Ross: Tony, here is my proposition. Dan Henning better be fired immediately after the New England game. I need you to then focus on bringing in the best, and most innovative OC in the game.. Think Jason Garret, Norv Turner or even Josh McDaniels.. I don't care about your ego, you need to bring in a partner that will open up this offense and give us a balanced attack. Number 2, we have failed to draft or aquire a good QB. We will either draft a QB in the first round, even if we have to trade down in the draft. No more second round garbage. You better spend some time in the film room with scouts, we can't afford another blown QB.. Henne will not ruin next season for us as well. If you can agree to 1 and 2, you get another chance. If you have any objections, thank you for your time and clear out your office. Regards, Mr Ross.
If Ross gets his hands that into the decision making process, he might as well fire Sparano and hand pick someone. If he doesn't trust his coach and GM to make the right decisions, whether he thinks they're right or not, then he's better off getting his guys. Not that I think that's the right thing for the team, but it just doesn't make any sense for him to try to turn Sparano into someone he wants him to be, rather than find someone who doesn't mind having a hand up his *** telling him what to do.
Sparano has a simple argument for keeping his job: "I tried to bench the guy. I didn't want him as the starter. If Penny hadn't gotten hurt we'd be in the playoffs." He needs to repeat this to ross over and over again to have a chance.
Part number 2 is one of the biggest reasons I don't think we'll see Tony back. If there are doubts about him, which there probably are, do you think Ross will trust him to pick another QB? I think he'll leave that task to whomever he has in mind to replace Sparano and / or Ireland.
I would surely hope this argument doesn't need to be made at this point. If it does, then it doesn't really matter?
What would lead anyone to believe that Sparano picked Henne? The extent of our knowledge regarding Sparano's feelings on Henne are that he tried benching him for a QB who ends every other season with a shoulder injury.
I don't think Sparano picked Henne. I think this would be what could lead Ross to completely clean house.
http://prod.www.nfl.com/news/story?...emplate=with-video-with-comments&confirm=true Ross' words. While this season may have changed his opinion some, i doubt Ross can go from that vote of confidence to "cut him" when hes still pretty young. I don't think Ross hates Henne nearly as much as most of you. Ross and Henne being Michigan Alums may provide Henne with another year of confidence from the owner. Thus maybe providing Sparano with another year as well. Unless a far greater opportunity arises.
Is anyone else concerned about pride issues? I don't want to be married to bad players picked by this regime or Dallas practice-squadders because that's what Sparano knows and feels comfortable with. Asking Sparano & Ireland to "move on" from certain players would be asking them to admit mistakes about picking certain players. When is the last time you saw a coach/GM actually do that while still employed?
You REALLY think we would have been in the playoffs had Pennington not gotten injured? We have NO RUNNING GAME! No chanced in hell Pennington survives that.
And hiring the flashy awesome new coach for change sake got us Jimmy Johnson(which lead to Wannstedt) and Nick Satan.
I am not concerned at all. They admit mistakes all the time. I can say the last time they did it is when they released Pat White and Donald Thomas. Donald Thomas even started for them for a full year and won the starting spot before getting injured the year before.
I say this is Parcells mess - let him clean it up ! Nice job this guy has: - get paid millions - do nothing and take none of the blame.
Well on a seasonal basis Belicheat shows that propensity. Though this regime has cast aside it's mistakes, Wilford comes to mind and more recently Pat White.
Taking two years to figure that out and paying him millions of dollars isn't making your case for an exception though. My original comment about admitting "mistakes" and moving on has more to do with draft selections than FA choices, although your example of free agency choices only bolster my overall argument... Well those are two examples.... but there are probably 10 times the examples of cases for the opposite. Exceptions don't mean they are the rule. So you have confidence that if Sparano is retained for some reason, that Sparano will jettison Henne?
Number three- After further thought on this whole matter of you remaining the coach. I have reconsidered. In the words made famous by that other guy from New York with the lousy hair. Your Fired.
To be fair Sparano probably gets more credit than he deserves regarding 2008; that was more Pennington than Sparano. I think if Sparano had been able to keep this team above .500 following 2008, he'd have more that he could hang his hat on. Wannstedt, as bad as he was, at least got this team to a winning record in all but his firing year. Many will cite that he took Jimmy Johnson's team to those heights, but that isn't giving fair credit when due. Those people never acknowledge that Wanny did it with different QBs, RBs, and WRs than Jimmy had. Wannstedt consistently fielded a winning team with Fiedler, Lamar Thomas, and Gadsden/Chambers. Meanwhile the 2010 Dolphins have Henne, Ricky, Ronnie, and Brandon Marshall. Think Wanny did so well only because of the defense? Sure the defense helped, but guess what? Our defensive rank today is right in line with the defenses Wanny had back during his tenure. Actually our defense's rank today is coincidentally the highest ranked defense Wanny ever had. It obviously wasn't all rosy, as Wanny did slowly kill this team through the draft and FA, and the idea to ride Ricky's back into oblivion screwed us in 2004 when Ricky retired.... so yeah, Wanny did have his faults. What I don't understand is the support for Sparano now, in the face of a second consecutive losing season, while Wannstedt enjoys universal disdain from Dolfans everywhere after giving us 4 years of winning records. We didn't like Wanny because he didn't give us another Marino, neglected to give us RB depth behind Ricky, and didn't think kicking field goals was a crime. Does any of this sound familiar? The difference is Wanny did more with less talent. Sparano does less with more talent. The definition of a good coach can loosely be agreed upon as "doing the most with what you have", right? I am most certainly NOT advocating Wannstedt. I still dislike him. I'm merely drawing parallels between what we previously had and complained about, versus what we have now and won't complain about. Food for thought.
Pennington got us to the playoffs. What did the coach really contribute to that season? The "why not us" mantra? Seriously, take penne out of the equation and we have three losing seasons in a row. sobering right?
Those are JUST two examples. They are not the exceptions, this regime does not hold favorites. They cut people who deserve it all the time. by your rule there should be 20 examples of cases for the opposite. Name them. 30 if you add Wilford 40 if you add Smiley 50 if you add Grove 60 if you add Shawn Murphy
No, because I was not the one saying that "name" hires were a bad thing. Dupree was. He was saying that it was a worse thing to do a "name" hire than to hire a no-name coordinator like Sparano. I was pointing out to him that two out of the three name hires made the playoffs more than once, and you know what? Both JJ and Wanny WON a playoff game, something Sparano has NOT done.
If Sparano stays we can expect more 7-9. Tony Sparano = Dick Jauron. [7-9, 7-9, 7-9....] Of course I don't think Dick got as excited about field goals.