It was time for Ireland to go, he wore out his welcome and 5 straight seasons without a playoff appearance(with the last 3 offseasons where he had full power).
Hickey doesn't sell tickets or bring much of any excitement to this franchise, he is the face of one of the worst GM searches in NFL history. That said, he could still have success as the GM here, there have been far less qualified candidates hired by other teams in the past. He obviously wasn't anywhere close to being the best candidate when this all started and wasn't even close to being the team's top choice. But hey, the top choices and sexy hires never seemed to work out for Miami in the past, so maybe the blah un-sexy hire this time around will end up being what finally works.
I have a hard time saying I would rather "Ireland", because I don't think there is much truth to that. His replacement is uninspiring, but a fresh start is probably better than what we already had. While Ross is looking like a fool today, the cloud of negativity surrounding the GM is not as bad as it was at this point last year. While the Dolphins were able to attract top free agents last year, there were still a lot of people who disliked Ireland and would pile on him whenever they got the chance(Ryan Clark, Heath Evans, Rosenfels, Evan Silva, Mike Silver, etc.). They might think the hire is meh, but at least that hatred is gone.
