Ok, ok, ok...Defending Ireland CLOSE TO St. Patrick’s Day. (I know MrClean was ready to point out its not St. Patty’s Day yet.) Pre 2012 Catch Up: Wow, what a difference a year makes. Here’s the first one of these to see where we came from: Link Too Long Did Not Read: Shula bad GM. JJ bad GM. Wanny bad at everything, except mustaches. Speilman bad. Mueller bad. Saban douche bag. Cam bad. Parcells bad. Sparano bad. Ireland maybe ok...need more info. 2012 Recap: A team anew. (not A-Team, though Mr. T might be a good Mike. I’d roll the dice on Murdoch being our QB. I know some people would probably go Face, but i jus....ahem....sorry) We have a new coach. With him comes a new system and I assume new space on the shelves in his office since he didn’t have any copies of Coaching for Dummies, Everybody Kicks Field Goals, or The Right Way/The Wrong Way/The Rich Kotite Way like the previous coach may have had. That system is completely different from top to bottom, left to right and offense to defense from the previous system. The new defense is predominately a 4-3 while the old was predominately a 3-4. The new offense is a timing and finesse offense while the old was supposed to be ground and pound, safe and methodical and clock chewing. The old STs were built to let the Pats steal a game we were winning with the single worst ST performance in the history of the NFL and the new ST wasn’t that stupid. (Yes, I know the ST was changed before last year...shut up, I’m still bitter.) All good and wonderful....minor problem though.....most of our players were acquired for the old systems and fit our new systems as good as Parcells fits into skinny jeans (or even unskinny jeans...he’s fat, ok.) What do we do now? The Great 2012 Offseason (that may have not been great but was certainly not horrible): In comes Ireland (I wanted to call him the Ginger Finger, but that doesn’t really rhyme and just sounds...dirty.) We now have a lot of holes. Like so many holes we could be mistaken for a sorority. QB, WR, TE, OL, DL and RB were all legitimate holes. *****DEFINITION TIME OUT****** A “hole” on the team is not a position that has decent players manning the spot. A “hole” is not, I repeat, not, a position that doesn't have a superstar, all time great player manning the spot. A “hole” is when you have poor players at a position. The definition is fluid though, as it is directly proportional to the overall success of the team. ***************************** Obviously, the most important of those holes is QB, and because god hates the Dolphins, its also been the hardest to fill. But there were options. Manning didn’t want to come here. There is nothing anywhere, however, that claims Manning didn’t want to come here because of Ireland. That was speculation and nothing more. Manning didn’t want to come here because we weren’t contenders. There was Flynn. Philbin thought Flynn was a back up. He was offered a back-up’s contract. We didn’t lose out on Flynn, we just didn’t overpay for him. Same thing with Alex Smith, who flirted with FA for about a minute, minute and a half. The Ginger Finger (it is kind of catchy) decided to grab Ryan Tannehill with the 8th pick, thereby making him the first, 1st round QB taken in almost 30 years. We’ve all heard that stat before, but take a minute to really let that sink in. 30. Effing. Years. There are major contributors to this site that had never seen us draft a first round QB in their lifetime up to that point. If you had a baby the day Marino was drafted, it would have been grown, moved out, done with college and married with their own kid, the day we drafted Tannehill. On that stat alone, who is more inept, Ireland or the 25 years worth of fail before him? TE, OL, DL & RB were also snagged in the draft to varying degrees of success, like any draft for any GM. WR on the other hand, was a major hole left open and sucking by the time the season started. How did that happen? Did Ireland just not give two to three sh|ts as has been suggested by the anti-Ireland group known as JIHAD (Jeff Ireland Harms All Dolphins)? No of course not, but he did make mistakes. He underestimated what a top WR was going to make in FA. He thought the prices were too high. And in reality they were, just like this year. But why did Ireland think this way? Is it because he’s just stupid? Get Ready For My Argument...Are You Ready? When you think of Parcells and WR what’s the first thing that comes to mind, besides Parcells eating a WR? Keyshawn Johnson. When you think of Keyshawn what’s the first thing to come to mind? Excellent possession receiver. Key was Parcells WR ideal, because Parcells viewed the passing game with all the same love and affection that a worker at the DMV views the public. Parcells likes the run game is what I’m saying. The entirety of Ireland’s on the job training for GM he’s had to value WRs in a Parcells system. Look at the bulk of WRs brought in by Ireland. Hartline, Bess, Wilford....these are all non flashy ball catchers (Non Flashy Ball Catchers was the name of Lucky’s Culture Club cover band, btw.) Even Brandon Marshall is really more a possession type receiver than say a vertical threat. So anyway, guys like Vincent Jackson come available and Ireland underbids them thinking no one in their right mind would pay that much for a WR. He was wrong. That is his fault. I’m not pointing out the Parcells WR stuff to shift blame, but to explain why Ireland made the mistakes he did. He tried to fix it, by trying to trade for WRs like Machlin, but alas, to no avail. He tried Chad Johnson who seemed to be on the path to a career renaissance, until he went full ****** and got kicked off the team for head butting his wife. The sad part is, I believe we’d have been a better team if he didn’t screw up, because we played the whole year with ONLY 2 non flashy but competent ball catchers (Non Flashy But Competent Ball Catchers was the name of alen’s Radiohead cover band, btw.) If we had a third competent WR, we'd have been playoff bound. Q: What’s The Difference Between 6-10 and 7-9? A: Dan Effing Carpenter So we finish the season at 7-9 and based on that alone it seems we made no improvements at all, except by one game. To that, I’d say sure, if you go only by record to look for improvement we didn’t make a lot of headway. I’d also say, if you look at literally everything else we progressed by leaps and bounds. We are team with a clear direction. A clear HC. Clear defensive and offensive philosophies. Last offseason Ireland was learning about the type of players Philbin wants. We missed the playoffs by 2 FGs and weren’t mathematically eliminated to week 14 or 15 I think. We were a hot team for awhile and we did it all with a rookie QB, a rookie HC and 2 WRs who don’t score. Now the question is, is everything I said last year and this year, true? Erin Go Bragh or Erin No Go Bragh I’ve claimed that Ireland is essentially a blank slate type GM. What I mean by that is that he doesn’t evaluate players on an internal checklist that he has like other GMs (like a King Carl), instead he takes a blueprint given to him by the coach or boss, and finds players that fit. Try to think of it like this: Boss: Gives the recipe. GM: Buys the ingredients. Coach: Cooks the ingredients based on the recipe. If the dish is bad, who is to blame? In that scenario, its hard for me to blame Ireland, because I don’t think the ingredients were bad, while the recipe was outdated and the chef is barely qualified to microwave Hot Pockets. I think he brought in a lot of talent, but a lot of the talent was for a different recipe then we’re cooking with now. Look at us so far this offseason. Wallace is not a Parcells type player. Wallace is making the kind of money that Parcells would only spend on a LT. He is on this team because Ireland is learning from his mistakes, which is not necessarily a trait inherent in GMs (like a King Carl). What he’s done this year is stockpile picks and cap space is clearly on a path to try and right some wrongs of the past and leap ahead progress wise. On a scale of -5 to 5, he is at a 1.5 for me right now. I like how he set up this off season and I like some of his FA moves so far. We have the draft yet, but we should easily be in the playoffs (barring injuries) this year. If not, then Ireland should be fired, and if he is, here’s hoping our next GM has Mexico as a surname so I can create a thread called Defending Mexico on Cinco De Mayo. Sláinte, b|tches.
I'd move him up a little to at least a 2 based on what it looks like he is trying to do given the philosophy of the new coaching staff is very different from the previous one. It does take time to turnover the roster to fit. Whether these moves successfully do that or not will determine whether he can move higher in my book. The only thing I really like is that he's now trying to give our young QB more weapons. that can only be a good thing
Based on your scale, I rate Ireland a (0) at this time. That is a lot better than the -5 I would have given him after the end of the 2012 season. I may be willing to go up a point or two, depending on what he does in the rest of free agency and in the draft, but like you, to me it is playoffs or bust for Ireland in 2013.
I like the moves he is making. I like the FA aggression. But it's not enough to overcome all these consecutive losing seasons. After the Titans game last year, he probably would have bottomed out for me... That was one of the lowest points in recent history for me, to lose that bad, to a team that bad. And getting blanked by the Pats, and that not so stingy D, was also an embarrassment, and a direct cause of having inferior personnel. His tenure leads to infuriating things that make matters seem worse. Like 0-7 starts, and being out of contention before Thanksgiving(save for last year). But "almost" every Sunday, our team has a chance to win, and they are relatively "tough." So you can't bury him. We're not the Rams or the Browns of the past 5 seasons. I give him a -1.5, based a lot on hope and recent activity.
I don't like the 'playoffs or bust' ultimatum. If you look at the 2012 season vs the 2011 season, the team is light years ahead of where it was and that was with little to no adjustments during the 2012 offseason, mainly due to cap concerns... So here we are in mid-offseason of 2013 and things suddenly look better...the pundits are going to say two things...Ireland HAS to make waves to save his job and any GM could do as much with the resources that Ireland has. While some of that is true, it's not the whole story here... The moves that have been made are a huge departure from the Irish circa-2011. Virtually every move you can argue is anti-Quitcellian and represent building blocks that Philbin can work with and improve on from here on out... Of course, it's way too early to start to evaluate the individual player moves, but the thought process he used for each player he's acquired makes all of us think that perhaps, just perhaps he isn't the #$#%^@ idiot that he's been being accused of being as a GM. I'm just glad that we can finally look at what is happening and say "Gee, this acquisition makes sense"... I know, we are nearly all lay-GMs in our own minds, but it finally looks like he's looking at things the way the championship teams look at things... Is that Philbin's influence or desparation or just that the light has come on for him, I don't know, nor do I care...What I do like is that there seems to be a glimmer of a light at the end of this neverending tunnel we've been in since the day the music died....(Shues retired)....
I am amazed that so many people are giving Ireland a positive score. I always though I was too prone to be overly optimistic about the Dolphins. Last year we had two glaring holes that are probably what separated us from being a playoff team, WR and CB. The reason we had these holes were because before the season Ireland traded away our best WR and best CB and failed to replace (or even make a good attempt at replacing) either of them. To say he made poor runs at FA receivers because he didn't know what they were worth makes him sound incredibly incompetent, he was a GM in the NFL for several years even if he hadn't signed one he has seen them signed. I knew what top WRs were making and I'm not a GM. I also don't know how you can give him a complete pardon on any decision he made before Parcells left and give him credit for Tannehill or even Wallace. Those were both picks in which literally every NFL analyst in the world said the Dolphins were going to make and in which he was getting a lot of pressure from his boss to make. Last year I was in the majority when I stated that he sucked and needed to go so I will let the repeated losing records and the abysmal offense speak for themselves. So I will just make a quick almost St Paddy's day Fireland prosecution. According to every analyst I have seen Mike Wallace is overpaid. However this was a big need and he was the best available and I think he has the potential to live up the contract so I will let the signing pass, but the contract I will address later. Matt Moore is making quite a bit for a backup qb, especially on a team with so many holes. Once again though I will give Ireland a pass because there is talk of switching to an option offense next year so injury is a strong possibility and Moore is worth the money. Hartline is way overpaid. Like most of you I like Hartline but his yardage was the result of being a medium sized fish in a pond full of minnows. He is being paid like a not great #1 receiver or the world's greatest #2 and he is below both of those. Last year he had 1 td on which the defense fell asleep, he was also bottom 20% in the NFL in yards after the catch. I could not find number for last year but in 2011 he was ranked 83rd/91 receivers in drop rate, so 82 receivers had better hands. Last season the vast majority of his yards came the first few weeks before he started getting the attention of the defense, after that he largely disappeared. Ellerbe showed a lot of potential last year, but in 4 years he has only started 14 games. He also has 0 leadership experience and is expected to replace Dansby in that regard as well. When you factor in that he was way overpaid as well, I heard Baltimore was only willing to go $5.5 million/year as opposed to our $7. Wheeler is similar to Ellerbe, he shows the physical tools to be good but the fact that he keeps moving teams should throw up a red flag but we paid him well anyways. If you look on any sports sight that is not written by Dolphins fans the overwhelming majority agree that those three are way overpaid. There is also the fact that our defensive front 7 was about the only thing we had that was really good last year (not counting individuals like Jones or Pouncey). We still have no TE, not left tackle, no corners, a gamble at RB, and no player (WR or TE) that can win a jump ball when needed (ie red zone) and we are running low on money and the market keeps getting shallower. Now comes the biggest problem with this off season, all of the contracts are structured to make us look good this year (presumably so Ireland can keep his job) and then crush us next year. Literally everyone of the 5 contracts he has signed has the player way underpaid this year, and then a huge jump next year. Next year those 5 players alone are going to take up more than 1/3 of our cap at $43 million and only Moore is releasable. All told we already have $98 million spent in 2014 and have to somehow use the other $22 million to pay whoever we wind up with at CB, TE, and OT and resign or replace Jones, Clemons, Stark, Soliai, Incognito, Jerry, Misi, Bess, and various backups. I assume this daunting task will fall to someone else after we find out that Tannehill can't throw deep balls without a left tackle protecting his back and possibly (hopefully not but it wouldn't surprise me) that Lamar Miller isn't the everydown back we think he is after seeing only 51 carries leads to another season of sitting at home watching the Patriots play in the playoffs.
Lot of fun to read.well thought out and really puts things into some logical perspective, hopefully folks will try and see the variables your pointing out without just responding with the same retort. Don't forget..the 2nd youngest team in the league last year has got a whole lot younger, and by after this draft, will be the youngest in football...that I love..especially with the arow pointing up.
Well, to me, he was caught with his pants down by 3 things: -Mike Egnew once debated a turnip, the turnip won -Daniel Thomas's bones are apparently bird like -Legedu Naannee, on the plus side, he pretty much ruined Omar K's reputation, on the downside he made Ted Ginn look like 2012 Desean Jackson -Still don't quite understand the Vontae Davis trade -Richard Marshall did not do much, granted he was injured, but still that Marshall for Vontae trade went off like an PIRA car bomb in South Armagh. Upside finds: -Good cap management -Reshad Jones is our second best player on Defense, that goes directly to Ireland -Marcus Thigpen "Thiggy" was unheralded, but my goodness he turned into one of the Best Returners in the NFL -Brian Hartline..will never forget his text in 09 "..we got Hartline..!", that accrues to him as well -Richie Incognito, a player I thought was not very good and out of position played at a pro bowl level -FINALLY he showed some balls and took a risky player with a #1 pick, and a Qb at that 7-9 is never acceptable, there is some good with the bad though. 65%
I love St Paddy's Day! In all my world travels there isn't a finer bunch of fellows I've ever met than my many friends from the Emerald Isle. I know Wearing of the Green by heart and have been known to sing it quite a lot when well into my cups, much to the joy of my Irish friends. [video=youtube;BKnmNll1AbM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKnmNll1AbM[/video]
There is always the good and the bad with Ireland. I appreciate that whatever stubbornness he was was accused of having with players has gone down a bit. The drafting of Smith and Davis as our talented CB duo of the future didn't materialize. But at least he got something for Davis and was willing to admit failure by letting Smith walk.
He didn't hire Sparano..Parcells was helping picking the final groceries...baaaaaaad combination for a GM to have to take the rap for..
