SI: Who's going to win that (wink, wink) quarterback competition in Miami?

[dolphan39]

2. Who's going to win that (wink, wink) quarterback competition in Miami?

To the casual observer, the battle between incumbent Jay Fiedler and the newly acquired A.J. Feeley appears to be a legitimate may-the-best-man-win jump ball. But unless Feeley, the former Eagles third-stringer, comes in and looks like a fish out of water, he's the guy to look for under center when Tennessee comes to town for the Sept. 12 season opener.

Let's face facts: Head coach Dave Wannstedt and general manager Rick Spielman would not have authorized trading a conditional second-round pick for Feeley if they didn't have faith that he was an upgrade over the maddeningly streaky Fiedler. Watch and see if Feeley doesn't get the better opportunities this preseason, playing behind the No. 1 offensive line and taking the reps that matter most.

No one's going to call it a set-up job, of course, because the Dolphins may need Fiedler at some point and don't want him going into the tank. But rest assured that Miami's brain trust believes it knows just how far Fiedler can take this team -- to goodness, but never greatness. That's why it's Feeley's turn, Feeley's time, and Feeley's team -- no matter what the depth chart says right now.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=fromjagstoriche&prov=cnnsi&type=lgns

 

[Drfletcherdc]

Unless Jay totally takes a dive during camp, there is no way Dave is going to choose Feeley over Jay. Dave doesn't like surprises and he knows what he gets with Jay. That is why they dumped all the money on the defense. I hope Boston doesn't get upset by not getting the ball enough. Just think if someone could get the ball the receivers. Chambers or Boston or McMichael or Ricky, what a great offense this could be. The worst move of the offseason was to bring Jay back. Now we have the same below average qb situation as we did last year.

 

[Ohio Fanatic]

Unless Jay totally takes a dive during camp, there is no way Dave is going to choose Feeley over Jay. Dave doesn't like surprises and he knows what he gets with Jay. That is why they dumped all the money on the defense. I hope Boston doesn't get upset by not getting the ball enough. Just think if someone could get the ball the receivers. Chambers or Boston or McMichael or Ricky, what a great offense this could be. The worst move of the offseason was to bring Jay back. Now we have the same below average qb situation as we did last year.

Couldn't disagree with you more. Every offseason, Wannstedt has tried to upgrade the QB position in order to bench Fiedler. Now if Feeley doesn't outperform Fiedler, that's one thing, but all things being equal, he will be pressured to start Feeley. I imagine people on this post probably wanted Damon Huard to start over Fiedler, even though Huard sucked really badly. But Wannstedt started Fiedler with much less experience than Feeley has now.

 

[ckparrothead]

Wannstedt has sat on the fence and hoped that someone would flat out come and take the job away from Fiedler. Not for nothing but he may have even hoped that Ray Lucas would do that...at the time Lucas was only a season removed from having led the Jets to something like a 6-2 record, getting the Jets to win games where Rick Mirer had failed...and beating the Dolphins twice in the process (in 1999, while Dave was an assistant coach to Jimmy here in Miami).

Brian Griese, he set him up as best he could to try and succeed, take the job away, and Griese never did that. Lucas didn't either. In 2001 he tried to trade a first rounder for Matt Hasselbeck. He's talked about bringing in all kinds of guys that are sort of on Jay's level that could hopefully surprise us and win the job. The thing is, he was too scared (in general, exception being the Hasselbeck case) to go out and spend money or draft picks on a guy who would definitely be our new QB. We were winning too many games with Jay at QB for him to be comfortable doing that cuz its one thing if you're in the tank and you've got nothing to lose, its another if you're fighting with all you've got to get to the Super Bowl and coming just short...you don't want to rock the boat too much you lose chemistry and bam you go from a 10-6 team to a 6-10 team overnight.

So once again, we're in that position where we've got a guy Dave hopes will just take that job away from Jay...but we paid a lot for him, and he's the best shot we've had since Jay arrived in 2000 to unseat him...so its more like what we did when we brought Jay Fiedler over here from Jacksonville, to put him in a position to beat out Damon Huard. The cards were a little stacked against Damon back then, and the cards are a little stacked against Fiedler now.

Dave doesn't necessarily want to just go with what he knows. He wants these guys to come out and beat Jay, but take a look at what we've had. He never made the gutsy personnel decision to get the guy that definitely has the talent that could beat out Jay. Lucas never beat Jay, and rightfully so. Griese never beat Jay and rightfully so. McNown never did it, and rightfully so. Heupel never showed promise, and though Rosenfels has supposedly shown some promise, there has got to be SOMETHING there that they do not like...maybe something about leadership or game management who knows. Maybe it really just IS age and pedigree...

 

[dolphan39]

I totally agree w/ Banks (SI) and CK. This is lots like Fiedler and Huard and now Jay is the latter. Adam Joshua was brought in to be our #1 QB as long as shows just enuf to warrant that honor. He does not need to be clear #1 QB, just show that he will get better as the seasons progresses and give us more than Jay.

 

[Jimi]

Wannstedt has sat on the fence and hoped that someone would flat out come and take the job away from Fiedler. Not for nothing but he may have even hoped that Ray Lucas would do that...at the time Lucas was only a season removed from having led the Jets to something like a 6-2 record, getting the Jets to win games where Rick Mirer had failed...and beating the Dolphins twice in the process (in 1999, while Dave was an assistant coach to Jimmy here in Miami).

Brian Griese, he set him up as best he could to try and succeed, take the job away, and Griese never did that. Lucas didn't either. In 2001 he tried to trade a first rounder for Matt Hasselbeck. He's talked about bringing in all kinds of guys that are sort of on Jay's level that could hopefully surprise us and win the job. The thing is, he was too scared (in general, exception being the Hasselbeck case) to go out and spend money or draft picks on a guy who would definitely be our new QB. We were winning too many games with Jay at QB for him to be comfortable doing that cuz its one thing if you're in the tank and you've got nothing to lose, its another if you're fighting with all you've got to get to the Super Bowl and coming just short...you don't want to rock the boat too much you lose chemistry and bam you go from a 10-6 team to a 6-10 team overnight.

So once again, we're in that position where we've got a guy Dave hopes will just take that job away from Jay...but we paid a lot for him, and he's the best shot we've had since Jay arrived in 2000 to unseat him...so its more like what we did when we brought Jay Fiedler over here from Jacksonville, to put him in a position to beat out Damon Huard. The cards were a little stacked against Damon back then, and the cards are a little stacked against Fiedler now.

Dave doesn't necessarily want to just go with what he knows. He wants these guys to come out and beat Jay, but take a look at what we've had. He never made the gutsy personnel decision to get the guy that definitely has the talent that could beat out Jay. Lucas never beat Jay, and rightfully so. Griese never beat Jay and rightfully so. McNown never did it, and rightfully so. Heupel never showed promise, and though Rosenfels has supposedly shown some promise, there has got to be SOMETHING there that they do not like...maybe something about leadership or game management who knows. Maybe it really just IS age and pedigree...

Great post. Agree with everything you said. Ive been saying a long time now, this will ba Huard vs. Fiedler repeat, with Feeley in Fiedlers place.

 

[pigskinguy]

I don't care how Feely beats out Feidler as long as he does.

 

[DrAstroZoom]

Remember folks ... Brian Griese was brought in as a backup. There was never pre-season talk by Wannstedt or the rest of the braintrust of a competition (with or without the "wink, wink.")

This year is different. As long as Feeley doesn't take the offense backward, he'll win the job.

 

[musphinzfan]

I totally agree w/ Banks (SI) and CK. This is lots like Fiedler and Huard and now Jay is the latter. Adam Joshua was brought in to be our #1 QB as long as shows just enuf to warrant that honor. He does not need to be clear #1 QB, just show that he will get better as the seasons progresses and give us more than Jay.

If Miami had a clear cut #1 we might have had a top 5 set of qbs in the league.Fiedler is a solid 2 and Sage at 3.Thats a pretty deep qb position.

Instead Wanny and/or Spielman have brought in crap at the QB position and you think that they are really trying unseat Fiedler??..Come on.Very Weak moves from a supposed Top Flight Org and every year we are about a Hassleback away from going all the way.

 

[DrAstroZoom]

Instead Wanny and/or Spielman have brought in crap at the QB position and you think that they are really trying unseat Fiedler??..Come on.Very Weak moves from a supposed Top Flight Org and every year we are about a Hassleback away from going all the way.

Sigh ... for about the 100th time ... when Spielman decided we needed to address the QB position sooner rather than later, there was no Matt Hasslebeck available. There wasn't even a TIM Hasslebeck there for the taking. Rather than get stuck with nothing, Rick pulled the trigger. Had he waited, he MIGHT have landed Jeff Garcia -- the only clear upgrade over the Feeley/Fiedler tandem. I support Spielman for his determination not to stand pat.

 

[DrAstroZoom]

One more interesting quote from the article.

Little wonder the shell-shocked folks remaining in the organization are thrilled to see this offseason end.

We've all heard about soemthing along those lines, haven't we? Interesting thing is, Banks wasn't talking about the Dolphins. He was talking about the Browns.

Just a little perspective.

 

[Nicky Napoleon]

While I do not think that Fiedler will lead us to anything but mediocrity, I also dont want to see AJ rushed in because of the "look what we gave up" arguement. I think Jay may start at first but should be overtaken early on in the season. I hope Im wrong but its just my gut.

Thinking back this is the first time that they have said that Jay will have to fight for the job, as it was stated earlier all the people that were brought in with the hopes of unseating him were brought in as backups. So even if Jay is Daves boy obviously he is losing faith, or being pressured into looking elsewhere due to the fact that Jay has a great record as a starter but when it counts he and the team that he leads seem to fall short.

I think that the development of the OL is something to consider as well, with Jay being the more mobile QB his legs will help us until the line gels. If by a stroke of luck the line gels before the start of the season it would bode well for AJ.

 

[Phinz4Life]

Couldn't disagree with you more. Every offseason, Wannstedt has tried to upgrade the QB position in order to bench Fiedler. Now if Feeley doesn't outperform Fiedler, that's one thing, but all things being equal, he will be pressured to start Feeley. I imagine people on this post probably wanted Damon Huard to start over Fiedler, even though Huard sucked really badly. But Wannstedt started Fiedler with much less experience than Feeley has now.

Couldn't agree with you more! :D

 

[MDFINFAN]

Sigh ... for about the 100th time ... when Spielman decided we needed to address the QB position sooner rather than later, there was no Matt Hasslebeck available. There wasn't even a TIM Hasslebeck there for the taking. Rather than get stuck with nothing, Rick pulled the trigger. Had he waited, he MIGHT have landed Jeff Garcia -- the only clear upgrade over the Feeley/Fiedler tandem. I support Spielman for his determination not to stand pat.

:clap: I'm glad there's some people can see a little clearer than others..

 

[DoLpHiNz34]

Wannstedt has sat on the fence and hoped that someone would flat out come and take the job away from Fiedler. Not for nothing but he may have even hoped that Ray Lucas would do that...at the time Lucas was only a season removed from having led the Jets to something like a 6-2 record, getting the Jets to win games where Rick Mirer had failed...and beating the Dolphins twice in the process (in 1999, while Dave was an assistant coach to Jimmy here in Miami).

Brian Griese, he set him up as best he could to try and succeed, take the job away, and Griese never did that. Lucas didn't either. In 2001 he tried to trade a first rounder for Matt Hasselbeck. He's talked about bringing in all kinds of guys that are sort of on Jay's level that could hopefully surprise us and win the job. The thing is, he was too scared (in general, exception being the Hasselbeck case) to go out and spend money or draft picks on a guy who would definitely be our new QB. We were winning too many games with Jay at QB for him to be comfortable doing that cuz its one thing if you're in the tank and you've got nothing to lose, its another if you're fighting with all you've got to get to the Super Bowl and coming just short...you don't want to rock the boat too much you lose chemistry and bam you go from a 10-6 team to a 6-10 team overnight.

So once again, we're in that position where we've got a guy Dave hopes will just take that job away from Jay...but we paid a lot for him, and he's the best shot we've had since Jay arrived in 2000 to unseat him...so its more like what we did when we brought Jay Fiedler over here from Jacksonville, to put him in a position to beat out Damon Huard. The cards were a little stacked against Damon back then, and the cards are a little stacked against Fiedler now.

Dave doesn't necessarily want to just go with what he knows. He wants these guys to come out and beat Jay, but take a look at what we've had. He never made the gutsy personnel decision to get the guy that definitely has the talent that could beat out Jay. Lucas never beat Jay, and rightfully so. Griese never beat Jay and rightfully so. McNown never did it, and rightfully so. Heupel never showed promise, and though Rosenfels has supposedly shown some promise, there has got to be SOMETHING there that they do not like...maybe something about leadership or game management who knows. Maybe it really just IS age and pedigree...

Great post. That's one of the best ones I've read on this site. Excellent synopsis and I agree with you about 110%.