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

[KTownsDolphins]

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.

Yah I forgot bringing in

Damon Huard,
Ray Lucas,
Brian Griese,
AJ Feeley,

are just some major competition for Fiedler, I forgot last I checked all those qb's are career backups everywhere, just like fiedler should be. SUre they started games in the NFL, and looked good at times, but so has Jay, and

Mr. Jay has also shown that he's mr. 4th quarter last year with a 28QBR.

I even think Ricky Ray from the CFL who's going to be the jets backup this year my guess, is better than Fiedler/Feeley.

I hope I'm wrong Id really like to see one of them take us somewhere and prove me wrong. I just don't see it.

 

[dalmog]

Yah I forgot bringing in

Damon Huard,
Ray Lucas,
Brian Griese,
AJ Feeley,

are just some major competition for Fiedler, I forgot last I checked all those qb's are career backups everywhere, just like fiedler should be. SUre they started games in the NFL, and looked good at times, but so has Jay, and

Mr. Jay has also shown that he's mr. 4th quarter last year with a 28QBR.

I even think Ricky Ray from the CFL who's going to be the jets backup this year my guess, is better than Fiedler/Feeley.

I hope I'm wrong Id really like to see one of them take us somewhere and prove me wrong. I just don't see it.

I agree with what was said earlier. All of these choices including Fiedler himself (Huard was already on the team actually, so Jay was brought in to compete with him) were attempts to find another Warner/Brady/Delhomme story. The hope was to get some guy who didn't require the top dollar pay, but may have turned out to be the diamond in the rough, that's why they turned to "career backups". Griese would have been more of a Kerry Collins story. Once showed promise but may have needed a different system. I think both Lucas and Fiedler were picked up because teams have a tendency to take players who played well against them in the past. They see first hand that they have possibility. That's probably why NE took Huard as a backup, he played well against them. Fiedler played decently against us in that blowout in JAcksonville. Griese was certainly a questionmark QB and porbably would have had a shot elsewhere too, considering he once had Pro Bowl on his Football Card. The fact that he was clearly not the right fit for a team with OL troubles (or perhaps any team) shows the real problem, DW's inability to scout QB talent for the team. To me the two elements of the Phins QB hunt in the past combined to be a problem - no desire to invest in a likely candidate, and no ability to really smell out the better of the unlikely candidates. Feeley, I believe has fewer strikes against him than Griese or Lucas (or Fiedler in his first season for that matter) in that he may in fact have the right physical talents for the team (Griese had the right physical talents but had clear mental obstacles), I like RS's taste better. But he still remains a big risk since he may end up not having the leadership/mental skills for the roll. We won't know till he plays. But I don't think you can discount him either.

 

[BlueFin]

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...

Griese wasn't even signed until after June, thereby missing all the early camps and a chance to get comfortable with the offense, he was injured and when his big break came he was rusty coming off the injury, couple that with poor pass protection and I really don't think he was given an ideal opportunity, with all that said, I don't think Griese should be a starter in this league anymore than Fiedler should be.

IMO they should have paid a little more and secured Hasselback, I had seen the guy play in a few pre-season games in Green Bay and was impressed, I really wanted him, I just had a feeling about him.

I don't think this team has done all it could have to upgrade our quarterback position.

Look at Dallas, they acquired a guy like Drew Henson for a third rounder, a guy projected to be the overall number one pick before he chose baseball, and we go pay a second rounder for a guy who's played five more Pro games than Henson who was a fifth round pick?

Why couldn't we have had Feely and Henson?, at least if Feely flops we'd have Drew getting ready for the future

 

[Dolphan_B]

Gotta disagree...

AJ faced a much better defense than the Giants in 2002, it was Washington.[/B]

The NYG had the #3 scoring defense in 2002...

While they had some decent yardage stats, Washington was ranked #21 in scoring defense.

As for Feeley's other opponants in scoring defense...

DAL #13

SF #18

SEA #24

STL #25

In contrast, I believe every singe defense in our division was a top ten scoring defense like the NYG in 2002.

 

[MDFINFAN]

Griese wasn't even signed until after June, thereby missing all the early camps and a chance to get comfortable with the offense, he was injured and when his big break came he was rusty coming off the injury, couple that with poor pass protection and I really don't think he was given an ideal opportunity, with all that said, I don't think Griese should be a starter in this league anymore than Fiedler should be.

IMO they should have paid a little more and secured Hasselback, I had seen the guy play in a few pre-season games in Green Bay and was impressed, I really wanted him, I just had a feeling about him.

I don't think this team has done all it could have to upgrade our quarterback position.

Look at Dallas, they acquired a guy like Drew Henson for a third rounder, a guy projected to be the overall number one pick before he chose baseball, and we go pay a second rounder for a guy who's played five more Pro games than Henson who was a fifth round pick?

Why couldn't we have had Feely and Henson?, at least if Feely flops we'd have Drew getting ready for the future

Because you're looking at it from a 20/20 hindsight position and won't acknowledge that. No one has said Sage isn't the answer, he's just proven the least amoung QB's on the team, AJ does have 5 more games under his belt than Sage. Fielder has proven to be somewhat of a care taker of the O and has risen to the occassion a few times to give Wanny some comfort. Henson's been out of football for a while and really wouldn't help us much this year. The 3 QB's we have on this team have some grasp on this O..with 2 having a lot of time in it. It would be easier to have the 2 with knowledge backup the potential in AJ. If we bring Henson in, cut Jay, you have no Vet. depth, a maybe in Sage...if you were the coach in the so call "hotseat" would you put your self in that position? AJ had to prove himself doing a critical time for philly, while they were going for a division championship and a chance at a SB. He had to keep the team on pace until one of the 2 QB's ahead of him could get well, that's a lot of pressure on a 3rd string QB and he ended up 4-1. I say that saids something about his leadership and character. Plus the fact that his 1st playing time was in a comeback situation when Detmer got hurt. Philly won, I say give him a chance. I don't care what the D's were ranked at the time, he was a newbie and beat NFL caliber type D's. The research in this case seems to be solid..that does mean I go alone with the company line of the phins NO..but I do believe they may have a gem. I may take a couple of games for him to get on his feet, but I think we're probably benefit in the long run.

 

[DrAstroZoom]

I agree. I have heard people talk about Garcia's back problems and that they make him a big risk. The only person I think it was seriously worth waiting for was Collins. Maybe Warner, although he would need a really solid line.

I have to disagree. Collins has worse career numbers than Fiedler, and Warner's performance has dropped sharply in his last two seasons.

I would have been happy with Garcia, but again ... his release was far from a sure thing early in the offseason when Spielman wanted to get things done.

 

[ckparrothead]

Of all the QBs that were made available this offseason, Jeff Garcia is probably the last one I'd take. I'd have taken Collins or Brunell far quicker.

Griese had plenty of opportunity to settle the question marks about him and win the starting job. He answered those questions alright, but he answered them in favor of the critics. They said he was injury prone...and sure enough he took an injury in preseason that effectively prevented him from putting himself in a position to capitalize on a few Fiedler mistakes and take control of this team. They said he lacks pocket presence, and sure enough he gets sacked a bunch and fumbles way more than Fiedler did. They said he was made by that offense in Denver, that his arm isn't that good, his deep ball is attrocious, and he's just not all that talented. Well, he got his opportunity. Fiedler went down, and the decision was made to go with Griese after an impressive performance at the San Diego game. Instead of running away with the season and putting the ghost of Jay Fiedler down forever though, Griese stunk up the joint and cleared the way for Fiedler to come back during the season, and eventually, during the offseason.

This is the opposite of what Dave Wannstedt envisioned when he decided to bring Griese, and all the controversy that came with him to Miami.