Joe Philbin on with Joe Rose

http://wqam.com/interviews

1. Did you get to watch the Heat game last night? Nope. Too busy, congratulations to the Heat they beat his home town team the Celtics.

2. What's the adjustment like? Fantastic. Family and he have adjusted, everyone warm and receptive. Likes the diversity of the community, you see people from age 2 to 95, every nationality and race when you go to church and the store, etc. Fun.

3. Joe Rose says Philbin made him look bad because Rose a few days ago said I've been around Philbin and Ireland and there's no way they do Hard Knocks, no way in heck...then they do it. Why? Philbin says they were skeptical prior to meeting with people from NFL Films. Says if you think about NFL Films, they've been shooting NFL games for over 50 years, and they do things with a lot of integrity, having built up a lot of trust with all the teams they've worked with in the past. As they listened to the presentation, it just made sense. His feeling was, it was better to do this in year one than in year two or year three. He told the players last time he checked on Sunday afternoon they were going to have a bunch of cameras lying around anyway, and they're teaching these guys how to block and tackle and catch and he thinks they can do that whether there's one camera around, or fifty. He said he's sure it'll take a day or two to get adjusted to it but in talking to guys that have done it before, these guys (camera crew) get weaved into the fabric of the team and after a few days you really don't even notice that they're around.

4. Joe Rose says in watching the show the hardest parts seem to be calling young guys in the office to tell them they're getting cut. Has he thought about that? Philbin says he's been part of that before, always hard, a lot of guys you've been working with for a long time. The people at NFL Films told him they do their best to show those scenes with respect to the player. Told his guys from day one that any successful relationship is built on trust and being open, and you have 89 guys sitting in chairs knowing you can only keep 53. It's not easy, not pleasant, but he thinks it'll be done with class.

5. Quarterback competition, what have you seen, is it close, can you see Tannehill keeping up? He thinks it's very close. They all bring different attributes to the table. The room is a quality room. Matt was voted most valuable player, played well down the stretch, has picked up the offense well. When you look at Garrard's last active season, he played very well in 2010, has been working his tail off. Tannehill is holding his own, has some familiarity with parts of the offense, but not necessarily familiarity with the NFL and the way they do things.

6. How much has knowing the offense helped Tannehill? It's been a help for him. Of the 260 or whatever guys that were drafted he doesn't know very many that had to be as comfortable walking in with the same coaches he was used to, etc. It'll wear off eventually though and it'll come down to decision making, accuracy, production leading the offense, etc. That'll be more important.

7. Marshall gets traded to the Bears, now the fans want to know who that fourth receiver is going to be, they see the Dolphins didn't pick up anyone big time...have you seen anything from among the Clyde Gates, Marlon Moore, Roberto Wallace, Julius Pruitt and the rookies, has Philbin seen anyone pulling away even with the understanding that it's early? Seen flashes of all those guys. Gates has the real game changing type speed you like to see, Roberto Wallace has the size you like, Pruitt has done some good things, Marlon Moore has big time speed, they all have different characteristics that you like. As a group they all need to catch the football more consistently. Drafted two rookies, Jeff Fuller is also here and he's a big target made a big play down the middle in practice, so he has a chance as well.

8. Jonathan Martin a day one starter at right tackle, is that your mindset? Don't know about that. Expectations are high. Pass pro at left tackle was very good for a college player, particularly punch and hand use. Really only had him for rookie orientation though and they're looking forward to working with him more and seeing how quick they can bring him along.

9. Lamar Miller, everyone's talking about him, different speed on the field, have you seen that? He's got some special qualities, no doubt, that acceleration, that gear, have seen some of that. Hard to talk about elusiveness without real tackling going on. See some ability as a receiver, inconsistency catching the ball but at times looks very smooth as a route runner, might be able to get him matched up on a linebacker and do well. Definitely in the mix as a kick returner.

10. What's the relationship like between Head Coach and General Manager when it comes to drafting? Jeff was great, really impressed with thoroughness and detail of Jeff and staff. Sometimes beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but Jeff did a good job asking his opinion on every pick, whether he's good with it or not, if he felt strongly about those guys, etc. Very inclusive in that regard, but just like he wouldn't expect Jeff Ireland to tell him what to do on 3rd & 5, he certainly didn't tell Jeff what to do when it was his time on the clock. But, if he asked, he offered opinions, and he thought it worked well.

11. Rose follows up, he understands the part about not wanting Jeff Ireland to weigh in on 3rd & 5 but with the guys you're picking the head coach has to be the one to coach them up and so he always wants to know how involved they want to be in the process. Did Philbin take a look at all the guys beforehand so that he was familiar with them? Philbin said as the rounds unfold and you get maybe like 5 picks away and you know you'll be up in the next 30-45 minutes, you start kicking around some possibilities, some players, like 'these three guys are probably going to be around, should we go defense or offense, I think we should do this or that'. You kick things around, that's sort of the fun and exciting part, never really sure how the draft will unfold until you're on the clock.

12. How involved is Steven Ross? How much conversation have you had with him since draft? Quite a bit, talk to him 2 times a week or so. Talked to him last Thursday. Actually talked briefly last night by phone. Will probably talk to him again by the end of the week.

13. Do you like the radio stuff? How's that treating you? Been great.

14. Fishing, golf, gotta be something you like down here, what is it? Only fishing he's done was last weekend at Fins weekend and he's not a golfer, he's got to find some hobbies down here, he lives in a good spot by the water. Rose says what did you bowl a lot in Green Bay or something? Philbin just laughs.

 

Considering Joe Rose was trying to stick in a joke about there not being much to do up in Green Bay, after he just got done asking if Philbin fishes down here now that he's in Miami, thankfully Rose didn't mention or ask about ice fishing...which is how Philbin's son died.

 

I know there's a lot of anger at Steven Ross for his missteps over the years but I do like some of his ideas, the latest of which being his insistance that Jeff Ireland and the Head Coach come out of their caves and actually make an effort getting their point across with the media. You know that's not Jeff Ireland's idea. That's not his deal. If he had the football czar power and autonomy that Huizenga gave Parcells, nothing would change on that front.

 

Transcribing the PFT Live:

Florio Editorial: This interview is all part of a very new attitude for Miami Dolphins, a lot more media availability, things you would have NEVER seen under the old regimes there since Parcells took over.

Florio: Congrats on being Head Coach of Miami. What's the biggest difference between being a coordinator and now going to head coach and being the guy with the whistle?
Philbin: Every decision has your stamp on it. They've done minor things like re-modeling, deciding colors, what pictures to put where, hanging signs, placement of clocks, all the way over to deciding whether to do 18% of your practice reps on third down, or 12% of reps on red zone. As an assistant, he was involved in some of those decisions before, but now you make final call on everything.

Florio: Speaking of final calls, who made final call on Hard Knocks?
Philbin: It was an organizational decision. When they were first approached, a lot of them were skeptical, too big a distraction, he's only a first year head coach, can he handle it, etc. But then they met with NFL Films, who presented how they've done the show. Any time you can align yourselves with a company with the success and history of NFL Films, it's a win-win. They think it'll benefit the players, the staff, the organization. He's excited.

Florio: You said you were skeptical. Skeptical of what, exactly?
Philbin: Are they going to want to know what our blitz check is to 4-weak defensive look? Will they show our defensive call to an empty backfield? Are they going to be at every single meeting? NFL Films allayed a lot of these fears by saying it's a show about foootball, but it's mostly a show about people, which is what football is. It's more than about X's and O's and fundamentals. He told the staff they have the responsibility to teach everything about the sport to the players, and they can do that whether there are no cameras or fifty cameras, it shouldn't change. In speaking with others that have done it, after a couple days the camera people kind of weasel themselves into the fabric of the team, to where after a few days you don't even notice them.

Florio: You come from an organization in the Packers that would not do Hard Knocks. Jeff Ireland comes from a background with Bill Parcells and you know he would not do it, either. Who was harder to convince, you or Jeff Ireland?
Philbin: After all the subsequent phone calls and whatnot, they just all thought it was right, in fact it's better to do it now than later. He told players he thinks they can handle it. He's been very impressed with the players' professionalism and so that's one reason he thinks they can handle it.

Florio: What exactly did the producers say, that gave him sort of the turning point realization that this is a good idea?
Philbin: They talked about access and trust. In any relationship, husband-wife, coach-player, doesn't matter, trust is the most important component. You're looking for trust. The NFL Films people only want a team that wants to do it, and they wanted to do it. It was the right move made the right way. As they say, you can make the right decision or you can make the decision right.

Florio: Were there any limits placed by Miami on the access, in order to come to an agreement?
Philbin: No. Again you have to have trust and faith. The NFL Films people wouldn't be able to still do this after their previous seasons of Hard Knocks if they didn't treat everyone with respect in the past. They handle the hard moments, cutting guys, etc...with dignity and respect. Players realize the harsh realities of the NFL.

Florio: Will you be able to review rough cuts, and edit out certain things that you don't like?
Philbin: The NFL Films people said they don't want a situation where you're not comfortable with things. But they have a very professional staff that are smart and so they trust them to do what they're best at. They don't expect the NFL Films people to tell them how they should split up their practice reps and likewise they won't tell the NFL Films people how to produce their show. The Dolphins' people don't have the time, effort or energy to go through everything and try and give input to the Hard Knocks people on how to tell the players' stories, suggestions on where to take certain storylines, etc. The Dolphins' promise to NFL Films was access and trust, and NFL Films' promise to the Dolphins in return was dignity and respect.

Florio: What was the players reaction?
Philbin: They didn't react that much, not in front of him anyway. They had a meeting. He told them why. He told them he believes in their professionalism. He told them last he checked there are plenty of cameras on Sundays, so he expects they will be able to deal with it.

Florio: Some, Mike Shanahan in particular, have raised concerns that the camera changes people, people won't be able to just be themselves when they're on camera like that. Is that a concern for him as well?
Philbin: He's not really concerned. He could be proven wrong, but the game's not that complicated, it's just teaching football. Training camp is all planned, already. This Hard Knocks stuff is not going to be an impediment to the process of development, or getting chemistry. He would hope that nobody would change because of the cameras. He's built for radio, not TV, so it's not going to impact him anyway.

Florio: How are you splitting or planning to split the first team reps in this quarterback competition?
Philbin: It's been balanced to this point. Mike Sherman is a veteran, been through all this before, and he and Zac Taylor are working closely with the quarterbacks. The most important thing is that they keep the quantity of reps relatively even through the first couple of weeks of camp. He's not as concerned about specific sets of players being matched with others, etc. The most important thing is to get the players comfortable with the scheme, how to play the game, the decision making, etc.

Florio: How are you handling the differences with the new off season rules from CBA concerning limitations of practice?
Philbin: You need to get in your rule book, number one. It's not overly complicated but it is the first time through for most people. Questions pop up. They're now in 'phase three', they've been in communication with the league about what they can and can't do, asking questions. They've usually had the right interpretation in those clarifications with the league, but sometimes the league has corrected them. Is there as much time as you'd like ideally? No. But is there ample time to get everything done that you need to get done? Yes. It's just very streamlined. You're able to install the vast majority of what you need to install in all three phases of the game. The time is adequate. You would hope for more time but what they have is reasonable.

Florio: How hard has it been to get guys to go easier in these OTAs, and not act like it's a full contact practice?
Philbin: They've been good so far, actually. The biggest adjustment is with the guys that have never been through an off season, guys drafted in either 2011 or 2012. Guys taken from 2010 or before, they know. They focus on teaching player safety, especially in these OTAs. The last thing they want is a safety blowing up a receiver in the seam, a big collision, etc. He wants the players to focus on just showing that they made their reads quickly and accurately and were where they needed to be. They talk a lot about being competitive and smart.

Florio: Reggie Bush wants to lead the league in rushing. Can he do that in your system, or will there be more of a revolving door at the position?
Philbin: Some of it is in the individual game plans, which are fluid. One week they may play a defense that has a sub package against certain looks and so you want to run the ball more. But he also recognizes that sometimes players get hot, and you want to keep getting them the ball. The goal of the staff is certainly not for one player to lead league in rushing, or have some sort of absolute goal like that, that kind of thing is not the mind set of staff. But if Reggie breaks a lot of long runs and is productive, they'll definitely keep giving him the ball.


Florio: I realize it's all in the past now but we haven't gotten to speak about it until now. What was the catalyst for him in deciding to part ways with Brandon Marshall?
Philbin: It was organizational, not just him. Everyone kicked it around, and Jeff ultimately made the final decision. They wanted to stress balance, surround themselves with guys that cared about the good of team. He can't speak to whether Brandon does the latter or not, because he never coached him. But he does wish him the best in what he does from here on out.

Florio: What needs to happen for you to say that your first season was successful?
Philbin: He told Steve Ross he wants to build a franchise that represents the region well on and off field. He wants sound football, smart guys and tough guys. Those three things: sound, smart, tough. He wants guys that make impacts off the field as well as on the field. When he grew up in the 1970's, the Miami Dolphins were about as good as it gets. He's got to get them back to that level, and it's not going to be easy, but he thinks they're off to a good start.

Florio's Editorial: You look at the Patriots, and they went to the championship game. The Bills grabbed headlines with Mario Williams. The Jets grabbed headlines with Tim Tebow. With this Hard Knocks decision, the Dolphins are stealing the spotlight back away from those three teams. What are you going to be talking about, come August, with these Hard Knocks episodes airing every week? The Dolphins. That can't hurt, it makes them relevant again, and we will be talking about them a lot. Ultimately, the NFL is a business where you have 32 teams trying to get people impart their time, money and loyalty to that particular team. In that context, he likes the decision by the Dolphins to do Hard Knocks.

 

That Florio interview was the worst I've seen Joe Philbin give, to be 100% honest. I know people aren't going to want to hear that and will argue against me. Do as you will. But I'm not sure he answered a single one of Florio's questions directly. He pivoted all over the place so that he could execute scripted lines, like Sarah Palin at a political debate. You could almost literally take the Joe Rose interview, cut out Joe Rose's questions, insert Mike Florio's questions in any order you want, and it would be the same interview. Same exact wording, same language, everything. The questions would be dramatically different, but the answers were not.

He was clearly less comfortable with Mike Florio's pitches compared with Joe Rose's softballs. That's my take. I think he scheduled the Joe Rose interview first so that he could cement his rhetoric and how he was going to handle questions about certain sensitive issues, so that he would be prepared for Mike Florio to ask him questions that Joe Philbin clearly had zero interest in actually answering.

I give Florio an A+ for direct lines of questioning that get straight to the heart of issues that people want to know about, but I give Joe Philbin a D+/C- as far as actually answering those questions and disseminating the information people want to know. Of course, that all depends on what your goals are. If your GOAL was to obfuscate the truth, pivot all over the place, and guard against answering questions that you don't want to answer, then Joe Philbin gets the A+ and Mike Florio gets the D+/C- as far as his playing his part in the charade is concerned. Joe Rose did a much better job of playing along.

 

The worst thing about the Florio interview is that the way it played out with Florio asking pointed questions and essentially getting the exact same responses Philbin just gave Joe Rose for completely differently phrased questions...it brings into question whether Joe Rose was given a script of questions to ask Philbin. I say that because the interview Philbin gave Rose seemed right on point. Philbin's answers seemed to really match well with Rose's questions. Rose's questions were softballs, of course, but the flow and appropriateness was much better. But then Philbin essentially offers the same answers to a wholly different set of questions from Mike Florio. That suggests to me that Philbin was able to prepare for what Rose was going to ask, but not what Florio was going to ask.

 

That's the problem. They weren't the same questions. Just the same answers. He CLEARLY had every interest in dodging the crux of what Mike Florio was trying to get at on about 90% of the questions.

 

Let's go through it:

Florio: Congrats on being Head Coach of Miami. What's the biggest difference between being a coordinator and now going to head coach and being the guy with the whistle?
Philbin: Softball question meets softball answer. Florio was just warming him up.

Florio: Speaking of final calls, who made final call on Hard Knocks?
Philbin: Florio gets right to the point. This is something he and everyone else wants to know. Philbin didn't necessarily dodge the question entirely, he said it was an "organizational decision," but that's clearly sort of a dodge-without-technically-dodging answer, and everyone knows it. Someone had final call responsibility on this Hard Knocks decision, and Joe Philbin refused to say who.

Florio: You said you were skeptical. Skeptical of what, exactly?
Philbin: He had a great answer for this, actually.

Florio: You come from an organization in the Packers that would not do Hard Knocks. Jeff Ireland comes from a background with Bill Parcells and you know he would not do it, either. Who was harder to convince, you or Jeff Ireland?
Philbin: Completely dodged this question to the point where I question whether he even heard what Florio said. It was like asking someone if you like peanut butter or jelly better and the person answered I like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Florio: What exactly did the producers say, that gave him sort of the turning point realization that this is a good idea?
Philbin: Really dodged the crux of this question, as Florio raised it. Florio wanted to know at what point in the conversation did something they said impress you to where you're thinking, we can do this. Philbin was all over the place, starts getting into the NFL Films people only wanting a team that wants to do it and the Dolphins wanted to do it, but totally skipped describing the point at which the Dolphins went from a "No" to a "Yes".

Florio: Were there any limits placed by Miami on the access, in order to come to an agreement?
Philbin: Sort of an artful dodge on this one. My summarization made his answer ("No.") more pointed than it actually was. Clearly there are access agreements in place on what they'll show and not show, and clearly Joe Philbin was not about to actually elucidate them.

Florio: Will you be able to review rough cuts, and edit out certain things that you don't like?
Philbin: A total dodge. Very political. He deflected Florio's question by erecting a straw man as if Miami were going to dictate storylines and come up with ideas for angles that NFL Films should pursue. But Florio's question was very simple and straight forward, are you or are you not going to have someone scan through the first cut of the show and give the NFL Films people edits they need to make.

Florio: What was the players reaction?
Philbin: Adequate answer.

Florio: Some, Mike Shanahan in particular, have raised concerns that the camera changes people, people won't be able to just be themselves when they're on camera like that. Is that a concern for him as well?
Philbin: This answer may have disappointed me the most just because this was like throwing up a low grade fast ball right down the pipe and letting you hit a homerun. Philbin has already talked about this before, how he always tells people to be themselves, and therefore this should not be a problem. But instead...he flubbed it.

Florio: How are you splitting or planning to split the first team reps in this quarterback competition?
Philbin: Answered it but he really labored around it before he got to the point. Even reps but not even splits between 1st/2nd/3rd team, which isn't that relevant to him (or so he says).

Florio: How are you handling the differences with the new off season rules from CBA concerning limitations of practice?
Philbin: Fair enough.

Florio: How hard has it been to get guys to go easier in these OTAs, and not act like it's a full contact practice?
Philbin: Not great, but not terrible.

Florio: Reggie Bush wants to lead the league in rushing. Can he do that in your system, or will there be more of a revolving door at the position?
Philbin: Dodged the committee aspects of the question altogether, but did at least managed to close with the fact that if Reggie starts killing it consistently, they'll ride the hot hand. But this sounded to me like he purposefully was trying to mislead. Some will read this and say yeah if Reggie is doing well they'll ride him out and he can lead the league in rushing. But the way Philbin worded it, it sounded to me like Reggie would have to be averaging a Tim Biakabatuka-like 10+ yards per carry (September 1999, don't ask me how I remember that) in order to instigate him to start having Reggie carry the ball the same way you see a Maurice Jones-Drew doing in Jacksonville.

Florio: I realize it's all in the past now but we haven't gotten to speak about it until now. What was the catalyst for him in deciding to part ways with Brandon Marshall?
Philbin: Total dodge. Did not in any way address what made him agree with the decision. The question wasn't asking who made the final call. It was why he was ok with the call, what convinced him.

Florio: What needs to happen for you to say that your first season was successful?
Philbin: Total dodge. All canned material. Clearly does not want to set any objective goals for the season.

 

Color me shocked.