PFT Power Rankings has the Dolphins at #31

Lol..yikes, that's all you got LB..

 

Its laughable. I would usually say its best ignored, however I would love to know how they got 31st, especially when in the prospects they write "the Dolphins should be in the hunt for a playoff spot"

 

Yah and of course it's LBs that fell for the obvious click bait PFT was putting up yesterday. Even the comments on the post are calling bull on the ranking.

 

It's funny. We're going to end up "surprising" people because we won't suck anywhere near these crazy negative views. No matter what, our oline will not give up 58 sacks. This offense will be improved. The media has developed this idea that we got worse with almost no reason to back it up.

 

I learned that LB works for PFT.

 

When fans of other teams are universally calling BS, its a total joke. WTF. 8-8 to something like 3-13 when the team made good additions and good subtractions?

 

Compared to last season talentwise we suffered two big losses: Soliai and Patterson. And it remains to be seen if Clay can repeat his fantastic year. All the other offseason moves are somewhere between great - good - not bad. We will suffer some injuries (or have already) but that was also the case last year (Gibson, Patterson, Jordan).

So how in the world someone can rank the Phins at #31 after an 8-8 season the year before?

 

nuff said.

 

WTF are there 75 teams in the NFL now?

 

No need to comment on their nonsense. We'll see what happens when they hit the field.

 

There's a real issue with these kinds of pieces. Bleacher Report runs into the same thing. They ask one writer to write something about all 32 teams, as if that writer is going to know all 32 teams backward and forwards the way internet fans (i.e. readers) know their own individual team. It's impossible. That's how you get gaffes like the Dion Sims/Charles Clay note, or the awkward Matthews/Gibson note. It's impossible to be that wide AND that deep.

Yet at the same time you can't trust team specialists in some piece that is supposed to contextualize all of the teams against one another. You can't just take the local message board-bred know it all who can definitely lay out for you all of the ins and outs of the team and then ask him where that team is going to shake out when all is said and done. There would be 25 teams or more that are expected to win 9 or 10 games. It's like when you see draft grades and a "C" or "C-" is really the lowest grade you'll ever seen assigned to a draft pick...because every single pick is a "good" pick in some way.

And the situation only gets even murkier when you realize that a piece like this doesn't HAVE to be aimed at being accurate, so long as it's provocative.

 

seems like it would be more reasonable to have writers who focus on individual divisions. not like it's not been done before.

 

Just use Vegas rankings.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

I don't see this team only being better than one other team in the NFL. So the ranking of #31 seems a bit absurd to me. That being stated, I see the Dolphins finishing the season anywhere from 6-10 to 8-8 this coming season. So I figure they will be anywhere from the 18th rank team to the mid 20's once the season is completed.

They still have too many questions at the LB position and in the secondary to expect them to be a top defense again this coming season. The OL remains a huge question mark and if Moreno isn't at full strength during the season, the RB position remains a problem area. Tannehill still needs to show that he can take his game to a higher level and until he does, the offense will continue to struggle to score points.

Philbin is a below average NFL head coach and is by far the worst HC in the AFC East division. I really don't see this team becoming a winner until the right HC is hired and hopefully that will be after the 2014 is over.

 

What is PFT? Pure F***ing Trash?

 

Have you checked out the Juggernaut Index on Roto? While not all 32 teams at once, and only for Fantasy purposes, they seem to be pretty well-informed for a non-Dolphins rag, at least when I read the Dolphins one.

 

Alper pretty much said he and the other PFT writers based the ranking on the issues around Pouncey, Moreno, and Jordan.

He also said that the last 2 losses of last season factored into it.

Hoping the Pats by into it and we steal an early one to start the season.

 

I fully, 100%, expect the win against N.E. to start off the season...Gronk or no Gronk.

As bad as everybody would believe they were last year, they were still VERY close to being an explosive team...stepping on their own d***s cost them a good bit, but the potential and the flashes are there...just need to solidify some things. This OL could perform equal to last year's and the result will be far better this year IMHO. Yes the OL is an important factor, but I believe the change in system will mitigate its negative impact by a degree.

Tanny CAN NOT take another melee of sacks like last year...I firmly believe the season's wear on him contributed to games 15/16 going the way they did. He needs better pocket (or what there is of a pocket) awareness for sure, but Lazor knows this as well and should plan around line holes...unlike Sherman who didn't do enough to effectively work around it.

Unless the defense deteriorates in epic fashion, we should be right there.

 

Having a little conversation with Josh the writer on twitter about this, he says he would have ranked them 26th ahead of Buffalo, which is still a little low but I told him given our offseason problems I could see why some might not be as optimistic and he said understands why some are optimistic as well. He is genuinely a nice guy and will talk to you.

I honestly think this low ranking is Florio, I really think he takes what teams do outside the field on a person level, because I have always noticed he is VERY socially conscious when he writes and might be his way of smacking us fans around for Bullygate. I know some might scoff at that but so be it and whatever.

 

I fully expect to lose to New England. I can see a very average start to the season with improvement in the 2nd half as the Oline with POuncey back with Albert and James improving at RT.

 

Lord Belichick and Darth Brady don't buy into the hype (good or bad). They'll be ready.

 

Better question... Why do people think Moreno is a godsend? Miller is a far more natural and explosive runner. Moreno is a glorified 3rd down back.

 

In my opinion that gets old.

Confidence breeds winning. The Dolphins went on a stretch where they beat the Bengals and Chargers, losing close ones to the Bucs and Panthers, then beating the Jets and Steelers. They went into that New England game with a combination of confidence and the chip on their shoulder, having not beaten NE yet since Philbin took over but having won a bunch of games or come pretty close to winning them. I remember the reporters saying that the confidence they had was palpable. They didn't think they could beat New England. They knew they would beat them. They didn't really even think NE was that good, and they considered themselves a better team.

And so they went into the game and did something they hadn't done since December 6th, 2009...they beat the New England Patriots. Yes, it had been that long. The Patriots had won the previous 7 consecutive matchups with Miami.

That to me is the power of confidence. There's only so much of the constant "everyone thinks we're sh-tty" mentality you can take year after year, game after game, spinning it into some kind of inspiration or motivation.

Of course from there the confidence either turned to over-confidence (underestimating weak opponents) or anxiety over the pressure of the "win and you're in" playoff situation in which they found themselves...or some combination of the two things. I put that on the coach.

 

The nature of power rankings is to reflect the recent opinion and recent news of any given team. That's why you can have them every week and people go crazy for them. During the season, the most recent game seems to be weighted the heaviest in the rankings. I'd say no team has had a worse two weeks than us with these injuries/suspensions, and thats what being reflected here. (Plus the two other things in our most recent national memory are our GM search and our two bewildering losses to close the season.)

I'd bet that once training camp starts, and our recent bad news is old news, we will rise into the 20s where we belong.

 

Now lemme guess, your proposed plan of action is:

1. Fire Philbin, Lazor, Coyle
2. Fire Hickey
3. Ross sells team
4. ...
5. ???
6. Playoff Dynasty

Got it.

 

This. So much this.

I'm of the belief that negativity spreads negativity and vice versa.

When you're constantly beat in the head witg negativity or fighting it, that gets old.

It's why you hear a player like Brandon Marshall say he had to get out of our environment. Another example is so many players that leave for teams with a "winning culture", a large TJ Ward recently said.

I think that as a player when you constantly have things go wrong, negative press, and just a downright "cautious" or cloudy outlook, it affects a team.

Maybe that's from years of being a Dolphins fan. Yet, I haven't once seen a good Dolphins season when the off-season was filled with a majority if negative events or press.

 

I think this was Cam Cameron's biggest failure. Putting players in difficult situations, so when they are in normal situations they will seem easier sounds good on paper. In reality it can also teach players to fail.

One reason I always loved how Ricky always ran for a touchdown each play.

 

I don't like the ranking either, but I can see why others may not see the Phins as much. Our OLine is still a big mystery and one Albert injury from being horrible. D is a question mark, new Offense, Tanne should step up, etc. You never know, no one thought we'd be 1-15 or start 0-7 with Sparano. If we come out the gate and lose a few, it can snowball. I can see anything from 4-12 to 10-6.

 

or a bunch of players saying they take on the personality of their coach. Which is bland.

 

I think the "fed up" mentality is only good in short bursts for a surprise victory or maybe stretch of victories. Confidence and the knowledge that if you do this then that will happen is what keeps you going over the longer term.

One of the big fears I have about this Joe Philbin-led football team is that his completely non-inspirational, non-endearing style of coaching was already wearing thin on this team after only a year, and that the only thing that drew them together for a stretch was actually the strong emotions associated with the Jonathan Martin saga. I mean there was a stretch when news media both inside and outside of football were constantly trashing the Dolphins players and pretending they were all terrible people for not noticing that poor Jonathan Martin was being picked on. A bunch of other people tried to raise the white flag on the Dolphins season prematurely.

You wonder if that drew the players closer to one another and gave them some emotional stimulus for a while. Obviously it wore off.

 

James Walker..Espn..dolphin national beat writer.

 

And with part of that comes fan culture, their responsible for what they say..

I hate to say it but, it's gonna take special players to play in this town and in that stadium..must find intrinsically motivated players..character must take a jump up in the final evaluation period.

 

Damn that's a scary post.

I feel as though the talent is better on this team than last, and certain players are in their prime or approaching, which elevates the team some, however, if they don't believe in their head coach it won't work.

 

I think he was being facetious.