afishfan13
Practice Squad
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I saw some post about Marino, so I took a second to think about his career and where I was at the time etc....
Anyways I decided to take a look at Miami's teams and stats over the last 13-15 years. Every year this team had major holes. We had several years where we AVERAGED close to 3 yards per carry. That is horrible, and so are the backs we had running the ball. Those teams NEVER had a chance. Abdul-Jabbar, Irving Spikes, and Mark Higgs were TERRIBLE. We haven't had good receivers since 1995. Our best team talent wise was Ricky's first year, and it isn't EVEN CLOSE! That team could have won a superbowl in 2002. They might have had the most talented team in the NFL. Jay Fiedler has been our best quarterback since Marino. He actually was a pretty good quarterback. He wasn't going to win a ton of games for you but he wasn't going to lose them either. He had a couple pretty good years for us with a QB rating around 85 (This guy, at one point, had the best winning percentage among active quarterbacks when he played for us. He brought from behind, was efficient, and tough. He didnt have the arm, and wasn't accurate deep. He also wasn't the bum dolphins fans make him out to be). Marino was 89 for his career. Every other quarterback besides Fiedler since Marino has been around 75. That is a huge difference! If Ray Lucas doesn't lose a bunch of games for us that year we might have had a chance. Our next best team was probably 1994. Losing Terry Kirby probably hurt, but outside of Ricky Williams, and Kirby, Bernie Parmalee is the best back we have had in that time period. Our defense wasn't all that great but we had some really good players on defense with Cox, Vincent, and Cross.
Anyways, looking at it, we have our best set of receivers, this year, since we had Irving Fryar, Mark Ingram, OJ Mcduffie, and Keith Jackson. I give 1994 the nod, but for the first time in 13 years you could actually have that discussion, which means we, on paper, don't have a hole there anymore.
If Mueller keeps Ricky, which I think he will, or backs are the best we have had since 2002, when our backup to Ricky was Travis Minor, and prior to that 1994 when we had Terry Kirby and Bernie Parmalee. I think Ricky will be the same player. We have Ronnie Brown, and Lorenzo Booker is better than Minor. Our backs are better this year than at anytime in our history since 1973. Even if Ricky doesn't come back we are still pretty good there.
Offensive line is the second biggest question mark for this team. That being said, we have finally started to address it in the last couple of years with draft picks. We have had average to poor offensive line play in the last 15 years. This line has a chance to be as good as any we have had since Webb and Heller were our bookend tackles back in 1994. This unit has had question marks ever year since then, and I believe Vernon Carey gives us our best option at left tackle since Mark Dixon (who was always injured) and Richmond Webb. This certainly wont be the worst line we've had, and it has the potential to be the best. It will probably be average.
Our quarterback play will be better than any we have had since Fiedler. It wont be as bad as it has been. We should have at least average quarterback play no matter who our quarterback is. Green and Culpepper have been to the probowl, and it stands to reason that Beck and Lemon won't play as poorly as Harrington, Frerotte, Lucas etc have played. The quarterback also has more options than we have had in 15 years. The quarterback himself, whoever it is, should be average to good though. If for nothing else than the fact we actually have 4 options at Qb. The most OPTIONS we've had recently were Fiedler and Griese.
Our defense is probably better and deeper than any we have had in 15 years. Our 2003 might have had to most talent, but it wasn't deep, and we were predictable. Taylor, Thomas, Madison, Surtain, Seau, Marion, Ogunleye. Pretty damn good. Our defense last year probably played better. Now we have Taylor, Thomas, Porter, Holliday as probowlers and young talent in Roth, Crowder, and Will Allen. We are much deeper this year, it's our 2nd year under Capers, and our personal fits the system for the first time. This should be our best defense in 15 years.
Our return game is better than at any time in the last 15 years.
Our most talented team was in 2002, followed by 1994. It's debatable if we are as talented as the team in 2002. We know we have better coaching now than we did with Wanny, and believe it or not if Fiedler didnt get hurt that team was pretty special.
That being said, The AFC is the toughest it's ever been, but looking at our roster we are pretty solid. We are a playoff team on paper. We should be somewhere between 9-7 and 11-5, unless we get hit by the injury bug. Looking like this how do you think we could/will finish below .500?
Anyways I decided to take a look at Miami's teams and stats over the last 13-15 years. Every year this team had major holes. We had several years where we AVERAGED close to 3 yards per carry. That is horrible, and so are the backs we had running the ball. Those teams NEVER had a chance. Abdul-Jabbar, Irving Spikes, and Mark Higgs were TERRIBLE. We haven't had good receivers since 1995. Our best team talent wise was Ricky's first year, and it isn't EVEN CLOSE! That team could have won a superbowl in 2002. They might have had the most talented team in the NFL. Jay Fiedler has been our best quarterback since Marino. He actually was a pretty good quarterback. He wasn't going to win a ton of games for you but he wasn't going to lose them either. He had a couple pretty good years for us with a QB rating around 85 (This guy, at one point, had the best winning percentage among active quarterbacks when he played for us. He brought from behind, was efficient, and tough. He didnt have the arm, and wasn't accurate deep. He also wasn't the bum dolphins fans make him out to be). Marino was 89 for his career. Every other quarterback besides Fiedler since Marino has been around 75. That is a huge difference! If Ray Lucas doesn't lose a bunch of games for us that year we might have had a chance. Our next best team was probably 1994. Losing Terry Kirby probably hurt, but outside of Ricky Williams, and Kirby, Bernie Parmalee is the best back we have had in that time period. Our defense wasn't all that great but we had some really good players on defense with Cox, Vincent, and Cross.
Anyways, looking at it, we have our best set of receivers, this year, since we had Irving Fryar, Mark Ingram, OJ Mcduffie, and Keith Jackson. I give 1994 the nod, but for the first time in 13 years you could actually have that discussion, which means we, on paper, don't have a hole there anymore.
If Mueller keeps Ricky, which I think he will, or backs are the best we have had since 2002, when our backup to Ricky was Travis Minor, and prior to that 1994 when we had Terry Kirby and Bernie Parmalee. I think Ricky will be the same player. We have Ronnie Brown, and Lorenzo Booker is better than Minor. Our backs are better this year than at anytime in our history since 1973. Even if Ricky doesn't come back we are still pretty good there.
Offensive line is the second biggest question mark for this team. That being said, we have finally started to address it in the last couple of years with draft picks. We have had average to poor offensive line play in the last 15 years. This line has a chance to be as good as any we have had since Webb and Heller were our bookend tackles back in 1994. This unit has had question marks ever year since then, and I believe Vernon Carey gives us our best option at left tackle since Mark Dixon (who was always injured) and Richmond Webb. This certainly wont be the worst line we've had, and it has the potential to be the best. It will probably be average.
Our quarterback play will be better than any we have had since Fiedler. It wont be as bad as it has been. We should have at least average quarterback play no matter who our quarterback is. Green and Culpepper have been to the probowl, and it stands to reason that Beck and Lemon won't play as poorly as Harrington, Frerotte, Lucas etc have played. The quarterback also has more options than we have had in 15 years. The quarterback himself, whoever it is, should be average to good though. If for nothing else than the fact we actually have 4 options at Qb. The most OPTIONS we've had recently were Fiedler and Griese.
Our defense is probably better and deeper than any we have had in 15 years. Our 2003 might have had to most talent, but it wasn't deep, and we were predictable. Taylor, Thomas, Madison, Surtain, Seau, Marion, Ogunleye. Pretty damn good. Our defense last year probably played better. Now we have Taylor, Thomas, Porter, Holliday as probowlers and young talent in Roth, Crowder, and Will Allen. We are much deeper this year, it's our 2nd year under Capers, and our personal fits the system for the first time. This should be our best defense in 15 years.
Our return game is better than at any time in the last 15 years.
Our most talented team was in 2002, followed by 1994. It's debatable if we are as talented as the team in 2002. We know we have better coaching now than we did with Wanny, and believe it or not if Fiedler didnt get hurt that team was pretty special.
That being said, The AFC is the toughest it's ever been, but looking at our roster we are pretty solid. We are a playoff team on paper. We should be somewhere between 9-7 and 11-5, unless we get hit by the injury bug. Looking like this how do you think we could/will finish below .500?
