It's not easy being a Miami Dolphins fan. Not in the post-Marino era, anyway. Ever since No. 13 took off his jersey for good, the franchise has struggled to find some measure of stability. The decision to draft quarterback Ryan Tannehill was supposed to change that -- and it still might. But the Dolphins aren't ready to play with the big boys in the AFC. Not yet. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000096102/article/stick-a-fork-in-em-2012-miami-dolphins
oh yea, we're definitely done...our next 3 games: vs Seattle vs New England @ San Francisco if we lose all 3, which is likely, that'll be 6 straight losses...Ireland's seat will be so hot it'll melt.
But "Fireland" allows one to vent frustration while having the fantasy of hope for the future, all in one fell swoop, which does wonders for you when your team is 4-6.
I don't know if the perception of the team has completely changed. Seems as if we would be regarded as a dangerous team because you never know with these guys. For example the JETS blowout and then laying a egg at the inept Buffalo Bills. It just makes me shake my head. Long has fallen off and Philbin should know by know that Reggie is not the answer. Neither is Danial Thomas who showed some flashes of excellence just to go back into the shadow of Reggie Bush. I am beginning to question weather Tannehill may be that Franchise guy. He seems unable to do the things that are needed to carry a team. If we want to know what they are compare him to Dan the Man. Although some may say that is unfair, I however question weather he pocesses even 1/2 of the intangibles that Marino had. I like Tannhill but he is after all a converted wide receiver. Is he talented, sure. Is he athletic, sure. Is he playing in a offense he knows very very well, SURE. which is were I pause. If Tanny has played in this offense for 5 years and this is all he is able to do we may be in trouble if we think he is a Franchise QB. There are only a handful of them in the NFL, maybe 7 or 8. Tannehill in reality, probably is not one.
CFL?!?! Uhm.. Rook Qb's suffer growing pains, I sorta knew this was coming after watching Lulay struggle in 2010, they went 7-11 BUT by the end of the yr you could tell he can ball. HOPEFULLY THill has just hit the midseason wall, now whether he grows from here is so massively important I cannot overstate it. W/Rook Qb's it is not how they are doing now, it is how they look at the end of the yr..Defenses adjust, your Rook Qb has to make the jump and you know really really quickly if they will or not. IMO no one wants an Alex Smith scenario, with 5 yrs or more required.
Do you think Tannehill is a "Franchise" QB? A Dan Marino, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Aaron Rogers guy. I just don't see it right now. I am not advocating cutting him or trading him or anything of the sort. I am meerly making an observation. This is the 5th yr he has run this offense. He ran the exact same offense all through college. Tannehill should be tearing it up, I don't need to point out he is mediocre. I believe franchise QB's carry their teams when they need to. Tannehill isn't. Just compare to Andrew Luck. Andrew Luck is caring his team. One could argue we also have a lot better talent then Luck, at least since they got rid of a lot of their talent when Manning left. Tannehill is a rookie and will grow into a good Qb, "franchise Qb" ------not so sure. If you see something different please point it out. No one wants Tannehill to be that guy more then me.
The only real 'legit' and possible 'elite' QB coming our if this yrs draft is Luck. End of. Period. Colts tanked it that bad to get him and congrats to them because its looking to have paid off. Anybody who has been saying Tannehill in the same sentence as Brady, Elway, Manning etc etc is dreaming. It's getting boring. Get Tannehill some decent freekin weapons!!!! Bottom line is he's a rookie throwing behind an OLine who can't run block and handing off the ball to RBs who can't find lanes and get 1st Downs by running. So guess what? He has to throw to a non existent TE because he's too busy blocking. Then he's hoping his only 2 WRs (who else shows up?) 2 WRs who have no downfield speed and ability to get open because they have man coverage every play. I dont get what ppl are expecting. Tannehill wasn't even projected as starting this season! Get off his back, lower your expectations and look at the bigger picture.
Exactly. I don't understand why some fans expect Tannehill to have long drives or go downfield in a heartbeat. He hasn't got the supporting cast. Too much to ask in my opinion.
In reality we were never in the playoff hunt...the Jets game gave us that allusion. Fact is everything came to together in that game. I am satisfied...tough to watch though. i like that we have a QB.
Wow. Let's not judge Tannehill until we have a OL that can protect him, and a WR that can stretch the field so he can find someone relatively open. I mean our OL is atrocious, gosh I thought it was going to be pretty good, but against the BIlls we showed some pretty bad blocking. There was no way to run at all, and Tannehill has not had a ton of time, although pass blocking is better than run. Way to early to even have a discussion on whether he is the guy. He is the guy, until 3 years from now he proves he is not. And frankly I think he will prove to be the guy. Question, or debate is really if Ireland can get the talent.
Does anybody think the offensive line has been drugged? They were opening up gaping holes and protecting Tanny, meaning they have the ability, and now this.
It is disappointing that the season is over ... based on the 'hope' of 3 weeks ago and the 'relative' mediocre schedule that we had the last 3 weeks and with SEA upcoming; however, everyone 'loved' the young players and the state of their development then -- and now everyone sucks. Our trouble spot remains the OL and DL ... Wake still does not have a compliment DE/OLB - which would go a long way towards taking 'some' of the pressure off of our 'soft' backfield. We've talked this over the last 3 drafts - to no avail. On the OL, Long hasn't been Long in 2 years .... his footwork was always his weakness (against speed rushers) - but he made up for it with strength, of course -- I assume, that with his shoulder, he hasn't fully recovered -- OR he will never get it back. I've never been an Incognito fan ... but when he was replaced, there was a noticeable drop. Pouncey can't do it all by himself. Smith ... remains SS ... can not blanket anyone -- gives way too much space. I had hoped for more from Carroll and Wilson ... in fact, some might recall that I had hoped that Carroll would suplant Smith in year 2. What I will say is that I absolutely question our DBs coaching, understanding that we seem to be playing to keep the plays in 'front' of us. Our RBs have no holes to run through .... period, it has gotten terrible these past few weeks. Our OL has made some pretty pedestrian DLs look 'all world'. Tanny has some growing to do .... but to state that he should be lighting it up because he played a very similar system at TA+M is a bit much ...
Possibly. Depends on who change the wins to. Look at who the Dolphins have beat. With the possible exception of Cincinnati, we haven't beaten anyone who will even get a sniff of the playoffs. And, we're losing to bottom feeders as well.
I found this article to be childish and antagonistic. The author acts as if he's making this grand revelation. When Miami lost those close games to Arizona and the Jets, that showed me then they weren't at the desired level. It's not about sticking a fork in them. It's about reviewing what is there and what can be built upon.
Reality bites. Fact. Midseason finds teams out. Phins next few games are brutal. Brutal because we all know our deficiencies. It was expected. I'm not down. I will be if we don't sort out our weaknesses offseason. That's down to Mr Ireland. Philbin has got my vote. He's been O Co-Ordinator for Packers. If Ireland listens and acts on his opinions then I think we will improve. Will Ireland be around? Who knows. I do know Philbin has a serious input. Back him.
Knowledge of an offense isn't the only hurdle to becoming a successful NFL QB. The biggest, IMO, is knowledge of NFL defenses. Not to mention the need for talent around him. I think your labeling Tannehill as mediocre is premature.
Four and Six is bad, no matter when the wins and losses happened. The fact that the Dolphins have regressed over the past three games only makes matters worse. I think most Dolphin fans realized before this season that this was not a very talented team. Many of these fans read too much into the Dolphins three game winning streak and started to think that this team was better than it actually is. What should be more concerning is the fact the Dolphins have started playing their worst football of the season in the last three weeks. Instead of improving as the season has gone along, they have taken giant steps backward. Tannehill has shown that he is a rookie QB, who still has a long way to go to be an effective long term starter in the NFL. The OL can't seem to open holes for the running game and, the running backs haven't done much to show that they should be considered the long term answers at that position. At TE, Fasano has had a grand total of 4 catches in the past 4 games. He also hasn't shown that he is the blocking TE he was in previous years. It is time for the Dolphins to let Fasano go in free agency. The fact this team doesn't have a true #1 receiver has become more apparent as the season has gone along. Why some people on here don't think the Dolphins needs a top tier #1 WR is baffling to me. On defense, the front seven hasn't continued to be the force they were earlier in the season against the run. In recent weeks, weak opponents have rushed for more than 100 yards against the defense. The biggest problem on defense is the weak secondary and the lack of a consistent pass rush. Instead of these areas improving as the season has gone along, they have continued to regress. Early in the season, opposing teams didn't know what to expect from the Dolphins offense or defense because of the new HC and coordinators in Miami. It has appeared lately that teams have now figured out the offensive and defensive strength and weakness of the Dolphins. They set up their game plan to expose the many weaknesses of the Dolphins and to limit the few strengths of the Dolphins. Philbin still has a long way to go if he wants to prove that he is a quality NFL HC. Instead of this team continuing to regress as the season goes along. It is up to Philbin and his coaching staff , as well as the players to start showing that this team can improve from this point forward. Right now this team is definitely headed in the wrong direction.
Yes, Philbin was the Packers offensive coordinator. He also happened to have Rogers as his QB and a group of very talented receivers on the Packers roster. While he was the offensive coordinator, his job was to put the offense in during the practice week. He was not given the responsibility of calling plays on game day. That responsibility went to the Packers HC. I am not down on Philbin at this time. I am just unhappy with the fact this team has not improved as the season has gone along. I think the lack of talent throughout the roster has finally caught up with Philbin and hopefully with a more talented roster in the future, he will be a successful HC for the Dolphins. My view is you give every HC at least 3 years,(unless his name is Cam Cameron), to see if they can get things turned in the right direction. So I really won't judge Philbin for another two years. As for the GM who has been here for the last 5 years. That is a whole different issue. He needs to go immediately.
We all knew we havnt a bonafide No1 WR. How many teams have success without a real downfield playmaker? Bengals have AJ Green and i guarantee if they had Hartline and Bess they would be a serious force on Offense. Goes both ways. Im just using the Bengals as an example. Philbin has inherited a very good front 7 defense, decent STs and a very average Offense regarding options. When our short to mid range WRs get man to man and our OLine make mistakes, RB depth has an open field playmaker who isn't a grinder, Thomas who comes with question marks plus Miller who supposedly can't grasp a playbook, a TE who is used more to block and protect plus you throw in a rookie QB who is being groomed to not take chances and limit mistakes due to him not projected pre-season to start it was always going to be Vanilla. Yes the odd game we might have looked good but was it really expected with what the majority of fans knew coming into this season?
Because this is the NFL. And in the NFL if you don't, it stands for Not For Long. I expect Tannehill to be that QB. Expecting anything less is not only counter productive it is not the way to prosperity and rebuilding a once very proud franchise. Personally I am tired of hearing, maybe next year. As my sig illustrates, 27 yrs and counting. Been a fan my whole life...40 years. I have seen these guys go to the super-bowl exactly 1 time. the other times I was two young to remember. Expecting excellence is how it starts. Does anyone on this board think if we had the priviledge of having direct contact with Don Shula, Tom Landry, Vince Lombardi, ect, they would be saying lets set the goal to mediocrity and maybe we can get to the middle of the pack again and respectability. I understand about development and supporting cast. This curve was supposed to be limited because Tannehill ran this exact offense in college. I just don't see the tendencies of a QB that will be able to carry the team. Its easy to blame not having that ability on someone else which others are attempting to do. This maybe next yr crap is getting old!!
I never said he was mediocre. What I asked was does anyone see the tendencies required to carry a team. I recognize we are rebuilding, and Tanne is going to have to carry this team. like it or not it is a fact. When Danny came in the game we were always on the seat of our pants because weather down by 6 or 30 we new we had a chance to win. I don't get that from Tannehill. I am searching hard for some signs of weather this will develop. I just want someone to point them out. I am also hoping to avoid Henne 2.0. Not saying Ryan Tannehill is Henne 2.0 just saying I am looking for positive signs of his development. I am having trouble finding it and others are blaming it on the rest of the supporting cast. I understand the supporting cast is important. But a true, Franchise QB will find a way to win with whatever he has. I.E Andrew Luck. I am not seeing that, I am trying but i am having difficulty. And for the record I am a huge Tannehill fan!!! Maybe its just the defense thing. I hope it is and I eat a lot of crow.
Prior to the season, there were some individuals on this forum who claimed the Dolphins didn't need a true #1 receiver. They claimed that with the WCO of Philbins, the ball would be spread around to different receivers and RB's and therefore a #1 WR was not needed. Obviously the fact that this team doesn't have a quality deep threat has backfired and the secondaries of the opponents have been able to take away the Dolphins short passing attack in recent weeks. I have nothing against Bess or Hartline. I think they are good as #2 and #3 WR's. I agree though, until this team gets a legitimate #1 WR who can get deep, it is fairly easy to contain the Dolphins offense we have today. Especially with the Dolphins inferior OL, TE, and RB's.
Our draft positioning is being helped big time today. So far these teams are winning: Jets, Cardinals, Lions, Panthers, Redskins, Bengals. Jaguars also winning, unlikely they do it much more this season though. However, We could easily lose to them. Browns have a chance to win today as well. The problem is...Jeff Ireland is the one making draft picks. Unless he gets canned, which is possible, but I doubt it. We went from being in playoff positioning to falling down to the depths in one week.
Maybe it's simple. Maybe the three wins made them all believe they were better than they were and that they didn't need to practice so hard anymore. The short week didn't give them enough time to get it together. I'll go out on a limb and predict they'll beat the Seahawks, who have to travel east.
for the 2,438th time, TANNEHILL IS NOT A CONVERTED WR! JHC. He was recruited in HS as a QB, signed at A&M AS A QB, was ASKED to play WR when the team had Wr's dropping like flies because he wasn't first on the depth chart, then was brought BACK to play QB when it was his time. Good god people. He's played a little more than a half a ****ing season. Is he Peyton Manning? Who knows, but Manning sucked his rookie year too. I feel like half this fanbase doesn't deserve an answer at QB. You're so quick to pounce on the next guy that comes in. Newsflash: NOBODY WILL BE THE NEXT DAN MARINO.
