Judging the Coaching Staff.

[J. David Wannyheimer]

Seriously. Why is this guy still here? Tannehill's improvement was marginal at best over the first 2 years, it's like he was stuck in stasis. Only thing he got a little better at was not getting his passes swatted time and again.

He did improve last season, but not to the level that I think he could have. GM_Davenport told us that NFL scouts talked about it, the new offensive coordinator has focused on it, so it's not like we're imagining this stuff. I think it's a real valid criticism and a very poor reflection on Joe.

 

[roy_miami]

Seriously. Why is this guy still here? Tannehill's improvement was marginal at best over the first 2 years, it's like he was stuck in stasis. Only thing he got a little better at was not getting his passes swatted time and again.

I wouldn't say it was marginal at best, if you compare him with Andy Dalton or even Andrew Luck the trajectory has been similar, and he has even been ahead of Dalton every step of the way until their third years, where Dalton took a big leap and Tannehill is flat lining so far.

 

[datruth55]

For those coaches I quite agree but the ones that are brand new like Lazor and Benton its way too early.

Benton proved his worth when he was in Houston...what he's doing here only solidifies his coaching resume.

 

[J. David Wannyheimer]

I wouldn't say it was marginal at best, if you compare him with Andy Dalton or even Andrew Luck the trajectory has been similar, and he has even been ahead of Dalton every step of the way until their third years, where Dalton took a big leap and Tannehill is flat lining so far.

If anything his development right now looks like it's going the same direction as Luck, not Dalton. Dalton's seen steady improvement in yardage and touchdowns per attempt over his first 3 years but likewise his interception rate kept shooting up. Luck's yards per attempt dropped, he didn't see a big increase in touchdowns, but he cut his interception rate considerably. In that respect, Tannehill year 2 to year 3 looks a lot like Luck year 1 to year 2 after four games.

Decision-making is the big area where I think we've seen improvement this year, and hopefully the rest will come soon enough to matter.

 

[Austin Tatious]

Great insights. I especially liked the point about the new coaches being outstanding when you look at Lazor, Benton, and Duffner. But, close observers have been high on those hires since before it happened.

I like Lazor's offense. Now Dlockz is right in the sense that there will be adjustments and the need for counter-adjustments, so we will see how he progresses over time. But I like his perfectionist attitude and leadership "presence." While fans are never happy with playcalling and offensive coordinators in general, I like how Lazor runs his offense. I'd like to see tempo, but I am not sure what's holding us back there. The improvement in the run game is practically a miracle. I would be fine with him becoming a head coach, certainly over the list of mostly no-body coordinators out there.

I'm not a huge Coyle fan. The defense just hasn't progressed enough over his 3 years. I don't think he puts his players in optimum positions based on their skill set and I do not like the way he won't play young players enough.

My biggest problem is Philbin. I.just.do.not.trust.his.teams. I mean, Miami can beat Green Bay in theory. But I don't trust Philbin to have his team ready to play. Week to week, you can't trust his team to show up and play, in stark contrast to Jimmy Harbaugh, whose teams come out with a kick-your-ass-attitude every GD week. Not Philbin's teams. They will come and literally lose at home to the lowly Titans 37-3. Or be the first team to lose to Tampa. Or lose to a Jets team with no offense in Miami. Or lose to a practice squad quarterback in Buffalo twice and another idiot who gets benched. Sure, Miami will win some competitive games, but you need to be able to trust your team week after week.

No, Philbie does not have a low form of intelligence like that orangutan, Tony Sparano. Tony is not just dumb by coach standards, he is just a dumb guy compared with average humans. Philbin is bright enough. His problem is of the "picking up chewing gum wrapper" variety. There is just a failed school principal notion that he has that breeds failure. He has no spark or imagination. It's like he is a moralist. He defends people loyal to him or gets rid of his ghey "leadership council" players like Reggie Bush. Previously he jettisoned Brandon Marshall who is elite in Chicago. He wants conformity and a flatlining personality, and that's what his team plays like.

When Coach Shula was here, you could trust his team, every week. Because he could lead. Philbin is an administrator-type. He'd be better in middle management at a company or being a school dean or principal, where he could do his first love, getting on kids for not conforming. But NFL leader? You can't trust him.

 

[datruth55]

When Coach Shula was here, you could trust his team, every week. Because he could lead. Philbin is an administrator-type. He'd be better in middle management at a company or being a school dean or principal, where he could do his first love, getting on kids for not conforming. But NFL leader? You can't trust him.

Shula was a great coach, no denying that but he was undone by his loyalty to his coordinators. You guys like to blast Philbin for some stupid stuff and pretend as if every other coach never does any of the things you harp Philbin for. Guess what, I have two words for you...Tom Olividotti. I trusted the Dolphins, under Shula and Marino, to score 42 points on the Jets and then lose because the defense gave up 45...to Ken O'Brien of all freakin people.

 

[J. David Wannyheimer]

Shula was a great coach, no denying that but he was undone by his loyalty to his coordinators. You guys like to blast Philbin for some stupid stuff and pretend as if every other coach never does any of the things you harp Philbin for. Guess what, I have two words for you...Tom Olividotti. I trusted the Dolphins, under Shula and Marino, to score 42 points on the Jets and then lose because the defense gave up 45...to Ken O'Brien of all freakin people.

And to be fair, at the point that Shula was eased out of coaching, the very thing you're talking about is the reason why it was necessary.

 

[trojanma]

That was part of the issue, another part is that Green Bay has an unwritten rule that if an assistant gets a head coaching job they can't take others from the staff with them. So he relied on connections to Mike Sherman and Iowa for some of the staff.

And as I mentioned when he got hired he initially wanted Duffner as the DC, I remember posting the news but the Jags refused the right to an interview.

I think this is the key factor that most are glazing over.
Green Bay was a non starter so Philbin trusted his friend Sherman and Sherman assembled the rest.
Regarding the hires, its kind of hard to go out and start interviewing random people you go with folks you trust or ones others you trust vouch for. It was probably a very natural thing to do. It just failed miserably.
Everyone is a genius in retrospect.

Its a recurring theme of a coach that had chosen to subcontract entirely too much. I suspect that this is a model that worked well in Green Bay, but as we can see failed here.

---------- Post added at 09:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:17 PM ----------

On the flip side you can see that Philbin has at least some respect amongs the coaching community that he was able to get Benton, Duffner and Lazor to come for what really could be a sinking ship of a regime.

 

[finfan54]

Not judging anybody that good or bad based on 4 games.

right, you'll wait unti we suck to comment. lol

 

[finfan54]

and here is another question for yas all.

If we like most of this coaching staff and we fall short, would you still want to change the whole damn thing again?

I wouldnt. I believe in patience. Like Mike Wallace. He certainly isnt worth that money, but he is much better this year and would be worth it if we start hitting him long consistently. It takes some time to get the entire team at elite status. Its all comes down to RT.

 

[whizafriz]

I wouldn't say it was marginal at best, if you compare him with Andy Dalton or even Andrew Luck the trajectory has been similar, and he has even been ahead of Dalton every step of the way until their third years, where Dalton took a big leap and Tannehill is flat lining so far.

If anything his development right now looks like it's going the same direction as Luck, not Dalton. Dalton's seen steady improvement in yardage and touchdowns per attempt over his first 3 years but likewise his interception rate kept shooting up. Luck's yards per attempt dropped, he didn't see a big increase in touchdowns, but he cut his interception rate considerably. In that respect, Tannehill year 2 to year 3 looks a lot like Luck year 1 to year 2 after four games.

Decision-making is the big area where I think we've seen improvement this year, and hopefully the rest will come soon enough to matter.

Maybe it's just me forgetting that he had zero O-Line last year, with no time to do anything in the pocket consistently. Although, I thought his decision-making that year was still a bit head-scratching. Some of his many sacks were definitely on him holding on to the ball too long.

The Raiders game was the best game I think I've seen Tannehill play for 60 minutes. He just moved in the pocket so well and kept the drives alive and quick. The other 3 games I saw some pretty errant decisions, throwing into double/triple coverage. He's still got to patch up his mental game against better coverage schemes.

 

[So Be]

and here is another question for yas all.

If we like most of this coaching staff and we fall short, would you still want to change the whole damn thing again?

I wouldnt. I believe in patience. Like Mike Wallace. He certainly isnt worth that money, but he is much better this year and would be worth it if we start hitting him long consistently. It takes some time to get the entire team at elite status. Its all comes down to RT.

Depends on how we play and how far we fall. I'm all in for keeping Hickey, Lazor, Benton, etc but, if there is a change at HC, it will very likely be a sweeping change and a start over.

 

[ChambersWI]

Maybe it's just me forgetting that he had zero O-Line last year, with no time to do anything in the pocket consistently. Although, I thought his decision-making that year was still a bit head-scratching. Some of his many sacks were definitely on him holding on to the ball too long.

The Raiders game was the best game I think I've seen Tannehill play for 60 minutes. He just moved in the pocket so well and kept the drives alive and quick. The other 3 games I saw some pretty errant decisions, throwing into double/triple coverage. He's still got to patch up his mental game against better coverage schemes.

I think there are occasions that Tannehill holds the ball too long and when he does he gets indecisive but very few of the sacks last year were cause of that (though it was there at times). Now I think there are some adjustments that could have been made to help him and the OL out, but for one reason or another weren't made.

I just think that being the OL coach for an NFL team was just too big of a jump for Taylor at the time, especially when his assistant had 1 year as an OL coach in the pros and one year at a D-1 school. People forget when Sherman was fired by A&M Taylor was going to Texas Tech. Nothing against Tech but in terms of booster support, and prestige that's a huge step down even from A&M (even when they struggled before Sumlin they always had money and backing). Taylor just wasn't ready and IMO didn't have the personality for the NFL (though I give him full credit in getting something out of John Jerry).