Who's Your DaddyGate?

Canamdolphin asked if anyone was following the BountyGate, so I would like all of you to blame him if you don't like what I think. This entire post is his fault. So here it goes.

Once again I will use what I believe in Parenting skills and apply them to what happened with the Bounties.  For me it doesn't matter if the players actually put money on the table as the NFL believes. The players suspended didn't need to do that.

To use my Parenting theory in this case. There are many times a Parent isn't sure if their Child created a scene about something, they may have no clear evidence that their Child did something wrong. They may only have the fact that their Child was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that alone is reason enough to take action.

I believe that is what happened with the suspensions to the players involved. It seems pretty clear there were bounties. Drew Brees with all his crying has never denied that. His biggest complaint to the NFL, is prove to everyone the players involved were the ones that supplied the money. Daddy Roger doesn't need to prove anything to anyone. There was a bounty. Someone supplied the money. The team was warned and they didn't stop the bounty program. The head coach was suspended for one year, the DC was suspended indefinitely. The players were supplying the money. Everyone knows it!!! Daddy Roger decided some players are going down also.

How can the NFL protect the players safety when the players themselves are collecting money for the big hits? To be honest with you, I don't want to see players get hurt, but if some team racks up Brady for the year I'm not going to cry about it. The players themselves would sue the NFL in a heart beat if they found out the NFL did nothing to protect the players from injury. The players that were involved in the bounty would jump in the line to sue the NFL.

Daddy Roger is Judge, Jury, and executioner. Maybe the suspensions were to heavy, and maybe Daddy Roger doesn't have iron clad proof. It is interesting as canamdolpin said none of the NFL teams have said a thing. Not even Tom Benson the owner of the Saints. Sean Payton and Williams have also said nothing. They could be under a gag order, who knows.

What I do know is, I side with Daddy Roger on the suspensions. When you are a Parent, you will do a number of things that are not popular with your Children, but you do them because you feel it needs to be done. Most of the time it doesn't seem fair to the child. In this case there was a bounty, and Daddy has a good idea who was behind it. My suggestion to the players is this: take your medicine and shut up!!!

The New "Holy Trinity" in Miami

RiverdoG just posted that he felt the Dolphins would hold on to Jake Long based on the opinion of a players poll. Please take a moment to read DoG’s post otherwise he might come after me with a hatchet! While, I agree Jake is a great player, I have my own theory Dolphinshout readers may enjoy that says Jake could be on another team next year. Please forgive my inability to write short blogs…

Taking time to analyze the difference in philosophy between Joe Philbin and Tony Sparano will give Dolphin fans an idea on the shape of the roster in the future. Several names may surprisingly end up signing elsewhere and others could demand higher value in Philbin’s system.

The Parcells / Sparano offensive system was schematically ancient and the ideology that made it work was the reason for their downfall. Great news for Jet fans! Parcells had a term called, “The Holy Trinity,” it was the three players most needed to build an NFL franchise, Quarterback, Left Tackle and Left Cornerback. We can make the example of how the game has changed, by analyzing these three key positions and how they relate to the Dolphins during the Parcells / Sparano era.

They thought the QB was the essential piece of the trinity, but they did not give it the proper attention from their very first draft. By passing on Matt Ryan, they missed the vertex of the triangle and tried to work backward from the base. Because Jake Long is one of those base ingredients, that first draft was not a failure in their minds. Indeed, they had selected perhaps the best player in the draft at a position in the holy trinity, but it was the principles of the trinity that fooled them into believing it was the right choice.

Their scheme breaks down because they believed in an antiquated attack featuring the left tackle as the fulcrum of a power offense. The top four scoring teams in the NFL last season, the Packers, the Saints, the Patriots and the Lions, featured only one former first-round pick at left tackle, Jeff Backus of the Lions. It gets worse, only once in the past 11 seasons has the starting left tackle for the Super Bowl champion been a first-round pick. Finally, of the 11 offensive tackles taken with top-10 draft picks from 2004 to 2011, none has won a Super Bowl.

The Dolphins drafted Jake Long and passed on Matt Ryan, but compounded the problem by not recognizing the importance of the QB in the modern offense. Chad Henne, never considered a great collegiate passer, was better known as a field general in a power offense, perfect for the Parcells/Sparano scheme, but an NFL relic. When Chad Pennington fell in the Dolphin’s lap, the oft-injured signal caller allowed them to think they could groom an NFL QB from an average college passer.

Drafting Pat White showed the depth of their illusion. Enthralled with visions of Wildcat grandeur, they realized Henne was not the right leader for an offense featuring the formation. The weakness they surmised was that Ronnie Brown was not capable of throwing accurately enough to be a passing threat and Henne would never be the runner Brown was. Pat White showed incredible promise at both. Consider these numbers and how they relate to the Wildcat; White finished his career with 6,051 yards and 56 touchdowns passing and 4,480 yards and 47 touchdowns rushing - a total of 10,531 yards and 103 touchdowns over his college career. White, finished his NCAA career sixth in victories and is the only college QB in history to win 4 consecutive bowl games.

The diminutive White did not pass the eye test, he did not meet all the criteria of a Parcells QB, but he was a winner and he could run as well as pass. White looked like the perfect addition as the triggerman for the Wildcat. There is no need to delve into the reasons for the failure of the Wildcat, suffice to say, NFL defenses caught up to it and White proved ineffective in a pro offense.

Not many folks outside NFL film rooms and scouting circles had ever heard of the term, “quick release” prior to the emergence of Dan Marino in Miami. The West Coast type offense was maturing at the same time and together they represent the turning point in the evolution of the NFL. Unfortunately, this turning point was missed by Parcells and mitigated the importance on the Holy Trinity. When the onus switched from giving the QB time to find a receiver to getting rid of the ball as quickly as possible, it changed the way teams rushed the passer.

The switch, evident in teams like the Giants and the Patriots, no longer put a premium on outside LBs or even DEs taking a circuitous speed rush around offensive tackles. Releasing the ball in less than three seconds negates the outside speed rush. This means the power rush, taking the most direct route to the QB is much more effective against the quick release offense. These factors diminish the importance of the offensive tackle position and mean the center and the guards are the primary QB protectors in the west coast offense.

Quick! Name any of the players in the Giants defensive backfield? Quick! Name any of the players on the Giants defensive line? A couple DBs come to mind, but most fans can easily name at least three of the Giants DL and none of them are outside speed rushers. Is it any wonder the Giants have beaten the Patriots both times they met in the Super Bowl? The Giants run a 4-3 defense, they use athletic power rushers taking the most direct route to Tom Brady. Once Brady’s timing is thrown off, his game suffers.

This means that Jake Long does not command the salary he is likely to ask in the new Dolphin offense and is probably the reason the Dolphins have not yet re-signed him. Martin was not drafted to take over the right tackle position, he was drafted to replace Jake Long with a player more suited to his salary slot among the Dolphin personnel. Unless Long reduces his salary demands, he will likely be a free agent next year.

In the second Parcells / Sparano draft, the Dolphins used two of the top three picks on cornerbacks. In light of the holy trinity, those picks make a lot more sense. In 4-3 defense using direct route pass rushing, the DBs, while always important, do not demand the value of an athletic power rusher. The Dolphins again fell victim to thinking in the past and placed more importance on the CB position instead of the power rusher. Sean Smith is in a contract year and there has been little talk of re-signing him. If Smith reaches his potential, he may not sign with the Dolphins because the LCB no longer holds the value it demanded in the holy trinity.

The Miami defensive linemen coming up for free agency include Randy Starks, Tony McDaniel, Ryan Baker and Isaako Aaitui, of these names only Starks has a chance of being re-signed. These players do not fit the profile of an athletic power rusher; they are mainly run stuffers and will not fit in a 4-3 defense. Paul Soliai is a mountain of a man and can wreak havoc in the middle of a defense, that is why he was signed.

The question for Dolphinshout readers is, what constitutes the “Holy Trinity” for the new Dolphin regime? Which positions in the new scheme have more value than in the Parcells’ regime? Obviously, I have given this some thought and have some of my own ideas, there are a lot of hints in this article, but we at Dolphinshout would like your opinion. In following RiverdoG's post, will Jake Long be a Dolphin after this season?

Top 100 Players

NFL.com released a list today of the top 100 players in the NFL voted on by the players.  Here is the link to that list 
http://www.nfl.com/top100/2012#video=09000d5d82a2b013

You will notice that Jake Long was listed as the 59th best player in the league.  It has always been a contention of mine that a player must live up to there contract.  If they don't do that, then the team must reduce there salary or trade them.  I don't think I will ever feel any differently when it comes to that theory.  I always want the Dolphins to get the best bang for their buck because of the salary cap, that will be the best thing for the team.

At the end of last year I felt that Jake Long was slipping a bit, and because of the size of his contract I was leaning toward the prospects of trying to make a trade for him.  Then today I heard about this list and I saw that the players, his peers, said he was the best LT in the business.  I can't tell you how many posts this list has completely trashed for me.

Something else has came to the forefront from this list.  It tells me that I should always trust my eyes.  You see, during the year except for the one game against Julius Peppers, I thought that Jake Long played pretty well.  When the season ended I noticed that the Dolphins gave up an astounding 52 sacks.  Upon further checking I saw that Jake Long was responsible for more than his usual share of sacks and QB pressures, even though he missed a few games.  Those stats lead me to believe that Jake Long wasn't as effective as he had been.  Add to that his contract is up this year, and all of that had me thinking Jake Long could be trade bait.

The NFL players have told us what they think of Jake Long.  If he is good enough for them, then he is surely good enough for me.  Sometimes it takes the players to set you straight.