Two things are happening that I sense:
1. People that didn't like Ryan Mallett all along are emboldened by the fact that Miami didn't take him and that he fell to the Patriots' willing arms, and so they want to speak up and gloat about it as if they've been "proven" correct even though nothing will have been "proven" until years down the road.
2. People that were convinced into liking Ryan Mallett in part by my opinion but also by the mass groundswell of public sentiment in Miami toward him, feel really sore over the whole thing and burned for liking Ryan Mallett, and so they just don't want to hear opinions that continue to insist that Mallett is good.
If I can appeal to peoples' sense of logic for a moment and not their emotionalism, I would simply ask them, what kind of analyst would I be if I was such a weathervane that the mere fact that the Miami Dolphins passed on a guy, or the mere fact that the Miami Dolphins took someone, made me change opinions on these players that have been months in forming? You can say the entire NFL doubts a certain guy because they didn't take him until a certain point in the Draft, but then doesn't that also apply to the universally-loved and heralded draft pick we got in the 4th round, Edmond Gates of Abilene Christian? Nearly every team in the NFL passed on him three times. You don't see a ton of people bringing THAT one up, do you? Or what about Daniel Thomas, who is now suddenly a "premier back" even though nearly every team in the NFL passed on him twice (about the same number of times they passed on Ryan Mallett)?
You don't see any shortage of acceptance for opinions saying that Daniel Thomas or Edmond Gates are "steals" do you? No. But continued high opinions of Ryan Mallett are not tolerated. Why?
Simple answer: emotionalism.
Well a couple of your threads appeared a bit stressed out and agressive regarding the Dolphins not drafting Mallett. Kind of like you were on the attack. So its natural to get a bit of a rebutal when that happens. Still it is understandable you are standing up for something you deeply believe in not just the player but the QB position.
As I believe you have stated the Dolphins brass are looking at this thing in the short term during this draft instead of the long term down the road which is required when dealing with the quarterback position.
I personally was having a hard time going into this draft wrapping my mind about how they were going to approach the draft this year especially after following all your threads regarding drafting Mallet.
It wasn't that I was not on board with drafting Mallet either it was more I wanted to get a sense of who they were targeting to draft with some sort of logic behind it. At least for myself. Eventually very close to the draft I became fairly convinced that they were not going to draft Mallett in the first round like you hoped and the only 2 QB's they would consider drafting in that round would be Newton (who was definitly going early) or Blaine Galbert. Anyway the other facts that I thought was very important to consider was what Ireland and Tony S had to say in their pre draft press conference, Irelands past draft history with the phins and their precarious job situation.
Saying that this is how I broke it down and it made logical sense to me and if I were in their shoes you would have to consider it.
1. Job situation (they have to win now) so A. A rookie QB is very doubtful to make that happen and B the high draft pick used on the rookie QB might be used elsewhere on the offense to allow the winning to happen sooner rather than later.
2. Past Irelands draft history suggested we pick big physcial players at a position of need. This is debatable but the most immediate positions of need that would return the most immediate results as far as winning are running back and offensive line.
3. Press Conference: Ireland in his press conference IMO bascially blew off drafting Mallet early when in that same press conference pointed out that the sucessful running backs are drafted early.
4. Take into consideration that Tony this year now had more say in the draft and every year he has spent a lot of resourses at this positon then I felt stongly that it was going to be addressed in the first two rounds.
We could continue on about the logic and the sense of this draft because in the rear view mirror this draft really addressed many of the key issues that were ailing the team last year. Wether we drafted the right players is the question but Ireland has delivered as much or more than most GM's.
That is not to say your position is wrong either because the 2 most important positoins on the team are the QB and head coach.
So far Henne might be average at best and as you point out you take a good/great QB when you can find them not when you are ready find them. Still theses guys are trying to save their jobs this year would Mallett get that done. Very debatable but I don't think so. So this gets us to how good are Ireland and Sporano.
I like Ireland and like the QB position would like to hold onto him unless someone better comes along. I used to like Sporano hard worker, willing to take chances (think wildcat) and I beleive a staight shooter but like many I am becoming less convince he is up to the job.
Especially when our offensive line is a problem and his special teams coach failed us 2 years in a row. Those are both his areas of control and therefore he gets the blame. IMO
Going back to the draft one last time Thomas was the right pick for what this team needed this year at the position of running back which was a priority. So while he is the right pick for right now Mallett had the greater possible value for this team for the next 10 years so he was the better pick. Too bad they were drafting to save their jobs which swayed their judgement. I tend to beleive that they really saw what you saw in Mallett which is why I believe they did try to draft back up into the 3rd round to grab the guy. They just did not have enough bullets. This draft really fell apart when they could not trade back in that first round or I believe you would be one happy phin phan today!
So many or now hoping that because Mallett is a Pat that all your assessments were wrong and that just natural to want to hate the "percieved" enemy.