Why didnt we just concentrate on fixing 2013 problems? | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Why didnt we just concentrate on fixing 2013 problems?

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normaniii

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2013 in my mind we had 5 issues which needed resolving:-

1-Mike Sherman. His playcalling was atrocious and the snap issue was laughable.
2-Jim Turner. If your area of expertise is one of the worst in league then heads must roll.
3-Offensive line. One of worst in league and only one real starter returning.
4-Running game. Partly due to offensive line but also need another RB to compete or start.
5-Run defense. In my mind this was more to do with LB play as opposed to D'line.

Why not then stick then with what was working and then concentrate on what was not? Or is that too simple in today's NFL. For example, our pass D was very good, yet we let Nolan Carroll and Chris Clemons go and sign for others on very cheap contracts.

In my mind we fixed the top 2 issues with the hirings of Lazor & Benton, yet threw away over $5m in salary cap by replacing Carroll & Clemons with Finnegan & Delmas. You have to consider this together with the fact that Zach Strief and Geoff Shwartz, both of the highest rated FA O'lineman available, both signed contracts avg. just over $4m/year.

We now go into the 2014 draft, with a word I hate using come draft day 'needing' an Offensive lineman. This in my mind is made worse by the fact that at #19 there are two players in Mosley & Shazier, one of which will definitely be available, but have dropped due to position value would have fixed our poor LB play.

I love the Moreno signing but why didnt we continue along fixing our problems rather than creating new ones? We could have stuck with Carroll & Clemons, challenged for the signing of Zach Strief and gone into 2014 draft knowing there was a massive possibility of Mosley or Shazier being available at #19.

With the additions of Shelley Smith, Fox & Moreno, together with Mosley or Shazier being drafted we would have fixed the issues of 2013 while also sticking with what worked.

Again is this too simple for todays NFL?
 
i guess you are already assuming carroll and clemons both wanted to stay, and not test the FA market? And i guess assuming that just because a team wants a player, they automatically get them? No one knows what really happens behind closed doors. There's a great possibility that miami did contact all highly graded FA lineman, but the players themselves might not have wanted to play for miami. Of course, miami could have blown all their money and offered contracts that can't be passed up, but then miami might be in cap hell.
 
Good post OP. While I'm not inclined to draft LB in the first. I couldn't agree more with your assessment of last year.

We lost our best pass protector in Jake Long and our best pass protecting TE in Fasano and we replaced it with nothing. Sims might have been meant to address the pass pro TE, but he stinks. He was not special in college and didn't project well to the pros. Bad draft choice.

We also lost our best run blocker, Jake Long again, and our best run blocking TE, Fasano. It's like a broken record ... and Ireland was surprised we couldn't block anyone ... really.

We lost our starting RB and out top two TD producers, Bush and Fasano. At least Miller was a decent RB replacement, but given the state of the OL he never stood a chance. Keller is a possession WR, not really a TE. He cannot pass protect nor run block. He signals pass play whenever he is on th field. And most importantly, he wasn't likely to be on the field. An older player withe injury history ... bad choice IMHO.

With 4 picks in th top 3 rounds we draft all defense except for the crappiest reserve tweener OL in the draft. THIS was someone attempting to draft BP and not addressing OL/TE needs in free agency or the draft. Disaster.

You could see it in Mike Sherman's face after the draft. He got hung out to dry. No Lane Johnson at LT to replace Long. No Tyler Eifert at TE to replace Fasano, no upgrade to John Jerry at OG. Nothing. Just an injury prone possession WR masquerading and a TE and retreads from a horrific OL to protect our young franchise QB an fail to open holes for our young scatback.

Recipe for disaster. We were lucky to do as well as we did given that glaring hole.

This year it may not be sexy, but at least we are starting to address the team needs. Assuming we get two starting caliber OL early in the draft, maybe we can compete.

Failing to address needs in both free agency and the draft is a cardinal sin. You can choose to fill most of your needs through free agency or look for bargains in free agency, but the needs must be filled. That is how you build a football team.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
 
Leet's see how the draft plays out before we comment here. It could be that the Dolphins have anumber of OL graded very high and feel very confident that we'll get one of them. Remember, Lazor was onthe college staff that recruited and coached Moses Morgan so that is information on a player that most people have available at our 1st round pick. If we get an OT, OG and a LB in the draft we will have addressed all of the needs you point out and improved in other areas. I think your comments about losing Long, Bush and Fasano last offseason are spot on. Those three losses are very rarely brought up and would have had us in th eplayoffs last year. However, what have we done this offseason:

Offense:
Albert> McKinnie (Better and younger)
Smith> Brenner
Moreno>current RBs and they are all back so no worry of decline
Fox and Williams provide depth.

Defense:
Mitchell>Soliai (Better and younger)
Delmas> Clemons (Better and younger)
Finnegan>Carroll or Patterson
Jordan, Taylor and Davis coming off of limited reps due to injury are like new rookies/free agents who could add significatn value this year.

There's a lot of reasons to be optimistic we'll improve upon our 8-8 record of last year. The comments about how much we spent have no merit, we still have $16M in cap room, enough to sign anyone that you have mentioned with money left over. It's not amoney issue. Let's see how the draft goes....
 
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normaniii said:
2013 in my mind we had 5 issues which needed resolving:-

1-Mike Sherman. His playcalling was atrocious and the snap issue was laughable.
2-Jim Turner. If your area of expertise is one of the worst in league then heads must roll.
3-Offensive line. One of worst in league and only one real starter returning.
4-Running game. Partly due to offensive line but also need another RB to compete or start.
5-Run defense. In my mind this was more to do with LB play as opposed to D'line.

Why not then stick then with what was working and then concentrate on what was not? Or is that too simple in today's NFL. For example, our pass D was very good, yet we let Nolan Carroll and Chris Clemons go and sign for others on very cheap contracts.

In my mind we fixed the top 2 issues with the hirings of Lazor & Benton, yet threw away over $5m in salary cap by replacing Carroll & Clemons with Finnegan & Delmas. You have to consider this together with the fact that Zach Strief and Geoff Shwartz, both of the highest rated FA O'lineman available, both signed contracts avg. just over $4m/year.

We now go into the 2014 draft, with a word I hate using come draft day 'needing' an Offensive lineman. This in my mind is made worse by the fact that at #19 there are two players in Mosley & Shazier, one of which will definitely be available, but have dropped due to position value would have fixed our poor LB play.

I love the Moreno signing but why didnt we continue along fixing our problems rather than creating new ones? We could have stuck with Carroll & Clemons, challenged for the signing of Zach Strief and gone into 2014 draft knowing there was a massive possibility of Mosley or Shazier being available at #19.

With the additions of Shelley Smith, Fox & Moreno, together with Mosley or Shazier being drafted we would have fixed the issues of 2013 while also sticking with what worked.

Again is this too simple for todays NFL?
Click to expand...


100% agree. I have been saying this. We were only a few moves away from being a playoff contender. Would have rather have kept Carroll over rolling the dice on Finnegan. Clemons had a great season, why not bring him back?

Instead we spent extra money on other players when that money could have been used in the future or for signing needs at other positions. Maybe we could have went that extra 1.5-2 millions for a premier starting RT, instead of rolling the dice in the draft.

I like that we addressed LT and LG in FA... So now the left side looks good but what about the right? Could have added a starting RT too and focused on more skill positions in the draft.

This is what drives me crazy about this team. Hopefully all the moves pan out, but i feel like we could have kept things simple this offseason and came away with a better team.
 
MartinTheSNAKE said:
100% agree. I have been saying this. We were only a few moves away from being a playoff contender. Would have rather have kept Carroll over rolling the dice on Finnegan. Clemons had a great season, why not bring him back?

Instead we spent extra money on other players when that money could have been used in the future or for signing needs at other positions. Maybe we could have went that extra 1.5-2 millions for a premier starting RT, instead of rolling the dice in the draft.

I like that we addressed LT and LG in FA... So now the left side looks good but what about the right? Could have added a starting RT too and focused on more skill positions in the draft.

This is what drives me crazy about this team. Hopefully all the moves pan out, but i feel like we could have kept things simple this offseason and came away with a better team.
Click to expand...

Clemons was great but he had to take a cheap deal weeks into FA? He was average at best. I'd rather take a chance on a guy that can makes plays when healthy. Clemens was just another guy.


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I could not agree more. Hated everything we did with the DB's. Iv'e said this before and I'll say it again....We paid more money just to downgrade our DB's. Money should have been spent somewhere else.
 
He's trying to upgrade with better playmakers. Hickey probably looked at the tape and decided that Carroll and Clemons were just average players. Delmas is the big hitter Clemons never was. Much more upside. Same with Finigan over Carroll. The risk is the health of both players.
 
truedolfan57 said:
i guess you are already assuming carroll and clemons both wanted to stay, and not test the FA market? And i guess assuming that just because a team wants a player, they automatically get them? No one knows what really happens behind closed doors. There's a great possibility that miami did contact all highly graded FA lineman, but the players themselves might not have wanted to play for miami. Of course, miami could have blown all their money and offered contracts that can't be passed up, but then miami might be in cap hell.
Click to expand...

This. We dont know if we didnt try and get the other FA linemen out there. we dont know what really happens because not every move is made public. but i would of liked to get us one more lineman too. because i would rather get a LB with the first in the draft than a OL guy. but thats just me. our run d was horrible last year. AND, with clemmons and carrol, they were soft. our defense missed tackles more than a two dollar hooker gets jobs! we need more physicality on this team... i hope they bring that.
 
EireTiger said:
Leet's see how the draft plays out before we comment here. It could be that the Dolphins have anumber of OL graded very high and feel very confident that we'll get one of them. Remember, Lazor was onthe college staff that recruited and coached Moses Morgan so that is information on a player that most people have available at our 1st round pick. If we get an OT, OG and a LB in the draft we will have addressed all of the needs you point out and improved in other areas. I think your comments about losing Long, Bush and Fasano last offseason are spot on. Those three losses are very rarely brought up and would have had us in th eplayoffs last year. However, what have we done this offseason:

Offense:
Albert> McKinnie (Better and younger)
Smith> Brenner
Moreno>current RBs and they are all back so no worry of decline
Fox and Williams provide depth.

Defense:
Mitchell>Soliai (Better and younger)
Delmas> Clemons (Better and younger)
Finnegan>Carroll or Patterson
Jordan, Taylor and Davis coming off of limited reps due to injury are like new rookies/free agents who could add significatn value this year.

There's a lot of reasons to be optimistic we'll improve upon our 8-8 record of last year. The comments about how much we spent have no merit, we still have $16M in cap room, enough to sign anyone that you have mentioned with money left over. It's not amoney issue. Let's see how the draft goes....
Click to expand...

Think you are over optimistic, no, I think you are completely wrong regarding Soliai, Delmas & Finnegan
 
normaniii said:
2013 in my mind we had 5 issues which needed resolving:-

1-Mike Sherman. His playcalling was atrocious and the snap issue was laughable.
2-Jim Turner. If your area of expertise is one of the worst in league then heads must roll.
3-Offensive line. One of worst in league and only one real starter returning.
4-Running game. Partly due to offensive line but also need another RB to compete or start.
5-Run defense. In my mind this was more to do with LB play as opposed to D'line.

Why not then stick then with what was working and then concentrate on what was not? Or is that too simple in today's NFL. For example, our pass D was very good, yet we let Nolan Carroll and Chris Clemons go and sign for others on very cheap contracts.

In my mind we fixed the top 2 issues with the hirings of Lazor & Benton, yet threw away over $5m in salary cap by replacing Carroll & Clemons with Finnegan & Delmas. You have to consider this together with the fact that Zach Strief and Geoff Shwartz, both of the highest rated FA O'lineman available, both signed contracts avg. just over $4m/year.

We now go into the 2014 draft, with a word I hate using come draft day 'needing' an Offensive lineman. This in my mind is made worse by the fact that at #19 there are two players in Mosley & Shazier, one of which will definitely be available, but have dropped due to position value would have fixed our poor LB play.

I love the Moreno signing but why didnt we continue along fixing our problems rather than creating new ones? We could have stuck with Carroll & Clemons, challenged for the signing of Zach Strief and gone into 2014 draft knowing there was a massive possibility of Mosley or Shazier being available at #19.

With the additions of Shelley Smith, Fox & Moreno, together with Mosley or Shazier being drafted we would have fixed the issues of 2013 while also sticking with what worked.

Again is this too simple for todays NFL?
Click to expand...

You could go back a step further and critique the last draft! Just think of the two players we could have had if we not traded up for Jordan! Kind of makes you wonder what the makeup of the team would look like! That draft for us probably would look much different than what we drafted! I am not mad about the corner signings both guys are good hard hitting players. I just hope they return to form.
 
normaniii - I was actually pretty disappointed that we didn't find the relatively modest amount to keep Nolan Carroll. However, Hickey obviously holds Finnegan in much much higher regard. We still don't know what we've got in Jamar Taylor and Will Davis. If Taylor is fully healthy, he could be earmarked for the 2nd starting CB role. Davis should be physically bigger and stronger to compete. We know that his speciality is making sudden interceptions.
Re Chris Clemmons, I agree with the decision to let him go and I expect Delmas to be an upgrade, if he can remain healthy.
 
normaniii said:
Think you are over optimistic, no, I think you are completely wrong regarding Soliai, Delmas & Finnegan
Click to expand...

Definitely over optimistic. Finnegan hasn't been good the last 2 years, Delmas is nothing special, and Mitchell should prove something before being called better than Soliai. Smith hasn't proven much either.. Just blatant homerism imo
 
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