I am an eternal optimist when it come to the Phins and I am sure many of you would call me a homer but I have no problem with that. Although QB is a much bigger problem on this team than the OL it bothers me more that we are still trying to piece together an OL after dumping a huge amount of our resources into that area. Getting a franchise QB is very hard to do and requires opportunity and some luck to accomplish. OL on the other hand should not be this hard.
Friend miami2239: I understand your negativity but suggest you temper it. 1) everything begins in the trenches. the offensive line, although not very attractive, is the very foundation of a team. its worth major investments to improve & needs improvement. 2) we've been in a rebuilding process that is very close to completion. let the QB's compete & develop this year, one may emerge as the "ultimate" answer. if not, next season will be a better draft for QB's & we should have the potential to focus on scooping up the "franchise" player we need to lead the team. 3) still a chance of acquiring more competition for the QB stable, its not too late! but regardless of outcome, 2011 is shaping up to be an interesting competitive season. can't ask for more than that...
Good post. Very simple and to the point. I too am a Dolphin homer. Every year I think we're gonna go 12-4. Not this year. Not with Henne. 7-9, here we come, yet again!
You call that a negative post!?! I've seen better negative posts on bumper stickers (on Killer's clown car)... BTW-Killer, do you still have that "honk if you hate Henne" one?
I have been willing to give Sparano another chance simply on the idea that maybe the offensive problems were Henning not Sparano. I recall hearing that Henning was given total control of the offense and having seen his offenses in Carolina it seems likely to be true. That being said I don't see how the OL shuffling can be blamed on anybody but Sparano. I know that the Grove injury really set them back, but I think the constant tweaking has hurt almost as much.
The Grove injury compiled with J Jerry not panning out were both significant blows to the stability of our Oline.
I don't think the John Jerry draft has been a significant blow. The drafting of John Jerry was a result of moves such as Donald Thomas & Shawn Murphy not working out. As well as injuries to Nate Garner and Justin Smiley. I don't think the team has failed to acquire talent on the offensive line. I think there has been some poor luck with injuries. I think there has been some poor decisions based upon injury history. Jake Grove & Justin Smiley were excellent players for Miami, but you knew that past history indicated you couldn't count on those players for extended periods of time or full seasons. Drafting Mike Pouncey is a start. Re-signing Richie Incognito is another solid player to have on the line. At some point, Miami is going to need to develop a guy there. And that's where I think the problem is--development. They need a Ray Feinga to come out of nowhere. They need a Lydon Murtha. They need a John Jerry. They need a middle-late-UDFA player to come out of nowhere with development to be a mainstay. The continuance on throwing tons of $ & draft picks towards that leads to other trickle down affects. You can't draft a play-making WR in the first round if you need an Interior OL the way we did. You can't sign a big time TE if you need OL help. Where really good teams are able to find quality/serviceable guys in late rounds and use other dollars to skill positions, we're still using that money to fill the trenches.
No need for me to post you've already said it all. It's definitely frustrating that we seem to investing so much into the OL. But that's the philosophy of this regime, they've used it on both sides of the ball and IMO w/ great success on defense as our DL is among the best/deepest in the league. So long as Ireland and co. are running things, we'll be a run the ball-play defense team and if we can't run the ball then it'll be 7-9 again. IMO that's why we're still fiddling w/ the OL trying to get it just right.
I dunno what you are talking about. The sticker on the left side of my car says "Where is Lee Harvey Oswald when you need him?" The one on the right says " Jason Taylor is a douchebag"!
It is disappointing that due to what ever circumstance that going into the 4th year of this regime we are still using 1st round picks on the o-line. Like the rest of you said how much more money and resources is it going to take to finish this. Another thing, I wasn't real happy with Carey last year ( I know he was dinged up) but Columbo is not better or even as good at this point. So now, it appears, we are going to be worse at RT than we were before.
