How's Randy Mueller looking to you now? by Armando

Compared to the previous 3 or 4 drafts, I think RM ran a great draft last year.

 

Wow, that is a low bar. Almost anything would look good compared to that.

 

It would have been phenonmenal if he had not gotten cute with the 1st round pick and taken Brady Quinn. I love Ginn, but QB was the obvious need. But then Cam and Randy would still be around and we would be looking at 3-4 years of mediocricy.

 

Mueller had a pretty good track record before coming to Miami, he was not at all to blame for the 1-15 IMO.

Ive heard so-called experts say how structured this draft was compared last years and how it appeared we drew names out of a hat. I couldnt dissagree more. Last years draft was predicated on speed. Ginn, Booker, and a mobile QB in Beck all fit that mold.

Unfortunately for Randy he wasnt coaching those guys or implementing game plans to utilize those traits I mentioned. Im not upset we brought in Parcells, but I believe Mueller could have continued the success he had in Seattle and New Orleans.

 

Yah he drafted well, but was poor in Free Agency and Special Teams acquisition.

 

I remember getting hammered by a lot of Phin fans for criticizing Ram/Cam. I guess it worked out for you guys in the end though. Those 2 finally took the Phins to rock bottom, and now you have the NFL's resident miracle worker on the payroll.

 

But Parcells and Ireland skipped picking a QB with the first 2 picks.

I'm still not convinced that Quinn will turn out to be any better than Beck, but I think Ginn has enormous potential. I think it was a smart move to wait til the 2nd for a QB and get someone to be a game changer in the 1st round.

 

That is true, especially the ST unit, why that was allowed to happen is mystery to me.

I was Happy with RAndy Mueller, and we will see more dividends out of Ginn and Beck and Satele they could be the core of Offense for a long time.

And we had better be happy we have Ted Ginn, it will be a loooong time before Irish or Sparano would ever spend a top 10 pick on a explosive playmaker at Wr, that will not happen.

 

I don't think Mueller did too bad of a job. Theres no doubt Cam was in way over his head. I think we had a pretty good draft last year. I know alot of people disagree because they still think Brady Quinn is the second coming of Joe Montana or something...

I'm glad Parcells and Ireland are here now though. What theyve done to this roster in only a few months is pretty impressive so far.

 

I always thought Mueller was a decent drafter (save for the Quinn fiasco) but he just couldn't sign or trade the right people at the right price

 

I guess we can blame him for taking part in the head coaching selection process and selecting Cameron who was obviously way over his head.

Also you can blame him for gutting the special teams.

From last years draft it looks like there are only a few keepers Ginn ,Beck and Satele and maybe Fields so thats not that a great draft IMO.

 

BINGO!

There's a hell of a lot more to being a General Manager than just being able to hit better than random in the draft. First and foremost is evaluating your OWN roster and seeing what you have...and Randy Mueller couldn't do that at all.

All you have to know is that he evaluated the chess pieces that would eventually go on to establish the worst defense in the NFL, and thought they were a top 5 defense.

 

I don't miss him at all. I think he made very poor FA decisions.

 

Joey Porter....wtf

 

Yep, his name was the first thing that came to mind.

 

I dont know if your being sarcastic or not but Joey Porters contract.....wtf

 

I didnt mention trades because the jury is still out as far as whether we got good value for Welker and Chambers.

Certainly the Porter signing was questionable but it may have been a bone Mule had to throw to our DC Capers who was very hot at that time and a candidate for the head coaching job.

 

Everyone loved that pick up at the time, not everyone loved his price tag though.
I dont believe that Mueller's draft was that bad, Cam did need to go IMO

 

Not sure if anyone mentioned this, but Mueller was responsible for canning Olindo and bringing in one of the best kickers in the league in Feely.

That was a pretty good move in hindsight.

 

we def got good value for welker... Satele is by far the player of that draft.

He still gets to be the guy that passed on Brady Quinn.... had we gotten Quinn, this year we would not have drafted Henne... freeing up a 2nd rounder. So you got to take that into consideration.

 

Mule continued his pattern of hitting on the early pics (including wisely passing on an over-rated Quinn) but his later pics and his handling of the bottom half of the roster left a lot to be desired.

 

by the way i liked muellers draft for the most part. i liked the ginn/beck idea and still really hope it pans out this season. if that flames out, and i really hope these guys come out this season and produce, but if it flames out then that draft pretty much flames out also. even though we have satele, and fields, booker should do well in philly,,, heck i'm holding out hope for paul soliai, if parcell's off season doesn't put this guy in shape nothing will. but the success of that draft lies with beck and ginn.

 

Well said. I think on balance Mueller did a decent job, but man, the last five drafts before that were just putrid. There's a pretty good case to be made that we were the worst drafting team in the NFL in that period.

 

I don't think Mueller need to take the blame here. I think Cam's conditioning program, or lack of one, was the primary reason that our defense was so horrid. Combine that with a season ending injury to the leader of your secondary in week 1. Then take away a perennial Pro-Bowl middle linebacker. How can you expect any defense to succeed in those conditions. We didn't go from a top 5 defense to a heap of garbage overnight. This falls on Cam, not Mueller.

 

I liked Randy Mueller and feel he drafted fairly well when he had control, but he sucked at FA. I will give him credit though for getting a 2nd & 7th for Welker, and a 2nd for CC, I felt those were pretty smart trades.

Cue Aqua4ever in 3 . . 2 . . 1 . . .

 

Switch Quinn with Okoye and I would agree.

 

EXACTLY.

Mueller always hits on his top picks but is a bumbling idiot when it comes time to fill the bottom 2/3 of the roster.

 

I'll tell you what really stands out to me from all this.

No matter the subject. ARMando is still an idiot

 

San Diego hired him so they could torture him for screwing them out of their 2nd rounder for Chambers.

 

What everyone seems to ignore is that Mueller left this team with 35 million in cap space. Essentially this team went from Wannstedt (cap strapped) to Saban (slowly get the cap under control but remain competitive) to Mueller (burn it to the ground and start over). I favor Mueller's approach. I just wish it didn't take three years after Wannstedt to get it started. Saban's time gave fans a false sense of security. This team was in cap hell when Wannstedt left. That was not going to disappear overnight without a fair amount of pain. In this thread, Mueller has been discredited for his free agent moves and nothing more. To that I say, "What free agent moves?" The man was given one year. In that one year the Miami Dolphins went from no money to a bounty. It's Bill Parcells bounty to play with now. Randy Mueller took the hit to provide the bounty.

In the end, the only certainty left to debate is whether Mueller actually thought he fielded a playoff team last year. I think he knew what he fielded. What was he suppose to say to the clown Armando Salguero -

"We are rebuilding. I salvaged nothing but the lowest contracts this year in leau of realizing a bounty for the succeeding years. The problem with the organization has been poor direction in acquiring talent under salary cap restraints. We will probably lose this year. But hey! I'm under a new contract. The head coach is under a new contract. And this team will gradually climb it's way to the top with longevity as the ultimate goal. We will not buy our way into contention. We will get young and stay young. In the meantime, tell the fans to go buy our season tickets for the 2007 season ready to view our losses."

 

Funny part is now, after the fact, people paint the picture of Mueller as having the team undergo a painful and thorough rebuilding process.

But, that's not what Mueller intended. Not at all. He intended to slightly retool the team, keep a defense in tact while adding an expensive toy in Joey Porter, and revamp the offense with parts that will play well in Cameron's scheme. He told Wayne Huizenga we could make the playoffs in 2007.

Instead? 1-15.

I don't understand this feeling that nobody could have predicted the fall of the defense. He's paid to do exactly that. He's paid to know and understand that Joey Porter can't put his hand on the ground and rush the passer like David Bowens could. He's paid to know that Matt Roth could not play this style of defense like Kevin Carter could. He's paid to understand that a 57 year old nose tackle with knee problems could easily show up one year looking way worse than the last year. He's paid to know that Channing Crowder doesn't make many big plays. He's paid to understand that Zach Thomas' history of concussions and age make him prone to missing playing time, and that maybe we should have a viable replacement. Mueller is paid to know that Steve Fifita isn't even close to a valid replacement for Jeff Zgonina. He's paid to know that dumping the three biggest special teams stalwarts on the team, Travis Minor, Sammy Morris and David Bowens, might have a significant effect on the unit's effectiveness. He's paid to know that the guys he brought in to replace them don't really play special teams all that well.

Sorry, but the guy was a massive failure in my book. The only thing he did ok at was drafting early rounds.

 

We have sparred over this one before. I do not think we will go anywhere in changing the others opinion. That was not my intention. A couple of quick jabs before I hit the sack CK. To your points -


"Joey Porter can't put his hand on the ground and rush the passer like David Bowens could."

Mueller acquired a 34 linebacker for 34 defensive coordinator. Was he suppose to place him in the position and coach him too? We actually missed Bowens on defense? Someone should tell the Jets.....

"He's paid to know that Matt Roth could not play this style of defense like Kevin Carter could."

Carter was a cap casualty. I believe the thought was that Holliday could fill Carters role. Roth didn't get the big contract. Holliday got the contract. Carter was released.

"He's paid to understand that a 57 year old nose tackle with knee problems could easily show up one year looking way worse than the last year."

I believe you meant 37. The issue was the snap count. It wasn't the ability.

"He's paid to know that Channing Crowder doesn't make many big plays."

Did he draft him? Is this not Saban's SEC boy?

"He's paid to understand that Zach Thomas' history of concussions and age make him prone to missing playing time, and that maybe we should have a viable replacement."

Your defensive unit is now replacing a ton of players (literally) and now it includes replacing pro bowlers.

"Mueller is paid to know that Steve Fifita isn't even close to a valid replacement for Jeff Zgonina."

You are kidding right? Zgoninia is the answer?

"He's paid to know that dumping the three biggest special teams stalwarts on the team, Travis Minor, Sammy Morris and David Bowens, might have a significant effect on the unit's effectiveness."

So you are giving them all free agent money?

"Sorry, but the guy was a massive failure in my book."

And you are entitled to your opinion. Just remember that you are condemning the man for rejecting the stagnation of a 2006 team. And I'll take this moment to remind you that the results of the 2006 season was a six win team. That record does not speak well for the starters much less the "role players" you mention.

 

Or pity for granting them Chambers only for a 2nd rounder!

278 yards and TD, and opening up VJ for them

 

Yes, we missed David Bowens in our 4-DL alignments. The defensive coordinator isn't the GM. Randy Mueller was the GM. He is the man ultimately responsible for the personnel on the field. And, when it came to fielding a valid 4-DL alignment that could rush the passer, we didn't have the personnel for it and it showed early, it showed often.

He could have chosen to add personnel that could be counted on to replace Carter if Roth couldn't do it. He didn't. He counted on Roth and Roth failed him. That's ultimately on the GM.

The hell it wasn't. Keith Traylor played NOTHING like he did in 2006. He could hardly get off the ball, and he sure as hell couldn't work his way toward the sideline on outside runs. We didn't go from having one of the best run defenses in the league to one of the worst by some coincidence. The 348 year old Keith Traylor couldn't cut it anymore and Mueller should have been able to anticipate that. In fact, I think he did. The problem is he counted on a 4th round rookie with a history of not working very hard to pick up the slack.

That has absolutely nothing to do with anything. Cam Cameron was the coach, not Nick Saban. If Randy Mueller looked at Saban's boy and decided he couldn't make plays, he could have replaced him. He didn't. He counted on Channing Crowder to be more than he was. Again, ultimate responsibility for that on the GM.

The defensive unit didn't have to replace a bunch of people at all. They even said their goal was keeping the entire defensive unit in tact with a few small exceptions in terms of getting younger in certain areas and cutting the cap. The problem is, those "small" exceptions didn't turn out to be so small, and this team would have been much better off if he didn't make any changes at all, from the supposedly "small" ones (David Bowens, Jeff Zgonina, Kevin Carter), right down to the big change (Joey Porter).

Did I say he was "the" answer? No, but clearly replacing him with Steven Fifita hurt the team's performance. Add up all the things that hurt the team's performance and that's how you turn a top 5 defense into the worst unit in the league.

Not exactly talking about big contracts here. David Bowens signed a 3 year deal that is worth about $6 million. Sammy Morris signed a 4 year, $7 million deal. Minor's contract was likely the veteran's minimum.

The problem is that Randy Mueller could not really decide whether the team was rebuilding or not. He half-arsed it right smack in between keeping the same ancient defenders, and going with new and young players. That indecisiveness paid off in the form of a 1-15 season where all of the players were either TOO old, or TOO young. He gutted the special teams and lacked the kind of player evaluation talent in him to accurately pick replacement special teams players. He gutted the defense's depth and replaced them with young players for the sake of getting younger, while keeping on for the most part the ancient players that were starting. This added risk to Miami's profile and that risk bit us in the butt big time. He traded away Chris Chambers mid-season, making what was already shaping up as a bad season an historically bad one. That, in effect, signed his own death warrant. He did not manage the injury risk profile of the team well.

He did a bad job. And now, he's not a GM anymore. The NFL doesn't want him to be a GM right now. He's working for AJ Smith over in San Diego and lord knows he'll never supplant that guy.

 

I gotta say it, I'm not the biggest Chambers fan in the world, but that really capped our suckiness last season... Mueller *should* have known we had nobody ready to step up in his place... Pretty much took away the last threat of any sort we had on O.

Now whether or not that move pays off in the long run is a different discussion.

 

I took away all the anciallary crap because the quote above is the disagreement. I see no difference between a 6 win season or a 1 win season. You may see some benefit. I'm not interested in a consolation prize.

As you stated above, getting younger and cutting the cap was the goal. You condemn Mueller for not retaining the services of Kevin Carter, David Bowens, Jeff Zgonina, Travis Minor, and Sammy Morris. Six wins or one win - who cares? The team is the bottom of the league and there is no upside unless you cut your losses on the old farts. I savor the 10+ million dollars that their release provided. I see no benefit from retaining them other than five weeks creating a false hope.

You cannot compare Mueller's one year versus any previous year nor this year. He didn't waste money as in the previous years (Wannstedt, Saban) and he didn't have the bounty that is now in Parcels/Irelands hands. What he did was clean the slate from the Wannstedt/Saban mess of a cap. Nick Saban even left the joint complaining about the inability to acquire talent due to cap constraints. Parcels inherited the bounty provided by Mueller. There is no if, ands, and buts about it. You can find fault in every non-acquisition of the Mueller year. What you cannot do is deny the bounty found in 2008.

So let's tally this up:

Mueller/Cameron gave us five less wins than Saban. What did it matter?

Mueller left us 35 million dollars in cap space in 2008. When was the last time the Dolphins had 30% of their cap free to spend? Has it ever happened?

Mueller left us a three first day picks in the 2008 draft. Wow! I think we have to go back to Jimmy Johnson to find a time when we had our own picks much less some other teams' pick.

Mueller left us one of the youngest rosters in the league.

All this tallied up says mold it, shape it, make it what you want. It's not the same team that lost last year. It's not the same team that lost the year before.

Failure? We'll just have to disagree on that one. My idea of failure is that of Dave Wannstedt. You are given all the time you could ask. You have everything on the field you wanted. Your cap dollar is maxed. You acquire the on the field statistics you believe it takes to win.............AND YOU STILL LOSE! That is failure.

 

Boy is he...maybe he gets drunk by the end of the draft....