I really don't get it: 1) why would you scrap an entire interior line, which had already been considered one of the best in the NFL? Would have made more sense to me to keep the original three & let them work into the season until they're production dropped & kept the newbies playing behind them until they were really needed to replace the original offensive interior line. would have given them time to work together, learning, developing timing & chemistry. does the word transition mean anything? might have gone an entire season w/o injury to any of them. the biggest problem with our running game is the inconsistency of the interior line. 2) why deep-six Jason Taylor? obviously, he's at least a third-down specialist & would have brought experience & leadership to the team. surely something could have been worked out to retire the guy in a Dolphin uniform. he was an asset we simply gave away. 3) what were they thinking when they cut Martin? we have an offense that utilizes the two TE set. where's the second TE? 4) was there a conscious effort to dismantle our Special Teams unit? what are these people thinking? the formula for NFL success is winning two of the three: offense, defense or special teams. surely they saw this coming. what happened to the kick-off specialist we got from Tampa, two weeks & he's gone? the guy made the pro-bowl in his second year with Tampa. 5) why would we persist in using the WildCat? How many downs & opportunities will Henning have to blow before he realizes that the NFL has the answer to this particular package. when Pat White was drafted, I saw an opportunity to expand the SingleWing (WildCat) into a viable weapon. although the Single Wing is essentially a running formation you must have a legitimate QB who can run or throw out of the system to keep it honest. the jets have one & the Single Wing seems to work well with them the few times they've used it. Michael Vick would be an absolute nightmare in the system. you get the picture. 6) you must play every season as if you had a shot at the SuperBowl. you must decide early on to play to win or you will lose. one of the things that gets my goat is lack of real competition. we entered training camp with Henne as the decided/anointed starter. this may have been a mistake. I would further add that Pennington is a better fit for this offense & should be given a shot @ the start. you play the best man always. 7) I think Sparano is an unsuccessful parcellian experiment @ head coach & if we don't go to the post season he should resign. I blame Sparano for this fiasco. well, that's about it for my opinions on the darker side of the game. know that we have plenty of time to turn things around & understand there were reasons for everything they've done in preparation for 2010. in the end, what do I know? not much... all I want to do is stop with the excuses & win games, to contend in 2010.
Thanks for recreating the last 50 posts you've had into one thread. I'm sure no one was able to read it the first 10 times the same thing got posted. I wish I could rate this thread, so that I could give it 5 stars, two thumbs up will have to do though.
very sorry wasn't written as a rant that was not my intention but I can see where you're coming from...
1. Yeah, I see that we did have an interior line that was considered to be one of the best in the league, but Smiley and Grove were a couple injury cases waiting to....I mean that kept happening. Jerry has looked good, Rotten Richie has done really well, and Berger has been no less spectacular than Grove. It hurts a little missing Jerry, but Smiley and Grove were to expensive to keep as backups. 2. I kind of get where your coming from with this, but if he was here they would not be able to use JT as a 3rd down specialist. People would be going ape when/if Misi has a bad game or Wake didn't pan out really quickly. How can you just have JT as a 3rd down pass rusher?? Jets can do it because they actually have more talent than him x2 at that position. 3. I would venture to say that none of us were awefully impressed with his 2 TE offense last year, then you add the fact we have Marshall its time to change the offense up. Now if you wanted to argue that Martin > Fasano I dont know I could argue to much with you. I think Martin was just to injury prone as well. 4. This right here I can agree 100%, I understand they are trying to turn over the bottom of the roster and get some more/different talent, but those people are the ST group and you keep turning them over and sooner or later its a bunch of new guys not knowing what the heck they are doing. 5. I dont think I dislike the wildcat, I really just dislike when its being called. You dont start the wildcat after Henne just drove the ball down the field with a passing clinic. You dont call the wildcat when its 3rd and 8. I just think the wildcat is being misused. If our base offense isn't working then go for some WC, but until we are having a hard time, then just cage the cat. 6. I agree competition breeds improvement and leaders, but its also breeds controversy. I think with Henne being "annointed" the starter it cut out the debate over Pennington and Henne. Also, why stop his progression. People are insane to think the guy is going to step into his first season starting and be some Hall of Fame QB. Let the guy learn and develop, we know he can make the throws, now let his mind develop into one of those elite QB's that can read the D, audible if needed and make teams pay. 7. There is plety of blame to go around to players and coach's. I think you have to realize this team was terrible 3 years ago. Cap hell, draft picks that sucked, and a ton of overpaid going downhill vets. They have built this team from the ground up. I look at the Texans, they were built from the ground up after a few years of bad decisions as an expansion team. They are now a good team, I think another year or 2 Sparano is going to have this team as a powerhouse in the NFL. Lets be honest about this as well. Any other division in the NFL we would probably win, but we have 2 of the best teams in the NFL in our division. I would say we win about any NFC division. Probably not better than Pitts but I'd take us over any other AFC division opponet.
This I totally agree with. I HATED getting rid of Smiley and Grove though I think they felt it was necessitated by their inability to stay healthy. They knew coming in that they were injury prone but felt that their offseason program and strength and conditioning program could fix those guys. However, I would rather have 10 games of Grove and Smiley, ridiculously high salaries and all, with Incognito and Berger as backups then have incognito and Berger as starters with less quality depth. EDIT: Grove was rated as the second best center last year by pro football focus, Berger was fourth. Berger has been 13th so far this year and very average. Incognito and Jerry are both rated as below average (47th and 48th among starting guards). In Incognito's case he has been below average as both a run and pass blocker, while Jerry has been below average just as a run blocker. Interesting to note that Smiley is 51st so maybe they made a right decision there or maybe he would just look that much better next to big Jake who by the way is rated as far and away the best LT with Ferguson being rated a distant second. Taylor was not deep sixed. He was offered a contract and failed to accept it for months. I loved JT as a Phin but we had to get younger at some point and Im not sure he was willing to let someone younger step in front of him. Misi has played well and shows good upside in playing a pretty new position. This i think is the most unjustly complained about move in Phins history. He cant even get on the field for the Bills. That should tell you everything you need to know. The special teams unit has been a disaster for a couple of years. This was a long time coming. Expect more roster churning as the season wears on in my opinion. Its a staple of this regime. Teams had it defensed last year as well when the line play was better. The line play being better makes all the difference in running a power formation. The Jets and Vikings games were examples of that as well. Last year we dominated the Jets in Miami on the ground and this year it was dictated that we would pass and until we did our run game was not getting results. Eventually the pass opened up the run for us but early on we did not move them. Same thing in the Vikings game where the majority of the running yards came on one play, even though it wasnt out of the wildcat the Vikings pretty much squashed that early. Granted those are two of the better defenses in the league but that hasnt stopped us when the line was healthy in the past. Absolutely not @ Pennington. This is among the youngest teams in the league and finishing its rebuilding. You give the young players, including Henne a chance to grow with the team. Also, Pennington severely limits your offense in the throws he can make because he simply cannot get it to certain spots on the field. Definitely not in relation to Sparano. Mike Lombardi and Peter King both consider him among the best coaches in the game and give him credit for doing more with less the last few years then any other coach. Sparano is not the problem. Bonamego was and Henning to a degree still is in my opinion but in order to get rid of Henning you have to find someone better and I dont know who is available off the top of my head. Sparano will want a run heavy OC so if you have any suggestions.... Also I moved this here since its a pretty good rant
Penny can barely throw 20 yards . I, like you, would like us to be contenders this year. However we have a better chance at going deep into the playoffs with Henne. I think Pennington proved in 2008 that a noodle arm can't get you far in the playoffs. Also, we should be concerned about our future, not just about contending this year. Letting Henne develop as the starter this year is a good thing.
