I have been among most of you in critizing Ireland's job, and being quite negative. Now, let us give him his due credit. And keep it as close as possible to facts: The front seven on defense - one of the better in the game against the run. Bess, Hartline, Pouncey, Long, Tannehill, Miller drafted on offense. Bush and Fasano traded for in good trades of value. Lane a real find with the assistance of A&M connection. Carpenter has generally been a good find. Fields an excellent punter. Appears to have gotten good value for Davis. The Dolphins are set up nicely for the 2013 draft. Those are the things that come to mind quickly. Now is your opportunity to add to the list. No back handed compliments. Just the good stuff from you guys. Be as objective as you can.
lets beat those cardinals !!!!!!!!!! my final thought... this team is not short on talent overall, all this whining about the GM is just what fans do to pass the time. Ireland isnt going anywhere anytime soon, he's Carl Petersons choice and thats enough for Ross. So lets move on and focus on winning games this season with what we have.
Listen I do not have a problem with Ireland's cast off picks. He's trying to find diamonds in the rough so to speak thats fine. Where I do have problems is when we have tons of cap space and we have glearing holes on offense and defense that he tries to use the same process for filling those. With free agency you need to FILL those spots and sometimes you need to spend to do that. If he decides to grab a premier Wideout out and than get two projects or take some risks on older / cheaper guys Im fine. But counting on crap players getting the job done isnt going to get it done.
I understand what you are saying, but this thread is about what he has done right. State what you think he has done right. I have opinions about what I don't like. But this thread is about what he has done right.
I'm sick to death of watching my favorite football team go yr in and yr out without a chance of contending. I personally like Ireland but 5 yrs of this crap is just about enough, no more excuses, no more writing off seasons prior to November and talking about the draft.
One thing is clear Padre about Ireland. He is polarizing. He has strong feelings coming out on him. In hindsight, I think Ross would have been better served to clean house. A new coach like Philbin kind of deserved his own personnel guy who understands what he wants. Should have happened. But with that said, what can you say good about him?
Where do we have tons of cap space?? http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000...vailable-salarycap-space-for-all-32-nfl-teams
At the end of this year we will have over $50,000,000 in cap space, most in NFL. We still have vets to resign , but there is 50 Mill avail.
Code: I don't think folks are talking about this enough, nor putting it into perspective, that's a pretty nice number as it relates to a coach going into his 2 nd year..This could of been the plan all along with the rookie coach, don't spend to much this year until we know what we have?
If that was the plan then Ross, Ireland, or Philbin should have mentioned it. That's something that I would think fans could support and makes sense. Even though I would prefer a couple of win now moves, if they were transparent about this plan if they planned it, I would support that and feel better about things. back on topic to the OP, There's no denying that we are in great position to makes some major improvements and we have the cap to back it all up and some! I agree with everything the OP mentioned and am trying to think of anything worth adding. How about this, Ireland is the first one of many people dating back to Shula to try to get a franchise QB the right way!
Good luck on keeping the thread positive, i've seen several try and fail. lol. !f you can post links unlike me, i recommend reading a thread that got moved to the rants forum. something about factual articles about Ireland and they are all mainly positive. Its a good read and it got me to change my stance from negative to nuetral on Ireland.
Did you guys ever think that maybe Ross is tying Ireland's hands regarding player acquisition? Maybe he isn't ALLOWED to spend that much. Just because we have cap room doesn't mean Ross is going to let him use it. It's his money.
With a good draft and several smart free agent signings this 2013 offseason, we can be very serious contenders. The real question is, can Ireland be trusted with a bunch of top 100 draft picks and 50M in cap room? If he can be, we're looking at a string of playoff appearances. If not, the franchise spins its wheels for another 5 years. This offseason is just a more complicated equivalent of the Brees/Culpepper decision.
IMO, yes, b/c Ireland best knows who we have and what we have, so IMO he would best know how to compliment this current team and all its developing youth better than anyone else at the current moment. Plus, we can trust he has the team's best interest in mind over his own self-interest b/c he's putting the future of the team first rather than padding the books this quarter to make us look better on paper so to speak. He's one of the league's better talent assessors, so the draft aspect doesn't worry me. Next year we won't have to worry about signing lots of 1 year stopgap players, so he'll have the liberty to address FA with a few impact players as well as re-sign the ones we currently have. If you really look at it, we only have 3 big holes---- an impact WR, another quality CB, and an additional pass rusher. We have enough cap space to fill the WR spot to where it'd be hard to screw that up. After solidifying WR in FA, most of the draft could be allocated toward defense, and there's not a GM available I'd want identifying and drafting defensive players over Ireland, period, and there's no argument that could prove otherwise.
You just got me fired up. that's pretty much things I've thought and said but the way you worded it got me excited about the future! I just wanted just 2 win now players for this year, i don't think that's asking too much, but the way things happened might prove to be the best case scenario for next year. There really wasn't much talent to go after for a couple of win now players for this year anyway.
It really doesn't make a lot of sense that Ireland stocks up draft picks and cap space when his job is on the line.
I've thought that and posted that a few times but we don't know the whole story. Like someone said earlier maybe it was Ross' idea. Or maybe Ireland is one heck of a salesman and bought himself time by telling Ross that there's no point in wasting money on the FA players that were available this year and that the FA class next year will be more worth it, plus the loaded draft and 50 mil in cap space. Maybe Ireland and Peterson became best friends and Peterson assured him he can talk Ross into that previous idea I just mentioned. We just don't know! But we are set up beautifully for everything next year and I hope Ireland is still here to take advantage of the advantages he has set us up for next year!
I'm already excited about next year's offseason, too, but I still want to enjoy this season for what it is. What also should be considered is a new GM might see $50+ million and a bunch of draft picks as the perfect opportunity to completely dismantle the team and rebuild it "his way" in his own image, possibly with a new HC and different QB, and I for one would not look forward to that happening b/c there's no guarantee it'd be successful, plus I happen to like where this current team is headed (including Philbin and the new offensive design). The offense is a WR and some QB, TE, WR, and Oline development away from being very good. The defense is good as it sits, and is a CB & pass rusher away from being great. It's like fans take for granted that a new GM will simply pick up where Ireland left off and do nothing but address our existing needs, but the fact of the matter is a new GM might dismantle this team, and as such create a team full of holes that he would then task himself with filling over the next few years, and if he doesn't succeed we're left worse off than we are now. No thank you. Ireland might've been listed as the "GM" from '08 to '10, but he was Parcells' GM (with the team being Parcells' rather than Ireland's), where as the past 2 year's he's been his own GM, so even though the name of our GM has been the same, we've already essentially seen a change in GM in 2011. I, for one, don't want to make it 3 GMs in 6 years. IMO Ireland has been setting us up the past 2 years for a big changes by 2014. This year was about finding the HC of the future, QB of the future, new offense of the future, new defense of the future, and giving all of it a year to settle in b/c that alone is more than enough change for one season. Part 2 will be next year with all the draft picks and FA money we'll have at our disposal, so IMO he deserves to see his vision through to fruition. If it works, we'll be looking great. If it doesn't, we'll be left hiring a new GM.
I agree, but even if his job were on the line I still believe he's principled enough to want to do what's in the team's best interest over the long haul.
Absolutely!! This team will be a totally different team next year, how different remains to be seen. Ireland & Co will build a stronger , better balanced Miami Dolphins.
Let's remember, we have a lot of our free agents at the end of the year to decide on, that could take a chunk out of the equation.
I think we could re-sign most of our necessary guys and still be able to add a key receiver and possibly another corner.
it doesn't make a lot of sense to wait until the 6th round of the draft to take a WR when you have the worst group in the league either lol....but this is J.I. we're talking about, he's had dolphins fans scratching their head for years. he'd have to be a complete idiot to not recognize his job was on the line, matter of fact I think he openly admitted it before the season started. Ross knows the fans hate Ireland, he sees his stadium with a huge amount of empty seats, he's not just gonna shrug off a 4th straight sub .500 season, especially if his expectations were a playoff berth and he' s trying to compete with the champion Miami Heat.
It should be obvious to everyone that this is the plan. They can't admit it because no one would pay to see the games this season if they did, or the competition committee would be all over them in an eyeblink. But what else can it be? If you're looking for something Ireland is doing right, it's not trying to put patches on the team this season, letting everyone get experience playing together while they lose, amassing a record that will give them a high draft position, and stockpiling draft picks and cap room for next season. Seriously; my hat's off to the man.
Did you forget the part that Tannehill has to play a lot better, or is it just a given that will happen like it was with Chad Henne?
It does make sense when you draft Best Player Available rather than drafting for need, and as such, only fans like yourself will of course be left scratching your head; meanwhile fans who understand the BPA drafting strategy aren't doing any scratching at all. When will you realize that drafting the top talent available for the future is infinitely more important than drafting for need and thinking a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th round player will be a major contributor during his rookie year? Now, since you've failed to catch on, I'll break it down for you ONE. MORE. TIME. 1st round: Franchise QB. Enough said. 2nd round: a quality, starting RT is infinitely MORE IMPORTANT than a 2nd round receiver in a WCO, especially when you don't have one on the roster. Bad RT play directly cost us 1 to 2 wins last year. 3rd round: We lost our #2 pass rusher to retirement and our #3 to a position change, leaving us with only Wake and the stopgap, Westerman. If you for a moment believe a 3rd round receiver is more important than filling your DE roster spots, you'd be foolishly mistaken. Not to mention, DE is more of a core position than WR, but I wouldn't expect you to understand that. 3rd round: In case you didn't know it, tight ends catch passes, too, and you've obviously chosen to ignore the fact that we often run 2 TE sets, which is difficult to do when you only have 1 TE & 1 Hback to work with. Considering only 2 TEs had been taken at this point in the draft compared to 11 receivers, the best receiving option at the time might've been the 3rd best TE rather than the 12th receiver, but I wouldn't expect you to understand something like that either. I also wouldn't expect you to understand that the TE position in the NFL often takes a few years to develop; therefore, since Fasano is a FA next year, it's imperative to have someone groomed and hopefully ready to replace him in case we can't resign him. That way we're not left drafting for need two years in a row (WR in 2012 and then TE in 2013) and costing us overall team talent in the process. Do you lack the ability to understand that needs don't just apply to the present, that they apply to the future as well, and that addressing a future need using BPA (best player available) is more important than addressing a current need by reaching for a player? 4th round: if you have a chance to draft a highly talented back like Lamar Miller during Reggie Bush's contract year, you take him rather than the 15th receiver. Are you kidding me with this stuff? 5th round: if you actually believe a 5th round receiver would transform our offense, then you should probably choose another sport to follow... or pick up knitting... or basket weaving.
Maybe he has reassurance that his job isnt on the line and he has a few years looking for "Philbins" type of players.. He may have bought himself some time and wants to use this draft and free aganecy to go big next year.
I think there may be such a reassurance. Otherwise, I would be a little concerned right now if I were him. But I think he is viewed as safe. However, he hasn't done himself any favors with his recent behavior.
With Ireland it has been 5 years of mediocrity (not bad and not good, just neutral even). If you win 50% of the games and lose 50% of the games you are mediocre...plain and simple. Ireland is a mediocre GM, yeah he does well and yeah he does bad...mediocre. Thesaurus Definition mediocre - lacking exceptional quality or ability; "a novel of average merit"; "only a fair performance of the sonata"; "in fair health"; Ireland as GM;
Why? While he may be beating a dead hore with all the new Tanny threads, his overall point is accurate.
$50 million doesn't go very far when you have close to 30 free agents next season just for an example franchise Jake Long and you've used $15.36 million Reggie Bush's cap hit is just over $6 million Clemons at least $1.5 million Fasano at least $4 million Hartline at $3 million Smith with Marshalls cap hit at almost 6 mil next season Smith should be due for a huge raise to close to that Starks at 5 million Another 5 million for the rookie draft class Now your close to $46 million and you have another 20 players left who are unrestricted and restricted free agents that either have to be signed or their replacements need to be signed I'm sure we won't resign some of the vets but that $50 million is not that much with all the ufa and rfa we have.
I think Jeff Ireland has done no worse or less then 75% of the GM's in the league. Why do all you guys who claim "The sky is falling" forget it is THE PLAYERS WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR EXECUTING THE PLAYS. It is the players who are responsible for their a$$'$ coming into camp in shape. It is the players who are responsible for giving 100% effort. It is the coaches who are responsible for coming up with plays that actually work. It is the coaches who are responsible for "coaching a player and making them better. It is the attention to detail by "The Coaches" than makes us win or loose. Nope easy to blame it on one guy. Unfortunately for him it is Jeff Ireland
Because this is a thread about Ireland and what he has done right. You are off topic. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, whether you agree with it or not. If you have nothing to add go post in another thread
