I was doing some reading tonight to try and get a feel for who Jeff Ireland has connections to and who he may pursue for the head coaching job if, as expected, Tony Sparano is fired and Jeff gets significant input into the hiring decision. This article reveals a good bit, IMO. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...1_jeff-ireland-ditka-and-personnel-jim-parmer Two parts of this article that I'm going to quote: Most are going to scoff at the fact that Bill Parcells has had a tremendous amount of influence on him. Note that one of the men Jeff credits as having a lot of influence on his philosophy is Buddy Ryan. I'll come back to this later. IMO, everyone who is in this business has a central dogma of what their philosophy is based around, and they rarely deviate from that dogma. I believe you can take the above quote as Jeff Ireland's central dogma. He wants high character players who are physically and mentally tough. There are some exceptions, but by and large, that's how he has typically drafted. I think if you look at his career, he has shown flexibility relative to taking players that fit whatever style his coach wants to run. If he has a coach that wants smaller, fast linebackers or quicker, penetrating defensive linemen, he will find them. However, what likely stays the same is the desire to get guys with good character, physical toughness, and mental toughness. Based on that, I feel like the guy who has probably had the most influence on his career is Jim Parmer. Jeff's Chicago Bears roots are deep. Back to what I said above. The Bears roots and the fact that Buddy Ryan has influenced some of Jeff's philosophy, my guess is, if a coaching change is made, Jeff will try to convince Stephen Ross to hire either Jeff Fisher or Rob Ryan. Jeff Fisher is a Buddy Ryan protege. He played on those Bears teams when Jeff was a ball boy, and he was an assistant on Buddy's staff in Philadelphia. Rob Ryan is obviously Buddy's son, and he was also a ball boy with Jeff Ireland back in the early '80s, along with his brother Rex. Go back to 2008 when the Dolphins were interviewing candidates for the job. There is plenty of speculation that if Jeff had the authority to make the decision, he would have hired Rex Ryan after his interview. Rex apparently made an impression on Bill Parcells as well, because Bill gave him a recommendation to Mike Tannenbaum, another Parcells guy, for the Jets job based on his interview with Miami. Bill had already decided to hire Tony Sparano, my guess is because he knew Tony would do what he wanted him to while Rex was his own man. There is no way to prove that point, but I wouldn't doubt it. Jeff has disagreed with Bill on several occasions, even when the two were with the Cowboys. Padre has been making a point that Jeff Fisher may be the best fit for the Dolphins based on the type of player they currently have, and you know, considering that Jeff and Jeff have both been influenced by Buddy Ryan, it makes sense. While it remains to be seen who the top candidates that will be on Stephen Ross's list are, I'm willing to bet that Jeff Ireland is going to be pushing Jeff Fisher and Rob Ryan.
I can't say that Rob Ryan would be an upgrade over Tony ... and lord knows i'm not an advocate of his ....
Rob Ryan & Rex Ryan as opposition in the same division? That'd be fun. The Jets rivalry & intensity would ascend to a new level. This might sound dumb, but if Rex and Rob are twins, I'm guessing Rob is equally blessed with the natural head coaching abilities that his brother seems to possess. I'd be all for Rob...... and like PSG mentioned---- we'd need a great OC to compliment him. I haven't given up on Daboll yet b/c I like his mind for the game; he's young & savvy; players seem to respond to him, and he's definitely yet to plateau. As the offensive personnel (mainly the youth) settles in and a few more guys are added who match up better to his style & philosophy, then I wouldn't rule out Daboll developing into one of the top 10 offensive minds in the league. Not to mention, Ireland's eye for offensive talent seems to match well with Daboll's personnel needs, which IMO didn't happen during Henning & Parcell's tenure. IMO this is something that shouldn't be taken for granted b/c it's not just about who your OC is or who you have on offense, but it's also about how well your guys on offense match up to your OC. Daboll's offense needed us to get more athletic, faster, more dynamic & versatile, and Ireland did a great job based on the limited amount of picks he had to work with. My previous gripe with Ireland was that, while he's been great at assessing talent for our defense, he's been less than stellar with the offensive side of the ball..... until this year. Maybe assessing this particular type of player is his strong suit, and if that's the case we should run with it.
I wouldn't have a problem with Daboll staying. I only mentioned a new OC because usually a new HC wants to bring in their own staffs. But if Ryan/Fisher want to keep Daboll, I'd be fine with it.
And Mike McCarthy's offense ranked #32 in yards/g and #30 in total points the season before he landed the head coaching job in Green Bay. Coordinator performance is a poor - if not to say completely pointless - indicator for head coaching ability or performance.
hmmm, I guess I can buy that, but Ia'm not sure anyone has anything else that could tangibly show better reasonings to why he is the right choice or what characteristics we see in this guy, over something like how his team on that side of the ball is doing. I really have no opinion on the guy cause I don't know what the hell he's all about..where is this love coming from???
I'd rather we get away from the Parcells/Buddy Ryan philosophy personally. Fisher is very overrated IMO, not a terrible coach but he's had a lot of losing seasons in Tennessee. I would like to see Ireland go and the ownership hire a GM/Coaching team that has a different background/style. The Parcels regime didn't work out I'd like to see us move away from it.
