LeBatard tries another angle to justify Ricky leaving?

[bigmiamifan]

The part you don't understand, Driven, and I'm being honest and forthright here...is that if Ricky had made this announcement, say, a few weeks after the 2003 season got done with...everyone would be very very disappointed...

...but what they would NOT be, is all mad. Nobody would be upset with Ricky for deciding to retire. We're all well-acquainted with his past and his M.O. and how he never really enjoyed football that much.

What everyone is absolutely livid about, is how he did this a week before training camp at a time when the team has no choice but to have a guy like Travis Minor tow the line. There were RBs available in free agency, and there were RBs available in the draft. Ricky has been thinking about retirement for a long time, had resolved that this would be his last year months ago, and never told anyone. Instead, he decided to let the marijuana thing culminate in his retirement, a week before training camp and 48 hours after the last decent RB become unavailable.

Thats the source of our anger. I for one have thought about his POV...and I think many others have.

For all we know, Ricky waited to see what additions would be made to the OL and how they fared in camp and who the OC would be and his ability to run an offense. If Feeley's comments are true, that might have worn on Ricky.

Hell, I'm glad he did it now and not in preseason.

 

[BigFinFan]

The best part of that article is this:

the conservative coaching staff is more interested in being right about Fiedler than it is about doing what's right

 

[ckparrothead]

Agreed, he left you guys in a bad position. The timing was very bad on his part.

It will all work out. Two years ago I thought the Pats whole season was over when they lost their franchise QB. But things just seem to workout.

Things will workout for the dolphins and will still be fighting for the division at the end of the season.

I hope so man. I haven't chalked up the season yet or anything but I am very concerned that the offense just isn't going to be able to win any games or help us win any games. We have pieces on offense with no cohesion. The offense is currently made up right now of two good WRs, a decent TE with legal issues, a revamped experimental YOUNG and inexperienced offensive line, a quarterback controversy, a brand new offensive coordinator who inherited an unfamiliar playbook to work with only THIS OFFSEASON, and now a smallish runningback who doesn't have much experience and probably can't tow the line by himself.

The things that were hopefully going to hold this offense together, were the running of Ricky, and the dangerous nature of our WRs. Now, we just have the dangerous nature of our WRs, with no proven QBs that can get them the ball on a regular basis (Fiedler has NEVER proven he can do that in this league), with a young inexperienced and relatively untalented offensive line blocking for that unproven quarterback, and to help keep defenses honest against those dangerous WRs, we have a smallish 3rd down back at RB who has never shown any indication that he's worthy of an NFL start.

The only silver lining for the offense is that perhaps the OL and QB situations will bait defenses into thinking we can't run OR pass, even with our WRs, and therefore they'll play us in a balanced fashion, which can quickly become an unbalanced fashion if the defense isn't all that good, and someone on the offense steps up and starts making a few plays. Expect a lot of screens and dumpoffs...because teams are going to be blitzing the heck out of our OL and QBs, and figure now without Ricky, we don't even have the RBs to dump off to or run screens with. These teams will send blitz after blitz after blitz until we prove we can beat the blitz with the passing game.

On defense the positive out of all this is that this time, they'll be stepping up, and probably not complaining about it. For once this D is facing a situation where they'll be circling the wagons, and putting the onus of victory upon themselves, and they won't bother bytching about the offense or how much responsibility they have like they have in the past. With a shocking event like this, our D is going to have to go out there thinking they can't let up ANY play, they can't let up ANY points. They're going to be out there all day, and they're going to make plays of their own.

So I haven't given up yet. The D has the talent to make good on the urgency they must feel right now. The Ravens and Bucs won super bowls with D like that and uncertain offenses...so we can do it too.

 

[Driven]

I hope so man. I haven't chalked up the season yet or anything but I am very concerned that the offense just isn't going to be able to win any games or help us win any games. We have pieces on offense with no cohesion. The offense is currently made up right now of two good WRs, a decent TE with legal issues, a revamped experimental YOUNG and inexperienced offensive line, a quarterback controversy, a brand new offensive coordinator who inherited an unfamiliar playbook to work with only THIS OFFSEASON, and now a smallish runningback who doesn't have much experience and probably can't tow the line by himself.

The things that were hopefully going to hold this offense together, were the running of Ricky, and the dangerous nature of our WRs. Now, we just have the dangerous nature of our WRs, with no proven QBs that can get them the ball on a regular basis (Fiedler has NEVER proven he can do that in this league), with a young inexperienced and relatively untalented offensive line blocking for that unproven quarterback, and to help keep defenses honest against those dangerous WRs, we have a smallish 3rd down back at RB who has never shown any indication that he's worthy of an NFL start.

The only silver lining for the offense is that perhaps the OL and QB situations will bait defenses into thinking we can't run OR pass, even with our WRs, and therefore they'll play us in a balanced fashion, which can quickly become an unbalanced fashion if the defense isn't all that good, and someone on the offense steps up and starts making a few plays. Expect a lot of screens and dumpoffs...because teams are going to be blitzing the heck out of our OL and QBs, and figure now without Ricky, we don't even have the RBs to dump off to or run screens with. These teams will send blitz after blitz after blitz until we prove we can beat the blitz with the passing game.

On defense the positive out of all this is that this time, they'll be stepping up, and probably not complaining about it. For once this D is facing a situation where they'll be circling the wagons, and putting the onus of victory upon themselves, and they won't bother bytching about the offense or how much responsibility they have like they have in the past. With a shocking event like this, our D is going to have to go out there thinking they can't let up ANY play, they can't let up ANY points. They're going to be out there all day, and they're going to make plays of their own.

So I haven't given up yet. The D has the talent to make good on the urgency they must feel right now. The Ravens and Bucs won super bowls with D like that and uncertain offenses...so we can do it too.

Exactly!!! Well put post. With the Dolphins D, they should be in every game(expect two, J/K) next year. If the Dolphin's D can get a high takeaway advantage this year, they could be the 2001 Pats. Look at the similarities.

It 's still going to be a great season. :)

 

[ckparrothead]

Yeah when you have a defense of the caliber that the Dolphins do, you usually never end up in the bottom of the cellar in terms of the rankings. You still usually go 8-8 or better. I'm saying that the likelihood of the offense stepping up to win some of the games that the D can't win alone, is small given the complete lack of cohesion. The only thing cohesive about this offense this season, would be if Jay Fiedler once again started at QB and lets face it, thats a scary sentiment. Norv's playbook, and Ricky Williams were like the glue holding this offense together...and now Ricky's gone, and our offensive coordinator is still trying to FIGURE OUT Norv's playbook. We've got a first time offensive coordinator working with a playbook that not only did he not come up with himself, but he's never even seen it.

Its one thing if your starting QB is trying to learn a new playbook and terminology, but what happens when your OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR is trying to learn a new playbook and new terminology???

At least with Ricky here, the recipe remains fairly simple because the tendancy will be to run Ricky left, run Ricky right, and use some play-action passes. Now Foerster has to come up with a different recipe...with a playbook we're not sure he still even fully understands.

 

[DolphanD]

I'm a life-long Phins fan here in Houston and I'm going to the scrimmage Aug. 7. I'll report what I see...It'll be my first thread too so I'll try to do a good job. I think this is a great site.