Perfect72
It's Only Happened ONCE!
One of the amazing things about these Miami Dolphins making such a strong and, yes, improbable push toward being in the playoffs this season is that on paper they pretty much seem to need a ton of help.
No disrespect to the front office but it failed miserably to put together a linebacker corps that is 10 star players deep.
(Yes, that is a joke).
Back of the roster players are there for a reason. And yet last week the Dolphins found themselves reaching deep into the roster to put some of those players on the field as starters. Consider, for example, the four linebackers who played in the victory against the Arizona Cardinals:
Spencer Paysinger.
Mike Hull.
Donald Butler.
Neville Hewitt.
A career special teams guy. A 2015 undrafted and undersized free agent making his first NFL start. A a guy who was waived by the San Diego Chargers and was a street free agent when the Dolphins signed him in late September. And another 2015 undrafted free agent.
Not exactly prized draft picks or free agents any of them.
So I tell you, it’s impressive the Dolphins are doing what they are doing amid injuries to starters, with plans at other positions not proceeding as expected, and sometimes even with less overall talent than the opposition.
And that brings me to this:
When this season, already something of a feel-good story, comes to a close, the Dolphins’ front office will be under the gun to not just hold serve but to find breakthrough so that eventually the Dolphins continue moving toward the high calling of winning an NFL title.
We’ve been here before.
In 2008, the first year under Bill Parcells as football czar and Tony Sparano as head coach, the Dolphins made the amazing climb from 1-15 to 11-5 and the AFC East title. After that season, Parcells told me he had no illusions about how talented that team was or was not.
He admitted that team had some serious holes.
And he said it was thus his personnel department’s assignment to stock up so that Miami could add to the work that had been done in 2008.
It didn’t happen.
The Dolphins instead made significant personnel mistakes and not only did not advance but rather tumbled back to something just below mediocrity and near irrelevancy. Within a couple of years, Parcells was gone, then Sparano was fired, then general manager Jeff Ireland was replaced.
That’s what happens when you go 11-5 and then draft Pat White and Patrick Turner and John Jerry and Daniel Thomas. Yes, the Dolphins hit on some guys, too -- Vontae Davis and Mike Pouncey and Reshad Jones come to mind. But it wasn’t enough when free agency was providing gems such as Jake Grove, who played I think three minutes for the Dolphins.
Bottom line, the Dolphins of that day laid a great foundation in Year One and followed by building a straw hut to face a New England Patriots hurricane.
More at LINK: http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/armando-salguero/article121244503.html
Your thoughts?
No disrespect to the front office but it failed miserably to put together a linebacker corps that is 10 star players deep.
(Yes, that is a joke).
Back of the roster players are there for a reason. And yet last week the Dolphins found themselves reaching deep into the roster to put some of those players on the field as starters. Consider, for example, the four linebackers who played in the victory against the Arizona Cardinals:
Spencer Paysinger.
Mike Hull.
Donald Butler.
Neville Hewitt.
A career special teams guy. A 2015 undrafted and undersized free agent making his first NFL start. A a guy who was waived by the San Diego Chargers and was a street free agent when the Dolphins signed him in late September. And another 2015 undrafted free agent.
Not exactly prized draft picks or free agents any of them.
So I tell you, it’s impressive the Dolphins are doing what they are doing amid injuries to starters, with plans at other positions not proceeding as expected, and sometimes even with less overall talent than the opposition.
And that brings me to this:
When this season, already something of a feel-good story, comes to a close, the Dolphins’ front office will be under the gun to not just hold serve but to find breakthrough so that eventually the Dolphins continue moving toward the high calling of winning an NFL title.
We’ve been here before.
In 2008, the first year under Bill Parcells as football czar and Tony Sparano as head coach, the Dolphins made the amazing climb from 1-15 to 11-5 and the AFC East title. After that season, Parcells told me he had no illusions about how talented that team was or was not.
He admitted that team had some serious holes.
And he said it was thus his personnel department’s assignment to stock up so that Miami could add to the work that had been done in 2008.
It didn’t happen.
The Dolphins instead made significant personnel mistakes and not only did not advance but rather tumbled back to something just below mediocrity and near irrelevancy. Within a couple of years, Parcells was gone, then Sparano was fired, then general manager Jeff Ireland was replaced.
That’s what happens when you go 11-5 and then draft Pat White and Patrick Turner and John Jerry and Daniel Thomas. Yes, the Dolphins hit on some guys, too -- Vontae Davis and Mike Pouncey and Reshad Jones come to mind. But it wasn’t enough when free agency was providing gems such as Jake Grove, who played I think three minutes for the Dolphins.
Bottom line, the Dolphins of that day laid a great foundation in Year One and followed by building a straw hut to face a New England Patriots hurricane.
More at LINK: http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/armando-salguero/article121244503.html
Your thoughts?
