Marino retired.
Then maybe, I can stop writing to myself...
The Miami Dolphins Make Stars Ordinary
The answer will be apparent before the season is over...
The question, is the issue players or coaches?
This team has not reached it's potential for the last umpteen years as every Miami fan is well aware. The coaching train just left the station leaving players like Cameron Wake, Mike Pouncey and Ryan Tannehill, bred into Joe Philbin's system to be the leaders of this football team.
I would have to conclude they failed as much as Philbin and his staff...
Wake disappears for entire games and most notably in crunch time when one play can make the difference between winning and losing. Let's face it, Tannehill has very little "IT" factor when it comes to rising above the situation and willing his team to win. Pouncey's impact is hard to determine because of the nature of the trenches, but I don't see the line fired up to win at the line of scrimmage.
The brain-trust brought in Ndamukong Suh to be a leader who elevates his teammates on the defensive line...
Is it is automatic to think, as our friend Mater (Randy) has written many times, that Miami makes stars ordinary?
Miami makes stars ordinary...
If I'm the coach of this team, or the GM, or the owner, I want to know why Miami makes stars ordinary. Do you think SF looks a little silly now for letting Jim Harbaugh walk? Was Ray Lewis really the incinerator for the Ravens? Did Don Shula really make that much difference? It almost seems greatness comes down to one man's desire being infectious enough to carry over to the rest of the team.
Personally I think it's Tom Brady and not Belichick, though having two is a damn sin!
Is this what's missing in Miami, a dynamic personality capable of making these players rise to the occasion. It's clear you can't buy it (Suh), it's clear you can't teach it (Tannehill). So it's not money, it's not talent, it's that special will inside of some men who can lead others to rise above their own expectations.
Football, more than any other factor, is a game of emotion. Think about the last time you punched someone in the face...
Think about how much emotion was stirred within you that led you to do something so drastic as to punch another person. Now relate that to the football field. The object of the game is to punch another man in the face and you better damn well have more emotion or you are going to get your ass kicked...
That is the missing key in Miami. The city may have a seedy underside, but the team, the owner, the players all walk among the rich and famous. The stadium is a catering ground for the opulent. Raw, I-will-punch-your-face emotion, is missing and in reality, frowned upon.
Somehow, the Dolphins must rekindle the emotion that leads to violence on the football field. Dan Campbell could be a step in the right direction, but when I think about Nick Saban, my overwhelming impression was that Saban could not motivate rich pampered athletes to make the emotional investment needed to win football games.
If you were given several million dollars and told to run out and risk your life and limbs, would you do it with the same passion as it took to obtain those millions of dollars? This is the quandary of professional football... It takes a special leader to make people do these things when they get paid whether they do them or not.
For the love of the game is the only answer...
Tom Brady loves the game of football, he loves it enough to will his team to win.
Ray Lewis loved the game of football enough to will his team to win...
Where are you ghost of Shula past?
When will you roam the sidelines again in Miami?
I invoke the great Gods of football and Riverdog looking down from above...
Bring a great leader back to Miami...
Make a star extraordinary
The question, is the issue players or coaches?
This team has not reached it's potential for the last umpteen years as every Miami fan is well aware. The coaching train just left the station leaving players like Cameron Wake, Mike Pouncey and Ryan Tannehill, bred into Joe Philbin's system to be the leaders of this football team.
I would have to conclude they failed as much as Philbin and his staff...
Wake disappears for entire games and most notably in crunch time when one play can make the difference between winning and losing. Let's face it, Tannehill has very little "IT" factor when it comes to rising above the situation and willing his team to win. Pouncey's impact is hard to determine because of the nature of the trenches, but I don't see the line fired up to win at the line of scrimmage.
The brain-trust brought in Ndamukong Suh to be a leader who elevates his teammates on the defensive line...
Is it is automatic to think, as our friend Mater (Randy) has written many times, that Miami makes stars ordinary?
Miami makes stars ordinary...
If I'm the coach of this team, or the GM, or the owner, I want to know why Miami makes stars ordinary. Do you think SF looks a little silly now for letting Jim Harbaugh walk? Was Ray Lewis really the incinerator for the Ravens? Did Don Shula really make that much difference? It almost seems greatness comes down to one man's desire being infectious enough to carry over to the rest of the team.
Personally I think it's Tom Brady and not Belichick, though having two is a damn sin!
Is this what's missing in Miami, a dynamic personality capable of making these players rise to the occasion. It's clear you can't buy it (Suh), it's clear you can't teach it (Tannehill). So it's not money, it's not talent, it's that special will inside of some men who can lead others to rise above their own expectations.
Football, more than any other factor, is a game of emotion. Think about the last time you punched someone in the face...
Think about how much emotion was stirred within you that led you to do something so drastic as to punch another person. Now relate that to the football field. The object of the game is to punch another man in the face and you better damn well have more emotion or you are going to get your ass kicked...
That is the missing key in Miami. The city may have a seedy underside, but the team, the owner, the players all walk among the rich and famous. The stadium is a catering ground for the opulent. Raw, I-will-punch-your-face emotion, is missing and in reality, frowned upon.
Somehow, the Dolphins must rekindle the emotion that leads to violence on the football field. Dan Campbell could be a step in the right direction, but when I think about Nick Saban, my overwhelming impression was that Saban could not motivate rich pampered athletes to make the emotional investment needed to win football games.
If you were given several million dollars and told to run out and risk your life and limbs, would you do it with the same passion as it took to obtain those millions of dollars? This is the quandary of professional football... It takes a special leader to make people do these things when they get paid whether they do them or not.
For the love of the game is the only answer...
Tom Brady loves the game of football, he loves it enough to will his team to win.
Ray Lewis loved the game of football enough to will his team to win...
Where are you ghost of Shula past?
When will you roam the sidelines again in Miami?
I invoke the great Gods of football and Riverdog looking down from above...
Bring a great leader back to Miami...
Make a star extraordinary
Miami Dolphin Expectations are an Illusion
Before getting into whether the Dolphins will win on Sunday in London, let’s take a little journey into illusion and see what comes out on the other side.
I’m not sure how illusions start… It’s amazing, simple clear logic usually matches actual results but those damn emotions somehow obscure the obvious. How many times have Dolphin fans heard this term recently, “he can’t be expected to learn on the job.” The object of that statement could be Ross, Hickey, Philbin, Lazor, Coyle or Tannehill.
He can’t be expected to learn on the job…
Well I’m here to present the bad news, everyone in this entire organization is learning on the job, starting at the top. Miami’s owner had no clue what it took to own a professional sports franchise five years ago. There are teams in this league with ownership ties to the infancy of professional football. Ross may have expected to dodge the shark-infested waters based on his experience selling real estate to Donald Trump, but unfortunately, it ain’t happening.
See, we talk about successful NFL franchises having long-term planning then conveniently forget about it 30 seconds later (another symptom of illusion). Foundations, not only in tenure, but also in a team’s style of play are indicative of long-term ownership.
The Dolphins were a “perfect” example of this back when Joe Robbie and Don Shula roamed the facility. The reality is, Miami last won a Super Bowl in 1974. The illusionists can point to that as lacking success, but they lost 3 Super Bowls over the next 20 years and were perennial playoff contenders.
Understanding what changed is easy, the long winning tradition ended with the death of Joe Robbie...
The league was simpler then and Robbie didn’t split time in New York or allow corporate “professionals” to his run franchise. He did not select employees based off skillfully written resumes, his hires needed at least a day of NFL experience at the job they were interviewing for.
Robbie stalked the halls of that building and knew every nuance of his football team. Football was his passion and New York was a place where enemy Jet fans forced him to keep his hands in his pockets for fear of slapping them.
These are the roots of true NFL ownership and any newcomer is learning on the job...
Okay, let’s start… New England – Robert Craft, Denver – Pat Bowlen, 49ers – Jed York (nephew of Edward J. DeBartolo Jr.), Pittsburg – Dan Rooney, New York Giants - John Mara, should I continue…
The Seahawks are the closest thing to new comers to raise the Vince Lombardi trophy since Tampa Bay. The Ravens had the same GM for 12 years through 2 owners. The Saints had an experienced coach and a great QB, not to mention the feel good story after Katrina. Teams can rise quickly, but the ingredients better be dynamic.
What is it about Florida, Tampa gave up 2 first round draft picks for John Gruden and then foolishly dumped him when the local media pressured the inexperienced ownership. The same media-fueled Tampa fans that booed Gruden, are now wishing he was back stalking the sidelines with his leering Chucky glare.
BTW, a guy named Robbie gave up a 1st round pick for coach Shula, Hummmmmm… After Robbie was gone, inexperienced ownership listened to know-it-all media and well, you know the rest…
In Seattle, Pete Carroll brought NFL coaching experience, college national championships and a burning desire to prove himself at the NFL level. Sounds a little like Nick Saban without all the outrageous expectations.
In Miami, replicating the winningest coach in football history is the only option before the media starts down the road of eviction. Yes, the same media that ran Shula out of town…
Nasty Nick Satan was just too hardnosed for those “professional” football players. He wanted them to do what it took to win and they wanted to bask over on South Beach. The media drooled over the “unnamed sources” telling them Nicky Satan wasn’t the saintly version they built him up to be. Yes Nick made mistakes, but in time, he would have put a winning team on the field. The media was not going to allow him that time and he bolted.
Nick's owner, H. Wayne Huizenga is the same guy that allowed local media run off The Don. Yep, H. Wayne knew all about garbage collecting, but was too worried about press clippings to do what was right as an NFL owner. The Don should have selected his own successor when he was ready, leaving a foundation that would continue to grow for years to come.
Water under the bridge I know, so that brings us to our maligned head coach Joe Philbin...
Oh, the media is just warming up to axe old terrible Joe and every loss is like a dry stump feeding the bonfire…
He’s too stoic, emotionless, won’t tell the poor deprived reporters who is starting at QB…
The woo, the indignity, the disgrace of it all…
They resort to asking a QB who led the Miami offense to a grand total of 2 TDs in the last 2 games whether he thinks it’s fair of mean old Joe. The QB, like the media, certainly must know more than the despicable mouth breathing coach.
Here comes that quote again, “he can’t be expected to learn on the job.” He should be prepared after all, it’s okay for the QB to still be learning in year 3, but a coach who has never been a head coach, at any level, better know how this works. That shiny resume said he could do the job and by golly, the media could do it better because they certainly will tell everyone what’s wrong.
Never head coached at any level, but can’t be expected to learn on the job...
There’s that illusion thing rearing its ugly head again. How the hell are you not expected to learn something you’ve never done before? What does that mean? Is it me? It’s like asking a kid to deliver the paper as fast as the kid before because he's smart and has a map of the paper route!
Looking past the masters of the obvious might lead to the right questions...
Given enough time, will Joe Philbin learn to be a great NFL head coach? Is he smart enough? Does he understand the game well enough? Does he have the motivational skills? Can he see talent? Can he groom talent? These are the questions a great owner will ask himself. If the answers are affirmative than a great owner will stick by his guns and there’s a reason why.
Those names of old school owners had the perspective of experience to know how to select Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin. They knew what a great coach looked like and had the conviction to rebuild with complete disregard to what the sensationalists had to say.
They gave those coaches the opportunity to learn…
Folks in Miami just want to skip that whole learning part…
Tannehill should be great, well in all likelihood Tannehill may be the only bird in this nest that actually has experience and he has shown the same tendencies throughout his entire QB career. Here comes the illusion again, we see this strapping youth, height, weight, arm strength, foot-speed, brains, brawn, every freaking tangible thing that could be asked for in a QB.
It’s the illusive intangibles that differentiate Ryan Tannehill and Tom Brady. The "W" in the win column. The furious 4th quarter rallies that make you sit back and say, "wow this kid's got the stuff!" Brady did that in college... Just sayin.
I’ve hear people argue that Dan Marino wasn’t that good because he never won a Super Bowl and then predict Ryan Tannehill will be great.
Will be great… Tannehill can learn on the job, but the owner, GM, HC, OC or DC not so much. Let’s get back to the illusion thing. Of all the folks listed above, only one of them is actually on the field during a game. Only one of them is affectionately referred to as the “Field General.”
Those management folks who do not take the field have never held their positions in the NFL before, not one of them. So are we expecting Ryan Tannehill to teach them?
This is the illusion I’m trying to point out, how the hell can the expectation be so enormously high for a group of individuals that are indeed learning on the job?
So there is only one answer people, only one route to success…
They all grow up together; we all suffer the same defeats that teach them how to win together.
I don’t like it.
I hate it, but I know any magic, is an illusion. If the plan is well thought out, success will follow when the pieces grow into place.
Was Stephen Ross expected to walk into the NFL and know instinctively how to build a franchise?
Was Dennis Hickey expected to have the greatest draft in NFL history on his first attempt?
Was Joe Philbin expected to understand not breaking the sanctity of the locker-room would lead to a scandal ignited by the press?
Did anyone really think Bill Lazor would call perfect games his first year as an NFL play caller?
Can Kevin Coyle truly be expected to disguise the lack of proficient players at linebacker for more than one game?
Those questions are reality.
I read all the lofty projections about games Miami should win, winning records and post-season play. I’m not sure if anyone even noticed the silence over here in reality land…
“PLAYOFFS, PLAYOFFS! DON’T TALK TO ME ABOUT PLAYOFFS!”
Let’s just start learning how to win against the Raiders. Just one little victory, one right call, one complete pass, one QB pressure, because…
The Miami Dolphins from the top to the bottom are learning how to win in the NFL…
Demanding anything more, is an illusion.
I’m not sure how illusions start… It’s amazing, simple clear logic usually matches actual results but those damn emotions somehow obscure the obvious. How many times have Dolphin fans heard this term recently, “he can’t be expected to learn on the job.” The object of that statement could be Ross, Hickey, Philbin, Lazor, Coyle or Tannehill.
He can’t be expected to learn on the job…
Well I’m here to present the bad news, everyone in this entire organization is learning on the job, starting at the top. Miami’s owner had no clue what it took to own a professional sports franchise five years ago. There are teams in this league with ownership ties to the infancy of professional football. Ross may have expected to dodge the shark-infested waters based on his experience selling real estate to Donald Trump, but unfortunately, it ain’t happening.
See, we talk about successful NFL franchises having long-term planning then conveniently forget about it 30 seconds later (another symptom of illusion). Foundations, not only in tenure, but also in a team’s style of play are indicative of long-term ownership.
The Dolphins were a “perfect” example of this back when Joe Robbie and Don Shula roamed the facility. The reality is, Miami last won a Super Bowl in 1974. The illusionists can point to that as lacking success, but they lost 3 Super Bowls over the next 20 years and were perennial playoff contenders.
Understanding what changed is easy, the long winning tradition ended with the death of Joe Robbie...
The league was simpler then and Robbie didn’t split time in New York or allow corporate “professionals” to his run franchise. He did not select employees based off skillfully written resumes, his hires needed at least a day of NFL experience at the job they were interviewing for.
Robbie stalked the halls of that building and knew every nuance of his football team. Football was his passion and New York was a place where enemy Jet fans forced him to keep his hands in his pockets for fear of slapping them.
These are the roots of true NFL ownership and any newcomer is learning on the job...
Okay, let’s start… New England – Robert Craft, Denver – Pat Bowlen, 49ers – Jed York (nephew of Edward J. DeBartolo Jr.), Pittsburg – Dan Rooney, New York Giants - John Mara, should I continue…
The Seahawks are the closest thing to new comers to raise the Vince Lombardi trophy since Tampa Bay. The Ravens had the same GM for 12 years through 2 owners. The Saints had an experienced coach and a great QB, not to mention the feel good story after Katrina. Teams can rise quickly, but the ingredients better be dynamic.
What is it about Florida, Tampa gave up 2 first round draft picks for John Gruden and then foolishly dumped him when the local media pressured the inexperienced ownership. The same media-fueled Tampa fans that booed Gruden, are now wishing he was back stalking the sidelines with his leering Chucky glare.
BTW, a guy named Robbie gave up a 1st round pick for coach Shula, Hummmmmm… After Robbie was gone, inexperienced ownership listened to know-it-all media and well, you know the rest…
In Seattle, Pete Carroll brought NFL coaching experience, college national championships and a burning desire to prove himself at the NFL level. Sounds a little like Nick Saban without all the outrageous expectations.
In Miami, replicating the winningest coach in football history is the only option before the media starts down the road of eviction. Yes, the same media that ran Shula out of town…
Nasty Nick Satan was just too hardnosed for those “professional” football players. He wanted them to do what it took to win and they wanted to bask over on South Beach. The media drooled over the “unnamed sources” telling them Nicky Satan wasn’t the saintly version they built him up to be. Yes Nick made mistakes, but in time, he would have put a winning team on the field. The media was not going to allow him that time and he bolted.
Nick's owner, H. Wayne Huizenga is the same guy that allowed local media run off The Don. Yep, H. Wayne knew all about garbage collecting, but was too worried about press clippings to do what was right as an NFL owner. The Don should have selected his own successor when he was ready, leaving a foundation that would continue to grow for years to come.
Water under the bridge I know, so that brings us to our maligned head coach Joe Philbin...
Oh, the media is just warming up to axe old terrible Joe and every loss is like a dry stump feeding the bonfire…
He’s too stoic, emotionless, won’t tell the poor deprived reporters who is starting at QB…
The woo, the indignity, the disgrace of it all…
They resort to asking a QB who led the Miami offense to a grand total of 2 TDs in the last 2 games whether he thinks it’s fair of mean old Joe. The QB, like the media, certainly must know more than the despicable mouth breathing coach.
Here comes that quote again, “he can’t be expected to learn on the job.” He should be prepared after all, it’s okay for the QB to still be learning in year 3, but a coach who has never been a head coach, at any level, better know how this works. That shiny resume said he could do the job and by golly, the media could do it better because they certainly will tell everyone what’s wrong.
Never head coached at any level, but can’t be expected to learn on the job...
There’s that illusion thing rearing its ugly head again. How the hell are you not expected to learn something you’ve never done before? What does that mean? Is it me? It’s like asking a kid to deliver the paper as fast as the kid before because he's smart and has a map of the paper route!
Looking past the masters of the obvious might lead to the right questions...
Given enough time, will Joe Philbin learn to be a great NFL head coach? Is he smart enough? Does he understand the game well enough? Does he have the motivational skills? Can he see talent? Can he groom talent? These are the questions a great owner will ask himself. If the answers are affirmative than a great owner will stick by his guns and there’s a reason why.
Those names of old school owners had the perspective of experience to know how to select Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin. They knew what a great coach looked like and had the conviction to rebuild with complete disregard to what the sensationalists had to say.
They gave those coaches the opportunity to learn…
Folks in Miami just want to skip that whole learning part…
Tannehill should be great, well in all likelihood Tannehill may be the only bird in this nest that actually has experience and he has shown the same tendencies throughout his entire QB career. Here comes the illusion again, we see this strapping youth, height, weight, arm strength, foot-speed, brains, brawn, every freaking tangible thing that could be asked for in a QB.
It’s the illusive intangibles that differentiate Ryan Tannehill and Tom Brady. The "W" in the win column. The furious 4th quarter rallies that make you sit back and say, "wow this kid's got the stuff!" Brady did that in college... Just sayin.
I’ve hear people argue that Dan Marino wasn’t that good because he never won a Super Bowl and then predict Ryan Tannehill will be great.
Will be great… Tannehill can learn on the job, but the owner, GM, HC, OC or DC not so much. Let’s get back to the illusion thing. Of all the folks listed above, only one of them is actually on the field during a game. Only one of them is affectionately referred to as the “Field General.”
Those management folks who do not take the field have never held their positions in the NFL before, not one of them. So are we expecting Ryan Tannehill to teach them?
This is the illusion I’m trying to point out, how the hell can the expectation be so enormously high for a group of individuals that are indeed learning on the job?
So there is only one answer people, only one route to success…
They all grow up together; we all suffer the same defeats that teach them how to win together.
I don’t like it.
I hate it, but I know any magic, is an illusion. If the plan is well thought out, success will follow when the pieces grow into place.
Was Stephen Ross expected to walk into the NFL and know instinctively how to build a franchise?
Was Dennis Hickey expected to have the greatest draft in NFL history on his first attempt?
Was Joe Philbin expected to understand not breaking the sanctity of the locker-room would lead to a scandal ignited by the press?
Did anyone really think Bill Lazor would call perfect games his first year as an NFL play caller?
Can Kevin Coyle truly be expected to disguise the lack of proficient players at linebacker for more than one game?
Those questions are reality.
I read all the lofty projections about games Miami should win, winning records and post-season play. I’m not sure if anyone even noticed the silence over here in reality land…
“PLAYOFFS, PLAYOFFS! DON’T TALK TO ME ABOUT PLAYOFFS!”
Let’s just start learning how to win against the Raiders. Just one little victory, one right call, one complete pass, one QB pressure, because…
The Miami Dolphins from the top to the bottom are learning how to win in the NFL…
Demanding anything more, is an illusion.
Philbin and Tannehill Duo Likely to Match or Better Irreplaceable Shula and Marino
Hey Dolphin Shout and Miami Dolphin fans throughout the world.
Here's to your New Year (beyond football) going as planned!
But first, please don't misunderstand. Don Shula and Dan Marino are adored in this household!
However.
In the year 2000 the great seventeen year veteran quarterback Dan Marino won his final game as a Miami Dolphin and his first career road playoff victory.
On the following post season weekend Danny was replaced after the first third quarter series in a 62-7 playoff loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The one and only number 13 retired shortly thereafter.
There is no doubt that Dan Marino was the absolute best quarterback in the AFC for the entirety of his seventeen year career, and for thirteen of those years he was led by that absolute best head coach in NFL history (Don Shula)!
The duo tabulated many statistically historic marks and yet they won the AFC East a meager five times while finishing third or worse six times. Shula and Marino advanced to the AFC Championship game three times. In 1984 they advanced to their one and only Super Bowl loss. The following year they lost the AFC Championship game and lost again in 1992.
Thirteen years to put a team around Dan Marino and Shula couldn't get it done. In twelve of his seventeen years as the best AFC quarterback, Marino and his teams were beat out by lesser AFC East quarterbacks for the division. In sixteen of his seventeen years he was upstaged by lesser AFC quarterbacks for a conference championship opportunity. In all cases it is obvious that Marino was surrounded by an inferior total team cast to those with lesser quarterbacks! Whose fault was that?
After the Dolphins defeated the Buffalo Bills for eleven straight years in 22 consecutive victories Shula, Marino, and their teams were beat out by inner division rivals Marv Levy and Jim Kelly, along with their Buffalo teams who went on to four consecutive Super Bowl losses in the early 1990's.
Greatest Head Coach, General Manager, and staff for thirteen of the seventeen years of the Greatest quarterback of the era, if not history?
From 1983-1995 Don Shula under one scheme had one plan: Build a Super Bowl winning team around the greatest quarterback of the era. Dan Marino. Not a lot was needed being just one year removed from a David Woodley Super Bowl loss! Shula already had the best center in Dolphin history (Dwight Stephenson) with a great pass blocking offensive line for the occasion. He had two of the three best receivers in Dolphin history and good tight ends.
All that was required was a defense of some sort!
Maybe a running back to fool the opposition once in a while? Though it has been suggested by the dearly departed great Mad Dog Jim Mandich that "to have Dan Marino hand off is equatable to asking a brain surgeon to perform the surgery of a proctologist."
So there you have it. Thirteen years with the greatest head coach, greatest quarterback, same scheme, same plan, great stats, and ZERO CHAMPIONSHIPS! The majority of Danny's records aren't even records anymore!
Why are Shula and Marino held in such high regard? Because of the stats? Because of the excitement in non-championship seasons? Fact is that together they have won the same amount of NFL Championships that the seven head coaches and seventeen quarterbacks have won over the last thirteen years since Marino's retirement!
Why are Shula and Marino irreplaceable? Why is so much immediately expected of all the three year termed regimes (of which all have required entirely different schemes and personnel)? Meanwhile, Shula and Marino couldn't get it done in thirteen years with the same scheme and relative personnel. Why do Shula and Marino get a pass and nothing but praise for rarely winning the division, or never winning an NFL Championship? Why do the new kids get raked over the coals for not winning the division, or making the playoffs, or winning championships in only their first two to three years at the helm?
There will never again be for the Miami Dolphins the genius of Don Shula as head coach or the exciting ability of Dan Marino at quarterback that brought the fans one Super Bowl appearance!
One Super Bowl appearance during a continuous thirteen year plan? So What!
It is way beyond time to stop suggesting that this and that would have never happened if Shula and Marino were still around, because the same stuff (Non-Championship Seasons) took place when they were around!
It's time to stop the comparisons of Shula to Philbin and/or Marino to Tannehill because, quite frankly, other than statistically over thirteen years to two, both tandems have won the same number of the most important ultimate goal, NFL Championships!
Move forward and give the present during a few reasonable seasons a chance to accrue the handful of division championships, and the one Super Bowl appearance accrued between Shula and Marino's 1983 through 1995.
How hard can it be?
As previously suggested, you don't need the best quarterback and/or head coach in the league to win the Championship. Shula and Marino were upstaged by lesser AFC head coaches and quarterbacks in all but one of their thirteen seasons together, and Danny was beaten out by lesser AFC quarterbacks for an additional four years beyond the retirement of Shula.
More times than not, the best quarterback and/or head coach in the league doesn't win the Super Bowl!
Long term, the best quarterbacks in the league will reside in the NFC (Rodgers, Brees, Stafford, Newton, Wilson, Kaepernick, RG3, Romo, Cutler, Foles). The eventual postseason Miami Dolphins will likely have to face one of those quarterbacks just one time in a post season Super Bowl during any given year.
Once the AFC's Peyton Manning and Tom Brady hang'em'up, the AFC quarterback picture will be one of total parity! With no other present superstar quarterbacks in the picture, Andrew Luck will be at the top of the AFC heap and Ryan Tannehill will be peaking close to that of Luck. Tannehill has already beaten the present days superstar Brady as well as the long term Luck and the likes of the majority of the AFC's quarterbacks including playoff bound Rivers and Dalton. In 2013 he beat four of the six AFC playoff quarterbacks, didn't play against the other two, he beat Big Ben too!
Philbin is still learning the head coach position on the fly, but for him to hold the 2013 Dolphins together is suggestive that he is a very good coach and is more than capable of winning under a season of normal circumstances!
If given a reasonable chance?
It might not be as pretty or exciting, but Joe Philbin and Ryan Tannehill are and/or will be good enough (with an eventually solid team around them) to match or surpass the postseason accomplishments that even the greatest Dolphin duo in history were able to (Or should I say, were unable to?)!
Whether you have the best or worst head coach and quarterback tandem doesn't matter! It always takes a total team effort to advance to the post season for an opportunity to win an NFL Championship! Total team effort doesn't suggest that any one player, or all players on the team have to be the best in the league at their particular positions, just that the entire team effort has to be of the same mindset and goal!
This individual for 2013 predicted nine wins with reasonable health, 10 wins with good health, and 11 plus wins with a few good bounces (of which none of the above took place). Quite honestly (for the most part) the opposite of all the above took place!
Had one known prior to the season about what went down it's doubtful that anyone would have predicted more than a handful of wins!
Somehow, someway, Joe Philbin and Ryan Tannehill coaxed eight wins out of a physically, as well as mentally decimated football team!
Here's to the climbing of a well graded, slightly vertical, scenic mountain road in 2014!
Thank You for an open-minded read as we look forward to your angle of view!
GOFINS!!!
Here's to your New Year (beyond football) going as planned!
But first, please don't misunderstand. Don Shula and Dan Marino are adored in this household!
However.
In the year 2000 the great seventeen year veteran quarterback Dan Marino won his final game as a Miami Dolphin and his first career road playoff victory.
On the following post season weekend Danny was replaced after the first third quarter series in a 62-7 playoff loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The one and only number 13 retired shortly thereafter.
There is no doubt that Dan Marino was the absolute best quarterback in the AFC for the entirety of his seventeen year career, and for thirteen of those years he was led by that absolute best head coach in NFL history (Don Shula)!
The duo tabulated many statistically historic marks and yet they won the AFC East a meager five times while finishing third or worse six times. Shula and Marino advanced to the AFC Championship game three times. In 1984 they advanced to their one and only Super Bowl loss. The following year they lost the AFC Championship game and lost again in 1992.Thirteen years to put a team around Dan Marino and Shula couldn't get it done. In twelve of his seventeen years as the best AFC quarterback, Marino and his teams were beat out by lesser AFC East quarterbacks for the division. In sixteen of his seventeen years he was upstaged by lesser AFC quarterbacks for a conference championship opportunity. In all cases it is obvious that Marino was surrounded by an inferior total team cast to those with lesser quarterbacks! Whose fault was that?
After the Dolphins defeated the Buffalo Bills for eleven straight years in 22 consecutive victories Shula, Marino, and their teams were beat out by inner division rivals Marv Levy and Jim Kelly, along with their Buffalo teams who went on to four consecutive Super Bowl losses in the early 1990's.
Greatest Head Coach, General Manager, and staff for thirteen of the seventeen years of the Greatest quarterback of the era, if not history?From 1983-1995 Don Shula under one scheme had one plan: Build a Super Bowl winning team around the greatest quarterback of the era. Dan Marino. Not a lot was needed being just one year removed from a David Woodley Super Bowl loss! Shula already had the best center in Dolphin history (Dwight Stephenson) with a great pass blocking offensive line for the occasion. He had two of the three best receivers in Dolphin history and good tight ends.
All that was required was a defense of some sort!
Maybe a running back to fool the opposition once in a while? Though it has been suggested by the dearly departed great Mad Dog Jim Mandich that "to have Dan Marino hand off is equatable to asking a brain surgeon to perform the surgery of a proctologist."
So there you have it. Thirteen years with the greatest head coach, greatest quarterback, same scheme, same plan, great stats, and ZERO CHAMPIONSHIPS! The majority of Danny's records aren't even records anymore!
Why are Shula and Marino held in such high regard? Because of the stats? Because of the excitement in non-championship seasons? Fact is that together they have won the same amount of NFL Championships that the seven head coaches and seventeen quarterbacks have won over the last thirteen years since Marino's retirement!
Why are Shula and Marino irreplaceable? Why is so much immediately expected of all the three year termed regimes (of which all have required entirely different schemes and personnel)? Meanwhile, Shula and Marino couldn't get it done in thirteen years with the same scheme and relative personnel. Why do Shula and Marino get a pass and nothing but praise for rarely winning the division, or never winning an NFL Championship? Why do the new kids get raked over the coals for not winning the division, or making the playoffs, or winning championships in only their first two to three years at the helm?
There will never again be for the Miami Dolphins the genius of Don Shula as head coach or the exciting ability of Dan Marino at quarterback that brought the fans one Super Bowl appearance!
One Super Bowl appearance during a continuous thirteen year plan? So What!
It is way beyond time to stop suggesting that this and that would have never happened if Shula and Marino were still around, because the same stuff (Non-Championship Seasons) took place when they were around!
It's time to stop the comparisons of Shula to Philbin and/or Marino to Tannehill because, quite frankly, other than statistically over thirteen years to two, both tandems have won the same number of the most important ultimate goal, NFL Championships!
Move forward and give the present during a few reasonable seasons a chance to accrue the handful of division championships, and the one Super Bowl appearance accrued between Shula and Marino's 1983 through 1995.
How hard can it be?
As previously suggested, you don't need the best quarterback and/or head coach in the league to win the Championship. Shula and Marino were upstaged by lesser AFC head coaches and quarterbacks in all but one of their thirteen seasons together, and Danny was beaten out by lesser AFC quarterbacks for an additional four years beyond the retirement of Shula.
More times than not, the best quarterback and/or head coach in the league doesn't win the Super Bowl!
Long term, the best quarterbacks in the league will reside in the NFC (Rodgers, Brees, Stafford, Newton, Wilson, Kaepernick, RG3, Romo, Cutler, Foles). The eventual postseason Miami Dolphins will likely have to face one of those quarterbacks just one time in a post season Super Bowl during any given year.
Once the AFC's Peyton Manning and Tom Brady hang'em'up, the AFC quarterback picture will be one of total parity! With no other present superstar quarterbacks in the picture, Andrew Luck will be at the top of the AFC heap and Ryan Tannehill will be peaking close to that of Luck. Tannehill has already beaten the present days superstar Brady as well as the long term Luck and the likes of the majority of the AFC's quarterbacks including playoff bound Rivers and Dalton. In 2013 he beat four of the six AFC playoff quarterbacks, didn't play against the other two, he beat Big Ben too!
Philbin is still learning the head coach position on the fly, but for him to hold the 2013 Dolphins together is suggestive that he is a very good coach and is more than capable of winning under a season of normal circumstances!
If given a reasonable chance?
It might not be as pretty or exciting, but Joe Philbin and Ryan Tannehill are and/or will be good enough (with an eventually solid team around them) to match or surpass the postseason accomplishments that even the greatest Dolphin duo in history were able to (Or should I say, were unable to?)!
Whether you have the best or worst head coach and quarterback tandem doesn't matter! It always takes a total team effort to advance to the post season for an opportunity to win an NFL Championship! Total team effort doesn't suggest that any one player, or all players on the team have to be the best in the league at their particular positions, just that the entire team effort has to be of the same mindset and goal!
This individual for 2013 predicted nine wins with reasonable health, 10 wins with good health, and 11 plus wins with a few good bounces (of which none of the above took place). Quite honestly (for the most part) the opposite of all the above took place!
Had one known prior to the season about what went down it's doubtful that anyone would have predicted more than a handful of wins!
Somehow, someway, Joe Philbin and Ryan Tannehill coaxed eight wins out of a physically, as well as mentally decimated football team!
Here's to the climbing of a well graded, slightly vertical, scenic mountain road in 2014!
Thank You for an open-minded read as we look forward to your angle of view!
GOFINS!!!
The West Coast Comes to Miami
The West Coast Offense (WCO) is a name generally
associated with legendary San Francisco coach Bill Walsh. The early roots of
this offense were instilled by Marv Levy, then head coach at the University of
California Berkeley and further developed in the vertical passing offense of Al
Davis, a disciple of Sid Gillman, but took hold in 1968, when Walsh joined the
staff of iconic coach Paul Brown with the AFL expansion Cincinnati Bengals. It
was there that Walsh developed the philosophy now known as the "West Coast
Offense.”
Interestingly enough, Brown is also the mentor of Don
Shula and many of the innovators who pioneered the modern NFL passing game.
Until this time and even in Shula’s early years with the Dolphins, the NFL was
primarily a running league. Like the running game, the early passing game was a
highly disciplined precision offense, practiced to perfection. The schemes and
routes rehearsed until a system of timing developed that took advantage of a Quarterback’s
footwork to release the ball in precise rhythm with cuts of a primary receiver.
The basic change in the WCO is not necessarily the actual
plays; it is more the freedom given to the QB to exploit a defense by removing
the rigid constraints encouraged by the Lombardi inspired running attack. Offenses
were being defended by reading blocking patterns and sending more defenders to
the point of attack on a run play or dropping into coverage when blocking
schemes dictated a pass. The WCO was developed to exploit defensive adjustments
by the extension of layers within the basic play.
In the WCO passing game, it is important that both the
quarterback and the receivers be able to read the coverage of the defense. Unlike
many passing plays that are designed for a primary receiver, the quarterback
needs to be able to choose the receiver he is going to throw the ball to prior
to the snap. The receivers need to be able to recognize the coverage, and make necessary adjustments to their routes, or even run entirely
different routes. The WCO does not rely on a dominate receiver because any receiver
can become the primary receiver based on the read at the line of scrimmage.
The much talked about receiver progression is not driven
by the QBs ability to identify different targets in the course of a play, but
by the design of the play moving defenders away from the intended target. A
quick pass on a three-step drop, is followed by the same receiver running the
same pattern, looking exactly the same but with the intention of exploiting the
defender adjusting to that route while leaving a route behind him open.
The first fifteen to twenty plays are often scripted
to see how the defense reacts to those plays in order to understand how that
will affect the secondary and tertiary layers of the same play. That is what
all those pictures fans see QBs and coaches look at on the sideline, not the
actual play, but how the defense reacted to it. With the WCO offense, the same
play is dynamic and designed to exploit a defense in motion, using the defense
against itself in the course of a game.
The philosophical difference in Miami will come from a
change to attacking from the offensive side of the ball verses the defensive
side. Bill Parcells was a defensive coach, who believed football games were won the
defensive side of the ball, with the offense responsible for scoring points,
but most importantly, for ball control, and not giving away points. Tony
Sparano, as a disciple of Parcells, followed the same philosophy and the
Dolphins were built in that image.
The hiring of Dan Henning is a clear indication of this
philosophy, because the Henning offense was a regimented run based offense that
employed a dominate receiver in passing situations. It is easy to see why
Brandon Marshall was acquired given these constraints. Sparano knew the philosophy
was antiquated and tried to modernize it by dabbling with the Wildcat and then hiring Brian Daboll, but the structure
initiated by Parcells and Henning could not evolve, especially in the presence
of Brandon Marshall, though it did begin to take root.
Now, removing Marshall from the equation not only makes
sense, but also is imperative to the evolution of the Miami offense. The teams
now playing at the top of the league with the possible exception of the Giants…
Green Bay, New Orleans, New England among others have abandoned the notion of
defense winning championships, but a combination of both will always be
necessary.
In Miami, there will not be an extreme change on the
defensive side of the ball, but the offense will look more like the Marino era
than any conception that has followed. This philosophy puts a premium on QB
play, but is actually QB friendly due the use of layered plays. In a layered
offense, plays are built from basic three step drops that grow from the quick
out, slant and Hitch, to five-step drops and seven-step drops designed to give
the receivers time to maneuver before the ball is thrown. This technique gives
maximum separation between the receiver and defenders, whether running vertical
routes or crosses.
It will take time, but it is apparent why many folks
around the league think Ryan Tannehill may be further ahead of Moore or Garrard
in many aspects of this offense. It is also clear why Tannehill was drafted. What
is not clear is why Matt Flynn was left on the table, but Joe Philbin and Mike
Sherman are much better judges of these two players than personnel folks less familiar with both.
Welcome to a new world in Miami where the West Coast
Offense takes center stage!
Joe Philbin Could Win in Miami
After missing on the only viable experienced head coach, the Miami Dolphins have narrowed the search down to three candidates, Todd Bowles, the motivator; Mike McCoy, the coach who changed his offense to fit a QB or Joe Philbin, the coach who has a system. Comparing these three against some of the NFL's greatest coaches could be the key in making the proper selection. Three great coaches with distinctly different styles can shed some light on what to expect from these candidates, Vince Lombardi, Don Shula and Bill Walsh.
Vince Lombardi was the ultimate motivator. His ability to use inspirational language to get every ounce of talent out of his roster is likened to some of history’s great leaders. Some of the phrases Lombardi used are so iconic they have passed into the vernacular of American culture. “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. If it doesn't matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score? It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.” The list of these quotes goes on and he delivered these words like an orator on a stage, rousing his teams to unbeatable levels.
Vince Lombardi led the Packers to 5 NFL championships and 2 Super Bowls. His players would run through stonewalls after some of his impassioned speeches, but it wasn’t the game day inspiration that made Lombardi special, he was a man who lived by these credos everyday. By passing his astounding will to win on to his players, everyday, he was able to make them believe they were an unstoppable force and for a 10 year period in professional football, indeed they were.
Shula is the winningest coach in NFL history, he was able to mold teams from the collection of players he had on the roster. When he had a bruising back like Larry Csonka and a consummate game managing QB like Bob Griese, he molded a running attach that was unparalleled in the NFL. By adding one player, WR Paul Warfield, he was able to open up the deep passing game for an unstoppable mixture of talent. His offense beat teams down until they brought house and then Griese went over the top to Warfield. It was nearly impossible to defend that combination.
When Dan Marino fell in his lap, he transformed his offense into the most prolific passing attack ever seen at that time in the league. He used lightning quick WRs, coupled with pass catching TEs to take advantage of Marino’s amazingly quick release. Shula does not get the credit, but his offense ushered in the modern NFL passing game. He took his teams to an unprecedented 6 Super Bowls and 1 NFL championship. He was even able to do it with a two-headed QB named David Woodley and Don Strock. He may have only won two SBs but getting there with such an eclectic mixture of talent is a prime example of his amazing ability to adapt to the talent he had on the football team.
Bill Walsh was a man with a plan, he was the definitive system coach. He changed the NFL by creating the unique system now known as the West Coast Offense. Instead of molding talent or using motivational language, he created a system and then found players who fit. This approach was completely different from Shula or Lombardi, because by narrowing down the type of player he needed, he was able to find jewels where others saw blemishes.
Joe Montana was a 3rd round pick, Jerry Rice was from tiny Mississippi Valley State and no one except Walsh saw him as a 1st round draft pick. Walsh wasn’t looking to build a team around players, he was looking for players to fit his system. This approach motivated these players because others could not see what Walsh saw and by providing the opportunity, they rose to the highest levels. Walsh led the 49ers to 3 SB victories but his impact on the game reverberates through the NFL as many modern coaches use his system approach and West Coast Offense to build franchises to this day.
Three different men, with three distinctly different philosophies, all rose to the top of a profession that has washed out thousands of others who were not up to the task. While it is monumentally unfair to compare Todd Bowles, Mike McCoy or Joe Philbin to these great coaches, any search for a coach must include the criteria that made these men special. Is one of these three capable of being an exceptional motivator? Is one capable of adapting a team to the talents on his roster? Is one capable of creating a system and identifying the talent to make it work?
It is interesting that each of these 3 choices fits one of the philosophies, Bowles could be a Lombardi type coach, who motivates players; McCoy can adapt an offense to a player like Tim Tebow and Philbin is a West Coast system guy. The question is, is any one of them special, can any one be the next great coach Stephen Ross is looking for?
Looking at the Miami Dolphin Roster is decisive in answering this question. Can the Dolphins get to the next level by pure motivation, the answer is probably no. The reason is that motivation like Lombardi is built from the ground up. The message gets lost on players who were not brought up through a system that begins with hard work as the premise. Because of this, Todd Bowles should be eliminated from the equation.
Can the Dolphins get there by a coach adapting to the talent on the roster. The answer to this question lies in the players on the Dolphins. Adapting to talent means there is a special player to adapt a system around. Unfortunately Miami has no single Tim Tebow like player worthy of building a team round. Because of this, Mike McCoy should be eliminated.
Can the Dolphins be adapted to a system like the West Coast Offense and the answer is… Yes. Brian Daboll was able to take the Dolphin offense and use the players in a West Coast system to succeed in the final 9 games of the season. This means the team has the offensive players to fit the system. Joe Philbin intimately understands this system and has the greatest opportunity of success of the 3 men vying for the position.
By looking at the 3 men in the coaching search and using an historic approach of comparing them to 3 great coaches and then matching them to the Miami Dolphin roster, the choice of a coach becomes obvious. There is no telling whether the Dolphin brain trust would use such an approach and without being in the interview room, there is no way of knowing the whether any of these men are worthy, but by using the available data, Joe Philbin rises to the top of the equation.
The Miami Dolphins will select a coach soon and the choice here is Joe Philbin.
Vince Lombardi was the ultimate motivator. His ability to use inspirational language to get every ounce of talent out of his roster is likened to some of history’s great leaders. Some of the phrases Lombardi used are so iconic they have passed into the vernacular of American culture. “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. If it doesn't matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score? It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.” The list of these quotes goes on and he delivered these words like an orator on a stage, rousing his teams to unbeatable levels.
Vince Lombardi led the Packers to 5 NFL championships and 2 Super Bowls. His players would run through stonewalls after some of his impassioned speeches, but it wasn’t the game day inspiration that made Lombardi special, he was a man who lived by these credos everyday. By passing his astounding will to win on to his players, everyday, he was able to make them believe they were an unstoppable force and for a 10 year period in professional football, indeed they were.
Shula is the winningest coach in NFL history, he was able to mold teams from the collection of players he had on the roster. When he had a bruising back like Larry Csonka and a consummate game managing QB like Bob Griese, he molded a running attach that was unparalleled in the NFL. By adding one player, WR Paul Warfield, he was able to open up the deep passing game for an unstoppable mixture of talent. His offense beat teams down until they brought house and then Griese went over the top to Warfield. It was nearly impossible to defend that combination.
When Dan Marino fell in his lap, he transformed his offense into the most prolific passing attack ever seen at that time in the league. He used lightning quick WRs, coupled with pass catching TEs to take advantage of Marino’s amazingly quick release. Shula does not get the credit, but his offense ushered in the modern NFL passing game. He took his teams to an unprecedented 6 Super Bowls and 1 NFL championship. He was even able to do it with a two-headed QB named David Woodley and Don Strock. He may have only won two SBs but getting there with such an eclectic mixture of talent is a prime example of his amazing ability to adapt to the talent he had on the football team.
Bill Walsh was a man with a plan, he was the definitive system coach. He changed the NFL by creating the unique system now known as the West Coast Offense. Instead of molding talent or using motivational language, he created a system and then found players who fit. This approach was completely different from Shula or Lombardi, because by narrowing down the type of player he needed, he was able to find jewels where others saw blemishes.
Joe Montana was a 3rd round pick, Jerry Rice was from tiny Mississippi Valley State and no one except Walsh saw him as a 1st round draft pick. Walsh wasn’t looking to build a team around players, he was looking for players to fit his system. This approach motivated these players because others could not see what Walsh saw and by providing the opportunity, they rose to the highest levels. Walsh led the 49ers to 3 SB victories but his impact on the game reverberates through the NFL as many modern coaches use his system approach and West Coast Offense to build franchises to this day.
Three different men, with three distinctly different philosophies, all rose to the top of a profession that has washed out thousands of others who were not up to the task. While it is monumentally unfair to compare Todd Bowles, Mike McCoy or Joe Philbin to these great coaches, any search for a coach must include the criteria that made these men special. Is one of these three capable of being an exceptional motivator? Is one capable of adapting a team to the talents on his roster? Is one capable of creating a system and identifying the talent to make it work?
It is interesting that each of these 3 choices fits one of the philosophies, Bowles could be a Lombardi type coach, who motivates players; McCoy can adapt an offense to a player like Tim Tebow and Philbin is a West Coast system guy. The question is, is any one of them special, can any one be the next great coach Stephen Ross is looking for?
Looking at the Miami Dolphin Roster is decisive in answering this question. Can the Dolphins get to the next level by pure motivation, the answer is probably no. The reason is that motivation like Lombardi is built from the ground up. The message gets lost on players who were not brought up through a system that begins with hard work as the premise. Because of this, Todd Bowles should be eliminated from the equation.
Can the Dolphins get there by a coach adapting to the talent on the roster. The answer to this question lies in the players on the Dolphins. Adapting to talent means there is a special player to adapt a system around. Unfortunately Miami has no single Tim Tebow like player worthy of building a team round. Because of this, Mike McCoy should be eliminated.
Can the Dolphins be adapted to a system like the West Coast Offense and the answer is… Yes. Brian Daboll was able to take the Dolphin offense and use the players in a West Coast system to succeed in the final 9 games of the season. This means the team has the offensive players to fit the system. Joe Philbin intimately understands this system and has the greatest opportunity of success of the 3 men vying for the position.
By looking at the 3 men in the coaching search and using an historic approach of comparing them to 3 great coaches and then matching them to the Miami Dolphin roster, the choice of a coach becomes obvious. There is no telling whether the Dolphin brain trust would use such an approach and without being in the interview room, there is no way of knowing the whether any of these men are worthy, but by using the available data, Joe Philbin rises to the top of the equation.
The Miami Dolphins will select a coach soon and the choice here is Joe Philbin.
Turning Around the Miami Dolphins
The presence of a great coach and a great QB, tied at the hip like a set of Siamese twins, often defines NFL dynasties. The phrase, “leadership starts at the top,” rarely goes beyond the coach of these teams, but this is far from true. Strong leadership above the coach is the cement that holds the organization together. Any successful endeavor begins with an impassioned leader at the very top whose ethic and determination funnels down through the organization.
In its infancy the NFL came into being by the persistence of men who did not view their team as a toy or a status symbol, these were men of passion. Joe Robbie was one such man. He built the Miami Dolphins with his own blood, sweat and tears, into one of the most successful franchises in NFL history. There is a direct correlation to the demise of the franchise with the loss of Joe Robbie.
Like any great leader, the keys to success are seeing that same greatness in others and providing the tools, guidance and respect, those people need to succeed. Steven Ross did not rise to his current pinnacle without understanding these basic principles. This cannot happen if the team is merely a toy or a status symbol. He must approach the Dolphins with the same passion that led to his success in business.
Breaking down those four keys can provide insight into where the Dolphins came from, where they are now and how to dig out of the current hole.
Recognize Greatness
Provide the Tools
Give Proper Guidance
Respect Others
Recognize Greatness
On January 12th 1969, Don Shula led the heavily favored 13-1 Baltimore Colts into the Orange Bowl for Superbowl III against the New York Jets. The Colts were a juggernaut that season, which culminated with a 34-0 crushing of the Cleveland Browns in the NFL championship game. The season began inauspiciously with QB Johnny Unitas injuring his throwing shoulder and the team having to resort to little known back-up Earl Morrall. Morrall led the team to one of the greatest seasons in NFL history and Shula chose to start Morrall in the Superbowl even though Unitas was now healthy. This fateful decision changed the fortunes of Don Shula and the Miami Dolphins.
The Colts lost that game 16-7 when Morrall could not muster the Colt’s offense and Joe Namath became a NFL icon by guaranteeing a Jet victory. More importantly for the Dolphins, the relationship between Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom and Don Shula deteriorated to the point where Shula was “allowed” to resign. Joe Robbie saw an opportunity and seized the moment so readily the Dolphins were forced to give the Colts a 1st round draft pick for tampering when Robbie and Shula negotiated prior to Shula’s resignation from the Colts.
Joe Robbie recognized greatness, even at the cost of a 1st round pick and the largest coaching contract in NFL history at the time, Robbie did not hesitate. Shula would then lead the Dolphins to an undefeated season and nearly 30 years of unparalleled success. Under Robbie and Shula, the Dolphins became a model NFL franchise and Shula’s 347 victories is a record that may never be broken.
Steven Ross duplicated Robbie’s tenacity by negotiating with Jim Harbaugh, but did so, while still having Tony Sparano under contract. It was an ill-fated attempt to land the coach, but Harbaugh’s instant success with the 49ers shows Ross correctly recognized Harbaugh’s potential for greatness. Tony Sparano may not be a bad coach, but he clearly will never be a great coach in Miami. Ross didn’t get his guy, but he must not allow failure to stop him from boldly pursuing a great coach. It is his team and he must couple himself with a coach, of his selection, who shares his passion.
Provide the Tools
Joe Robbie did not start by hiring Don Shula, he started by hiring GM Joe Thomas. Thomas was responsible for acquiring a core of players that Shula would later lead to greatness. Thomas became infuriated with the spotlight shining on Shula and Robbie fired him in 1971 but not before Thomas found such players as Bob Griese, Larry Czonka, Nick Buoniconti, Dick Anderson, Manny Fernandez and may others. Thomas began to place himself above the team and Robbie quickly removed the problem hiring Bobby Beathard in 1971. Thomas actually inserted himself as the interim coach of the Baltimore Colts in 1974 before his arrogance finally landed him out of the NFL.
Robbie again struck gold by hiring Bobby Beathard who worked seamlessly with Don Shula to complete the makings of a dynasty. Robbie knew he needed a GM who did not aspire to be a coach or a football czar, he needed a man who excelled at player acquisition and Beathard was that man. Beathard was able to understand the type of players Shula could mold and provided him with the tools he needed to be a successful coach.
Taking a close objective look at the job Jeff Ireland has done, Steven Ross will quickly see the difference between Ireland and Beathard. As an example, both traded for wide receivers, Beathard’s choice was Hall of Famer Paul Warfield, Ireland’s choice, Brandon Marshall. Beathard decisively traded the number one pick in the draft for Warfield, giving Shula the downfield threat he needed to go with a devastating rushing attack. Ireland traded for a troubled player, one-step from league suspension. Marshall is a good possession receiver who has never had the knack for finding the endzone.
Ireland has done a decent job of drafting, but with the exception of Jake Long, his picks have been okay. His work in free agency has been abysmal and has left Tony Sparano with a collection of okay players after 4 years. If Ross wants to provide his coach with the proper tools, it’s obvious; he needs to find a man with a keener eye for talent and the confidence to take bold action on his convictions.
Give Proper Guidance
When Joe Robbie saw Don Shula and Joe Thomas were not a good mix, he demonstrated his leadership to Shula by not hesitating to fire Thomas. Robbie never made an indecisive, Wayne Huizenga maneuver, by hiring a czar to find a coach or GM for him; he went out and found his own people. He never displayed the lack of confidence in his decision-making that has eventually led to the current lack of confidence throughout the entire organization. Robbie was a man of action and through confidence; he provided guidance to all the people who worked for him.
When the city of Miami refused to replace the crumbling Orange Bowl, Robbie built a stadium for the city. Talking does not provide guidance, action does, and anyone who worked for Robbie knew words meant little to the man, actions spoke much louder. Steven Ross must have this same resolution and demonstrate it through actions. He must realize the entertainment of football is football. If the action is to fill a stadium with celebrities, the guidance to Ross’ underlings is to find celebrity players. Under this guidance comes a player like Reggie Bush when a proven playmaker like Darren Sproles ends up in New Orleans.
Ross must make the decision that his football team is the priority, not the people who sit in the luxury boxes. This guidance will enable the people below him to make decisions based on football and those decisions will then fill the luxury boxes and the stands as well. The cart does not move every well when the horse is behind it. Demonstrate a commitment to building a football team and everyone in the organization will follow that guidance.
Respect Others
Joe Robbie had the decency to fire George Wilson before approaching Don Shula. The lack of respect Ross showed to Tony Sparano has gone a long way toward the situation the Miami Dolphins now find themselves. Taking Ireland with him in the quest for Jim Harbaugh also placed Ireland in a position of disrespecting Sparano. This example of disrespect is reprehensible and filters all the way through the organization.
Perhaps Steven Ross wanted to make a bold Joe Robbie type move by pursuing Harbaugh, but he lost his coach of choice by the lack respect he showed Sparano. This could continue to haunt Ross because every coach he tries to hire, from this point on, will wonder whether the owner will eventually show him the same lack of respect. The leader must make the hard decisions and if it means firing someone, then the deed must be done.
It doesn’t always make sense that people will respect someone who fires another man but this is the essence of leadership. If an employee is a non-performer and the leader does not take appropriate action, he loses the respect of the rest of the employees. If Ross felt strongly enough to jump on a plane and court Jim Harbaugh, it clearly meant he was unhappy with Tony Sparano’s performance. He owed it to every person in the Miami Dolphin organization to show his leadership by firing Sparano, by not doing so, he lost the respect of his employees.
There is no other option for Ross, he must fire Tony Sparano. Tony knows it, everyone inside the Dolphins organization knows it and the fans know it. The impending doom reflects on the field and in the locker room. The only way for Ross to regain respect is by stepping up and being the leader he should have been last year. Respect is a fickle thing not easily acquired but easily lost. Ross must prove his dedication to his football team before it is possible for him to earn their respect.
Here is your plan Mr. Ross…
Recognize Greatness
Provide the Tools
Give Proper Guidance
Respect Others
Bringing back the Miami Dolphins will not be an easy task but following these four keys will set the team on the right path. Miami fans will once again fill Joe Robbie Stadium and bask in the glory of victory.
In its infancy the NFL came into being by the persistence of men who did not view their team as a toy or a status symbol, these were men of passion. Joe Robbie was one such man. He built the Miami Dolphins with his own blood, sweat and tears, into one of the most successful franchises in NFL history. There is a direct correlation to the demise of the franchise with the loss of Joe Robbie.
Like any great leader, the keys to success are seeing that same greatness in others and providing the tools, guidance and respect, those people need to succeed. Steven Ross did not rise to his current pinnacle without understanding these basic principles. This cannot happen if the team is merely a toy or a status symbol. He must approach the Dolphins with the same passion that led to his success in business.
Breaking down those four keys can provide insight into where the Dolphins came from, where they are now and how to dig out of the current hole.
Recognize Greatness
Provide the Tools
Give Proper Guidance
Respect Others
Recognize Greatness
On January 12th 1969, Don Shula led the heavily favored 13-1 Baltimore Colts into the Orange Bowl for Superbowl III against the New York Jets. The Colts were a juggernaut that season, which culminated with a 34-0 crushing of the Cleveland Browns in the NFL championship game. The season began inauspiciously with QB Johnny Unitas injuring his throwing shoulder and the team having to resort to little known back-up Earl Morrall. Morrall led the team to one of the greatest seasons in NFL history and Shula chose to start Morrall in the Superbowl even though Unitas was now healthy. This fateful decision changed the fortunes of Don Shula and the Miami Dolphins.
The Colts lost that game 16-7 when Morrall could not muster the Colt’s offense and Joe Namath became a NFL icon by guaranteeing a Jet victory. More importantly for the Dolphins, the relationship between Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom and Don Shula deteriorated to the point where Shula was “allowed” to resign. Joe Robbie saw an opportunity and seized the moment so readily the Dolphins were forced to give the Colts a 1st round draft pick for tampering when Robbie and Shula negotiated prior to Shula’s resignation from the Colts.
Joe Robbie recognized greatness, even at the cost of a 1st round pick and the largest coaching contract in NFL history at the time, Robbie did not hesitate. Shula would then lead the Dolphins to an undefeated season and nearly 30 years of unparalleled success. Under Robbie and Shula, the Dolphins became a model NFL franchise and Shula’s 347 victories is a record that may never be broken.
Steven Ross duplicated Robbie’s tenacity by negotiating with Jim Harbaugh, but did so, while still having Tony Sparano under contract. It was an ill-fated attempt to land the coach, but Harbaugh’s instant success with the 49ers shows Ross correctly recognized Harbaugh’s potential for greatness. Tony Sparano may not be a bad coach, but he clearly will never be a great coach in Miami. Ross didn’t get his guy, but he must not allow failure to stop him from boldly pursuing a great coach. It is his team and he must couple himself with a coach, of his selection, who shares his passion.
Provide the Tools
Joe Robbie did not start by hiring Don Shula, he started by hiring GM Joe Thomas. Thomas was responsible for acquiring a core of players that Shula would later lead to greatness. Thomas became infuriated with the spotlight shining on Shula and Robbie fired him in 1971 but not before Thomas found such players as Bob Griese, Larry Czonka, Nick Buoniconti, Dick Anderson, Manny Fernandez and may others. Thomas began to place himself above the team and Robbie quickly removed the problem hiring Bobby Beathard in 1971. Thomas actually inserted himself as the interim coach of the Baltimore Colts in 1974 before his arrogance finally landed him out of the NFL.
Robbie again struck gold by hiring Bobby Beathard who worked seamlessly with Don Shula to complete the makings of a dynasty. Robbie knew he needed a GM who did not aspire to be a coach or a football czar, he needed a man who excelled at player acquisition and Beathard was that man. Beathard was able to understand the type of players Shula could mold and provided him with the tools he needed to be a successful coach.
Taking a close objective look at the job Jeff Ireland has done, Steven Ross will quickly see the difference between Ireland and Beathard. As an example, both traded for wide receivers, Beathard’s choice was Hall of Famer Paul Warfield, Ireland’s choice, Brandon Marshall. Beathard decisively traded the number one pick in the draft for Warfield, giving Shula the downfield threat he needed to go with a devastating rushing attack. Ireland traded for a troubled player, one-step from league suspension. Marshall is a good possession receiver who has never had the knack for finding the endzone.
Ireland has done a decent job of drafting, but with the exception of Jake Long, his picks have been okay. His work in free agency has been abysmal and has left Tony Sparano with a collection of okay players after 4 years. If Ross wants to provide his coach with the proper tools, it’s obvious; he needs to find a man with a keener eye for talent and the confidence to take bold action on his convictions.
Give Proper Guidance
When Joe Robbie saw Don Shula and Joe Thomas were not a good mix, he demonstrated his leadership to Shula by not hesitating to fire Thomas. Robbie never made an indecisive, Wayne Huizenga maneuver, by hiring a czar to find a coach or GM for him; he went out and found his own people. He never displayed the lack of confidence in his decision-making that has eventually led to the current lack of confidence throughout the entire organization. Robbie was a man of action and through confidence; he provided guidance to all the people who worked for him.
When the city of Miami refused to replace the crumbling Orange Bowl, Robbie built a stadium for the city. Talking does not provide guidance, action does, and anyone who worked for Robbie knew words meant little to the man, actions spoke much louder. Steven Ross must have this same resolution and demonstrate it through actions. He must realize the entertainment of football is football. If the action is to fill a stadium with celebrities, the guidance to Ross’ underlings is to find celebrity players. Under this guidance comes a player like Reggie Bush when a proven playmaker like Darren Sproles ends up in New Orleans.
Ross must make the decision that his football team is the priority, not the people who sit in the luxury boxes. This guidance will enable the people below him to make decisions based on football and those decisions will then fill the luxury boxes and the stands as well. The cart does not move every well when the horse is behind it. Demonstrate a commitment to building a football team and everyone in the organization will follow that guidance.
Respect Others
Joe Robbie had the decency to fire George Wilson before approaching Don Shula. The lack of respect Ross showed to Tony Sparano has gone a long way toward the situation the Miami Dolphins now find themselves. Taking Ireland with him in the quest for Jim Harbaugh also placed Ireland in a position of disrespecting Sparano. This example of disrespect is reprehensible and filters all the way through the organization.
Perhaps Steven Ross wanted to make a bold Joe Robbie type move by pursuing Harbaugh, but he lost his coach of choice by the lack respect he showed Sparano. This could continue to haunt Ross because every coach he tries to hire, from this point on, will wonder whether the owner will eventually show him the same lack of respect. The leader must make the hard decisions and if it means firing someone, then the deed must be done.
It doesn’t always make sense that people will respect someone who fires another man but this is the essence of leadership. If an employee is a non-performer and the leader does not take appropriate action, he loses the respect of the rest of the employees. If Ross felt strongly enough to jump on a plane and court Jim Harbaugh, it clearly meant he was unhappy with Tony Sparano’s performance. He owed it to every person in the Miami Dolphin organization to show his leadership by firing Sparano, by not doing so, he lost the respect of his employees.
There is no other option for Ross, he must fire Tony Sparano. Tony knows it, everyone inside the Dolphins organization knows it and the fans know it. The impending doom reflects on the field and in the locker room. The only way for Ross to regain respect is by stepping up and being the leader he should have been last year. Respect is a fickle thing not easily acquired but easily lost. Ross must prove his dedication to his football team before it is possible for him to earn their respect.
Here is your plan Mr. Ross…
Recognize Greatness
Provide the Tools
Give Proper Guidance
Respect Others
Bringing back the Miami Dolphins will not be an easy task but following these four keys will set the team on the right path. Miami fans will once again fill Joe Robbie Stadium and bask in the glory of victory.
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