Looking back at the 2010 draft...wowzers did we pass on a bunch of talent

Before you accuse the GM, you have to take into account that success in the NFL is the result of how a player is coached and how he is integrated with the other players surrounding him, in addition to his natural talent. This is why players are cut by one team and go on to succeed at another.

 

I cannot believe we're still having this discussion.

It is obvious that Ireland had to follow Parcells blueprint. It has been proven that Parcells sometimes interfered with the draft. It has been shown that Parcells hired Sparano.

I'm so tired of people acting like the GM just signs people regardless of the system being run. Parcells' blueprint was old and outdated and it was given life by a gimmick...the WildCat. That was all well and good for a season, but when everyone learned how to defend the WildCat, we were left playing that old and outdated system, only now we had some WildCat specific players too.

Did Ireland make some bad acquisitions? Yes. Did he have autonomy to draft whoever he wanted? No. Can we see a difference between and pre & post Parcells in Ireland's player acquisitions? Yes.

When some of us say you can't blame Ireland for the Parcells era, we're not saying he's likely free from all blame, we're saying we don't know what exactly was his fault and what wasn't, because we don't know and neither does anyone that wasn't directly involved. There's a reason for that. The reason is we had a pretty unique power structure with Parcells here, and he is an infamous egomaniac.

- We know for a fact, that Parcells selected Long over Ryan.
- We know for a fact Parcells selected White.
- We know for a fact Henne was a prototype Parcellian QB in college.

Just based on those 3 things alone, we know Parcells interfered, Ireland didn't have full control and QB was our biggest issue.

The argument against, at this point, has nothing to stand on.

 

I don't know how he still has a job. It's unbelievable.

 

Most of the offseason moves were to cycle players to maintain or marginally improve a position. For example, while I wasn't a big fan of Burnett and thought Dansby didn't live up to his contract, Wheeler and Ellerbe are still a question mark. And I don't agree with Hartline's contract and the Brandon Gibson signing.

And I don't think the team will suck. I think they'll continue to be mediocre. The 2013 Dolphins may actually be better than the 2012 Dolphins, but a correspondingly harder schedule means that improvement likely won't show up in the W-L record. But here's the thing; we should have the ability to use W-L record to grade the talent level of the team, and correspondingly to grade the job performance of the person who acquired those players.

Denver, NE, Houston, agreed. Then you can basically count on two teams from the AFC North, since they've sent two teams to the playoffs for the last 5 years (three in 2011). That leaves one spot, which will be competed for by a third team from the AFC North, the Colts, and I like the chances of the Chargers and Titans to improve from last year. The numbers don't work in our favor.

Why is his job performance off limits? It's not a matter of picking sides, it's a matter of talking about the football team going forward.

 

If RT plays at near a top 10-12 level we make the playoffs at 10-6, if he plays anywhere below?? We will NOT make the playoffs.

This factoid saves hundreds of arguments.

 

Right. Like I said, you have the right to feel that way. I don't agree but I could see it happening because this team isn't a slam dunk playoff team.

We'll see how that plays out. I'm not sold on Tennessee or San Diego at all. I think we'll be competing with Indy, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and my surprise team is KC. I don't think the first WC spot is a given at all.

For the sake of the board? I mean, it might too much to ask but I do think it's the best for now. They'll be plenty of opportunity for criticism/praise after the season or until it's obvious we're in/out of the playoffs.

 

The problem is that we're told that failure to make the playoffs is the responsibility of the coaches.

 

If we go 8-8 or worse, Ireland's contract won't be renewed. Ross won't even have to fire him.

 

Would you know it "killed us" if you didnt know what happened from then too 2013?

Think about that.

 

There is no guarantee whatsoever of this. Ross speaks of Ireland in ways he never did of Sparano.

 

Not guaranteed, but I think it will happen if we disappoint. Depends on how the team plays. I don't think we'll face that situation but we'll see.

 

How is it not possible to have a rational discussion about Ireland's job performance? I'm pretty sure that such a discussion was had by his superiors and they decided to continue with him as the GM.

If Ireland's moves over the past couple years don't make sense then I don't know what to tell you. Whether I agreed with them or not his rationale seems pretty obvious to me.

 

Agreed. Ross clearly thinks highly of Ireland. I don't know why that is, I don't know why Parcells wanted to bring him along when he came to Miami, and I don't know why Jerry Jones balked at releasing him until Parcells made Ireland the "General Manager". I'm guessing it's because they all think highly of him.

And IMO it's pretty silly set a win total and place a General Manager's job on the line based on if the team reaches it or not. As Ross said in his presser the other day, they're looking to build a team that will compete for several years, they're not going all win to meet an arbitrary win total in order please fans who are into making up arbitrary win totals.

 

What were you saying on draft day, at the time the trade went down? If you weren't against it right then, you have no room to complain now. Anyone can look back on any draft and play the wudda, shudda, cudda game.

Saying the trade "killed" us is too harsh anyway. Sure maybe things could have been better had we stayed put and took The Earl or JPP. Most of the more vocal board members then wanted us to take Brandon Graham at 12 before the draft. For the trade to have "killed" us though, Odrick and Misi would have had to been busts. They are both very solid starters.

 

It would depend on the circumstances that led us to go 8-8 or worse. If we did that because of losing several key starters for extended periods due to injuries, then Ross would have to be stupid to not take that into consideration.
If we stay relatively healthy and the team just underachieves then all bets are off. Ross may do anything IMO.

 

If this thread can be considered a general (apropos of nothing in particular) recepticle for rants and complaints, then I've got a gripe.

I hate that they let CB Bryan McCann walk this off season. Would've been the easiest thing in the world to retain him. They got him last year off waivers and unlike so many of those guys I felt McCann actually stood out and performed in the games. He's very athletic too, if you look up his workouts coming out of college. He's a guy I actually had kind of an inkling of hope for, as opposed to the R.J. Stanfords, the DeAndre Presleys, the Julian Poseys of the roster. Although I watched a fair bit of Posey in college and I like his attitude, I don't mind him being on roster.

Still. It's not like Bryan McCann is going to be the next Evan Mathis, Rob Ninkovich or Marcel Reese. Then again if he is, I think we'd have a right to be ticked off about letting him go. It's just an example of the kind of small impact decision that makes literally zero sense to me. It's not a major impact decision by any means. Major impact decisions almost always have demonstrable for and against arguments. There's usually a way to see both sides with a major impact decision. But some small impact decisions just don't have any good reason to them and I think of not tendering Bryan McCann as one of them.

Anyway, that's my rant. He's doing well in Arizona. Head Coach Bruce Arians recently singled him out, unasked, as being a guy having a very good camp, and he did well in the first preseason game.

 

Just curious Des, what sort of timeline/ production do you think is proper for a third year GM and a 2nd year coach?, does it have to be an ascending plane, or do you allow the ebb and flows of rebuilding a bad roster by a previous regime?

If we look at the texans or Detroit, places like that that seem to have arrows up at this point, and dealt with some up and down seasons?

 

maybe Ross knows how strapped Ireland was on personnel decisions while Parcells was here, maybe he understands what type of coach Sparano was for which Ireland had nothing to do with,maybe he knows who's responsible for what and that's why he kept Ireland, that's why he went after Harbaugh..

 

Turned into a rant thread. Well It kind of started as one.

 

Its not possible to have a rational discussion about Ireland's job performance, because nobody here has the requisite knowledge to make an informed opinion. Nobody here can even figure out whether he or Dawn Aponte has final say over offset language.