Good Article, especially on where AJ"s at. | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Good Article, especially on where AJ"s at.

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exactly where, we don't know, which is why we shouldn't judge right now..but read on..

Ray McNulty: Saban cleaning mess left behind by Wannstedt

EDITED:

For those who haven't registered there, here's some highlights.

Dave Wannstedt is gone ... but not forgotten.

Not yet.

Advertisement

Not until we find out whether A.J. Feeley has what it takes to be a championship-caliber quarterback  and if he was worth that second-round pick the Miami Dolphins gave away to get him.

So the more things changed for South Florida's football team this past weekend, when new coach Nick Saban began cleaning up the mess Wannstedt left behind, the more things remained the same.

True, Saban used the No. 2 overall pick in the just-concluded NFL Draft to get Auburn's Ronnie Brown, generally considered the best running back in this year's class and, seemingly, a ready-to-ramble replacement for Ricky Williams.

And Saban began the process of replenishing the team's aging defense, trading former Pro Bowl cornerback Patrick Surtain to Kansas City last week in exchange for a second-round pick, which the Dolphins used to select Iowa defensive end Matt Roth.

Saban then grabbed Florida linebacker Channing Crowder  who, if his surgically repaired left knee holds up and he can stay away from Gainesville nightclubs, has a chance to be the next Zach Thomas  in the third round, before taking Louisiana State cornerback Travis Daniels in the fourth.

Clearly, the man has a plan.

He's building his team his way, with his type of players.
Click to expand...

and

And, thus far, there's no reason to doubt that Saban knows what he's doing.

Indeed, Dolphins fans should feel better about their team today than they have in a couple of years  a little better, at least.

The Dolphins probably won't be back in the playoffs next season, but they'll no longer be the bad football joke they were last season.

Saban will make them a better team.

How much better?

And how soon?

It's too soon to say.

But ...

You can't win big in today's NFL without a top-shelf quarterback  not for long, anyway.

Tom Brady has led New England to three Super Bowl victories in four years. Donovan McNabb has carried Philadelphia to four consecutive NFC championship games and last year's conference title. Peyton Manning makes Indianapolis a perennial contender. Brett Favre gives Green Bay a chance every year. Michael Vick is the only reason Atlanta has any chance at all.

The Dolphins? They don't know if they have a capable quarterback or not.

Still.

Which brings us back to Wannstedt.

He had a chance to do the right thing last year, after the Dolphins acquired Feeley from Philadelphia. He had an obligation, really, to give Feeley the ball  right then and there, from the start of the spring minicamps through training camp and throughout the 16-game season  so the franchise could find out if it had a quarterback. He owed it to team owner Wayne Huizenga, who gave the beleaguered coach an undeserved, two-year contract extension.

Fact is, you don't trade away a second-round pick for a backup.

But Wannstedt refused to start Feeley.

Stubbornly. Selfishly. Foolishly.

And by staying with Jay Fiedler, who was never quite good enough, Wannstedt cost the Dolphins a year.

At the end of last season, we should've known all about Feeley. We should've known whether he has the poise and the smarts and the grit to go along with that wonderful right arm. We should've known if he has what it takes to be a championship-caliber quarterback.

But we didn't. And we don't.

So now it's up to Saban to find out if Feeley can play, to see if he's got a quarterback that can put the Dolphins back in the playoffs, to decide whether he needs to bring in somebody else.

There are other concerns at other positions, of course, and Saban addressed some of them in his first draft.

But the more you look at what Saban is doing, the more you see the mess his predecessor left behind.
Click to expand...
Wannstedt is gone ... but nobody should forget what he did.
 
Hes basically just btching about how Wannstedt should have started Feeley from day 1. He disregards the fact that Feeley stunk it up in training camp and was totally lost. 8 interceptions in one practice I believe?
 
DeeAy3000 said:
copy and paste it
Click to expand...

No..here's some of the newer stuff we haven't read.


Dave Wannstedt is gone ... but not forgotten.

Not yet.

Advertisement

Not until we find out whether A.J. Feeley has what it takes to be a championship-caliber quarterback  and if he was worth that second-round pick the Miami Dolphins gave away to get him.

So the more things changed for South Florida's football team this past weekend, when new coach Nick Saban began cleaning up the mess Wannstedt left behind, the more things remained the same.

True, Saban used the No. 2 overall pick in the just-concluded NFL Draft to get Auburn's Ronnie Brown, generally considered the best running back in this year's class and, seemingly, a ready-to-ramble replacement for Ricky Williams.

And Saban began the process of replenishing the team's aging defense, trading former Pro Bowl cornerback Patrick Surtain to Kansas City last week in exchange for a second-round pick, which the Dolphins used to select Iowa defensive end Matt Roth.

Saban then grabbed Florida linebacker Channing Crowder  who, if his surgically repaired left knee holds up and he can stay away from Gainesville nightclubs, has a chance to be the next Zach Thomas  in the third round, before taking Louisiana State cornerback Travis Daniels in the fourth.

Clearly, the man has a plan.

He's building his team his way, with his type of players.
Click to expand...

and

And, thus far, there's no reason to doubt that Saban knows what he's doing.

Indeed, Dolphins fans should feel better about their team today than they have in a couple of years  a little better, at least.

The Dolphins probably won't be back in the playoffs next season, but they'll no longer be the bad football joke they were last season.

Saban will make them a better team.

How much better?

And how soon?

It's too soon to say.

But ...

You can't win big in today's NFL without a top-shelf quarterback  not for long, anyway.

Tom Brady has led New England to three Super Bowl victories in four years. Donovan McNabb has carried Philadelphia to four consecutive NFC championship games and last year's conference title. Peyton Manning makes Indianapolis a perennial contender. Brett Favre gives Green Bay a chance every year. Michael Vick is the only reason Atlanta has any chance at all.

The Dolphins? They don't know if they have a capable quarterback or not.

Still.

Which brings us back to Wannstedt.

He had a chance to do the right thing last year, after the Dolphins acquired Feeley from Philadelphia. He had an obligation, really, to give Feeley the ball  right then and there, from the start of the spring minicamps through training camp and throughout the 16-game season  so the franchise could find out if it had a quarterback. He owed it to team owner Wayne Huizenga, who gave the beleaguered coach an undeserved, two-year contract extension.

Fact is, you don't trade away a second-round pick for a backup.

But Wannstedt refused to start Feeley.

Stubbornly. Selfishly. Foolishly.

And by staying with Jay Fiedler, who was never quite good enough, Wannstedt cost the Dolphins a year.

At the end of last season, we should've known all about Feeley. We should've known whether he has the poise and the smarts and the grit to go along with that wonderful right arm. We should've known if he has what it takes to be a championship-caliber quarterback.

But we didn't. And we don't.

So now it's up to Saban to find out if Feeley can play, to see if he's got a quarterback that can put the Dolphins back in the playoffs, to decide whether he needs to bring in somebody else.

There are other concerns at other positions, of course, and Saban addressed some of them in his first draft.

But the more you look at what Saban is doing, the more you see the mess his predecessor left behind.
Click to expand...
Wannstedt is gone ... but nobody should forget what he did.
 
I think his point is we still dont know what Feeley can be because Wannstedt didnt give him the chance to prove his worth. I tend to agree. Last season, I believed firmly that it was essential that we see the real AJ Feeley. Whether we go 0-16, or win some games, we had to know WITHOUT QUESTION whether AJ was the guy, or not. And we still do not.
 
Jnaledu3 said:
Hes basically just btching about how Wannstedt should have started Feeley from day 1. He disregards the fact that Feeley stunk it up in training camp and was totally lost. 8 interceptions in one practice I believe?
Click to expand...

the one thing I hope AJ doesn't do this year is openly complain about not being able to learn Linehan's playbook. Last year, he whined about being slow to pick up Wanny/Norv's playbook. I hope he keeps it to himself this year if he does have that problem.

Gus said that he'd give AJ tips here and there if he needed them, but he wasn't going to spoonfeed him the system (which obviously makes sense because Gus wants to start). It'll be interesting to see if Feeley can pick up the playbook basically on his own.
 
Dudeman said:
the one thing I hope AJ doesn't do this year is openly complain about not being able to learn Linehan's playbook. Last year, he whined about being slow to pick up Wanny/Norv's playbook. I hope he keeps it to himself this year if he does have that problem.

Gus said that he'd give AJ tips here and there if he needed them, but he wasn't going to spoonfeed him the system (which obviously makes sense because Gus wants to start). It'll be interesting to see if Feeley can pick up the playbook basically on his own.
Click to expand...

Actually, he complained about how hard it was to play in an offense where there were almost no audibles, and no hot routes to throw to when a team blitzed. He said his natural instincts were to look for a guy that was breaking off his route to help him out. He had to learn to hold on to the ball, because in the Fins offense, everyone still ran the same route, whether there was a blitz or not. In his defense, the offense ran by Chris Foerster was a joke, and a real head coach would have done something about it. Feeley had every right to complain about the system.
 
"... but nobody should forget what he did."

Jeez, that's a little severe. He wasn't, like, a Nazi was he? :eek:
 
Dudeman said:
the one thing I hope AJ doesn't do this year is openly complain about not being able to learn Linehan's playbook. Last year, he whined about being slow to pick up Wanny/Norv's playbook. I hope he keeps it to himself this year if he does have that problem.
Click to expand...

Actually I believe it was more whining about how bad the practices were run compared to when he was in Philly. That's what got him in Wanny's doghouse.
 
Jnaledu3 said:
Hes basically just btching about how Wannstedt should have started Feeley from day 1. He disregards the fact that Feeley stunk it up in training camp and was totally lost. 8 interceptions in one practice I believe?
Click to expand...


I understand your point but yuou fail to consider teh circumstances. He spent all offseason in a system that was geared for Ricky and they never changed the system, never adapted teh system. Everything that we did was predicated on the run, then we didnt have that option and everything else went downhill. The run was supposed to set up the pass, when the run wasnt there, nobody bought the run. Plus Boston got hurt, so we lose another player AJ was working on building timing with. Once Ricky retired it sent the whole offense in a tailspin, to ask an inexperienced qb behind a subpar o-line and no ground game to make up teh slack with the system giving him no support is way too much to ask.
 
Dudeman said:
the one thing I hope AJ doesn't do this year is openly complain about not being able to learn Linehan's playbook. Last year, he whined about being slow to pick up Wanny/Norv's playbook. I hope he keeps it to himself this year if he does have that problem.
Click to expand...

I guess that we will know soon enough.... it won't be like he will be able to hide it if he struggles picking up the scheme.
 
Worst case scenario, AJ learned some things about last year. As a QB he saw the worst of the worst last year: a new O, no RB, a weak OL, a new WR, no hot routes, a distraught coaching regime, an interrim coach, New England defense, high Miami expectations, and half a training camp.

So since he got a little better progressively up untill the end of the season, and will see better conditions all around him this year, whose to say he wont progress even more.

But 1 year is all AJ should get, no 4 year Jay Fiedler waiting period on this one. You got that Saban! :D
 
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