Hello All,
Today I find myself wanting to throw a keyboard. I had to walk off a frustrating loss this weekend yet again, a loss that came at the hands of a hated opponent after a late lead was blown.
And for once, I am not talking about the 'Canes.
I have reached a crossroads with the Dolphins. I am close to my wit’s end.
On the same weekend that the ‘Canes delivered a consistent, dominant victory over a Top 25 opponent, I watched the Dolphins blow a 15 point lead with 3 minutes left in their game against the Tim Tebow-lead Broncos.
This loss was frustrating for a number of reasons and was thrown into stark contrast after a terrific Saturday.
The ‘Canes, despite all the uncertainty surrounding the program and the flux the program seems to constantly exist within this year, are in a better position than the Dolphins, both for the remainder of this season and the future moving forward.
For the ‘Canes, I have nothing but hope. As the season evolves and players improve on a weekly basis, the ‘Canes have me legitimately excited. They will probably lose another game or two along the line, because they just aren’t where they need to be yet. However, they are getting there. Next season will be better. Barring catastrophic NCAA or self- inflicted carnage, year 3 will see the return of the ‘Canes to the national conversation.
On the other hand, I have NO hope for the Dolphins.
Let me take you though my thought process a little bit.
Leadership: Canes in a blowout
Listen, I like Tony Sparano. I think he is a great o-line coach and very capable of coaching a winning NFL team when he has good assistants on his staff. He has failed to produce results, however, and will be fired at some point during this miserable season or shortly thereafter.
When that happens, he will be falling on the sword of two absolute morons, Jeff Ireland (GM)…who will also likely be gone…and Stephen Ross (owner).
Yes, Stephen Ross is the same man who publicly declared that this year’s team would be more exciting despite retaining Ireland, a man from the Bill Parcells tree that still clings to the “size over speed” model that became outdated with the rise of the Jimmy Johnson-lead Cowboys.
(This makes sense, because Parcells was essentially running a one man show for three seaons as president of the team…or whatever the title was. Let’s just say his roster moves have been so good that we are currently on the brink of a second 1 win season in five years. This is a franchise that once went undefeated and has won multiple Super Bowls. This is Don Shula and Dan Marino’s franchise.)
The same man who flew very publicly across the country to woo Jim Harbaugh, only to be rejected and then come back and renew the contract of the coach who was STILL UNDER CONTRACT at the time. Implied meaning: not happy with you...just kidding we LOVE you!!!!
The same man who held Florida Gator Appreciation day to honor Tim Tebow and his national title teams this weekend. In Miami. While Tim Tebow started his first game of the season….FOR THE OPPOSING TEAM!!!!!!!!!!
(I was going to focus more on this but the thought of it makes me sick. I honestly am a bit at a loss. I WANTED the Dolphins to lose this game when I looked up in the stands and saw the number of blue and orange number 15 jerseys. It served them right. You don’t think Timmy was buoyed by the fact that he was on the “road” and yet had more fans in the stands than the home team? I just threw up a little bit in my mouth writing about this. Hey Stevie, know what will put people in the stands? Putting a winning fucking team on the field. Not putting a nightclub in the stadium. Not selling minority ownership stakes to B-List local celebrities. Not holding a Tim Tebow Suckfest. WIN SOME EFFING FOOTBALL GAMES.)
Sparano and Ireland will be fired. Will Ross do something smart like hire Rod Chuzinski, former 'Cane and current guru who has developed Phillip Rivers and Cameron Newton in to beasts and his offenses in to potent scoring machines?
No.
He will go for something splashy like Urban Meyer, probably fail very publicly, and then miss out on the good, under the radar candidates (guys like Mike Tomlin and Mike McCarthy would have never interested Ross) and settle for someone who is probably not as good. Why do I know this? Because he is Stephen Effing Ross. Oh, and ps, while we are here, "flashy" does not mean good. Go take a look at the track record for college coaches going to the NFL. I will wait.
On the other hand, the ‘Canes have a new AD in place who seems to have his ducks in a row (he will also, in all likelihood, never ask a prospective player if his mother is a hooker).
They have a head ball coach who oozes charisma and confidence and is building a program in his image; the results are already already being seen, and most college programs truly respond to coaching change in years 2 and 3.
(Witness: Alabama. 7-6 in Nick Saban’s first year. 11-1 the next season. Perennial Top 5 team. Barely even has to recruit, as the program now recruits itself.)
Golden has hired coordinators (Jedd Fisch and Mark D’Onofrio) who are rising stars in the coaching world and seem destined to run programs of their own one day.
He has hired assistants who have their position groups playing the right way. We may be shorthanded in certain spots this year, but every man on this roster is fighting to carve out a role. It is fun to watch.
Player A & D: Canes in a blowout
Miami recruits, the Dolphins draft and sign free agents. Where to begin, where to begin?
I suppose, to be fair, we will only go so far back as the beginning of the Parcells Era.
(Parcells directly ran two drafts and then turned it over to his protégé Ireland.)
Here are guys drafted in the top 3 rounds of the draft over the past four seasons:
Jake Long, LT
We picked Jake with the first overall pick in the draft. He is a great player. An All- Pro. A ten year starter on the blind side at a minimum. So what’s the problem? Well, since Dan Marino retired in 1999 the Dolphins have started 17 quarterbacks. The best? Chad Pennington and his rubber band gun of a right arm in the 2008 season. Second? The Immortal Jay Fiedler. It has been ugly. Also available in that draft: Matt Ryan.
The question, now as then, is this: what good is protecting the quarterback is you don’t have one? We have seen time and time again… you cannot sign a franchise quarterback off the scrap heap. You develop them. Tom Brady. Peyton Manning. Aaron Rodgers. Phillip Rivers. Ben Roethlisberger. Matt Ryan. It is still early, but Cam Newton and Sam Bradford look like they will be examples in the not too far future as well.
(Drew Brees doesn’t count…he was a good player who got hurt and therefore replaced with a young gun in San Diego. The Dolphins should have signed him then and are still suffering as a result of not pulling the trigger years later.)
This is a good player, but probably was the wrong pick.
Phillip Merling, DE
Merling has done pretty much nothing in his career and was a HIGH second round pick. Other guys available: Curtis Lofton, Desean Jackson (think he’d have helped with the speed problem on offense?), Matt Forte, and hometown guy Calais Campbell, a borderline Pro Bowler who plays defensive end in a 3-4 scheme. Excuse me while I go commit hari-kari.
Chad Henne, QB
Henne was a quarterback available in the second round that Parcells wanted to build around. The only problem is that franchise quarterbacks USUALLY aren’t around at pick 57. Go ahead, throw Kurt Warner or Tom Brady out there. The odds of finding that guy are astronomically small. There is a reason they make documentaries and movies about stories like that. They are almost always guys drafted by teams with a reputation for developing quarterbacks and can sit behind better players until an injury or some other fluky occurrence delivers an ooportunity to step up. Tom Brady had Drew Bledsoe. Kurt Warner had Trent Green (who was pretty damned good). Tony Romo had Drew Bledsoe (weird, right?). Matt Cassell had Tom Brady. Know who Henne had? Pennington. A mid-level guy with a big injury history. The point? YOU DON’T TAKE A GUY WITH THE 57TH PICK IN THE DRAFT AND TRY TO MAKE HIM YOUR SAVIOR. The best second round quarterback I can think of? Drew Brees. He went with the first pick in the second round, number 33 overall. The next best? Jake Plummer. Is that really what we wanted?
Kendall Langford, DE
Solid pick, good value in the third round.
Vontae Davis, CB
Solid pick in the first round of the 2009 draft.
Pat White, QB
Words cannot express my anger. This is a guy that every other team in the league thought was a WR. We took him IN THE SECOND ROUND as a quarterback. AFTER WE TRADED UP. A year after taking Henne in the second round. Two years after taking John Beck, another quarterback, in the second round. On the surface, this seemed like a nice wrinkle to add to the Wildcat which had been successful the year before, as he was a threat to actually throw the ball. Two problems: he couldn’t throw the ball and the Wildcat is a gimmick offense that is supposed to be merely a wrinkle, not a system. YOU DON'T DRAFT GIMMICK PLAYERS IN THE SECOND ROUND!!!!!! Oh, and also, Pat White really sucked. Guys we could have had: Lesean McCoy, Mike Wallace.
Sean Smith, CB
Jury still out…good cover guy and a physical freak but doesn’t make plays.
Patrick Turner, WR
On the practice squad for the Jets, last I heard. Dynamite stuff in the third round. Other receivers available: Johnny Knox, Julian Edelman.
Jared Odrick, DE
Injured his rookie year, jury still out. 3-4 Defensive ends are a tough sell in the first round.
Koa Misi, LB
Essentially, the Dolphins structured their entire draft around getting Misi. They traded down in the first round twice (passing up on, among others: Dez Bryant and Earl Thomas) to position themselves in the second round to get their man (who in reality probably would have been around ten picks later. Also, they had to trade down to acquire this pick because the original second round pick was traded for Brandon Marshall, who just so happens to lead the NFL in drops right now). The jury is still out. Could have had: Terrence Cody, Rob Gronkowski.
John Jerry, OL
Terrible pick who is headed to a practice squad near you. Could have had: Jimmy Graham. Arguably the best tight end in the NFL and a hometown guy.
This year’s draft is too young to get a good feel for yet but let's not forget they drfated an effing guard with their first pick when they KNEW they were going to lose their top two running backs and needed some speed at receiver. During a lockout. After a winless home season.
Take a look at what I just wrote. Three years, 10 picks, and AT BEST half will be considered successes. Seriously? Listen, I might be short, but at least I’m ugly too, right?
You build a team with the first three rounds of the draft. Any wonder why the Dolphins suck?
And as for free agency...let me list some names for you. Marc Colombo. Richi Incognito. Kevin Burnett, Karlos Dansby, Jason Taylor. Those are the big contributors the Dolphins have acquired through free agency on this year's team. Dansby is a borderline Pro Bowler. Taylor is a Hall of Famer who is now in his third stint with the team, meaning we were dumb enough to get rid fo him twice. The other three suck.
Reggie Bush was going to get cut so the Dolphins struck a trade for him. Marshall was traded for.
Not exactly an All Star Lineup, is it? No, it looks like the nucleus of a 2-14 football team when you combine it with poor drafting. Which we did.
Meanwhile, the Canes continue to bring in athletes to their system that can compete with anyone in the country. The players are starting to get better on a weekly basis. The team is thin in some areas but has a big recruiting class and a staff known for its eye for talent. Al Golden took a kid named Muhammad Wilkerson, who had never played football, and made him a first round pick in three years.
Currently, he has JoJo Nicolas being named ACC Defensive Player of the Week. For anyone who has ever read anything in this blog, then you know that is a big deal.
Embracing the Fans: Canes in a blowout
Listen, Stephen Ross just created a home game for Tim Tebow in Miami. Can not emphasize that enough.
Meanwhile, Al Golden has increased access to his program through the Raising Canes video series. He has created the Canes Walk. He engages the media on a regular basis. The fans love him. They aren’t showing up yet the way they should (they are, after all, mostly assholes) but signs of improvement are there.
On Field Performance: Canes in a blowout
My father seems to believe that the ‘Canes would beat the Dolphins. The sad thing is, if they played 10 times, he might be right 3 of them.
I don’t know whether that makes me more excited about the Canes or nervous about the Phins.
Always guard the inbound passer.
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