Jason La Canfora: The Miami Dolphins are overhyped

It'd not just the FA signings, its the draftees, and most importantly, the continued development and improvement of the players who were already on the roster. If you look at Miami's roster there are few if any arrow down players on it. Clabo, Starks, Incognito, maybe Wake, and those guys are still good players, nowhere near washed up. Everyone else on the team is in their prime or heading towards it.

We're talking about a 7-9 team that probably should have been 8-8 (counting NYJ/AZ as wins and STL as a loss), with the largest net gain in talent via free agency in the league, a youthful roster with more room to improve from within than just about any team in the league, a solid draft class to add to it.

Is there another team in the conference that can say they got better from within, better in FA, better in the draft, with little or no red flag players (rookies, first time starters, aging vets, injury prone guys) to depend on?

 

Lololol..yeah just get rid of a potential hall of fame player and replace it with Danny amendola..lol

 

I do agree that development and improvement of players on the roster will help. But again, I don't believe getting better via free agency will have much of an impact.

Is being able to say you got better in the offseason a good indicator of success? What does history tell us?

 

It certainly can be. The Broncos look a lot better w Peyton Manning. NO looks a lot better w Sproles. Etc.

 

NO wasn't particularly better in the two years they've had Sproles than the two years prior to acquiring Sproles.

Peyton Manning is an example of an exception to the rule, but thats an extremely unique situation. We are talking about one of the top-5 players at the quarterback position, with serious medical risks.

 

They weren't? Sproles is quite a bit better than Bush. If anything the team not being better would have more to do w losing Sean Payton last year.

Still, there are exceptions. Fair to say they'll be better this year w Welker too, right?

 

Don't think they'll be appreciably better than last season. They were probably the best team in the league last year.

 

Then they probably should of won the Superbowl.

Welker is worlds better than Royal or Stokley or whoever their 3rd WR was last year so I don't see how it's even debatable.

 

it depends on the players.

 

Best team doesn't always win.

Thats a false choice. Its a game of maximizing your resources. The question here is whether the Broncos were better off spending their money on Wes Welker or Elvis Dumervil or signing Charles Woodson and some other guys, etc.

 

And the losing teams don't get credit for being the best.

My money is on Welker.

 

http://www.thephins.com/forums/show...re-overhyped&p=2083026&viewfull=1#post2083026

 

And your point is?

I don't see how me saying NO got better by replacing Bush w Sproles is the same as saying Denver was the best team last year.

 

Is that a general belief of yours or is it specific to the 2013 Dolphins, both maybe?

It's a better indicator than saying you got worse in the offseason. Historically there are more misses than hits in FA, you make a good point there. That's why the other elements need to be there, development from within and fresh blood via the draft. And when teams do go the FA route they need to be careful about giving big $$$ to guys with age, injury, or character concerns. I think Ireland has done a good job of avoiding those types of players.

I'd also point out that in terms of handicapping Miami's prospects on paper, 24 of the 25 current starters have at least 1 season in their upcoming role, most of them have several seasons. Lamar Miller is the only starter who has never been a starter before. Everyone else is pretty much a known commodity.

We won't know how everything will fall into place until the games start, but when I look for signs that a team will under perform I see less of them with Miami than any of the other teams that they are being grouped with currently. No one is being asked to be a hero or over perform what they have done previously.

Contrast that with the Steelers, a team that was mentioned earlier. Leveon Bell, Shamarko Thomas, and Jarvis Jones (or Worilds) will be asked to take over for Mendenhall, Polamalu and Harrison almost immediately. If any of them struggle, as rookies tend to do, it'll obviously have a negative impact on their ability to meet expectations. The OL was a problem again last year, Big Ben failed to play the whole season again. What was done to address that? Some off season surgery for Ben. Aside from that, nothing really, they're just hoping the guys they have stay healthy and play better. Is Landry Jones the new backup QB, or is it Bruce Gradkowski? Whoa. Mike Wallace out, Markus Wheaton in? Nah, he'll probably be the #3-4 guy while Brown, Sanders and Cotchery move up a notch. That's even more players who will be asked to do more than they did previously. Don't forget someone will have to replace Heath Miller, he tore his ACL and will miss most if not all of the season. Polamalu I already mentioned, but Kiesel, Taylor and Clark are in their 11th or 12 seasons and probably arrow down players at this point. Casey Hampton was released recently, to be replaced by Steve "One career start" McClendon at arguably the most important position on the field for a 3-4 defense. The Steelers roster is littered with red flags, old guys, oft injured guys, rookies, guys who will be asked to do more than they've shown they can do. They have the exact kinds of issues that under-performing teams seem to always have.

 

C'mon man, put down that pea shooter and bring out your bigguns. Didn't NO sign a FA QB some years back? How'd that turn out for them?

 

I was giving him the benefit of the doubt that he meant in recent years w his belief.

Safe to say there's plenty of quality FA signings that have made big impacts.

 

it was a blanket statement, every situation needs to be analyzed in a vacum.

 

We will see come December if we're a better team than 2012. Can't give a honest answer in June if we're better or not.

 

That's a very stupid statement. You should be the favorite if he's your QB.

 

Yea I know most people would of rather had Flacco before last year's playoffs.

 

So then who is a good playoff QB? Because when I see the resume of QBs like Brady, Big Ben, or Eli Manning there not much better. In fact, his QB rating in the playoffs is higher than Brady's and Big Ben.

 

The Colts won the Super Bowl despite Peyton Manning, you're never the favorite to win the Super Bowl but you are the favorite to be the number one seed in the playoffs. The MVP of Manning's Super Bowl should have been Bob Sanders, Dominic Rhodes or Joseph Addai. They got lucky that Bob Sanders was randomly healthy for the playoffs and helped make a defense that played poorly all year look great the entire way through those playoffs.

 

Great response. I can tell you put a lot of thinking into it.

 

You're not right, though. It would help if you went further, but I don't think you can. I get that he has a losing record by two games, but he's better than a few high profile QBs in the playoffs. And he already has a SB. He's been to two.

 

I just don't see it that way. Agree to disagree.

 

In 2006 he went on to have one of the greatest playoff comebacks against that same Brady/Belichick combo putting up 30+ points in the 2nd half.

He was a Hank Baskett botched onside kick recovery away from winning a 2nd Superbowl.

Last season was the hail mary that his safety failed to cover properly. The Safety's fault, and no one else

I'm sorry, but this Peyton Manning is a loser argument is beyond ridiculous. He made a fool of everyone that questionned his health last year by leading arguably the best team in the AFC in his first year back.

 

The Super Bowl against the Saints, the Hank Baskett fail happened with a whole half of football, what I remember best is with the game on the line with the Colts driving he throws a pick 6 to Tracy Porter. Hank Baskett didn't lose that game.

I'll give you this past year with the Broncos wasn't his fault, he won that game and the coverage got absolutely blown somehow. Yes he did throw 3 picks but I remember thinking 1 or 2 of them weren't bad throws.

 

Colts up by 3 scores if Baskett catches the ball.

Is it in the bag? No. But it's as close to in the bag as a football game could be with Peyton Manning chewing up the clock

 

By your definition, Tom Brady has been a loser also. Being that he makes the playoffs every year but doesn't finish the job.

This is entering ludicrous territory here. The mere fact that a Miami Dolphins fan is insinuating that Peyton Manning is a loser and choke artist. It simply boggles my mind on about 25 different levels

 

But does it surprise you? Not really.

 

Hard to really evaluate Brady, considering they cheated.

 

Peyton Manning threw an interception in OT during that Ravens game. Not that I agree with the overall, Peyton Manning is horrible in the postseason, approach. But let's not pretend Rahim Moore was the SOLE reason they lost that one, just one of the reasons.

 

He allowed a completed Hail Mary to happen up 7 while the other team had 0 Time Outs in under a minute. He's to blame.

He looked like Cameron Worrell on that pass. Remember him? Yes, it was that bad. It was the equivalent of a center fielder dropping a lazy fly ball after being camped under it.

 

Why are we pretending like the 2006 AFCCG didn't happen?

 

Damn, that's simply not true. There were many games for years when Dan put everything on his back. S--t. we were usually never out of it while Dan had even a few minutes left on the clock. It was Dan's sheer talent that even kept them in games. He had many clutch comebacks. Winning a Superbowl is a team achievement. Dan never had a complete team around him and endured some sh-tty regimes. Even Bill Walsh would constantly sing his praises. He knew Dan was one of the best QBs to ever come around. He admitted that Montana was a system QB and that Dan was a system, but what does Walsh know?

 

Montane had some special talent around him AND a great defense...Roger Craig..Tom Rathman..Brent jones..Jerry rice..

Dan Marino had the Marx brothers, and that's about it.

 

LOL, the same Peyton Manning that won 12 games every year for 12 years. Then gets injured and his team struggled to win even 2 games.

Whereas Tom Brady goes down and his team wins 11 games and his replacement was a pro bowl alternate?

I don't want to turn this into Brady vs. Manning. But if that situation isn't indicative of what Peyton Manning meant to the Colts, then I don't know what is. He had a defense in the top half of the league like one time.

 

Brady>Manning.

 

Are we talking about the same Tennessee Titans that dusted the Miami Dolphins 37-3 in one of the worst regular season losses in memory, during Week 10 of the 2012 regular season?

We must have been missing golden boy Ryan Tannehill during that game. Wait, he played, you say? Oh well they must have had some QB other than Locker playing that day. Wait, he played too, you say?

Hrmph. Cognitive...dissonance...taking...over!

 

That Titan game was ridiculous, I knew when there were 20 thousand in their seats come kickoff it was gonna be a long day, not sure any team can play their best in that environment.