I'm hoping some of you can ease my concerns over this fear I have. I don't want to jump the gun - but it looks as if Miami may at long last have found a franchise QB in Tua, ending the decades long search since Marino. Also Mike McDaniel appears to be the best coach this team has seen since Don Shula. I'm knocking on wood as I type both of these statements, because we all know how quickly things in the NFL world can change. Here's what I'm afraid of. Stephen Ross is still the owner and the evidence of his recent meddling is irrefutable. All recent indications are that Tom Brady is not retiring after this season. Sean Payton is still out there and sounds like he'll be back coaching after this season. Of course, after Tua and McDaniel are looking great - it would be insanely stupid to pursue either of them for next season, right? But I'd argue that Ross is insanely stupid and a terrible owner. Right now, I'm pretty confident not even Ross is stupid enough to go that direction with how things are trending. But if the season hits another skid like it did after Tua's concussion? Early playoff exit? God forbid - no playoffs? In those scenarios, I'd fear Ross would pursue Brady and/or Payton again and I think that would be a disaster.
No chance. For all his faults I think it's pretty clear Ross has wanted a winning team for the most part. He has no issue splashing cash for big signings etc. Even the tanking was intended to help the team in the long run. He can see what we have going here, I'd be amazed and I'd actually give up on this franchise completely if he did that.
That's not going to happen. Ross interferes way too much, but it's usually to put a better product on the field and to increase the team's brand. He's not like Jerry Jones, who wants credit for everything that his team does well. IMHO, Ross wants to win as much as Jones does, but he's less interested in the spotlight. If we can finish strong, I don't see him bringing in a different QB or coach because winning trumps ego. I say that as somebody who'll pop the champagne the day Ross sells the team.
You don’t get rid of a 24 year old MVP candidate for a 45 year old QB. The team would implode as the locker room would be chaos.
I am afraid of Ross doing anything for the team other than paying Grier and doing what Grier wants or building facilities. When he isn't doing those two things, he has been a disaster.
Team got so lucky that Brady and Watson didn't come here. No way to predict McDaniel + Tua would lead to the best passing offense in the league, but luck is part of the game. That's how Belichick + Brady happened: luck. To Ross' credit he's always wanted a franchise QB, and there's no question he's really happy with Tua. So as others have said the fear we're getting rid of Tua after proving he can lead the best passing attack in the league is completely and utterly unfounded.
The ONLY way a scenario such as that occurs would be only if the following were to happen… -The Dolphins implode offensively -Tua puts up numbers reminiscent of Ryan Leaf -The Dolphins lose their remaining 7 games -The dead rise from the grave -Human sacrifices -Dogs and cats living together -Mass hysteria
Luck was Tyreek being available and traded for in the span of two days. I think the offense would be pretty good and Tua would be above 7 ypa, however, what Tyreek brings to this offense is what is making it 9.1 ypa. The way he affects the defense is outstanding.
Say it again so those in the back can hear it. This season has been a confluence of a lot of complimentary things coming together at the right time. Tua's progression. Hill's trade. The acquisition of Ingram, Armstead, Williams, Chubb, and Wilson. Drafting Waddle, Grant, and Phillips with the first three picks last year. The hiring of McDaniel. Take away any one of those things and we'd have a completely different situation right now. Football is a dynamic game where one thing affects everything else. For example: An injury on the OL can result in a couple more short drives per game and leave the defense gassed and prone to injury at the end of the game and season. Trading for Hill was probably the biggest influence on this team's dynamics that I could imagine.
For all the faults of Ross I wouldn't put meddling in there. Tua isn't going anywhere unless he suffers an injury that is potentially career ending.
Aside from the legal and moral aspects of acquiring Watson, I was concerned with the assets it would take to bring him to Miami. Losing three firsts in addition to other compensation would have killed any chance of improving the team, especially when we would have to pay him 20% of the salary cap. I never thought we had the team to put around him that would make the trade logical. Think about the players we would be missing if we lost $50 million. So glad we didn't trade for him.
McDaniel's ability to create an offense that takes advantage of Waddle and Hill's speed with what Tua does well has been excellent. In fact, my biggest complaint with McDaniel is that his playcalling gets too cute at times and he needs to stop calling short-yardage plays. When Miami is in 3rd and 4 or below, he should just call the plays that he has for 3rd and 5 or higher because they just work much better. Tua has been near unstoppable on 3rd down, the running game has been plenty stoppable on short-yardage situations.
He also needs to stop going for it on fourth down unless the game is on the line. He did it for the third time yesterday and it failed when we tried to gain a yard off guard. I don't know if we ran another play up the middle and in that situation, it was a gift for the Browns. Had we taken the field goal (and Sanders made the kick), we'd likely enter halftime with a three point lead while receiving the ball first in the second half. I keep waiting for him to learn this lesson. And the pitch to Wilson(?) for the throw was a drive killer from the beginning. It wasn't likely to succeed anyway and we're lucky it didn't give the Browns momentum. He's still a rookie coach, so I hope he learns the right lessons.
I am fine with him going for it on 4th down. Though I do want the points. My main issue is the playcall. The 3rd and long 1 sneak with Tight End was not a good play call and the run after wasn't the best. If both of those plays were regular pass calls with Tua, I would have felt much better.
That is just incompetence. I don't see that as the same as him inserting himself in something that is actually working. If he was really a major meddler Grier would have got fired 2 or 3 times over by now.
I agree with most of you, that this is likely an unrealistic concern - especially if things keep trending in the positive direction. But what if the team were to miss the playoffs or first round exit? I really hope all of you are right. This is not something I want to be right about and say, "See, I told you so!" More I'm hoping putting this irrational fear out there in public makes it not come to fruition and eases my concerns reading your reactions.
We'll find out when his daughter takes over, whenever that is. To this point, her public profile seems to be really low.
The Most transformative owner in North American sports was George Steinbrenner. Made the interlocked NY a brand. Made the yankees a perennial machine. They like us when he took over were a storied franchise upon hard times. Like Stephen Ross, he sucked **** when he became owner. He was ****ing horrible. When he was banned by major league baseball fans cheered. When he came back he spent every last ****ing dollar to build a perennial champion and stay the **** out of the way of people who knew a lot more about baseball than he did. Food for thought. Carry on
Interesting comparison but to me, Ross is a bumbling mumbling moron and Steinbrenner (despite his portrayal on Seinfeld) seemed like a pretty shrewd guy.
After the contract extension for Chubb, we have no money to carry over into next season for the cap, and we're actually OVER the projected 2023 limit already now. So whats likely going to have to happen is that we'll give extensions to a few guys earlier than we would have otherwise been forced to, in order to lower their 2023 number, just to have room to do anything. Christian Wilkins and Connor Williams are probably the two they'll start with, but I could even see Tua himself getting a new deal to lower the 9.6m that he's due next year, so that we have the money to keep guys like Mostert, Williams, Sherfield, Needham, Van Ginkel, etc. Sadly, it looks like nearly anyone we bring in from outside the team is going to need to be on a really small money contract, so no big free agent signings this time around.
Agreed. McDaniel still has to learn to go with his head instead of his gut in some situations. It kills me that we're an outside zone team but when it comes up to 3rd-and-short or 4th-and-short, we run off guard plays with Tua under center against stacked boxes. That's not fair to the OL or the drive.
On the one drive that stalled this past week, I think that had we just rolled Tua out, we'd have easily picked up the first down. Our OL just isn't good enough to power up the middle when the other team knows its coming, and Mostert and Wilson aren't the type of backs to try it with. It reminded me of when Joe Philbin used to do that with Lamar Miller and people here would get mad at Miller. It wasn't his fault, he was just being used poorly. Hopefully McDaniel realizes it quickly and stops trying to force a square peg into a round hole. Run a different type of play, or just kick the FG and take the points.
I agree. We've done it so many times now teams may not see that coming. I think he's trying to install a mentality that you need to pick up that one yard on the ground. It's a little old school mentality.
We are definitely tight against the cap next year but there are a few moves we could make like cutting Byron Jones as a post June 1st which saves $14M against the cap next year and kicks the can down the road a little. I'll be surprised if Keion Crossen sees that $3.1M, Cethan Carter is due $2.5M. Looks like we are actually stuck with Jason Sanders as we only save $95K against the cap by cutting him. I agree that Wilkins and Williams will probably be priorities to get down and get their numbers down to a more manageable level but there isn't a lot of money for next year.
There's a cupboard full of options. Coach is keeping the defense off-balance up and down the field and then running plays that give the defense the advantage. I know the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but when they stack the box, 6 blockers against 7-8 defenders isn't a great time to run up the gut.
It seemed ridiculous when I asked this question almost 2 months ago, but with a typical Miami December dive and all but eliminated from playoff contention, seems a little more plausible. Some are already speculating: https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/tom-brady-2023-destination-dolphins-mike-mcdaniel-albert-breer I still think Sean Payton replacing McDaniel is a long shot, but Brady replacing Tua after the concussions and inconsistent play to finish the season seems a lot less of a stretch. For the record, I still absolutely hate the idea of Brady in a Dolphins uniform regardless of how I feel about Tua - which is neutral right now.
If Brady comes to Miami and wins a Super Bowl everyone here would kiss his feet. Beggars can't be choosers.
Honestly, if Tua were to step away or be forced to retire due to his issues, then we could likely do a lot worse than Brady as a short term answer while we wait to get another QB later on. I don't think that it will happen, because I think that Tua will be back and Brady will retire following this year, but I'm not outright opposed to the suggestion.
