What if this team is the wildcard or division winner at the end of this season? Will you give Ireland credit as the architect?
Martin came out after (I think) the opening play because he lost his shoe. Rather than forcing us to call a timeout to fix his issue (as had happened in the preseason one time), he just ran off the field.
The team is 2 very makeable Carpenter FGs away from being 4-1 and in first place in the division and with its only loss to the undefeated Texans on the road in the rookie QBs first NFL start (and even that game pretty much came down to those batted passes, which haven't been an issue since). So if Carpenter makes those FGs the team is the contender you say it should be and Ireland has built a contender, but since Carpenter missed those kicks, Ireland is a colossal screw up? OK.
So you're not a believer in talent development? Really? Because if you were then this argument has zero logic to support it.
not gonna respond to strawmen. I don't remember ever saying that I don't believe in talent development.
Sure, but you could pretty much say that for any team that loses games. There are plenty of moves that would have made us better this season, but you would most likely be giving up future assets.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Section's beef is that had Ireland put the resources into the areas needed to succeed in a passing league, the Dolphins would be playoff contenders right now. The 2010 draft is a perfect example. Miami had the 12th pick and traded down to 28. From picks 12 - 27, 5 of those guys are Pro Bowlers, including a couple that I know a lot us really liked, JPP and Earl Thomas.
A.J. Green went 5 of 8 for 36 yards, a TD on Sean Smith's coverage. Smith also had 1 PBU. In total Smith allowed 7 of 10 passes to go complete for 54 yards, the TD and PBU. For the year he's 22 of 46 for 231 yards, 3 TDs and 2 INTs with 5 PBUs on 240 coverage snaps. He's also drawn 3 penalties. Things I pay attention to would include completion percentage (unusually low at 48%), yards per completion (pretty low at 10.5), the TD/INT ratio (not as good as one would hope), number of PBUs (good) and total yards per coverage snap (doing well at 0.96). He's doing a good job out there. A Pro Bowler he is not, IMO.
No team is a playoff contender with an inadequate quarterback. To think one can tease apart the influence of Chad Henne from the influence of the rest of the roster, and then pin that on Jeff Ireland, is ambitious to say the least. If Chad Henne would've panned out and had sufficient ability, this team would've been playoff-caliber with all the same personnel moves it made. You can't use the absence from the playoffs, in the context of an inadequate QB, as evidence that the overall team was inadequately assembled. What argues against that perception, as well, is the fact that the team had a playoff-caliber record when it got sufficiently capable QB play. When Matt Moore's QB rating was 97, the team's record was 6-3, which projects to 11-5 and is playoff-caliber. If Matt Moore's QB rating would've been sufficiently high and the team would've played in a way that wasn't playoff-caliber, then there might be some merit in saying the overall roster was poorly assembled. I assume all of this perfectly clear logic will fall on deaf ears, however.
If Carpenter makes those FGs we'd be a playoff contender right now. We'd be 4-1. A game up in our division. There are no great, dominant teams on the schedule, other than maybe SF. Every game is winnable, especially if Tannehill continues to improve. In fact, we are a playoff contender right now. The first 2 picks of that 2010 draft gave us 2 defensive front 7 starters that have been instrumental in helping this defense be the best run defense in the NFL and on pace to potentially be the best run defense in NFL history. I was all about Earl Thomas in that draft, but the safety Ireland took in the 5th round of that draft is currently PFF's top rated safety. Earl Thomas is rated 57th.
You cannot discount the combination picks of Misi/Odrick over Jpp and Earl Thomas...and like Fineas pointed out, the value were getting out of Jones..5th round pick playing at a high level.
You lost me at the part where you blamed the previous quarterback's failings but allowed the person who drafted him to skate.
At the risk of speaking out of turn, it is simple. Drafting is an inexact "science" in which failure is the norm and success is infrequent. Most picks don't pan out. An even smaller percentage of QB picks pan out. Ireland doesn't "skate" on Henne -- it just isn't unusual for a 2nd round QB to not pan out and while people often treat 2nd round picks as very valuable, the truth is they are not nearly as valuable as many people seem to believe. Anyone who expects a GM to hit on every pick has little understanding of the NFL draft and no perspective on what it means for a GM to be successful or not.
I don't particularly hold Ireland to account for Chad Henne: -Qb's sometimes don't develop -He added Marshall to help Henne instead of merely leaving him to fend for himself -I still think Henne can be a quality Qb in the league Moves like trading Ted Ginn, this I did not understand especially for a 5th rd pick, heck a good returner is worth that and Ginn was still quite young when the deal was made.
I didn't like the Ginn trade either, but if that 5th became Reshad Jones, who is playing very well . . . My read on it was that Sparano and Co. didn't particularly like or trust Ginn. They really didn't even trust him as a punt returner, which IMO is what he is best at (not KR). As a punt returner, he's kind of feast or famine and they wanted someone who would get the easy 8 yard return. I don't hink they liked him or trusted him as a WR and if you aren't gointg to use him much for that or punt returning, you may as well get something for him while you can. I think it was the same kind of thing with Vontae -- the coaches didn't like him and weren't going to use him enough to be worth keeping, so get something for him while you can.
Yeah. Why not? It's pretty obvious at this point that there are many players on the roster that have more talent than they have shown in the past. And let's not forget Mr Ross. For just so happening to over-rule Ireland and hire a HC that just so happened to hire an OC that just so happened to be Tannehill's college HC and just so happens to be running a similar offensive scheme here.
Yes, especially if you weren't part of the "Suck for Luck" group that wanted us to intentionally lose games for the best QB to come in to the draft in NFL history. We are years away from competing with our current QB situation and should have tanked last year to secure Luck. On those grounds alone Ireland should be fired. Didn't suck just enough to not land Luck and sucked so bad to ensure this franchise will be mired in mediocrity for the next five years.
Yep. Like I said earlier, most GM's don't get a second chance. Ireland IS getting a pass for the Long/Henne combo, whether people here choose to admit it or not.
Me too. Never liked the trade at any point in the process. The player we wouldn't have without the trade though, is Carroll, unless he fell to the pick we used on Jones and we took him there, but then we wouldn't have Jones.
We're 3.5 point favorites against the Rams and we are feeling confident with our stout run defense and improving pass defense. With our running game and very promising rookie franchise QB it should take us to 3-3 and we will be feeling damn good about ourselves and the state of the franchise. Lots of positives coming up.
You're omitting the part where, roughly around 2009 if memory serves, Jeff Ireland publicly declared Chad Henne to be a success as a QB and a successful draft pick. The irony is that Ryan Tannehill seems to be the QB that Ireland thought he was getting with Henne, yet Ireland has been notably less publicly (and privately) confident in Tannehill than he was in Henne. His sending tape of Tannehill to anyone he could find prior to the draft really stands out to me. This is the Godzilla of strawmen. No one is claiming in general that Ireland should have hit on every draft pick, nor was that claim made specifically in my post which you quoted. And, no, missing on a QB does not warrant your written shoulder shrug. Refer below. Yes. It's happened dozens if not hundreds of times. Missing on a QB means people get fired. Jeff Ireland getting a second chance at the position is a rare exception. We're watching firsthand how good QB play can save and make jobs in the NFL. Let's hope it continues.
