Barry Jackson: Delving into Ross' feelings on Ireland

Besides Jeff Saturday, because of Manning, and the other Pouncey, and Nick Mangold because he plays for the Jets and received a lot of coverage on Sunday, I couldn't name another center without looking on the Internet. Centers are never a good pickup in the first round.

The Steelers get a pass because they were stacked at most every other position and needed OL help, but that's it.

I was not impressed with this claim, "he won't overpay." Did Parcells keep him chlorophormed in a broom closet while he gave those contracts to dudes like Ernest Wilfork and Justin Smiley? (If so, then he must be super pissed off.)

Regardless, if they get Andrew Luck, the need to be perfect on draft day will be less so. He can make an entire offense look better by himself.

 

that says more about you than centers

 

I would defintely prefer reid and fisher
To anyone else being mentioned

 

I'm not sure why you think your lack of knowledge about centers is a good argument that they shouldn't be first round picks. The fact is that in the NFL there is a great deal of emphasis on pressure up the middle. It has become one of those core positions and drafting core positions early is generally a good idea. If you want to know which positions are important, look at the ones where an injury moves the betting lines. And look at how teams fall apart when their center goes down. The Jet's game you just mentioned is a good example. Another example would be the SB when the Raider's center flaked. Or if you just paid attention to last year you would have noticed how our offense fell apart after we lost our center from the previous year.

Those contracts to Smiley and Wilford were when Parcells was in charge. In fact, most were questioning whether Ireland had any power at all beyond the title when we took him from Dallas. I thought it was pretty clear that the plan was that Ireland was the puppet and then and would eventually take over.

Agreed about Luck.

 

I'm not privvy to Ireland's player value philosophy but generally speaking I think it's a good idea to avoid overpaying. If we must overpay, let's do it in order to keep our own players and not for FAs or draftees.

Ireland is a relatively new GM, he doesn't want to develop a reputation as a guy who can pushed off of his price. If that means losing out a player here and there then don't have a problem with it. I wanted Deangelo Williams in the worst way but Carolina made it rain millions on him, meanwhile DThomas has shown that (when healthy) he can be a similarly productive back at a fraction of the cost.

Shows how much I know

 

LMAO. Well played.

After the draft Ireland said his first option was a trade down and that would've been my preference as well. He also said that no team was offering a good deal for the 15th pick so even though 15 was high for Pouncey he went ahead and took him.

Looking at the roster I see a lot of "solid" players but no difference makers. We don't have guys who make game changing plays and our best players are at positions that don't put points on the board.

Our HC is a supposed OL expert. I don't see any evidence to back that up and even if it is true do we really want an OL expert as the HC? We share a division with Rex Ryan, Belichick & Gailey and IMO all three of them can coach circles around our guy in a tactical sense. I don't mind keeping Ireland but I think Sparano's time has come and gone.

 

What is it that you like most about Luck? And how do you think his game will transfer to the Pros?

 

Ha.
It's a screen shot from the movie "A Christmas Story".
It's the title character "Ralphie" with a bar of soap in his mouth for cussing.

 

The person who knows the names of all the starting centers in the NFL, sucks, and that's not my point. Centers aren't as important as other positions in the offense and shouldn't be drafted in the 1st round.

 

I don't think Ireland has been a bad GM, he's made some mistakes, but he's certainly done a better job than any GMs we've had in the past several years. I don't mind them cleaning house and getting rid of both the GM and HC. But, I also realize we could get a GM who is not as good as Ireland. We all want the Dolphins to improve but the team could digress with the wrong GM.

 

Thanks.

Man, you said a mouthful there. While I tend to agree, I wouldn't mind seeing a whole new regime at this point.

 

#1 would be his decision making. I think he's very much like Manning in terms of football IQ. After that I'd go with accuracy and athleticism. As for translating to the pros, I don't see a big transition for him. Obviously, he's going to need time to adjust to the speed of the game, but he doesn't have to learn as much as most in terms of scheme or style.

 

Do you have a reason why?

 

i would argue that during the Dan Marino era, the center Dwight Stephenson was the second most important player on the team, not either of the Marks brothers.
It is foolish to say that no centers should be drafted in the first round.
Now generally most centers don't grade out as first round talent because typically if you are a great lineman they try and make you play left tackle.

 

The attendance is going to play a factor as well. 51,032 was the official attendance for the Texans game. That means even people who bought tickets before the season just didn't show up. It's never been that bad, and it will get worse.

The average for the two games was 78.4% full, obviously helped by the Patriots game. Only the Bengals have been lower. That number is going to fall further. In 2007 the Dolphins averaged 72,000 fans (Top 10), and around 68,000 in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Those were all good enough to hover around the Top 15 in NFL attendance. To drop to the bottom of the league so fast (currently 29th, can't see it getting better either), and probably for the first time ever, is going to be another factor.

The first two in 2011 averages to 58,946. Already a 10,000 fan drop from a year that followed 1-15. So it's not just the losses (or economy, 2008, 2009 and 2010 were higher as well). Fans see a product going nowhere. Combine that with the losses and Ross will most likely clean house, knowing they are going to have to work hard to get people excited about the team being a new product.

Now who knows if a new regime plus an exciting, young top QB prospect would help right away. (even Andrew Luck) I think the fans are apathetic and will have to see a changed product first to believe it. But Ross has to know that fans don't trust this regime...which Ireland is a part of.

 

So core that there was one drafted in the first 5 rounds. Two if you count Steve Wiz but he was moved to guard. That's a really thin class this year. It's not without precedent as Pit selected his brother at 18 last year, and not many after.

If we spent a #1 on OL for five straight years Sparano would finally have his Oline. Be that is it may, our oline still sucks.

 

I think the odds are worse that you find a better talent evaluator as a GM than the Luck goes busto. Luck should at least be a decent top 15 QB in time, and perhaps much more.

 

Thanks, I've wondered about that before, and this seemed like the ideal time to ask. I also am curious who that is in electrolyte's avatar.

 

If there was an award for most ridiculous post of the month, this one would be in the running.

 

It's going to get a lot worse.. yup you are right about that.

Dolphin fans have given up. It's done. They want a franchise QB. They want to see the Dolphins play exciting football and put up points. Ross was GIVING AWAY tickets to the last home game and still people didn't show up. People are sick and tired of 17-13 snooze fests. It's been 11 years of this.

I was listening to Sedano on the radio the other day, and a guy called and said he had tickets to the dolphins game for him and his 2 sons. They didn't go. He said trying to take them to the game was like pulling teeth.

Nobody cares.

Drafting Andrew Luck would be the single biggest thing that the Dolphin franchise could do. It would send shockwaves down the fans. fill everyone with hope..... and people will show up next year.

 

Definitely will, and people can't say it's because Florida has "Fair-weather fans". The Dolphins are/were the exception to that. The fact that they averaged 71,000 in that bad 2007 season, then around 68,000 the following season, shows that. Fans have supported the team since that awful 2004 season. Fans probably still had fun, and thought and had hope that the team would turn a corner after briefly doing so in 2005 and 2008.

But now it's a combination of losing, and playing exactly the same every single week. Fans know this is a lost season, and now plenty see there is an opening for an exciting QB prospect and entire new staff. Ross will be there to see so many empty, orange seats which is new for the Dolphins. And being a fan before buying the team, he remembers there used to be excitement and filled seats.

 

well two things about this article that piss me off, Ireland is not accountable and blames parcells . the tuna has been gone for two years now , so enough with the excuses.


where the hell is this so called talent . if we had talent then we would be competing for the playoffs .


the really bad thing about our front office is that no one is accountable !!


I will say this MR Ross please sell the team . the guy admitted he was a jets fan so it doesnt take Sherlock Holmes to figure that the players are playing the fans and so is our gm real talent my aqua *** we paid millions of dollars to a wr who drops passes . so far he hasn't made near the plays Chris Chambers did. I think we need to really clean house this offseason .