has it been the coaching or the players ?

[allsilverdreams]

i began to really think and when i was done i sat there and really wondered.over the last 20 years we have seen some coaches come and go and we have seen some players with real talent come and go.
after shula it was JIMMY JOHNSON.what he took over from Shula was an average team.jimmy tried to do his magic in the draft by trading down time and time again .now i know we had JT,ZT,PS,SM and Dan Marino with JJ but was it really his coaching or was it the players that were not right.
out goes JJ in comes MR.WANSTASH lol he was never a HC b4 and he was handed a team that just got crushed in the playoffs by the jages.but he did have some really good players on his team.then came his drafts we really never hit one out of the park but dave did miss on some players esp some qb's that were on the board when we picked.dave did make the trade for ricky and it did cost us 2 first round picks and dave continued to give away picks.the one question is with the players he had was it good enough or was his coaching that bad.run ricky run and then run ricky some more.
then we had some breif coaches in here such as that a hole NICK SABAN and even cam cameron.neither one was a HC in the nfl b4 and they had talented players but perhaps their lack of experience in the nfl put us behind the 8 ball again.
then came tony sparano another coach with no experience as HC and we all know how tht turned out.
so my question to you guys is was it the coaches or was it the players and why?

 

[LANGER72]

I think it is the coaching. We had some decent talent over the last couple of years and we lost too many games where the defense caved in at the end of the game because of prevent or lack of adjustments at half time. The conservative play calling continually stopped drives and we had to settle for field goals. Remember what coach Bum Phillips said about Shula.."He can take his'in and beat your'in, and then take your'in and beat his'in" or quote similar to that. I really believe the coach is the key. I think Philbin is the best coach we have had since Saban, and before that Shula.
The Cam Cameroon year was a complete case of butthurt..the team was gutted and we had a complete fool running the team. That team was bad, bad, bad. Thank god for that lucky pass against the Ravens of all teams..Lucas to Camarillo..or we would have been 0-16.

 

[2413fanphins]

I think it's a combination of both. Jimmy johnsons run run run mentality was a collossal waste. dave wanstedt was in way over his head. when you have your own players mocking you, it can't be very good. we had one helluva defense, two guys with ten sacks one year, and I think 3 or 4 guys who had 5 ints. we won the east one year at 11-5 and than wannstache proceeded to run lamar smith damn near to death, and he could barely move in the 2nd round agaisnt the raiders.
than we ran into depth problems at qb, when jay fiedler of all people got hurt. ray lucas... bleh...

nick saban rolls into town, takes ronnie brown, losing 7 of 10 than winning out to miss the playoffs, than gaffing on drew brees. than saban ran like a scalded dog.

cam cameron was a joke from the time he put ink to paper...

the last three years have been brutal....

so I'd say mostly coaching, with about 30% players..

 

[Ricky4Life]

I would say Coaching was mostly the issue. They come in here and just run everything into the ground and the team gets gutted time and time again. I have a feeling that Philbin will be a great head coach. I am interested to see if Irelands philosophy changes at all now that the Tuna is no longer here. If he will draft outside of the mold that the Tuna stuck t no matter what. Because to be honest he has only had one draft that he had complete control over and that was last year. Otherwise the Tuna had final say on all draft picks. It will be telling since the rumor was Jeff wanted Matt Ryan and the Tuna wanted Jake Long. Maybe we will finally will get our QB this year if they are all on board for Tannehill. Maybe just maybe we will have another great QB taken in the first round as we have only had two in Bob Griese and Dan Marino. One can hope and we will see when draft day comes.

 

[Adam Strange]

We've definitely been cursed with unsuccesful coaches-- some incompetent, some disinterested, all failures. But I disagree with essentially removing any agency from the players.

Wanny takes all of the blame, usually, and none of the praise for everything that happened, and didn't happen, between 2000 and 2004. And he certainly should have been fired after 2002. However, the players are just as responsible as he is for failing to make plays in big games, failing to close it out in 2002, and just completely failing once they got past the first round of the playoffs. And that's equally true for a lot of the players we've had in the eight years following Wanny. Sparano was in over his head and was a lousy game-day coach, but that doesn't absolve Chad Henne of his many mistakes.

The coaching makes a difference, and it's been bad. But the players aren't chess pieces and they bear a lot of the blame as well.

 

[AdamD13]

13 years since Marino retired, 15 different starters at QB:

Damon Huard, Jay Fiedler, Ray Lucas, Brian Griese, AJ Feeley, Sage Rosenfels, Joey Harrington, Daunte Culpepper, Cleo Lemon, Trent Green, John Beck, Chad Pennington, Chad Henne, Tyler Thigpen, Matt Moore.

Not saying it wasn't coaches and players, but definitely a lack of talent at the QB position.

 

[NRA]

WOW!!

maybe the most easiest question ever presented on FH.


BOTH!!!!!

its been a perfect storm of coaches [JJ excluded] who have mediocre or no nfl coaching talent and even LESS skills as talent evaluators [see wanny and ireland]. coaches who are not diciplined in any style, west coast, air coryell, run n shoot, etc..... just "we'll play it as we see it" types.

throw in a bad gm or two and BINGO!! you have one perfectly cooked miami dolphins.we have no players because of bad coaching and gm'ing.

easy.

 

[cuzinvinny]

It all has to go relatively hand in hand. U need a GM that has a reliable plan, and player insight, and the ability to know and bring in quality players. A HC that knows what he's doing as far as coaching, motivating, evaluating, putting the best players on the field and having a knowledge of being that field general in preparation and game time adjustments and the right players.......

Our team:
GM inability to properly evaluate quality players (beyond the high priced that we all recognize), sign those needed in a realistic time frame (ex. still needing upgrade for OL, 4 years now 2 #1 draft picks). Having a successful view or better yet "Plan" of what to do....Every year we seem to be upgrading players who have been previously upgraded and that is still going on today

HC: Tony Sparano as a HC was the worst we've had and pretty much anyone we bring in will be a solid up grade. Sparano was unable to evaluate players and problems in an adequate time frame. OL, DB's, Special team being a joke for years and how about our 2 min drill lol ...He was just terribly at evaluating the players he had and in game adjustments......

Bottom line: we should have a better prepared team with the ability to evaluate and adjust to needs in a timelier manner. Now the success will depend alot on Ireland's ability or maybe I should say luck in the Draft, FA, and the level of skilled players he brings to Philbin to build on, and hopefully will at some point realize filling year after year with x-cowboys and worn out injury prone cheaper mediocre scrubs doesn't work and that some level of quality is essential for building a successful team....but that is still extremely questionable or more toward the "not getting it side".........

 

[Patrick_Bateman]

out goes JJ in comes MR.WANSTASH lol he was never a HC b4 and he was handed a team that just got crushed in the playoffs by the jages.

Actually Wanstash DID have head coaching experience, he ran the Chicago Bears into the ****ing ground. I remember when JJ brought him on board, I said to anybody that would listen to me that if JJ left and Wanstash was ever given our franchise he would set us back at least a decade (just like Da Bears), and lo and behold it happened.

Of course I can't blame everything on Wanny, because just about every move since Wanny left has been an unmitigated disaster as well.

The good news is teams like Green Bay (pre-Favre) and Detroit (Matt Millen era) have resurfaced after decades of irrelevance. It just takes time, and somebody making some good decisions.

 

[fishbanger]

JJ was a great coach. I think he just burnt out and was at the end of his career.

Wandstedt = bad HC with power to run poor drafts and give away draft picks and FA like fiedler.
Saban = Good coach but with poor to make poor drafts and FA like Jason allen and Culpepper.
Cameron = Ginn and Beck and giving Welker away to PATS for second round pick. Lowest point in Franchise history.
Sparano = bad HC and poor FA input especially in regards to OL. When you are an expert and cant put an OL together then how can you do anthing else.
Philben = Lets see what happens with this draft. He will follow the GB model.

 

[Perfect72]

Thank god for that lucky pass against the Ravens of all teams..Lucas to Camarillo..or we would have been 0-16.

I believe you meant Cleo Lemon to Greg Camarillo...

 

[whizafriz]

I think when you look at what it takes to win a game in the NFL, strategy comes before actual raw talent. Especially with the rise of pass-first offenses, there's more involved with drawing up plays and confusing defenses, not to mention time management and such with games coming down to the wire. Plenty of teams with talent have lost games simply because of coaching decisions. I think when you look at successful QBs, theyre trained to dominate what the defense is throwing their way (Brady, Brees, Manning) Now granted I cant confirm that they all learnt that from coaching only, but the offensive coordinators of a lot of these playoff teams have all received much praise in thwarting and confusing the raw brute talent of defenses.

Skill does play a big role in offense as well, like WR's being fast, or turning on a dime, etc., but as Dolphin fans, we should all see pretty clearly how that gets misused with improper personnel-use (Brandon Marshall and his rare-if-any TD catches)

 

[CedarPhin]

It's been the coaching. Seems like we've been playing the same bland, grind-it-out, play not to lose type game since 1996 or so.

 

[FinsNCanes]

Mostly coaching and one position QB. We've had the defense, we've had good enough offenses, no QB. I mean we've seen what can happen with above average QB play.

 

[iwastherein72]

The sad part is if we had the talent on this team now that wannabe had in 2000-2001, most of us would be turning cartwheels.

When we have had talent, we had clueless coaching.

The 2 common denominators of ALL Dolphin teams since Shula left:

1. A fetish for "defense-first", "inside-out", jj-style sneak-n-squeak offensive philosophy (sneak up on 'em all game long, kick a FG, squeak out a win in the final seconds)

2. A journeyman caretaker QB mentality. We didn't win w/Marino, so let's get an ANTI-Marino and see how that works. LOL