Ireland is the Man for Ross (and therefore the fans)

Parcells was still with the team during the 2010 draft. He quit in September. Ireland has run one draft and one offseason without Parcells.

 

I'd call both drafts OK. Not horrible. Not great.
Fairly average.
In the end, Ireland is probably not as bad as I sometimes make him out to be, but he certainly isn't as good some on this board would have you believe.

 

Compare those to any other teams drafts and you will be impressed. The amount of players that have made final rosters for us and other teams is really impressive.

 

See that is the problem everyone compares now to 2008, look at the year before it we went 1-15... So you aren't going to credit Ireland with helping us improve 10 games in one offseason.

2008 was a fluke though imo.

 

Contributing to the Dolphins? It could be easily argued the standard in which contributing to the Dolphins really wouldn't be that difficult. Carolina? Same thing. Pittsburgh? Cut

Future Pro Bowlers? Maybe. But pure speculation at best.

 

If I had the time I would. It would be an interesting exercise. My guess is they would land somewhere in the middle. Not alot of busts. Not alot of superstars. Again, average.
I respect your opinion on Ireland, I just don't neccessarily share it.

 

I give credit for 2008 to the New York Jest and Chad Pennington.

 

It's amazing to me how many people are trying to grade a draft after the fact that apparently have not actually gone and looked at what typical results are.

Ireland picked the best FA QB and the best FA runningback this season out of nowhere. Those two moves drew a tremendous amount of scorn this off-season, and he was absolutely right. And yet?

 

And yet? What?

 

Excellent analogy, people outside of VA might not get the reference but good God this guy Ceratto was allowed to just do anything he wanted and would never get fired no matter what happened. I think he won a power play with Schotty if I'm not mistaken too.

 

And that's utter bull****, really. Pennington was not considered nearly the player he was in Miami, and that's somehow considered blind luck despite the fact that we've turned around and done it again with Matt Moore.

 

Ireland gets **** on. The one off-season he was solely responsible for was quite arguably the best one any team had that year.

And yet well we should fire him because uhh Dez Bryant clearly hasn't been a big character concern.

 

True, Da' fins is right though, Ross has planted his flag on Ireland, which is something of a mistake because the Harbaugh deal left a bad taste in inside the nfl types, which is a serious drawback imo.

Ireland is a good GM, he is not Polian though, he also sticks with "his guys" to long to prove he was right about them imo.

 

And what were Fisher's personnel acquisitions? The only thing I ever heard he wanted was Leinhart over Young.

 

You don't know what a "middling" draft looks like. "Middling" is going to be little to no contribution at all. That's the reality of a typical NFL draft.

 

Describe that in more detail, in the interim I'll look at his stats.

 

How would they "contribute" to the Packers?

 

I tend to think Ireland is a good collegiate evaluator. He has run one draft by himself and made relatively good decisions. I'm not sure how well of a pro talent evaluator he is. People can blame Sparano for Columbo all they want but Ireland should have stepped in and said no, the guy stinks. Not upgrading the FS postion, interior of the OL, or acquiring a 2nd TE were mistakes.

 

Pouncey & Clay.

 

From Schefter on Twitter:

 

Pouncey- This is one pick Ireland made I agree with.
Thomas- Drafted much higher then he should have been and I just don't see him as a solid back in the NFL going forward
Gates- I was not nearly as impressed with his returns as you were. The majority of his returns during the season did not get back to the twenty yard line. He also had trouble getting off the line of scrimmage as a wide receiver. I don't see him being with the team in the next few years.
Clay- He did produce at times during the season. He is a project but with the right coaching he could develop into a good player down the road.
Kearse- never played for the Dolphins during the regular season because he was picked up by another team off the practice squad, therefore this was a wasted pick.
Wilson- He was definitely a decent 7th round selection. I don't ever see him becoming a starter in the secondary but he is the type of player who can help on special teams and in the secondary at times.

Because of the Pouncey pick and the possible upside to Clay in the future, I would rate this draft a solid "C".

Odrick- I think he is an average defensive lineman in the NFL. I would much rather the Dolphins had not traded down in the draft and picked Dez Bryant, instead of Odrick.
Koa Misi- not a very productive pass rusher and did not play as effectively this season as he did in his rookie season. The fact that an old Jason Taylor basically replaced Koa Misi late in the season at the LB position for much of the game shows that the Koa Misi will soon be replaced as a starting LB on the Dolphins. I feel this was another wasted second round selection.
Jerry- He spent most of the year on the bench and only played when injuries on the offensive line started to impact the regular starters. The offensive line was certainly not a strength of the team this past season and the fact Jerry was sitting on the bench for most of the year certainly shows how little faith the coaches had in his play. Every time I think about the fact the Dolphins drafted Jerry with this pick, instead of taking Jimmy Graham, it makes me ill. I don't see Jerry being a long term member of the Dolphins.
Edds- Never played a down during the regular season in 2010 due to injury and was cut in preseason this year. Totally a wasted pick by the Dolphins.
Carroll- Why he was even on the roster this season is beyond me. He is terrible as a defensive back in the NFL.
Jones- The Dolphins still have a severe need at the weak safety position because Jones is not the answer. Maybe a possible special teams player for the Dolphins in the future but certainly not a productive starter in the secondary.
McCoy- No longer on the team, so that is all which needs to be said about this pick.
Spitler- A special teams player who is average on this unit and does not project to ever be more then he is right now.

I see absolutely nothing exciting about this draft. A lot of special team type players with one possible average defensive lineman in Odrick. I rate this draft a "D".

 

Again, context is a huge problem.

We're talking about Jared Odrick being "solid" and ignoring that he was essentially used out of position. The overwhelming majority of his snaps he was the RDE in Nickel packages, playing in technique wide of the tackle. And he was quite productive there for being under those circumstances. Richard Seymour was an every-down 4-3 LDE with the Raiders and was less productive sack-wise than Odrick was. How many other 300lb. guys do you know are successful edge rushers?

 

Clay is an H-back not a TE and we still needed a RG after the Pouncey selection. Waters was available and we didn't even make a play.

 

He does the things a second TE would do but with the versatility to do other things, which is what an H Back does. Pouncey is still the interior of the oline and he's gonna be there for a decade. The point being, the TE & oline weren't neglected.

 

Well if he is that impressed with Ireland, perhaps he will make him an offer he can't refuse and Ireland will convince Ross to let him go to the Rams.
I do not believe for one second that Fisher would hire Ireland. I just feel that Fisher is now with the Rams and so he sees no reason to speak negatively about Ireland. The fact that he picked the 2-14 Rams over the 6-10 Dolphins, says far more about his true feelings of Ireland as an NFL GM, than anything he might be saying now regarding Ireland.

 

What have you seen from Fisher, to show that he'd be better at acquiring players than Ireland?

 

.......and every person with any common sense says AMEN

 

Fairness to Gates Jw, but around mid season his return avg shot up 3 yds, he finally did find his groove.

But here is the problem with him, he's a 4th rd pick, we signed Thigpen from the CFL who can do what he does on returns, that is a poor return on value, add in he doesn't handle punts and he is a non factor at Wr and he was not a very good draft pick in terms of production as a rookie.

To his credit though, he did outperform Ted Ginn in terms of total return yardage, but Ginn missed 2 games.

I hope Thigpen can handle a Sproles like role for us, just an all purpose yds beast who can maximize production in limited touches on offense.

 

Unless those people use their common sense and realize coaches rarely get the kind of control Fisher wanted and and less than that make it work.

Again, what in Fisher's history have you guys seen that makes you think Fisher should be a coach & GM?

 

It's pretty public knowledge. The Cowboys were freaking out about Dez Bryant being left unattended during the lock-out, and for the most part they've been lucky all that has happened is that he's been banned from a shopping mall, sued no less than three times, and was essentially broke two years into his rookie contract.

 

An H-Back is for all intents and purposes the same thing.

 

Exactly how do you know that it was Parcells running these drafts and not Ireland? Were you sitting in the teams drafting room and observing Parcells telling Ireland whom to pick each time it was the Dolphins turn to select? All I know is that Ireland was appointed the teams GM in 2008 and I hold him responsible for every draft and free agent signing since he was hired for this position. If he was not really the GM and wasn't the person responsible for selecting players while Parcells was with the team, he should have been assigned to supervise the ball boys. Because based on the comments of all those who blame Parcells for all the players Miami acquired while he was with the team, Ireland basically had no input and did nothing during this time period.

I guess Ireland must have been Ross's errand boy all that time and that is why Ross has such affection for him now. Because it certainly isn't because of the great job Ireland has done in rebuilding this franchise.

 

So maybe he would have even better stats?

 

D, personally I'm not stating he could handle both nor am I saying he would veto any and all moves from Ireland, but if you read our owners quotes about the the GM and HC being a collaboration then what Ross said and actions do not jive.

How about giving equal weight to Fisher and Ireland with Peterson and Ross making any tie breaker choices?

There are other ways to handle this Ireland thing then just saying "NO"

 

I have absolutely no problem giving Ireland credit for the turn around in 2008. In fact I thought at the time he was going to be the right man to turn this team around. Unfortunately the NFL is a, "what have you done for me lately", profession. As his record over the the last three years clearly shows, he hasn't done much. Two 7-9 teams and this years 6-10 team certainly shows that the 2008 season was more a fluke than a harbinger of good things to come, with Ireland as the GM of the Dolphin organization.

 

How do you know they didn't offer Peterson breaking the tie? All we really know at this point is that Fisher wanted final say and we didn't want him to have it.

 

Perhaps the fact that Fisher has a winning record after all his years as a HC in the NFL. Ireland on the other hand has a 31-34 record as a GM after four years on the job. I would take Fisher over Ireland any day of the week.

 

We dont, but we do know that Ireland and Peterson did their own HC shopping. Peterson went after a prospect with some creds and Ireland is going after people who would make a huge step up to HC. Personally I think that speaks volumes. Ireland certainly would be able to control his class, while Peterson was more interested in getting away from the Ireland control, obviously or he wouldn't of entertained Fisher at all.
I'm guessing Peterson will step away from the Dolphins in much the same way Fisher stepped away. You know, the "Dolphins have a great FO" blah blah.