Hypotheticaly Har Balling It......

This isn't just about you, but I genuinely don't understand how we can improve our oline and pass blocking, but many still think we'll have the same record.

 

Why is that such a ridiculous notion? I'd also like to think the team will have a better record, but you can't look at this stuff in a vacuum. The schedule is different, it's a different team, some different coaches, etc. Anything can happen. One weakness has been addressed, but will another pop up? And it's not a crazy thought at all to suggest a team can improve overall, but still have a worse record. There are 31 other teams in the league trying to get better as well.

I will say this is the first year we haven't had a "Holy **** man, you're an NFL GM how do you leave such a huge hole in an NFL roster" type weakness. There are some holes, but not those kind of holes. Not the kind of holes that we as fans can sit here and say, "What the ****, there are no WRs on this team!" and then have that be a thing that derails the season (2012). Or "Holy ****ing hell, we have no ****ing left tackle!" and have that be a huge thing that helped derail the season (2013). Nice to have a GM not named Jeff Ireland, isn't it?

 

I think it's far too much of a stretch, because as much as you think Ross likes Harbaugh...he likes Philbin even more. Philbin should have been fired over the bullying scandal alone, and that's without considering the massive crash in the last two games of the season. Ross stuck with Philbin over his character though, and I think very few coaches could have come out of that situation unscathed. So if your scenario plays out and we make it into the first round of the playoffs (which I 100% agree with, BTW), I say Philbin and Tannehill are both a lock for an additional year.

In other words; their success is fully linked. Either we lose both after this season or we keep both. One won't be kicked out without the other.

 

Sure, but if all that is true then how can anyone feel like we'll have the same record? I mean you're talking about the unknown. Unknowns are just that...unknown. So unless those unknowns become knowns, what leads someone to say we'll be no better this year?

Might as well just say, "I have no guess what the record will be", then.

Point is, on things we do in fact know, better oline, better OC, better OL coach and the things we can probably surmise (based on things we've seen), better offense, better secondary, no scandal, then we should be better. Knowing all that and then saying, our schedule MAY be harder, other teams MAY be better, major injuries MAY happen, therefore I predict 7-9, 8-8, simply makes no sense to me.

Side note: Our schedule was brutal last year. We played (and beat) 4 of the 6 teams to make it to the AFC playoffs, plus the Steelers, Panthers, Saints, Ravens, Chargers, Jets x2, & Pats x2. We had 12 out of 16 games against teams that finished without a losing record.

 

I have a feeling that Harbaugh will coach the Dolphins and will do so until Ross kicks the bucket.

 

If things go south for Philbin, we've got to factor in the whole does the Harbaugh family want to move to Miami thing, and be happy as hell doing it.

 

Bringing up another hypothesis: if Philbin were to get fired (and Harbaugh hired) due to, let's say, 9-7 but out of the playoffs, but the offense does get better along with Tannehill. Let's say Tannehill slightly improves, but not enough to completely crown him "The Answer" at QB.


For argument's sake let's say Tannehill finishes the year at:

62%, 4100 yds, 26 TD's, 16 int, 86.3 passer rating // 350 Rushing yards, 3 Rushing TD's

The question is, does Harbaugh invest in Tannehill as his number 1 QB, or does he draft one early in his first draft?

 

"Hi, I'm Jeff, you're new boss..."

 

Let's be reasonable about this.

He's 36-11-1 in the regulard season as a head coach and has brought them to three straight NFC Championship Games. He's 5-3 in the playoffs. For as much as people try and say that everything was built for him, he took over a 6-10 stinker of a team with a quarterback everyone thought was a #1 overall draft bust, and he took basically that same team including that same quarterback and they went 13-3 and lost in the NFC Championship Game. Everyone said drafting a QB in the 2nd round is pointless and he took a 2nd round QB and made him into a guy that went to two more NFC Championship Games, winning one and damn near winning the Super Bowl.

Oh and he did all this after achieving remarkable success both at San Diego University and at Stanford, the latter of which became a football powerhouse after not having been relevant in college football since Bill Walsh's day.

But people are going to "read between the lines" on this, reading some vague auguries to discover that he's really not a good coach, after all?

That doesn't even pass the laugh test.

 

Hah. Well, that's one thing I do know turned him off. And I know one other thing that turned him off. But that doesn't mean those were the only things to turn him off. There could've been something else. Maybe he had a late night conversation with his wife the night before and she was just like, no way I'm moving all the way out to Miami. I dunno. This is real life and sh-t like that happens. But prior to that he was definitely serious about coming to Miami.

 

I think Trent Baalke needs Jim Harbaugh a lot more than Jim Harbaugh needs Trent Baalke. As ck says, that team was 6-10 and the key ingredient in a 7 win swing was coaching.

If the 49ers are stupid enough to think that they can plug any coach in there and get the same results, that's wonderful. For us, maybe.

 

Nobody is a bigger headache than Bill Belichick or Bill Parcells. But nobody cares so long as they're winning games.

 

Secret stuff? Dawn Aponte, maybe? Can't really think of anything else if you're implying it's a person who turned him off.

 

This is like sex. One person can't just decide it's going to happen because they really want it to happen. Both sides gotta decide.

 

Steve Ross. I don't THINK I have to get more specific than that because Ross himself admits he was a total newbie at that stage of his ownership and it showed during the negotiations. There were things he suggested that...you just don't suggest.

 

Let's hope he learned these things by now then...

 

Given Harbaugh's history with San Francisco one would think he'd stick with Tannehill for as long as he was cheap and in the meantime the front office would draft someone with great tangibles for Harbaugh to groom behind Tannehill.

Harbaugh is probably a Tannehill admirer. Mobility is one of his key traits he looks for in a quarterback.

There's a story that is I think pretty well known in NFL circles about when Jim Harbaugh first took a job as an offensive assistant with the Raiders in 2002. He was given the task of putting draft grades on the quarterbacks. Remember this was the David Carr, Joey Harrington, Patrick Ramsey draft. The other drafted quarterbacks Josh McCown, Rohan Davey, Randy Fasani, Kurt Kittner, Brandon Doman, Craig Nall, J.T. O'Sullivan, Steve Bellisari, Seth Burford, Jeff Kelly and Wes Pate.

Who did Jim Harbaugh grade as the two best quarterbacks in the draft? Gotta be Carr and Harrington, right? Or maybe Carr and Ramsey. Nope. David Garrard and Tony Romo. Those were his two highest grades. He gave Harrington and Carr sixth round grades.

When he evaluated the draft where they took Colin Kaepernick, he made no secret of his admiration for Cam Newton whom he referred to as "plutonium-grade raw material". Sure it's easy for other people to say that now in hindsight, but at the time remember that everyone was pretty much split right down the middle on Newton with some loving him as the top overall prospect and others absolutely hating him as a QB prospect. Good to know that Harbaugh was on the RIGHT side of that. And then he proved it by taking pretty much Diet Cam Newton in Colin Kaepernick. He showed what his priorities are with that pick, I think.

Two of his top traits he considers when looking at quarterbacks are athleticism and accuracy. He's explained that when you have a quarterback that can run, it keeps the defense out of certain coverages and is a real benefit to the offense.

 

So you admit he's a good coach?

If so then SF letting him walk is irrelevant.

 

Good players are not worth the headache only insomuch as those headaches actually detract from your ability to win football games. Guys that create distractions or are selfish players are net-negatives because of those headaches, despite their talent.

If Jim Harbaugh is a 36-11-1 coach that goes to three straight NFC Championship Games and one Super Bowl, and you admit he is a good coach and therefore responsible for that success, then whatever headache you perceive based on flimsy evidence literally doesn't matter.

Is he going to win or not? You may prefer to take the divination approach to that question, reading between the lines on things that could really mean anything. I prefer to look at the more obvious (though admittedly superficial) stuff.

 

We don't know those things as fact. The OL may be better on paper. We don't know how they'll perform on the field. We have no idea about the OC at this point.

I'm also not sure how anyone can say the secondary is better. The best player on the secondary is 31 years old. Its just as likely that the secondary is worse than last year.

We also have a defensive line that very likely could be worse than last year. Cam Wake is 32 years old. If theres any type of regression from him, then the pass-rush goes from great to average.

This is all without mentioning that its very likely that both the QB and HC of the team are just average. You could make the argument that an average QB and average HC are going to always gravitate toward an average record.

 

Perhaps we're arguing semantics then. I think the question you have to answer is whether he's a winning coach that will get your team winning games, going to the playoffs, even winning Super Bowls. I think the answer to that question at least based on the resume thus far is an overwhelming yes. Therefore this stuff about what San Fran thinks of him and what that means, it's irrelevant unless you're saying that it means he's actually not a winning coach that will bring you to playoffs and Super Bowls.

 

I think Harbaugh is being undermined at this point..you have to be all in with him..

 

I personally have a theory that he didn't ask for Jonathan Martin and the front office gave him Martin as sort of a passive-aggressive "This is your guy though, right?" dick move. Sort of the thing that allows you to claim afterward "Hey, there were plenty of times we gave him players that HE wanted, rather than ones we wanted..."

But that theory is based on next to nothing.

 

When Harbaugh was asked for comment about Martin during Bullygate I got the impression that he really did not want to address the issue. He said some nice things with kind of a strained look on his face and then quickly moved on to the next question.

I can't imagine they would actively sign someone as a passive aggressive move to tweak their own coach, though. Could they?

 

hmmm, I wonder how that dude is playing, he's getting starter reps..

I feel a bit of a disconnect happening with his players, which like you is based on next to nothing..I'm not sure his heart is 100 in at this point, and I don't blame him when your bosses are making you play this out and not securing your future, he doesn't deserve that..

 

They could.

But they could also do it just like I said as something you can put down on paper after the fact and say hey, we tried with this guy and he still couldn't play ball.

 

He had a disastrous first preseason game and an alright second preseason game, and is currently ranked by Pro Football Focus as #121 of 138 qualifying tackles.

That sounds about right.

 

My crazy theory as to why he didn't come was because I didn't feel the city of Miami and the football culture was something he wanted, is that a silly observation?

 

I don't know about silly but it's not consistent with what I know about the situation.

 

Ok, if things don't go well for Philbin, I would love for him to look at our situation as an ultimate challenge, full power, turn everything around type thing..I've heard him talk about Shula before, I know he respects him..and I know history and culture is important to him, I just get scared that that culture thing down here can be a detriment to some.