Perspective DJ, and I am not happy with 7-9 and 8-8 or 7-9 either, we were lower than an Expansion Franchise heading into the 2008 season, the succession of "savior" HC types had depleted the Roster from Wanny forwards, Irish and Sparano have mostly restocked it and that is one of the reasons why I do not think Sparano should be flushed..yet. Way I see it, if Sparano comes back for his final contract yr, we are not risking a 2-14 season, at worst we are looking at a .500 season..but with more talent added to the offense.
Have to agree with Padre. The best thing for this team is to allow Sparano another 3 -4 years to get everything where he needs it. That may sound crazy but turning our beloved team around from what we were to a solid team takes more then 3 years to build depth and talent thru the draft and free agency. I think we are not that far off. When Henne has played a complete game(only a few) we were/are hard to beat. I am not saying it is all Henne but he is a good part of it. Fearing our passing game opens up our running game and sits our defense making them stronger through out the game, etc, etc, etc. Keeps the ball away from opposing teams offense. If they don't have the ball they can not score. Lowers our defense's game point total. It is not only Henne being evaluated each game...it is every player and position on the team. It could easily take 3 or 4 years to work out our receiver positions as evidence of where we are. We are much closer then 2 years ago and closer then we were last year (when healthy). It is progression building. Every player deserves game time to be evaluated. The QB gets more time then most because he is directly involved in half of all plays per game. All the more reason why Henne is a critical component. Poor play from him screws up more then just the offense. Sparano and company have added solid talent to this team in Smith and Davis at the corners. Now we work our safties out and we will have one of the top starting secondary in the entire league as an example. The revolving door at Coach has to stop!!
1 more yr, if we are the same team at the end of 2011 as were are today, Sparano should go, keep in mind as well though, in 2011 we have the AFCW and NFCW back on our schedule and we play the 3rd place finisher schedule, that is as much of an edge Sparano could possibly ask for in a "win or die" situation. I also really suspect we will be a hot coaching destination after 2011 if things stay status quo, we will have all of the pieces in place on Defense and they will be moving into their primes it is my firm opinion Cowher knows this as well.
I just dont know if 1 more year is enough time. If Henne is not the guy( so far the answer is no), and the QB position effects the whole team(see last post), then he better pull a rabbit out of the hat and quick
Realism is that Bill Cowher is a very good football coach. You don't average 10 wins a season for a decade and a half by accident. I really don't care what people in the past have done or not done with other teams or what Jimmy Johnson did here in the 90s. I want the best football coach possible coaching the Miami Dolphins. To me that is probably Bill Cowher. Sparano's best defense right now is some historic precedence against coaches winning with more than one team. Weak. Then hire Jim Harbaugh. Nolan is under contract so he can't just leave b/c he feels like it. And if he's offered a head coaching job he'll likely leave regardless.
Then he had better reach down that rabbit hole and find someone his comfortable with at Qb. For me, that is one issue that will not fly, they have had Chad Henne in camp for 3 yrs now, that equals out to thousands of reps, they should know what they bought by now..29 games in? How could they not know? IMHO, bring in whomever they feel they need to bring in to solve the Qb problem for 2011, Hill, Orton, Hasselback, whomever. TBH, would like to see Thigpen return as well as I thought his one game tryout vs the Bears was not adequate enough to evaluate him.
Which is exactly what Jason Cole eluded to. Sparano will be fired because He knew long ago what he had in Henne and rather then make the changes necessary for the team he gave into pressure and well you know where we are. But that is Jason Cole's opinion. Dont really care for Thigpen. Was not impressed. There are reasons he is bouncing from team to team....more mediocrity. We need a solid backup. Mcnab?? Just for a couple years to allow time to either trade for someone solid or draft someone other then Henne. Just don't see that draft prospect on the board this coming draft. So due to timing Sparano may just find himself on the outside looking in and we may just find ourselves with 3 - 4 more years of 8-8 football with Henne behind center
-Cole was only offering his opinion, nothing more, if he knew what he was speaking about he would be working in the NFL not reporting and offering opinion. -With Henne, you do have to play a young Qb to see what they have to offer, there is no escaping that, and they will do good things and bad things that is how things work, if someone new comes in, they have the same problem with no infrastructure to instruct the new QB let alone build an offense. Thigpen was fine in KC. -4 days in between games -Long's first game with the bad shoulder -Vern Carey did not finish that game -Brandon Marshall played 1 half. -Oline gave up 6 sacks -Bears won the NFCN Oh yeah, he'll thrive in that situation.
Never said he would thrive in that situation. He was not "fine" in KC. He had a QB rating of 76. I simply said I don't like him and I think he is slightly below mediocre.......KC got rid of him for a reason.....right. NFL.com's , Michael Lombardi, thinks that Sparano is staying and the offensive coordinator will be changed....possibly to Gary Kubiak or Josh McDanial Just for the record this is just an opinion of an employee of NFL.com. NFL.com is not reporting anything....although it is on their website
You think 3 years is enough time to completely tear down and rebuild the team to Superbowl caliber talent......I don't We just now are becoming consistently competitive again......frustrating because we all want to win ...like yesterday.
Remains to be seen. Objectively speaking, I do believe the 2011 schedule is set up for success no matter who is coaching.
His name is Matt Cassel he of the 24 Td's and 6 int's this season. Eh, tossing names out there. Sparano stays: Mort C Adam S Mike Lombardi Sparano goes Jason Cole Ben Voiln
People support him staying but nobody ever says it's because they think he can hoist a Lombardi over his head in the next few years. You never retain a coach on some kind of one year trial. You think the man coaches scared now. Either Ross believes in him and commits 100% or he finds somebody else.
Why would the team need to tear down and rebuild? That is just an assumption. Coaches can come in and get talented teams back on track. John Harbaugh in Baltimore is a great example.
Sorry I should have clarified. Sparano and Co came in and tore down this team and replaced a lot of bodies. That takes time and effort to tweak and get right. This is my point. I am not saying someone else would have to come in.
I agree with this Pod, its not like you to throw out stats about prior history, you know damn well cowher is a great coach. This is the way I go about this...right now Sparano is in 4th place...Harbough, Cowher, Gruden....we need to investigate those men to see if they WANT {KEY WORD BEING WANT} to coach our team, if not, than give Tony another year. You mean to tell me that if any one of those guys wants to coach our team you wouldn't seriously think about that?.. I like sparano too but damn..Thats a very tough decision.
mos def 2 socks.. I want to give him another year, I really do...I just gotta gage some great coaching prospects interest first.
There are a lot of names flying around out there right now. Personally I just want the revolving coaching door to shut for a little while. We have had 4 or 5 different coaches in the 12 or so years since Shula. Not giving these guys time to do the work we are hiring them to do in my opinion is counter productive. There are a lot of people on this board that are passionate about giving Chad Henne more time to develop. Why does Chad get the same amount of time to develop just himself, but Sparano some how has to accomplish the monumental task of fixing the entire team......................staff, coaches, players, philosophies, all within the high standards that we all expect. We need to give him a few years more at the draft and player acquisition, time to tweak his systems to maximize within the talent he has. Sparano is a good coach!!!! If we don't see improvement each year in different areas then and only then does he answer to the man. Take Henning for example. Lets look at this: Year 1 ......11-5 no change would be indicated.....pretty damn good Year 2........7-9 Pennington hurt .....new QB in Henne to be evaluated Year 3........7-9...8-8 who's fault is it, depending who you talk to, receivers are wide open down the field consistently. Years not over yet. lets give the man time to evaluate and make necessary tweaks.
We are a different team with solid play from the QB. This is the problem. Just take the last three games. Cleveland, Buffalo, and Detroit. Take those out of the loss column and add them to the W and we are not having this conversation. One could easily argue that the QB play was garbage in these games.
They had traded for Cassell as he was "their" guy, Thigpen was no longer needed as his success came in a completely different style of offense, not because Thiggy could not play.
Well, if QBR matters. 18 td's 12 int's, that to me is all that matters. Thiggy reminds me of Rich Gannon.
Well, I do have some hopes that Henne will be a better Qb in a more wide open system of offense as he was doing great with it in the Lions game. In some ways, it may be better if sparano leaves and Henne has that opportunity as Coach is just waaay to turnover adverse.
Coach is turnover adverse because he know's if we have one we are in deep trouble. The problem is Henne does not lead this offense and he does not command the huddle. Sure he calls the plays but there is that something majic, that is missing. The other players just play. No fire. No spark. No Flame. I know.....confidence. Confidence that we can score at anytime on any play. There was a guy not to long ago who was pretty damn good at infusing the whole team with that confidence and fire and determination to win. Wish they could call him up and let him hang with Henne for a while, now that would be a site for sore eyes. Nah....that left 12 years ago and we have never been the same. Man I miss that man.
past is a whole different country Bro. Hard to tell a young Qb "don't throw int's" then "fit the ball into tight windows" or "throw the ball downfield" That is a part of the reason why I am not totally down on Chad Henne, we all want to see him let the ball fly, the offense just does not allow for it. THAT is why Henning was complaining about team speed, his offense is supposed to have short passes go for big plays but the throws that can go for long plays Henne rarely takes as they also are the type that will be intercepted from time to time. The whole offense needs a reboot, I'll be glad when Henning is gone.
I am not going to say that Henning is the answer as he calls the plays and does not execute them. I will agree that he is part of the problem. Maybe 10% of it. I also now from other posters and what I have heard from various NFL network shows that our receivers are routinely wide open down field. Passing loosens up running which = points and keeps our defense off the field.
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I never seen anybody do that before. What is it? It is halftime and this team is embarrassing I think I am going to let the dvr record the second half and take my boys to Monkey Joes....................
Unfortunately for Sparano. He was set up to fail three years ago by Parcells. This was when Parcells passed on Matt Ryan and selected Jake Long instead. Parcells decided to take Henne in the second round of that draft and then predicted that Henne would be just as good a QB in the NFL as Ryan. The only reason the Dolphins had any success the first year was they had an easy schedule and Pennington at QB. Once Pennington was hurt in his second season with the Dolphins. The handwriting was on the wall for Sparano. He was forced to go with Henne. Henne has shown very clearly by now that he was as much of a waste as a pick in the second round as Pat White was. At least Sparano and the Dolphins quickly realized that White was never going to be a player in the NFL and they cut him after one season. With no other option at the beginning of this season. The Dolphins were forced to go with Henne. He has proven this season that he should not be a starter in the NFL. Sparano did recognize this earlier in the season and decided to sit Henne and bring back Pennington as the starter. Unfortunately for Sparano,the Dolphins, and the fans. Pennington went out injured for the season after only a few plays. Sparano again was stuck with having to go with Henne or Thigpen as the Dolphin starter. Neither would be a starter on most teams in the league, but that was all that Sparano was left with. Henne played like the backup QB he should be. Not very well. Thigpen proved once again why the Chiefs traded him for a late round draft pick. So Sparano will probably get the boot after this season because Parcells thought Henne would be just as good a QB in the NFL as Ryan. The man who should be fired is Parcells. But of course he beat the owner to the punch. He quit earlier in the season when I am sure he realized that the Dolphins were going nowhere with Henne as the QB. Next year no matter who the coach of the Dolphins might be. The one thing I am sure of is that Henne will not be the starting QB for the Dolphins. He might possibly be a backup with the Dolphins or whatever team he is on next season. Hopefully any new head coach coming in would be smart enough to realize that Henne will get him nothing, but fired.
Parcells needs to take most of the rap for this mess. He picked these coaches, he helped picked the GM, he also had final veto over all the draft choices. The 1st order of business for Ross should be to flush Parcells out of the system. Tell him publicly and privately, 'here is your money now go away'. Then go get someone who comes from the Patriots organization. That is the model to win these days. Not Cowher, not Gruden, but the F*CKING NEW ENLAND PATRIOTS !
I still like Ireland - we have brought in quality players and are fielding a much more talented overall team than we were a few years ago. However, the on-field product is not playing to its potential, and that starts with Sparano and Henne. Both need to be replaced by franchise quality talent.
I agree with this. I think Ireland has turned over the roster pretty good. He has a talent for finding good players that were not drafted.
