I have a lot simpler goals. Tannehill throws at least twice as many TDs as Ints and finally develops a deep pass to Wallace. We finally have a functioning Offensive Line. Jordan justifies a trade up to the 3rd pick in the first round. Hickey does a good job in Free Agency and the draft. The Dolphins reestablish their dominance at home and make the playoffs.
No, I guess it wasn;t a baseline for success, and also not a pie-in-the-sky fantasy success season (Championshiiip!)… I started off wondering what would signify progress… and then it kinda became a wish list along the way. Lack of list discipline.
Okay, Fin D got me thinking (I was shocked by that too) and so here is the list of things that would HAVE to happen or I'd be disappointed in the season…. though I wouldn't call the season a "failure" 1) Playoffs 2) Not being embarrassed in the playoffs. Even if we lose in the first round, we look like we belong there. 3) Tannehill takes his next step forward 4) The Oline allows us to at least be average in rushing and pass protection 5) No bust Free Agency signings. 6) We make it through the season with no off-the-field embarrassments or scandals (very minor stuff aside) by players, execs, owner, ball-boy, DJ, etc. 7) We represent ourselves well in any primetime games (no blowout losses or embarrassing stuff in the national spotlight) Now, if we only did 3 or fewer of those things, I probably WOULD consider the season a failure… but I have standards that are higher… no medioctirty will be considered successful around her (except the Oline, since that would be a major improvement)
1. A playoff win 2. A season without any complete meltdown, tear your heart out, wtf has happend to my team type games (ie. Jets, Bills x2)
For once pick a good amount of players I want in the draft..lol 1st...Sheldon Richardson... ROTY 2nd..Eddie Lacy..ROTY 2nd..Tyronne Matthieu..4th in voting 3rd..Keenan Allen..2nd in voting, Got sick watchin that show tonite. So lets draft well, so we can at least gain some trust with this GM. Hope that some inside reports start to come out that said GM is nice to people in the building. Ross begins his crusade again to get upgrades to a pathetic venue. Or he just gets smart and builds a stadium that is on par with the link in Seattle..for obvious reasons stated ad nauseum. Bill Lazor brainwashes Ryan Tannehill and starts to use this whole skillset of the Qb. Ryan Tannehill learns to understand that every play is important and that he consciously realizes in the moment that he has legs and can use then to help his team get a first down and give the defense something else to think about. Our GM really looks for tough players when he's aquiring, like really tough players. The team wins 10 games..which shows the coach can get his team united amongst a very understandably impatient fanbase.
Honestly if we get nothing but improved line play, stay the same on D and special teams, we are better. Run it some more and give Tanny more time and we are better. Pretty exciting.
Not sure I agree with that. The WORST situation imo is to consistently be hovering around .500....then the organization acquires alot of false hope about how "close" they think they are. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk
Not with Ross as owner. Mediocre seasons fool him into thinking that we're 'close'. It's the reason he wouldn't change GMs when he hired a new coach and the reason he wouldn't change coaches when he hired a new GM. He think simple continuity is going to get them to the top so he eliminates his top choices in every search by stubbornly clinging on to certain staff members. He doesn't get that the top franchises have continuity because they win and because they have the right people. They're not winning because they've stuck with guys who aren't getting the job done for continuity's sake. If it turns out that Philbin is just not a very good coach and Hickey wasn't really worthy of the job he was given almost by default then the best way to open Ross's eyes to what has to be done is a train wreck of a season. Otherwise he'll keep doing the same crap he's been doing. Obviously it's best for the Dolphins and the odds of winning in the short term if Philbin/Hickey just end up being some great GM/coach combo but barring that this is probably the only way we'll ever see anything different from Ross.
I just don't understand.. We beat the jets on the road..handedly. We beat a great team at home in a an emotional victory against the pats. We don't let up the following week by going on the road and beating the steelers solidifying our position to be the talk of the NFL and turnaround all the chump perceptions that were thrown upon us... And then when we know what we have to do to clinch...we lose two strait in embarrassing fashion.. Damn it I wanna know what they hell went on in that locker room.
The playoffs first and foremost. Thats numbers 1-10. We also need to make strides towards taking the Pats down. They have dominated the division so long that its just embarrassing and humiliating. We need to push Belicheat and Brady into retirement as losers and step over them on the way to the playoffs. If we can't win our own division we aren't going to seriously compete for a title. They have been talking about putting another wildcard team in and giving every divisional winner a first week bye which puts a premium on the division even more so than now.
A Coup : The ousting of Jeff Ireland Only problem is Philbin never counted on the fact he would loose Sherman. Philbin thought no matter what he controlled who the coaches were.....oooppps
This coming season would be a success, imho, would be that the OL is 'rebuilt' and finally, after years and years, we can worry about some other part of the team being lacking in the next offseason....how's that for not expecting much ??
I love almost all of these, maybe all of them. And yeah, like I've been saying DJ, you have had great targets in the draft. Russell Wilson (and CKap) for instance. If you were our head of college scouting I'd be more confident heading into the draft, even though you're allergic to technology based stuff and use your gut way more than analytics you old dinosaur.
I want to see the team score more then 17 points while beating the jets and bills . wearing uniforms that are not all white. not hearing from Stephen Ross or hearing that Mr Ross embarrassed us again . seeing our defense shut our opponents .
Playoffs, nothing to incite the subsidizing of any aerial banner, and I'll concur with the aforementioned boobie objective.
man i dunno if we got waxed like denver did today i would feel like the season was a huge waste, that game was hard to watch.
He has never been a great back. He's been average to good - and this on a team with a great QB. He's not going to do anything special. The OL def. needs an improved OL.
Think of winning it all like building a house. You need 3 things: 1. You need to know how to build a house. 2. You need the materials. 3. You need tools. 1. You need to know how to build a house. Philbin has helped build a house before. He's been there and won and in the process he gameplanned one of the better offenses in awhile. 2. You need the materials. The materials are play calling and fire. Sherman called plays poorly. He had no feel for his team and basically called plays based on his experience not what was happening on the field. The fire is missing not because our coaches weren't fiery but because we lacked fiery veteran player leadership. Think about it. We have Wake, Grimes, Pouncey and....Incognito. As amazing as Wake is he's not a fiery leader, he's more of a lead by an example guy. Grimes is the same way. Poucey is not a leader at all and Cogs....well, I think we all know how that turned out. 3. You need tools. The tools are the players. Coaches like Belichick and Shula make their own tools on the fly. Guys like that are amazing, but they are also extremely rare. Philbin can build the house, but he needs specific tools on his belt to do it. He needs 2 kinds of hammers, 4 screwdrivers, and numerous saws. He was given no hammers, more screwdrivers then he needed, and a couple of saws. To beat the Steelers, he didn't need hammers, he needed screwdrivers. To beat the Bills he needed hammers but not screwdrivers. Again, Belichick or Shula could turn screwdrivers into hammers and get the job done, but not all coaches are like that and not all coaches have to be like that to be great. In the end there was poor play calling, no veteran leadership on an extremely young team and there was a mismatch between talent and system.
Playoffs with the add on that our season doesn't end in a blow out of epic proportions like Denver. Their season was a huge success but I can't imagine having that taste in my mouth.
In a sense almost. Almost. I probably would obviously, but I'm not sure. In the moment it is great but in two years it will be just another non-superbowl season. Now if the Broncos were set up for long term success I wouldn't even think twice, I'd trade scenarios. However with their small window of opportunity....I'd almost rather be us right now I know its illogical man, but having seen us be blown out that badly in the playoffs....its almost not worth it.
Playoff berth with a playoff win to go with it. If they miss the playoffs again they whole damn thing needs to be torn apart and redone and I'm not normally an advocate of that type of thing. Bottom line there needs to be a real improvement in this teams performance on the field. No more coming out flat for games, if these guys cant get up for playing a game for an extraordinary sum of money then we need different players. If Philbin and the coaching staff cant get them motivated then they need to go with the players. I'm not an advocate of some kind of crazy disciplinarian but the discipline on this team is sorely lacking by what what is coming out in the Martin/Incognito saga.
We've been talking about wanting more emotion from our team for decades..at some point the culture and venue have to take some responsibility.
I think fire does fall on the coaches, but not because it's up to them to motivate the players (though I think that too). The Seahawks are full of fire because Pete Carroll is not afraid of players with strong personalities. Philbin, IMO, is scared of the exact kind of players who have fire, and the personality to lead on the field. If it were up to him I think all the guys would act like boring, milquetoast, reticent personalities. Much easier for Philbin to handle. When DJ first noticed Philbin seemed uneasy handling players face-to-face on Hard Knocks we tried to minimize and rationalize it as fans who wanted to be hopeful about our new coach, but a couple years later I think he absolutely is uncomfortable handling anyone with a personality bigger than the eye-hole of a needle. Now, the flip side of the team being a flatline, is that they don't seem to panic. They seem pretty even keel. Pretty level. Like 8-8 level. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
WADR, you are making up the fact that Philbin doesn't like people with strong personalities. There is absolutely zero evidence of that. He doesn't like lazy players and he doesn't like players that constantly get into trouble. That is a significant difference then what you're saying.