Where did I blame Ireland or Parcells for 1-15? It was used for the comparison of this team to the Lions over that same time period. Maybe I should have been a little more clear so you understood.
You could conversely make the point that you think article is a GREAT article because you DO agree with it. I wouldn't call the article great or good actually. I've seen better deep dives and analysis and reporting on this site. To the casual Dolphins fan maybe this is a good article. But having been here for sometime, I find it underwhelming from a journalistic point of view. Didn't state anything we didn't already know.
I'm fully aware of how public schools work. That doesn't change the meaning of the phrase, that doesn't change how newspapers are written, and that doesn't change the fact that the original statement is not insulting in the manner in which the person who wrote it intended.
While this is a silly argument, you're wrong. There is a dramatic difference between reading and writing at certain levels. For example: http://www.amazon.com/Great-books-for-6th-grade/lm/R13TH7NXMXYWFA How many books for 6th graders are written by 6th graders?
Here is the biggest problem with Moulton's "great" article; The NFL is a QB driven league, and that has never been more true than now. Look at all the HCs and GMs who have been fired this year, their team's performance is in direct correlation to how good a year their QB had. Fitzpatrick got Gailey fired. Kolb got Graves, and Whisenhunt fired. Rivers has worst year gets Turner and AJ Smith fired. Cutler can't find a receiver not named Brandon, Lovie Smith fired. Cassell gets Crennel fired. Vick fumbles a ton, gets hurt, Reid fired. Weeden was the lowest rated rookie QB, Shurmur and Heckert get fired. Sanchez, the NFLs worst starting QB in 2012, somehow only gets Tannenbaum fired. Gabbert and Henne get Gene Smith fired. Now, I'll happily agree that many of the above names were inept beyond their QB development and/or evaluation skills. However everyone of them would still have their jobs if Manning, Brady, or Rodgers were their QBs. That is the NFL. The second issue is the ignorant "should have selected" Jason Pierre Paul, or Gronkowski, or TY Hilton argument. Fans do this nonsense all the time. They look at the BEST players that should have been selected in hindsight as evidence that a GM doesn't know talent. You want to "prove" that argument you have to do better. At least prove that most of the next 5-10 guys drafted were all better than Odrick, or Gates, or Thomas or Misi. Don't just pick the one guy that all GMs wish they had drafted. The third issue is pretending that the 7 decisions a GM makes on draft day are his only decisions of the year. You want to prove Ireland deserves to be fired, you need to first understand all the aspects of his job. Sorry, Moulton either doesn't understand what he is talking about, or assumed his audience didn't need more evidence than TY Hilton. Lazy. I'll defend Ireland. Don't love him, but I've seen the Dolphins do worse at GM, Parcells, Mueller, Saban, Spielman, Wannstedt, late era Shula, all arguably worse. Ireland doesn't make desperate moves, all the above GMs gave up a lot in trades, wasted high picks or gave big contracts that never panned out. Ireland's worst move? Gates? Getting only two thirds for Marshall? Dez Bryant? Ryan Clarke? Nannee? I think the Dolphins could do better than Ireland. And he'll be gone in 2014 if his 2010-2012 draftees don't develop. But if Tannehill takes this team to the playoffs, Ireland is going nowhere until Tannehill regresses.
OK, this is getting old now. The point isn't to talk about the relative quality of public education or what sort of writing assignments 6th graders have to do, the point is that the original attempt at insulting the article is not actually an insult despite the intention of it being an insult. This has nothing to do with the relative quality of the article (of which there's very little). This is about GMJohnson's attempt at snark backfiring on him.
IMO, Jeff Ireland is a good evaluator of talent, and decent to good on draft day. (he is slipping in that regard now) But he is absolutely terrible in allocating assets and roster building. His work in the free agent market is an abortion. He is too bad at too many aspects of his job.
I agree that his drafts have been average to below average. But in his first offseason as the final say GM with a lockout abbreviated FA scramble, he acquired the Dolphins best playmaker for a 5th round pick, and picked up Matt Moore. Last offseason they made no major signings, but I thought Thigpen, Marshall, Garrard, and Chad Johnson were shrewd low risk, high reward signings. Injuries and an arrest hurt three of those. Signing and retaining Nannee was the biggest blunder, but it's not as if Miami picked him over Vincent Jackson. Letting Soliai test the market and re-signing him when he was predicted to flee was a big win for Miami. What FA should he have signed the past two years that he didn't? 48 mil in cap room and 5 picks in the first 3 rounds was set up all by Jeff Ireland actually doing a good job of acquiring picks for players not in future plans, and and not re-signing players to bloated contracts. What aspects of his job are more important that I'm missing?
Hate to break it you people, but the scouting department should get the blame with some of our late round blunders. Then again Ireland is in charge of that same scouting department. Some times because of team needs you reach for a prospect, because of team need. Egnew is good example of this, West Coast offense needs a TE to stretch the steams. Egnew got good hands & good speed. Weak TE class, so we reach for him. In truth, Egnew is like Vincent Jackson type of player, lot of holes in his game. But in time can develope into a very good NFL player. [you draft him with a 3-4 year window] Do not count this kid out, because he does have speed and has decent hands. The question is his heart and desire to excell at the next level to work on his flaws. At the combine they know without a doubt, he had awful upper body strength. On film he could not block worth crap, but Missouri never asks there TE to block. Even you do even a little research, you should have known Egnew was not going to get on the playing field this year.
I don't think there is such a thing as blunder in the late rounds. I think the far and away norm is useless players in those rounds. I don't think you can get worse than useless.
Well then I suppose I must be a moron for not thinking those two things are equivalent. But hey, if they are, and I'm too stupid to realize it, it shouldn't take you too long to produce the objective data and convince me otherwise, eh?
The appeal to authority fallacy is generally present when someone from an unrelated field prognosticates, or when the field itself does not have a consensus on what is fact/speculation. Someone in authority in a field CAN reasonably be cited as evidence in a case. The internet has allowed people to pretend to understand this fallacy without actually understanding. Appealing to authority IS a valid argument when two conditions are met: 1. The person is an authority in the field being debated. 2. There is agreement in that field on what holds true. This guy is plugged into the NFL and 27-37 and four straight losing seasons is objectively a bad thing.
Wait, so you mean to tell me that some draft picks have to sit a while and develop before they become contributors? C'mon man, what are you gonna say next, we shouldn't judge draft choices (or draft classes) based on their first season?
Gotta disagree. They guy is, like most of his kind are, a reporter, a journalist. He's not a scout, talent evaluator, player, coach or anything close to it. Dan LeBetard is plugged in. Omar Kelly swears he's Mike Mayock or Charlie Casserly. It's like a war correspondent from NBC, who's never been through a week of boot camp much less a battle, criticizing the battlefield decisions of Colonels and Sergeant Majors who've been in the business for decades. Sports is just funny like that. It's one of the few professions where the casual observers tend to believe they have the same level of expertise as the professionals.
I'm sorry, but anyone who isn't actually in the room for the decision making process isn't going to be "plugged-in" enough to make very informed opinions. You're essentially trying to parse through an administrative process.
He hasn't prioritized WR/TE if that's what you mean. That's a far cry from being incompetent when it comes to selecting them.
Well if you have hope in Ryan Tannehill, then you by definition have hope that Jeff Ireland can draft skilled position players.
That's a good question, I really can't say. I'd have to know the info available at the time and the thought process that went into the decision in order to be objective and informed about it. But if you go by what we hear here it's as simple as W-L record. Team losing = GM sucks. Ironically, if you have to dumb it down that far then you clearly don't have knowledge base to understand the subject yourself. But that doesn't seem to stop anyone...
I love to bash on Ireland as much as the next guy, but no one seems to blame B.Gaine, C.Grier & C.Shea at all? These guys have Ireland ear and are as much to blame as Ireland on failed FA signings and draft picks. Scouting Staff needs to pick up there game this year also.
Well I suspect that for those people the measure that's most emotionally important to them is also the measure of the GM's ability and performance.
I know who they are. They share just as much blame. Unlike the Ireland lovers, I don't pass the buck to Parcells for everything.
So he trades the best wr we have and then does not prioritize replacing him at all in the draft? So that's no incompetent?
I agree. A boss that is in charge of picking his employees based on their ability, should not be judged on his talent selection when the workers are belowe average or just average.
I'm still looking for a reasonable explanation as to why its a ridiculous notion that Ireland had to follow Parcells blueprint. Maybe Parcells didn't say take Player X (although there are reports he did that on occasion) but maybe he said I want a player that fits A thru G criteria for X position. We know for a fact there's checklist for a Parcells QB and that Henne matched up with that checklist perfectly. That wouldn't void Ireland's contract and would be a fairly common thing for a boss to do, let alone one with Parcells ego and history.
It may have been that way on a few occasions or even half the time. We don't know, I give credit to Ireland for everything for that very reason. His record is not to great after weighting the pros and cons.
See I don't understand that. Because we have no idea one way or the other you just decided to blame Ireland. I guess that makes sense for you personally, but it doesn't make enough sense for you to argue it with other people. Rational thought dictates that contaminated data be thrown out, not counted. If you do that and judge him on last year and this year and you come up with a solid negative, that's fine, but I seriously don't understand how you blame the Parcells years on Ireland when you admit you don't know.
