Definately tempering my joy at making playoffs

[dlockz]

As much as Im happy that we finally made the playoffs, I definately will wait more time to proclaim the leadership as doing a great job in Miami.
I have never had such an enjoyable first day draft in my lifetime and I am a firm believer that we clicked on all chambers day one. last year's free agency was definately nothing special and without the pennington signing would not be a great factor in this year's success. Smiley and Starks were good but far from impact players. Torbor and Wilford were huge dissapointments.

The one thing I like about the front office so far is that they seem very active in trying to bring in good players from any source as in the signing of Cameron wake and the constant raiding of other team's practice squads. They did not stand pat at Qb like so many regimes before them and brought in true competition and leadership. pennington was definately one of the best decisions any regime of recent memory has made.

We as fans though tend to make coaches and such gods so quickly while not realizing its much easier to have some success than actually maintaining it. Nick Saban after year one, was considered our savior and not one word negative was allowed uttered about him. I think we all remember year 2 quite well. I definately hope there is no repeat of recent history. i do think as fans we might need to realize that nothing can guarantee superbowl success. For all the praise that Parcells gets he has not led a team to a super bowl victory since 1990 and none of the teams that he helped to improve ever achieved that SuperBowl after he left. Please dont count the Pats he was gone for 4 years before Belichek won a superbowl.
i definately hope he is a part of us winning a SuperBowl and really soon but one year's success is easily replaced by dissapointment.

I guess my main point is rome is not built in a day and we possibly will not be as successful year 2.

 

[3rdandinches]

Fergy, Akin, Fasano were amazing pick ups by the FO as well remember. When you change almost half the roster in one offseason your bound to have some misses, as long as their small misses (and they were) we'll be in great shape.

The difference between Saban and Saprano is huge though because of Ireland and BP. Saban was/is an excellent coach but realized in a hurry that you can't scare adults like you can college kids.

We all should realize next year will more than likely be a step backwards compared with this year and if they actually expect more their just fooling themselves.

BP is as proven as it gets in this league which obviousily adds to the excitement. BP has not won a superbowl since '90 yes but every team has improve 100 fold talent wise under his guidance. Dallas had one of the most talented teams in all of football when he left and now with no direction they have slowly eroded thanks to JJ decision making.

Your 100% correct Rome wasn't built in a day but it also wasn't destroyed because one man left. As long as the foundations were built for the long haul they can stand for the test of time. Our foundations seem to be built exceptionally well under BP.

 

[studsatele]

Unlike saban. Sparano is a pro coach. Saban was and is a brilliant Xs and Os coach. But his heart was always in the SEC. Not saying Sparano cant fail. But he has the benefit of years of pro experience. Plus the confidence of knowing he was the Tunas choice. Plus he has the Tuna at his disposal for advice. Plus we have a FO that realizes that there is talent outside of the SEC.

 

[Digital]

I have to disagree with you dlockz. I was very impressed. In the offseason we hit on all cylinders with low priced FA's that made an impact such as Smiley and Starks, and our most important offseason acquisition of Pennington, that's a hugely successful FA period. We minimized our risks as Wilford and Torbor weren't very expensive veterans, yet they were the type of athletes we needed and were definitely both worth the risk. Then utilizing trades to bring in the essential NT Ferguson for a 6th was a great deal. Getting Fasano and Ayodele for a 4th was an absolute steal. So, I'd have to give Ireland an A for that stuff. Add this to a very solid draft and one area where I'm extremely pleased is our talent acquisition. We are utilizing all of the avenues, keeping the salary cap very manageable, and adding a lot of medium to high reward players for minimal risks, and bringing in a lot of good young talent and strong locker room veterans to lead them. I'm not really sure what more could be expected of a personnel team.

It's not all Ireland of course, but to be fair, Ireland is the QB of the talent acquisition team. We're definitely not as good as our record indicated, and we'll undoubtedly come back down to earth next season. But, I'm very happy with the direction our talent pool is headed. My biggest concern is that Parcells and his system have a history of creating teams that quickly make the playoffs and do well during the regular season, but underperform and exit the post-season very quickly. I'm not interested in becoming another one-and-done playoff treadmill team like we were under Wanny. I'm hoping we are building an offense that can score points consistently and a dominating defense that'll give us a chance to win playoff games.

Personally, I'm happiest about the Jake Long pick, as he will excel against any defense in the NFL, including those phenomenal ones that we saw do so well in the playoffs such as Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Arizona. With Jake at LT, we can consistently run left and our QB isn't going to be constantly jittery in fear of being blindsided. So years down the road when Parcells leaves and Pennington retires or moves on, we will still have the players to play fundamentally sound football.

 

[dlockz]

I have to disagree with you dlockz. I was very impressed. In the offseason we hit on all cylinders with low priced FA's that made an impact such as Smiley and Starks, and our most important offseason acquisition of Pennington, that's a hugely successful FA period. We minimized our risks as Wilford and Torbor weren't very expensive veterans, yet they were the type of athletes we needed and were definitely both worth the risk. Then utilizing trades to bring in the essential NT Ferguson for a 6th was a great deal. Getting Fasano and Ayodele for a 4th was an absolute steal. So, I'd have to give Ireland an A for that stuff. Add this to a very solid draft and one area where I'm extremely pleased is our talent acquisition. We are utilizing all of the avenues, keeping the salary cap very manageable, and adding a lot of medium to high reward players for minimal risks, and bringing in a lot of good young talent and strong locker room veterans to lead them. I'm not really sure what more could be expected of a personnel team.

It's not all Ireland of course, but to be fair, Ireland is the QB of the talent acquisition team. We're definitely not as good as our record indicated, and we'll undoubtedly come back down to earth next season. But, I'm very happy with the direction our talent pool is headed. My biggest concern is that Parcells and his system have a history of creating teams that quickly make the playoffs and do well during the regular season, but underperform and exit the post-season very quickly. I'm not interested in becoming another one-and-done playoff treadmill team like we were under Wanny. I'm hoping we are building an offense that can score points consistently and a dominating defense that'll give us a chance to win playoff games.

Personally, I'm happiest about the Jake Long pick, as he will excel against any defense in the NFL, including those phenomenal ones that we saw do so well in the playoffs such as Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Arizona. With Jake at LT, we can consistently run left and our QB isn't going to be constantly jittery in fear of being blindsided. So years down the road when Parcells leaves and Pennington retires or moves on, we will still have the players to play fundamentally sound football.

i dont agree with Smiley and Starks being low priced. For thier production thus far in the NFL they cam fairly high priced. so im not sure I can agree they hit on all cylinders in realtion to salary. Smiley coming off of injury and Starks not being a starter. I also disagree that the Wilford pickup in any way was not expensive compared to what other wr's such as Bryant Johnson and DJ HAckett got in comparism, so I dont see how he was worth 6 mill in risk.. As for Torbor Im not sure what we were thinking with that signing. I assume they wanted him as a starter.

I dont necessarily think we will have a repeat but just was a reminder how easy we as fans get way too ahead of the wagon. I do expect some type of dissapointment to set in as we have a good chance of not exceeding this year's playoff team with NE probably getting Brady back next year.

 

[Rev Kev]

Unlike saban. Sparano is a pro coach. Saban was and is a brilliant Xs and Os coach. But his heart was always in the SEC. Not saying Sparano cant fail. But he has the benefit of years of pro experience. Plus the confidence of knowing he was the Tunas choice. Plus he has the Tuna at his disposal for advice. Plus we have a FO that realizes that there is talent outside of the SEC.

Hey are you Nick's wife..., because it was this same Nick who took the job in the NFL and you made him quit!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Golphindolphin]

i dont agree with Smiley and Starks being low priced. For thier production thus far in the NFL they cam fairly high priced. so im not sure I can agree they hit on all cylinders in realtion to salary. Smiley coming off of injury and Starks not being a starter. I also disagree that the Wilford pickup in any way was not expensive compared to what other wr's such as Bryant Johnson and DJ HAckett got in comparism, so I dont see how he was worth 6 mill in risk.. As for Torbor Im not sure what we were thinking with that signing. I assume they wanted him as a starter.

I dont necessarily think we will have a repeat but just was a reminder how easy we as fans get way too ahead of the wagon. I do expect some type of dissapointment to set in as we have a good chance of not exceeding this year's playoff team with NE probably getting Brady back next year.

Smiley was playing as well as any guard in the league when he got hurt. I just rewatched the first New England game, he was mashing people all over the place. As long as he comes back from that nasty leg injury he'll be worth every dime he's paid.

 

[SabanHater]

I don't know.... It's all about the attitude change with this team.
They weren't a 1-15 team last season. They were better than that...
But the fact remains that they finished the worst in the NFL.
1-15 to 11-5 with the division title is something to be excited about
in my eyes, and in no way should be looked at as a disappointment.

 

[dlockz]

Well let me see once again one star given to a thread just because my name is attached to it lol. I mean Im sure this thread was lowest common denominator.

 

[Locke]

Over 60% of the team is new players. We improved our win total by 10 games, we won the AFC East and hosted a playoff game. How exactly was our free agency bad? By all accounts, I'd say thats a pretty effective free agency....

 

[DuderinoN703]

I guess my main point is rome is not built in a day and we possibly will not be as successful year 2.

We possibly will be as successful in year 2 also.

 

[ckparrothead]

I know this, of the 6 losses we had, two came against a team that went to the AFC Championship...two came against winning division opponents (Jets and Pats), and one came against the NFC Champions that came 2 minutes away from winning the Super Bowl.

So, I hear the argument that we beat a lot of bad teams. I do. But the losses were at the other end of the spectrum, for the most part. The losses were either to really, really good teams...or tough division opponents that TEND to split games with each other year after year after year no matter who is good and who is bad (see 2004 and 2006 when we beat the Patriots despite being bad).

Overall that setup makes it really difficult to truly gauge where we are as a team.

 

[dlockz]

We possibly will be as successful in year 2 also.

I never said we wont be. I just know how quickly some people on this board jump from one year to the next. Remember how 2007 was the draft that was going to change this franchise. With Ginn and Booker's speed teams will not be able to hang with us. Remember after Saban's first year, if you said anything bad about Saban you were summarily cast as a negative fan. Satale as a rookie could do no wrong, year 2 he may be replaced. Joey Porter sucks as a signing and now he is the best leader in fottball.

 

[dlockz]

Over 60% of the team is new players. We improved our win total by 10 games, we won the AFC East and hosted a playoff game. How exactly was our free agency bad? By all accounts, I'd say thats a pretty effective free agency....

i said our free agency was nothing special. Smiley was our best initial signing, still overpaid for a player coming off of injury.. Starks good rotational player but we overpaid. Torbor and Wilford were busts.
So out of intial free agency we signed 1 starter that was Smiley.
Starks was rotaional but not a starter.

 

[The Goat]

Here's what I love...we have the toughest schedule in the league next year. If we duplicate what we did this year, (or...even more impressively...IMPROVE on it), the naysayers will be running out of things to say.