For the Ireland Supporters

[ohall]

I suppose i didnt answer your original question, my apologies. Im not a Ireland supporter, but because of the history of this forum i feel erralyn hit the nail on the head. People might be filled with conviction now, but give themselves wiggle room to change their "vote" after next season.

When we have a losing season next year i feel fans will suggest our draft class showed potential and give the team a mulligan because of how hard our schedule is. They will advocate keeping him because of the "quality" of the rookies he brought in. If he is actually fired, i believe those same fans will slam him relentlessly. I base this prediction on the behavior i witnessed after Sparano was fired.

Where I always get confused is why would someone who is a Dolphins fan support Ireland? I assume none of us are his family. I guess I miss the connection. Are you implying those ppl just love anything that has the Miami Dolphins in front of it? If so, how insulting is that?

For me the way I see it is the ppl who are always calling for ppl to get fired or whatever are just frustrated GM's. Short of winning a title the same ppl do the same things. I've seen it since 1997 on these MBoards. It seems at times they think they know more than the paid professionals. I tend to think the ppl who support what we have simply try and deal with the reality of the situation. Even if we don't like the decision, the Dolphins are still our team, why make it a negative thing? This is supposed to be our hobbies, yes? I guess I don't understand the frame of mind.

 

[ohall]

Uh, no. My loyalty is to the Miami Dolphins and if I believe the person in charge of bringing in talent over the last five years hasn't done a good job of it, then I want that person gone. A five year analysis of his work isn't knee-jerk. Is Jeff Ireland the worst GM in the league? I don't believe so. But I don't believe he has the eye to consistently bring enough talent to make this team a Super Bowl team.

I think specifically with this subject, this seems to be the root issue. You either believe the TUNA had final say when he was here or you don't. If you believe the TUNA was in TOTAL control, you tend to give Ireland a bit more leeway. And if you believe Ireland has been in control the entire time, it's understandable to not see any upside there.

My thing is the TUNA hired Ireland, and the TUNA has such a large ego there's no way IMO he would even allow Jesus to make the final call.

 

[finfan54]

For the life of me, I listen to people bash Ireland, then I see your answers to solve the problem and all I see is Madden.

But I got news for you all, you can poo poo the man all you want, but it will do no good, you know why? Cus we are going places! Joe Philbin is the reason why, then Ryan Tannehill.

We are so set up to succeed its not funny and timing is everything is my favorite cliche.

Last year all I heard was all about Ireland and how bad he is and how we shouldnt draft RT. Then after the draft, everything Ireland dissapeared. You people were no where to be seen. Your like leeches.

Fact is, Ireland's downfall is he started out a rookie GM under Parsells toutalage. Then he set out to collaboratively work with Sparano to get guys with some of them guys Sparano pounded the table for.

Well, here we are today and the guy running this football team is Joe Philbin. Most people didnt even want the guy and thought he looked like the old Miami U coach and made a little fun of him. Well, Philbin is well respected around the league and you should clearly have seen the difference in drafts from last year to Sparano years. This year should be even better but of course, he will get poo pooed until reality sinks in again and what you will soon realize is that we will be playng with more of a full deck as opposed to Legadu no no starting. I cant even friggin believe we were a couple of FG's and a close game with Indy and SF away from actually doing something starting out with friggin legadu naanee!!!!!

People who hate Ireland will always hate Ireland. It doesnt matter what we do next year even if we go to the playoffs, once you hate someone, thats it, you dont change your mind. Your just fooling yourself. If you cant see the progress, you wont see it next year. But Joe Philbin will be the real reason for success because Ireland works closely with his HC to buy the groceries. You should love that in these days of the ego. To think that people cannot see that Pouncey was a great pick because its not a skill position, as if you need to draft a skill position in round one no matter what according to what the media sets as the value of what a friggin football player is.

whateva! Im just going to enjoy this offseason knowing I got a QB, and if we land Swope, we got ourselves a real playmaker that no one even thinks belongs in the 2nd round cus he doesnt sound great! hehehehe! whateva!

 

[phintim]

Why I support Ireland this year is because of last years draft class plus Philbin. I counted 10 college rookies contributing on last years roster. All the Ireland hater conveniently overlook Thigpen a free agent pickup last year and bring up the missed and toward the end of the year I like the street free agents like Patterson and some of the young college free agent offensive line men. He also resigned Wake and Pual S. good moves. In reality and I have said this many times I thought RT and Philbin were bad decisions last year and I posted I felt Ireland was on a very short leash and would volunteer to run him out of town. Well I cannot blame the guy on one hand and not give him credit on the other like most of Ireland haters continently do. Moving on I also believe that many of our losses were a product of Tony S after seeping him perform with the Jets. Ok that covers reasons to support the guy.

First Ireland needs to close as many holes as possible with as many of our own free agents as he can reasonably afford to do. Recently they polled the top 50 NFL free agents and the Phins had 20 percent of them.
I believe that Clemons, Fasano should be retained because they are cheap (3 million per year each) and fill voids until replacements can be found, Starks they should use the franchise tag on him he has been a good player but is getting older so the tag fits him pretty well, Sean Smith would be my next target if he is willing to stay and be reasonable I would hate to pay him 8 million but I would because loosing Davis last year and Smith just leaves to large a hole, next target would be Hartline at 5 million and either Bush or Moore at around 5 million to decide to choose to sign from and I would go with bush first as he provide another weapon instead of a replacement with approximate 10 million to spend on Wallace. Restructure the contracts of Marshall and Patterson would give us the room for the rookie class. We have holes at tackle and backup QB which Ireland has to roll for in the draft.
This leaved us in a better postion to attempt to draft the best player available but let face it this team would still have needs at DE pass rusher, CB, OT and TE. If Irland did all of the above or appeared to have really tried to make it happen and get the same amount of college rookies to make the team this year as well as last then I say Ireland has done his job regardless of losses. I personally have concerns that Sherman might be more of a problem than a solution. I would say if Ireland could pull off a really good DE in the first round, TE and CB in then second round, OL and Safty in third, RB in 4th if Bush is not resigned, 5th round would be a QB or LB according to if Moore is signed and in the 7th round kicker and probably another LB. If all but let's say like last year 2 do not make the team plus let's say 3 college free agent rookies from this year or last year make the team then guys it is a success. You keep Ireland and start evaluating the coaching staff.

 

[Spesh]

Where I always get confused is why would someone who is a Dolphins fan support Ireland? I assume none of us are his family. I guess I miss the connection. Are you implying those ppl just love anything that has the Miami Dolphins in front of it? If so, how insulting is that?

For me the way I see it is the ppl who are always calling for ppl to get fired or whatever are just frustrated GM's. Short of winning a title the same ppl do the same things. I've seen it since 1997 on these MBoards. It seems at times they think they know more than the paid professionals. I tend to think the ppl who support what we have simply try and deal with the reality of the situation. Even if we don't like the decision, the Dolphins are still our team, why make it a negative thing? This is supposed to be our hobbies, yes? I guess I don't understand the frame of mind.

Im more than implying that, i bluntly stated it in an earlier post. Every organization has individuals who feel it can do no wrong. Every company has yes men. People deify those they admire, even if the thing the person is famous for has nothing to do with ethics. You find that offensive, i say its human behavior. Its just a behavior i have very little regard for. As someone who forms my opinions based on evidence and logic, i find peoples sycophantic tendencies to be frustrating, albeit one i recognize.

And football, and the Miami Dolphins specifically, are hobbies. Some of us like our hobbies to be fun. We have an emotionally attachment to our hobby because at one point in time it was fun. Its not fun when the Miami Dolphins lose. In order to have fun again, we would like them to win. If someone had the hobby of building model planes they wouldnt want the planes to come out flawed. If someone had the hobby of sailing boats they wouldnt want the boat to only be in stuck in place.
As well, just because something is a hobby doesnt mean we are blind to reality. The Miami Dolphins are, at the moment, a bad team. Thats reality. Only saying great things about a bad team isnt "trying to deal with the reality", its indulging in denial.

 

[Spesh]

Omar actually said on wqam this season Irelands contract ran through 2015 (maybe 2016, don't remember exactly), he said it all nonchalantly and I remember the host freaking out, the conversation went something like this:

Host: Well we'll see what happens when Ireland's contract is up after next season..
Omar: His contract isn't up until 2015
Host: WHAT!?! BACK UP, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?!
Omar: Huh, you didn't know that, I thought it was common knowledge. Oh yeah, he's under contract through 2015.


Take that for what its worth, it was a strange conversation and I have no links but Omar seemed to think Ireland would be under contract for at least 2 more seasons.

Appreciate the info. Without Omar providing evidence im hesitant to believe it....or i suppose its more accurate to say im hoping it isnt true.

Its something that wouldnt surprise me.

 

[ohall]

Im more than implying that, i bluntly stated it in an earlier post. Every organization has individuals who feel it can do no wrong. Every company has yes men. People deify those they admire, even if the thing the person is famous for has nothing to do with ethics. You find that offensive, i say its human behavior. Its just a behavior i have very little regard for. As someone who forms my opinions based on evidence and logic, i find peoples sycophantic tendencies to be frustrating.

And football, and the Miami Dolphins specifically, are hobbies. Some of us like our hobbies to be fun. We have an emotionally attachment to our hobby because at one point in time it was fun. Its not fun when the Miami Dolphins lose. In order to have fun again, we would like them to win. If someone had the hobby of building model planes they wouldnt want the planes to come out flawed. If someone had the hobby of sailing boats they wouldnt want the boat to only be in stuck in place.
As well, just because something is a hobby doesnt mean we are blind to reality. The Miami Dolphins are, at the moment, a bad team. Thats reality. Only saying great things about a bad team isnt "trying to deal with the reality", its indulging in denial.

The issue is for me is the way you seem to view ppl that try and have a positive spin on what is going with the Dolphins, I don't know how else to say this, it comes off as arrogant. I still don't understand how someone would want to make their hobby a non-positive experience. See, I understand not having fun because they are losing, I do. The thing is, there isn't a darn thing WE can do to change the decisions these ppl make regarding the Dolphins.

FYI just because someone wants to be positive doesn't imply they do not employ logic or they lack the ability to understand what is going on based on the facts. Make no mistake about it, if the positive stretch the facts to conform to their POV, the so called negative do the same.

 

[damanref10]

For the life of me, I listen to people bash Ireland, then I see your answers to solve the problem and all I see is Madden.

But I got news for you all, you can poo poo the man all you want, but it will do no good, you know why? Cus we are going places! Joe Philbin is the reason why, then Ryan Tannehill.

We are so set up to succeed its not funny and timing is everything is my favorite cliche.

Last year all I heard was all about Ireland and how bad he is and how we shouldnt draft RT. Then after the draft, everything Ireland dissapeared. You people were no where to be seen. Your like leeches.


Fact is, Ireland's downfall is he started out a rookie GM under Parsells toutalage. Then he set out to collaboratively work with Sparano to get guys with some of them guys Sparano pounded the table for.

Well, here we are today and the guy running this football team is Joe Philbin. Most people didnt even want the guy and thought he looked like the old Miami U coach and made a little fun of him. Well, Philbin is well respected around the league and you should clearly have seen the difference in drafts from last year to Sparano years. This year should be even better but of course, he will get poo pooed until reality sinks in again and what you will soon realize is that we will be playng with more of a full deck as opposed to Legadu no no starting. I cant even friggin believe we were a couple of FG's and a close game with Indy and SF away from actually doing something starting out with friggin legadu naanee!!!!!

People who hate Ireland will always hate Ireland. It doesnt matter what we do next year even if we go to the playoffs, once you hate someone, thats it, you dont change your mind. Your just fooling yourself. If you cant see the progress, you wont see it next year. But Joe Philbin will be the real reason for success because Ireland works closely with his HC to buy the groceries. You should love that in these days of the ego. To think that people cannot see that Pouncey was a great pick because its not a skill position, as if you need to draft a skill position in round one no matter what according to what the media sets as the value of what a friggin football player is.

whateva! Im just going to enjoy this offseason knowing I got a QB, and if we land Swope, we got ourselves a real playmaker that no one even thinks belongs in the 2nd round cus he doesnt sound great! hehehehe! whateva!

So lets dissect this piece by piece, because i don't give a damn which side you support, ireland or the anti ireland...revisionist history is the one thing that just irks me.

There was most certainly a split on drafting Ryan Tannehill on this board. But lets not turn this into a the Irelandhate crowd didnt want him, because thats a bunch of bull. For most of us who have been critical of Ireland, and the Dolphins management as a whole, it has centered around not sacking up and drafting an elite quarterback prospect. Lo and behold after years of the "you dont need to draft a QB high, Jake Long was the right pick, you will see in the end!" crap.... we finally draft a qb highly and all of the sudden those voices have just slowly died away.

Sparano pounding the tables for? So let me get this straight.... Parcells had final say... Ireland was just puppet there to get him coffee, but he was ALSO drafting crappy players for Tony Sparano who was vehemently in the ears of the front office to get guys he wanted to draft? Which one is it... either Ireland actually was involved, or he wasnt. Also, anybody have any shred of proof or evidence that Sparano had even the least bit of input in who we drafted? I thought we FINALLY had a coach who was involved in player personnel decisions and thats the difference? Can't keep all these shuffling stories straight.

Most people didnt want Philbin? Now here we go again. I remember a small contingent who really wanted Jeff Fischer (hayden was driving that bandwagon)... but I don't seem to recall any hate or animosity and especially not "most of us" not wanting Philbin.

The old "we were so close" if only we had won 3 more games we would be in the playoffs! if only we didnt miss all those Field Goals.... newsflash.. best kicker in the league last year missed 2 FG's against us against St Louis... but that little tidbit gets swept under the rug. Its the funniest argument out there, its the NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE, most games are decided down to the wire, and every team has a woulda coulda shoulda story every year.... funny how ours always end up with a losing record though.

Nobody disputes the Pouncey wasn't a great pick. He is one of the best centers in the league. But for the love of god, there is a concept of value. It was the safe move... it absolutely worked out... but look how that has worked out for him in the past. There was no top level talent at 12... with Earl Thomas and JPP staring at him... lets slide down and take 2 safe players. That worked out great.....

REALITY. my favorite word. every year is the turning point isnt it? next year we will get over the hump. look how easy our schedule is NEXT year.... Tom Brady is one year older NEXT year.

Reality is.... the future might be brighter. Looks like we finally have a QB. Schedule looks brutal next year. There usually is some regression in quarterbacks in their second year. But for the love of god, at least look in the rear view mirror and accept that there is a wake of destruction behind it. The "haters" were right. again. It might be brighter next year. But at least accept what has already occurred.

 

[Cleetus]

For the life of me, I listen to people bash Ireland, then I see your answers to solve the problem and all I see is Madden.

But I got news for you all, you can poo poo the man all you want, but it will do no good, you know why? Cus we are going places! Joe Philbin is the reason why, then Ryan Tannehill.

We are so set up to succeed its not funny and timing is everything is my favorite cliche.

Last year all I heard was all about Ireland and how bad he is and how we shouldnt draft RT. Then after the draft, everything Ireland dissapeared. You people were no where to be seen. Your like leeches.

Fact is, Ireland's downfall is he started out a rookie GM under Parsells toutalage. Then he set out to collaboratively work with Sparano to get guys with some of them guys Sparano pounded the table for.

Well, here we are today and the guy running this football team is Joe Philbin. Most people didnt even want the guy and thought he looked like the old Miami U coach and made a little fun of him. Well, Philbin is well respected around the league and you should clearly have seen the difference in drafts from last year to Sparano years. This year should be even better but of course, he will get poo pooed until reality sinks in again and what you will soon realize is that we will be playng with more of a full deck as opposed to Legadu no no starting. I cant even friggin believe we were a couple of FG's and a close game with Indy and SF away from actually doing something starting out with friggin legadu naanee!!!!!

People who hate Ireland will always hate Ireland. It doesnt matter what we do next year even if we go to the playoffs, once you hate someone, thats it, you dont change your mind. Your just fooling yourself. If you cant see the progress, you wont see it next year. But Joe Philbin will be the real reason for success because Ireland works closely with his HC to buy the groceries. You should love that in these days of the ego. To think that people cannot see that Pouncey was a great pick because its not a skill position, as if you need to draft a skill position in round one no matter what according to what the media sets as the value of what a friggin football player is.

whateva! Im just going to enjoy this offseason knowing I got a QB, and if we land Swope, we got ourselves a real playmaker that no one even thinks belongs in the 2nd round cus he doesnt sound great! hehehehe! whateva!

I do not hate Ireland, I do not know the man, he has done nothing to me personally. I do not like the job he has done building this team it is that simple. I do not think we have many playmakers and I do not think any other teams would want too many of our current players. Our record has been hideous and we have not made the playoffs in years, we jettisoned the last coach and we still stink so who is left to blame the man who created this team as it stands. Now as I said if he gives us a winner this year and a spot in the playoffs I will change my opinion. I can change my opinion because I do not hate the man I only dislike the job he has done for my favorite football team.

 

[DefensiveEnd76]

For the life of me, I listen to people bash Ireland, then I see your answers to solve the problem and all I see is Madden.

But I got news for you all, you can poo poo the man all you want, but it will do no good, you know why? Cus we are going places! Joe Philbin is the reason why, then Ryan Tannehill.

We are so set up to succeed its not funny and timing is everything is my favorite cliche.

Last year all I heard was all about Ireland and how bad he is and how we shouldnt draft RT. Then after the draft, everything Ireland dissapeared. You people were no where to be seen. Your like leeches.

Fact is, Ireland's downfall is he started out a rookie GM under Parsells toutalage. Then he set out to collaboratively work with Sparano to get guys with some of them guys Sparano pounded the table for.

Well, here we are today and the guy running this football team is Joe Philbin. Most people didnt even want the guy and thought he looked like the old Miami U coach and made a little fun of him. Well, Philbin is well respected around the league and you should clearly have seen the difference in drafts from last year to Sparano years. This year should be even better but of course, he will get poo pooed until reality sinks in again and what you will soon realize is that we will be playng with more of a full deck as opposed to Legadu no no starting. I cant even friggin believe we were a couple of FG's and a close game with Indy and SF away from actually doing something starting out with friggin legadu naanee!!!!!

People who hate Ireland will always hate Ireland. It doesnt matter what we do next year even if we go to the playoffs, once you hate someone, thats it, you dont change your mind. Your just fooling yourself. If you cant see the progress, you wont see it next year. But Joe Philbin will be the real reason for success because Ireland works closely with his HC to buy the groceries. You should love that in these days of the ego. To think that people cannot see that Pouncey was a great pick because its not a skill position, as if you need to draft a skill position in round one no matter what according to what the media sets as the value of what a friggin football player is.

whateva! Im just going to enjoy this offseason knowing I got a QB, and if we land Swope, we got ourselves a real playmaker that no one even thinks belongs in the 2nd round cus he doesnt sound great! hehehehe! whateva!

Come on Jeff, you need to get busy finding us talent this offseason and stay off finheaven.

 

[Spesh]

The issue is for me is the way you seem to view ppl that try and have a positive spin on what is going with the Dolphins, I don't know how else to say this, it comes off as arrogant. I still don't understand how someone would want to make their hobby a non-positive experience. See, I understand not having fun because they are losing, I do. The thing is, there isn't a darn thing WE can do to change the decisions these ppl make regarding the Dolphins.

FYI just because someone wants to be positive doesn't imply they do not employ logic or they lack the ability to understand what is going on based on the facts. Make no mistake about it, if the positive stretch the facts to conform to their POV, the so called negative do the same.

Okay, i come off as arrogant. Duly noted. If my posts disturb you that much there are options, including adding me to ignore. Even if you could read my posts after that, you wouldnt see me object.

And actually, fans do have an impact our the franchise. We dont have to attend games and we dont have to publically support the franchise. The owners arent stupid, they understand when something isnt acceptable. They dont like seeing an empty stadium. If their product isnt as popular as their competitors, some take it personally. I like Ross because he does seem to care. For most franchise losing brings about changes. For ours that doesnt seem to be the case, but Ross does seem to comprehend fan outrage.

No where im my post did i suggest that people having a positive outlook never use logic or have facts on their side. I stated that for a specific type of behavior, though even then those individuals often have facts on their side...or at least occasionally. In the case of Ireland and the Dolphins, the facts are overwhelmingly against those individuals. Yet, there are still some on here who believe Ireland has done nothing wrong ever in his life. Even when presented with facts their opinion wont budge(and they often get angry and vengeful), thus crossing the line from "positive outlook" to "denying reality".

 

[Ikema]

Uh, no. My loyalty is to the Miami Dolphins and if I believe the person in charge of bringing in talent over the last five years hasn't done a good job of it, then I want that person gone. A five year analysis of his work isn't knee-jerk. Is Jeff Ireland the worst GM in the league? I don't believe so. But I don't believe he has the eye to consistently bring enough talent to make this team a Super Bowl team.

That's cool, I'm not here to tell you you're wrong. That wasn't the question. The question was should we crucify the general manager if things don't go perfect in the draft. I answered with how I felt. To be more to the point, no I would not blame the general manager if everything is not 100% perfect. If you completely screws up with the hand he has this off-season, then yes I believe he should be held accountable. To say everything is writing on us making the playoffs is juvenile without taking in all of the factors that could go into next year's demise. Injuries, poor luck, schedule, weather just to name a few factors. Listen, I'm not trying to change your mind. You pretty much prove you don't have much of one begin with. (Okay, perhaps a little harsh because I'm lumping you in with all the other chicken Little's). Unlike you I can't read the future, so I have to wait and see. Excuse me for trying to be rational.

 

[Ikema]

we jettisoned the last coach and we still stink so who is left to blame the man who created this team as it stands. Now as I said if he gives us a winner this year and a spot in the playoffs I will change my opinion. I can change my opinion because I do not hate the man I only dislike the job he has done for my favorite football team.

You lose all credibility with what you stated above. This team didn't stink. They were purged of all bad influence, yes a lot of that bad influence happen to be good talent, but in the interests of putting together a possible dynasty this front office decided to do it right. In the meanwhile the players gave a admirable effort. Even though some were ill-equipped to play schemes. Because of last year's sacrifices, this team is in an enviable position in both free agency and the draft. Still, Rome was not built in one season. The pushback comes from your playoff ultimatum. I can think of 100 reasons why we don't make the playoffs that don't include poor decisions from the GM. People like you take hindsight and act like It is divine knowledge.

 

[dlockz]

You lose all credibility with what you stated above. This team didn't stink. They were purged of all bad influence, yes a lot of that bad influence happen to be good talent, but in the interests of putting together a possible dynasty this front office decided to do it right. In the meanwhile the players gave a admirable effort. Even though some were ill-equipped to play schemes. Because of last year's sacrifices, this team is in an enviable position in both free agency and the draft. Still, Rome was not built in one season. The pushback comes from your playoff ultimatum. I can think of 100 reasons why we don't make the playoffs that don't include poor decisions from the GM. People like you take hindsight and act like It is divine knowledge.

We cannot say for certain we were purged of all so called bad influences

 

[herndonsr]

i cant believe that ross didnt firer jeff and will give him a chance to screw up these good draft picks and as far as free agents they dont like jeff and they dont want to play for him jeff is the worse gm and ross really dont care what the fan say or think but it will hurt him because the fan have had enough and they will not come to the games you will see and then andonly then will he do something about the screw up that jeff really is just cant believe he let v/d go what a jurk