Why Ireland's Departure May Ultimately Doom This Team

[DolphinPimp]

I am reminded of a Joni Mitchell Song

"You Don't Know What You Got Till It's Gone"

For all of Ireland's misdeeds he was our best drafting GM since Jimmy Johnson was here. While noone will argue he was perfect, he was certainly putting talent on the field.

We weren't losing games because of talent deficiencies (maybe on the O-Line but that's what this offseason is about).

Now we'll bring in a new GM who may not want to tie himself to Philbin or Tannehill, then we may have to start all over, just when I believe we were on the precipice of real contention.

I hope all you scapegoating idiots are happy. This may set our franchise back another 5 years.

Patience is a far too rare of a virtue nowadays. And the ugly situation with fans calling for Ireland's head has left me appalled and in serious question of this fan bases IQ.

I sincerely hope everything works out, but I have serious doubts about the direction of this team now. LA Dolphins might be my future favorite team.

:lol2: :crazy:

 

[Gonzo]

Patience is virtue when u have a second year qb whose only been a qb for 4 years

So happy we don't have to listen to more excuses for Ireland. There is certainly plenty of your coveted "consistency" there.

 

[DZimmer000]

WNY.....Is your house actually in the Love Canal? A brain chemical deficiency is the only reason anyone would defend Ireland. Point to one All Pro in his tenure. Jake Long? That was a Parcels pick.

OK.....Maybe that wasn't a fair question...... How about showing me one GOOD draft year. I'll set that bar at 2 pro bowlers from that draft. Can you do that?

 

[TarHeelFinFan]

Best drafting GM? Despite starting the draft with 11 picks and 5 in the first three rounds we had the rookie class with the fewest snaps in the NFL.

 

[OnDaChainWax]

Hi. New guy here. Thanks for the forum. Been reading for a while. Finally decided to join.

Ireland built a playoff team and i am drunk with joy to see him go and ive never drank irish koolade so please dont label me. Facts are facts. This was a playoff worthy team that was killed by its coordinators- and i include some of Coyle in there too- but mainly (superiorly) by the Sherman tank that dulled us to a crush.

Call it jibber-jabber if you want if youve been a diehard fan through these times you also cannot disregard the feel of a sort of impending jinx in the air. Listening to Le Batard on 790 before the bills game, le batard was killed by fans via text because he said that this is a game that the Dolphins lose. Recent history dictates that this win against a bad bills team will be a choke. I called a friend immediately because i was telling him the very same thing the day before. He said its a win this week for certain. A horrendous bills team is not going to beat us twice especially when we have the motivation of the playoffs on the line. I retorted, "No bro, A horrendous bills team that is not going to beat us twice especially when we have the motivation of the playoffs on the line is exactly the game our seemingly cursed Phins lose. And what happens, as if hexed by the pigskin gods, the most sure-handed receiver weve had in the past few years miraculously loses the ability to catch footballs.

Ireland was bad but the most important thing he had to do he did and that keeps him average in my book because even after all of the other horrid (Marshall), boneheaded ( Dansby, Bush), unexplainable (Dion Jordan? Seriously? On a trade up?) decisions he found us a QB.

Gentlemen, when you take into account what Tannehil accomplished behind the offensive line that he had, the kid is not a star, hes a future hall of famer (i exaggerate to punctuate).

 

[DeathStar]

Homers gonna homer

Yup

Mediocrity homers...

 

[Valandui]

Trust me, Ireland is the ****tiest GM we have ever had.

Speilman tried to pick the right players at least. Whoever gave Wanny final say over personnel was an idiot.

 

[MP-Omnis]

It doesn't matter whether Ireland was good or not. The unfortunate situation is that the fanbase wasn't happy with him there. People aren't even supposed to know the name of the GM, but even my grandma has heard of him from all the bad press he's gotten.

 

[marinotoclayton]

I am reminded of a Joni Mitchell Song

"You Don't Know What You Got Till It's Gone"

For all of Ireland's misdeeds he was our best drafting GM since Jimmy Johnson was here. While noone will argue he was perfect, he was certainly putting talent on the field.

We weren't losing games because of talent deficiencies (maybe on the O-Line but that's what this offseason is about).

Now we'll bring in a new GM who may not want to tie himself to Philbin or Tannehill, then we may have to start all over, just when I believe we were on the precipice of real contention.

I hope all you scapegoating idiots are happy. This may set our franchise back another 5 years.

Patience is a far too rare of a virtue nowadays. And the ugly situation with fans calling for Ireland's head has left me appalled and in serious question of this fan bases IQ.

I sincerely hope everything works out, but I have serious doubts about the direction of this team now. LA Dolphins might be my future favorite team.

Yeah we knew what we had and it was 6 years of failure! ! And I hate to break it to you the guy was no
genius or guru. Otherwise he would have fixed o line by now and maybe there would be some semblance of a running game and Tannenhill stays off his back. Then maybe sone of our better defensive players that could play but were let go to other teams. Maybe they are retained and we look more like the playoff team than what was fielded this year. And I haven't even mentioned the draft for Jordan. I think he was a waste of picks since that was supposed to be a position of strength. Ireland screwed the pooch way too many years. Until some of thos positions were fixed this wasnt no playoff team.
The only scapegoating idiot here is you !

 

[dolpns13]

whoa whoa whoa....while they aren't the best, we do have some good looking women here....including my girlfriend lol

Theres always at least one good acorn in the bunch. Good job bro :up:

 

[Fin Thirteen]

I am delighted to see the back of Ireland. Unreservedly. He tried not to make mistakes and in doing so made the biggest mistake in football - engineering a perennially mediocre team.

What I will say though is that you can't attribute all our problems to him, nor can you assume the world will change when he's gone. There are a lot of components to a winning formula and the GM is only one - though over time he's probably the single biggest influencing factor. In terms of acquiring talent, I would caution that - even if we get somebody much better at finding the "special" players in the right positions, success still isn't guaranteed.

By way of example, look at longtime Tampa FO man Mark Dominik. He probably had a more up-and-down draft record than Ireland, but he landed some truly talented players even if he had some wipeouts. Domenik also has a very healthy cap figure and landed FA talent like Nicks (though often injured), Darrelle Revis, VJax etc. Unlike Ireland, Dominik cut mediocre players, took the cap hit and tried again through draft or FA. (Ireland tried to turn UDFAs into Pro-Bowlers and signed monster contracts with FA players, while keeping all the mediocre pieces in place. )

The problem is, Dominik was terrible, absolutely terrible, at picking coaches. Raheem Morris and Schiano must go down as two of the biggest coaching busts in the NFL.

As a result, the Bucs are one of the most talented bad teams in the NFL. So, you might be great at finding players, but a lot more pieces have to come together for that to translate to wins on the field (It would help to have a competent QB also).

Below is Dominik's draft history, as seen through the eyes of a Bucs fan who writes on one of their forums. It's a subjective evaluation, maybe even a little pessimistic, but there's no doubt Dominik was a very good identifier of special talent, if a risk-taker.

Year Rnd Pick Player Pos Yrs. Result
2009 1 17 Josh Freeman QB 5 Bust
2009 3 81 Roy Miller DT 4 Role player (off team)
2009 4 117 Kyle Moore DE 3 Bust
2009 5 155 Xavier Fulton T 1 Bust
2009 7 217 E.J. Biggers DB 4 Role player (off team)
2009 7 233 Sam Stroughter WR 3 Injury bust
2010 1 3 Gerald McCoy DT On roster Massive hit
2010 2 35 Brian Price DT 3 Bust
2010 2 39 Arrelious Benn WR 3 Bust
2010 3 67 Myron Lewis DB 3 BUST
2010 4 101 Mike Williams WR On roster Hit
2010 6 172 Brent Bowden P 0 Bust
2010 7 210 Cody Grimm DB 3 Role player (off team)
2010 7 217 Dekoda Watson LB On roster Hit
2010 7 253 Erik Lorig DE On roster Hit
2011 1 20 Adrian Clayborn DL On roster Jury's out
2011 2 51 Da'Quan Bowers DE On roster Jury's out
2011 3 84 Mason Foster LB On roster Hit
2011 4 104 Luke Stocker TE On roster Bust
2011 5 151 Ahmad Black SS 3 Role player (off team)
2011 6 187 Allen Bradford RB 1 Bust
2011 7 222 Anthony Gaitor DB 3 Injured
2011 7 238 Daniel Hardy TE 0 Bust
2012 1 7 Mark Barron SS 2 Hit
2012 1 31 Doug Martin RB 2 Hit
2012 2 58 Lavonte David OLB 2 Massive hit
2012 5 140 Najee Goode ILB 1 Bust
2012 6 174 Keith Tandy CB 2 Jury's out
2012 7 212 Michael Smith RB 2 Injured
2012 7 233 Drake Dunsmore TE 0 Bust
2013 2 43 Johnthan Banks CB 1 Jury's out
2013 3 73 Mike Glennon QB 1 Jury's out
2013 4 100 Akeem Spence DT 1 Good early results, role player
2013 4 126 William Gholston DE 1 Jury's out
2013 5 147 Steven Means DE 1 Jury's out
2013 6 189 Mike James RB 1 Jury's out

A GM who is a better talent evaluator than Ireland would be a start. But only a start. We need somebody who can set a strategic direction and put ALL the pieces in place to achieve it affordably. With Philbin and his much-lauded (by Ross) strategic direction for the team, I just don't know how that will pan out and so I'm still very uncertain as to how much improvement we'll ultimately get.

 

[JFoxx]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. The OP obviously liked JI. I don't agree with him, like 80-90% of the posters here, but hey, that's his business. But that said, don't attack others who are finally happy that he's gone. I'm not going to give you the list of terrible decisions he's made or quote how many bad player/personnel decisions he's made or just how much of a joke he was considered in the industry by other NFL execs. Instead, all I will say is the next couple years will tell the tale of were we better with or without him. We will see!

 

[JTC111]

I am reminded of a Joni Mitchell Song

"You Don't Know What You Got Till It's Gone"

For all of Ireland's misdeeds he was our best drafting GM since Jimmy Johnson was here. While noone will argue he was perfect, he was certainly putting talent on the field.

We weren't losing games because of talent deficiencies (maybe on the O-Line but that's what this offseason is about).

Now we'll bring in a new GM who may not want to tie himself to Philbin or Tannehill, then we may have to start all over, just when I believe we were on the precipice of real contention.

I hope all you scapegoating idiots are happy. This may set our franchise back another 5 years.

Patience is a far too rare of a virtue nowadays. And the ugly situation with fans calling for Ireland's head has left me appalled and in serious question of this fan bases IQ.

I sincerely hope everything works out, but I have serious doubts about the direction of this team now. LA Dolphins might be my future favorite team.

The title of that song is actually "Big Yellow Taxi." And that's only the first thing in your post that you got wrong.

 

[royalshank]

I agree, Jeff was an awesome GM

Signed,

Ernest Wilford, Pat White, Patrick Turner, Dallas Thomas, Phillip Wheeler, Sean Smith, Snake Grove, and Chad henne

i loved this reply! Don't forget Bobby Carpenter, Marc Columbo, Tyson Clabo, Donald Thomas, Daniel Thomas, Brandon Marshall for two no 3's, Legadoo Nannee and what not.

 

[realdolphin]

Im sure they are hiring a GM that do want to work with Philbin and Tannehill, that has been already reported. so calm down my friend.