CK's statistics would be accurate. However, I still think that the Philbin coaching era operates on a different timeline to the Sparano era. By that I mean that Joe seems to prefer to have the rookies spend an extended period on the bench and deliberately bringing them along slower (with the exceptions of Tannehill, Martin, Vernon and Sturgis). It could be argued that Jonathan Martin should have spent more time observing from the bench to build his hunger to play the game. Note that this approach is analogous to what he and Sherman observed/initiated in Green Bay. In contrast, the Sparano era rookies were thrown in the deep end and if they survived, OK great, but if not, next.
There are pluses and minuses from the two different approaches. However, because many of Joe's rookies this year have had very limited playing time, eg Jordan, Taylor, Thomas, Davis, Jenkins, Sims, Gillislee and Jones, but that doesn't make them all busts. Last year we saw very little of Lamar Miller, but he is making a good contribution this year. Even Egnew who was written off as a bust by most, is beginning to make a contribution and looks a lot better for the future.
Personally, I am quite comfortable with the slower timeline. Good things sometimes take longer, eg Soliai, who would have been written off as a major bust after negligible playing time in his first two years. In this respect, don't be surprised if Ireland is given more benefit of the doubt, because Philbin appears more comfortable in taking some time to develop and teach. The other thing is that drafting a QB takes precedence to everything. In the calculation, Tannehill counts the same as Kheeston Randall, who was cut this year and the Michigan State WR who I have already forgotten, but couldn't make it through training camp. If we are honest, there is a huge difference in the potential contribution to the long term between a Tannehill selection in the first round and a Kheeston Randall in the sixth.
However, CK's analysis is very thought provoking - as usual. I miss his contribution to this website. He was the best. Ironically, if Ireland had sufficient intelligence, he should employ CK to do the detailed analysis and help the team from the inside.
