This New Year's I find myself reflecting back on not just the year but the whole decade. Not a great one for the Dolphins. We had to suffer through Wannstedt, Saban, bad drafts, bad quarterbacks, and the worst losing season in the team's history. At the tail end Bill Parcells put on his Super Man cape once again and saved our team in distress. The teams of the last decade were the Pats, the Colts, and the Steelers. I put it to you that one of the teams of the "teens" if not the team will be the Dolphins. While this season may be disappointing to some because we didn't win the division and look to miss the playoffs I can't help but think that maybe, just maybe, it couldn't have gone better. 1. Chad Pennington got hurt. Probably a blessing in disguise. Chad Henne will now enter the 2010 season as an experienced QB and all his "rookie" mistakes will be behind him. 2. Another benefit to Pennington's injury is that we added Tyler Thigpin. Makes me feel real good about our backup QB situation. 3. If we lose to the Steelers on Sunday our draft position will be way better than if we made the playoffs and lost in the first round. Now I always root for the Dolphins to make the playoffs. Always always always. However having the 12th pick instead of the 24th pick (for instance) could be huge. The players we get in the first three or four rounds in this upcoming draft could play a major part in our dominance of the next decade. 4. Even though we didn't win as many games as we would have liked we were rarely blown out. We almost beat the Colts, Chargers, and Saints. Its very likely that one of those teams wins the Super Bowl this year. 5. We beat the Pats and swept the Jets. 6. We didn't regress to 4-12 or 5-11. We dropped to 8-8 or 7-9. Its not unreasonable to believe that we could go 10-6 or 11-5 next year. 7. Nathan Jones became a player. So did Lou Polite, Brian Hartline, and Cameron Wake. 8. Bill Parcells, Jeff Ireland, and Tony Sparano have instilled a winning culture that made us competitive all the way until the final week of the season even though we started off 0-3. We didn't play one single meaningless game in December and we are likely to have a Top 15 draft pick. That's awesome. 9. Like Sparano said earlier this week our depth is vastly improved. After years of poor drafting that is huge. How many teams could lose their starting QB, RB, CB, OLB, and NT and still make the playoffs? Probably none. Add ILB to the list and watch us give the defending champs a run for their money this Sunday. 10. Bottom line. The Dolphins should have been dead in the water this season but we almost made the playoffs and look to be in a position to have an excellent draft come April. Not only does next season look promising but the next decade looks promising. I haven't been this happy about our head coach and QB situation since Shula and Marino. Unfortunately Pat White and Gibril Wilson will still be on the team. Just kidding. Sort of.
The offense progressed more than the defense. The defense may have regressed from 2008, with losses of Goodman and such and no major adds except for the Gibril bust. But I expect the D to improve with Davis and Smith and some players to fill in the various holes and also get younger at certain positions. It seems the offense is so simple and clear cut, #1 WR and TE. The Oline is solid, we may have the deepest run game in the league, very good #2s and 3s at WR, and an exciting QB. what more? They put up enough offense in games against the saints, colts and titans but the defense gave up far more. So even without a #1 WR it would have been enough to get us in the playoffs if the defense wasn't so sketchy. Phins are #15 in total offense this year[so far], #4 at the run and #20 in passing. Not so bad considering we lost Ronnie and Cobbs, and have no #1 star WR.
Yup, despite us probably missing the playoffs this year, we're about where I pegged that we'd be. And while there are still a few places that can get better, the number of positions that are performing good, outnumber the ones that are performing bad in my opinion.
Everybody *****ed and moaned when the experts picked us to be an 8-8 team. Just sayin... Posted via Mobile Device
Problem is the "experts" predicted 8-8 without factoring in major injuries to several of our best players. They ended up being right, but not because of the reasons they listed. Is Tom Brady really the reason the Dolphins didn't win the division this year? I think not.
Exactly. If you asked those "experts" what our record would be if they knew we would lose our #1 QB, #1 RB, #1 CB and #1 NT they would have said 4-12. All of those are core positions except for RB and for us Brown is our #1 offensive play maker. IMO the fact that we're potentially 8 - 8 with all those injuries shows how wrong they actually were.
I don't buy that. Every team comes down with injuries. Was it really a stretch to think that Chad Pennington would suffer a season-ending injury? Or even Ronnie Brown (I'm not bashing Ronnie, I'm just saying he's finished the season on the IR twice before)? We were picked to go 8-8 due in part to last year's schedule vs. this year's schedule. Also, the footballoutsiders picked us to win 7 games and cited our amazing 2008 health and cited a regression to the mean in that category. You are what your record says you are. We're a 7-9/8-8 team who couldn't get it done versus the big boys. We couldn't beat Indy, NOLA, SD while at 100%. Close don't count.
We didn't last year, and that was a major reason for going 11-5 (along with not turning the ball over).
Not to that extent. We had more injuries than anybody would have predicted. And I'm not saying we're not what our record says. I'm saying that those predictions were made based on an assessment of our talent level and those assessments were low. Our back ups were able to match those predictions and other than Henne, none of them out-preformed the starters.
Good post, thanks OP. I remember back around mid-season when Ronnie Brown was hitting his prime and we were running all the offensive substitutions after almost every play. The defense (regardless of who we were playing) didn't know what the heck was going on and we moved the ball effortlessly. Although we have had some great teams in the past, I do not remember ever being as excited as watching the Patcat, the Wildcat, and Chad Henne developing. Then there is Vontae Davis on the defensive end....wow what a hitter. By week six I would have predicted that we would win out our last ten games...that is how dominant our offense looked. Even though things did not work out as planned, can we really fault anyone? Sure we can rant about some horrible ref calls, some dumb coaching decisions, and a few indivisual players choking on an occasional play; but we were in all but one game up until the final minutes without many of our most potent weapons. I have felt more Dolphin pride this year than I have in the past decade, and with all the injured players returning next year (plus a season's worth of experience for Henne) the AFC better watch out. We're coming!
Speaking of injuries, is like half our original starting lineup injured now with Crowder going down and Ricky probably being limited on sunday? He came back in the 4th quarter against Houston so I assume he'll get the ball a few times. We're down to our 4th RB who will probably handle the load on Sunday haha. Good thing we have the deepest Run game in the NFL and Lex is pretty good.
great thread! kudos, Friend BigRed: when you're in rebuilding mode "winning" takes on another, much broader meaning we have brutally competed every game while gaining needed experience coupled w/ adhering to the blueprint for development in acquiring & training we are poised to make a run on the BigEnchalda in 2010, becoming a perrennial contender in the process
It all depends who we take with that pick. If someone slips through from the top 10 we may be in for a Haloti Ngata like surprise.
You hit the nail on the head right there. Everyone was so far up Tom Brady's *** this past offseason, and they were so enamored with him coming back, they didn't bother to take a good look at the Patriots, and see that they are an old, flawed team. Alot of those "experts" picked us to finish last in the division. Because the Bills got TO, the Jets had a great defensive coach, and first round pick starting at QB, and his holiness, Tom Brady is back, we stood no chance. Actually, we SHOULD have won the division again this year. We made way too many mistakes and shot ourselves in the foot. Every game this year has been close, every one. And we dug ourselves a big hole by starting out 0-3.
I appreciate positive posts like this in times where its questionable whether or not things will start to look up. Have a 5 star.
to be honest with the whole playoffs this season... the only reason we did have a meaningful game in December this year was because the whole AFC sucked this year...I mean pats go 11-5 and miss the playoffs last season but this season at 8-8 we can still make it... thats insane
everyone involved in the game from players to pundits, coaches & columnists agree on two things about Miami: 1) there is no marque player, no name or face to hang on the franchise, but everyone knows who we are in the NFL. we already have an identity 2) we are the team nobody wants to play us the second time round. this team is well disciplined, relentless & brutal in every aspect of the game. they physically punish you on the playing field. with the many good things you can say about how quickly we've come in so short a period of time the most impressive is in the development of character. this team will make it's S/B run in 2010 & will be a perennial contender from that date on... Kudos to Bill Parcells & Co.
agreed, i think them going 8-8 is good considering what we have gone through this season, and the strength of our schedule. I think alot of our team is still young and we are going to be good the next couple seasons
Have you watched him play at all this year? He is was one of our most dependable players in secondary AND on special teams.
I'm not saying we should play to lose, but the Steelers certainly have a lot to play for and we would benifit most in a loss that includes getting Pat White and Lex reps and seeing how bad Patrick Turner really is (or isn't).
I'm with you man. Unfortunately Sparano can't think like that. His team still has a shot at the playoffs even if it is against ridiculous odds. Plus it goes against the culture of winning the triumvirate has instilled. Fortunately Crowder is hurt and Ricky Williams is nursing an injury. Feels weird to type that sentence.
I think everything is going as planned. I don't really like how the season went with the ups and downs, but it was altogether a good season. I hope we do get into the playoffs because for some reason, in the back of my head I feel that if we get into the playoffs we are going to the Super Bowl and win it all. It will shock the world but I just have that feeling that if they get in we will win it all. I mean no one is going to want to face us in the playoffs if we play our "A" game.
we have the ability to make a SB run in '10 ... but if we take a pass on LBs again next year -- we absolutely will not. LBs, LBs, LBs .... to improve the defense, defense defense !
we have the ability to make a SB run in '10 ... but if we take a pass on LBs again next year -- we absolutely will not. LBs, LBs, LBs .... to improve the defense, defense defense !
This is a great post. Not just because I agree with it all, but because you took the time and effort to lay it all out there. Nice job! That being said, even though we aren't going to make the playoffs, you have to be very impressed with how far we have come in the last two years since Parcells, Ireland, and Sparano took over. Our roster is far deeper than every before, and we're actually drafting well. Sure there have been a few misses in the draft and free agency, but nobody is perfect. I love the direction we're heading, sure it sucks to not make the playoffs this year, but you have to take pride as a Dolphins fan in how hard this team fought to stay in games, and to come from behind all season, and you have to take pride in how far we've come, and how solid the future is lining up to be in Miami. Again, great post. 5 Star from me as well. Thanks.
Which part will improve by adding LBs? You do realize that we were top 5 in sacks and top 10 in hurries. Realistically our pass pressure can only improve so much. In coverage we were bad, but if you look at the best coverage LBs in the league they all get beat 60% - 70% of the time. So we can improve there a bit but if we suddenly get top 10 coverage LBs we're only going to improve by a few more passes stopped over the whole season. (It won't even average out to one per game). So how exactly do you believe that adding LBs would have such a big impact?
seriously you must be a jets fan or something we all have negativity towards the Phins at times me more than most possibly but your posting never adds anything that has any value at all
is there a few pessimist or do a couple of people really not know that there is a chance that we make the playoffs this year???
Wow. The game almost couldn't have gone better. We got the loss but still kept it close. If the Titans win we will be picking 10th, 11th, or 12th!
I agree with the tone of this email. I am not unhappy at all because as outlined very well in this post, good things are happening. I especially like the transition from Wildcat to traditional offense. I still think Pat White will get better. The longer we have this regime making Football decision the longer this team will be highly competitive.
Add 4 starters (#1 WR, NT,ILB and S) and improve the depth a bit more and we're ready to contend. that's only 4 vital pieces to add through Draft AND FA.