Obviously, they are a professional football team that is in transition because they have a new head coach, a new coaching staff, and they are about to launch out into the new NFL calendar year starting March 9 with hopes of putting their recent troubled history way behind them. But ... what are they?
Are the Miami Dolphins a team coming off a 6-10 year in which they underperformed despite great talent and thus on the cusp of something really good because a new coaching staff will correct the failures of the last season? Are they a talented bunch that merely needs direction? Are they a last place team in the AFC East that is a viable candidate to become a worst-to-first tale in 2016?
Or...Are the Miami Dolphins a 6-10 team that had bad coaching, not enough talent, and need a total reboot that will take a few years to get right?In that regard, are the Dolphins a rebuilding project that you better not expect much out of in the coming seasons because they are riddled with holes and no one can plug a dike that's leaking from that many spots in one offseason?
The Dolphins had better have the right answer for these fundamental questions as they set off on their new league year because the path for addressing these vastly different possibilities is, well, vastly different.If the Dolphins believe themselves a very good team needing just a little bit of direction to go from 6-10 and only one win the AFC East to, say, 10-6 and challenging the New England Patriots while passing the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills, then the moves of the coming talent procurement period would be vastly different than otherwise.
Teams on the verge of a turnaround do not, for example, let talent walk. Teams like that don't want to fall back in any regard, but rather want to add to the talent that got them to that precipice of a turnaround. And so, the Dolphins would obviously be looking at defensive end Olivier Vernon and running back Lamar Miller as players they cannot lose because that's a step in the wrong direction. Losing either player creates holes on the roster at starting defensive end and starting running back, respectively, that would then require filling -- in addition to the other holes that require filling.
A team on the verge should approach the offseason with the idea of adding talent, sure, but adding starting-caliber, top-line talent, because presumably the back of the roster and the depth is pretty solid. And if that is true, we're not bargain shopping in free agency. We're not taking the cautious approach of waiting for prices to come down later in free agency while the most talented players get snatched up early.
Last year, following an 8-8 season in 2014, the Dolphins thought themselves a couple of players from seriously competing in the division. So they locked up center Mike Pouncey, locked up quarterback Ryan Tannehill, and spent (over spent from where I see it) on defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. A team believing itself to be a couple of years away from truly competing might have passed on Suh and added two or maybe even three red chip players instead of swinging for the fence on blue chip Suh.
But Joe Philbin knew 2015 was a playoffs-or-bust year and so it was in his best interest to have the organization take a big cut, hoping to hit a homer. (Ok, enough baseball jargon). Mike Tannenbaum, in his first year as the football czar, wanted to do all he could to support his new head coach and so he gladly bought in to the swing for the ... push for Suh. And owner Stephen Ross, who had already told Philbin he needed to get in the playoffs to keep his job, bought in because he obviously believed his people when they said the Dolphins have excellent talent and we need just a bit more to get over the mediocrity hump.
Yeah, um, miscalculation. Tannehill did not do what he'd done the previous three years after he signed his new contract. He did not improve. Indeed, even as he got better at his deep ball accuracy, he showed no real improvement in pocket awareness, and instinct. And he took a significant step back in team leadership because some players in the locker room, with whom Tannehill had not built a relationship or high level of respect, started looking at him sideways and whispering questions about him.
Suh? He was good. He was very good. But he wasn't $144 million good. He wasn't $19 million per year impactful. The Dolphins handed him the keys to the defense and when he turned the ignition, Suh found out the engine needed a tuneup and one of the tires was flat. And his good-but-not-great-performance could not lift the defense to better results than it had in years before when he was not on the team.
So, while I understand that calculation the Dolphins made -- that they were nearly good enough and just needed an little added push to get in the playoffs -- it was nonetheless a bad calculation. And while I did not and do not agree the Suh signing was the thing to do, I understand why everyone was on board, particularly Joe Philbin. Everyone was trying to save their jobs.
That should not be the motivation for setting a course this offseason. New coach Adam Gase is brand new. His staff is generally brand new. General manager Chris Grier is brand new to his position despite being part of the past 16 years of not good enough, but that's another story. And Tannenbaum has cover in that, while he has been here a year, this is the first year he was able to shape the franchise as he would like with a new GM and a new coach -- all decisions he helped make and is fully responsible for.
So everyone gets a pass this year, more or less, in the eyes of owner Stephen Ross. No one gets a pass in the eyes of Armando Salguero but I am still collecting my pennies toward $1.5 billion (approximately what the Dolphins will sell for when Ross is done) so I don't get a vote.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolp...in-transition-because-they-have-a-new-he.html
More at the link.
Are the Miami Dolphins a team coming off a 6-10 year in which they underperformed despite great talent and thus on the cusp of something really good because a new coaching staff will correct the failures of the last season? Are they a talented bunch that merely needs direction? Are they a last place team in the AFC East that is a viable candidate to become a worst-to-first tale in 2016?
Or...Are the Miami Dolphins a 6-10 team that had bad coaching, not enough talent, and need a total reboot that will take a few years to get right?In that regard, are the Dolphins a rebuilding project that you better not expect much out of in the coming seasons because they are riddled with holes and no one can plug a dike that's leaking from that many spots in one offseason?
The Dolphins had better have the right answer for these fundamental questions as they set off on their new league year because the path for addressing these vastly different possibilities is, well, vastly different.If the Dolphins believe themselves a very good team needing just a little bit of direction to go from 6-10 and only one win the AFC East to, say, 10-6 and challenging the New England Patriots while passing the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills, then the moves of the coming talent procurement period would be vastly different than otherwise.
Teams on the verge of a turnaround do not, for example, let talent walk. Teams like that don't want to fall back in any regard, but rather want to add to the talent that got them to that precipice of a turnaround. And so, the Dolphins would obviously be looking at defensive end Olivier Vernon and running back Lamar Miller as players they cannot lose because that's a step in the wrong direction. Losing either player creates holes on the roster at starting defensive end and starting running back, respectively, that would then require filling -- in addition to the other holes that require filling.
A team on the verge should approach the offseason with the idea of adding talent, sure, but adding starting-caliber, top-line talent, because presumably the back of the roster and the depth is pretty solid. And if that is true, we're not bargain shopping in free agency. We're not taking the cautious approach of waiting for prices to come down later in free agency while the most talented players get snatched up early.
Last year, following an 8-8 season in 2014, the Dolphins thought themselves a couple of players from seriously competing in the division. So they locked up center Mike Pouncey, locked up quarterback Ryan Tannehill, and spent (over spent from where I see it) on defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. A team believing itself to be a couple of years away from truly competing might have passed on Suh and added two or maybe even three red chip players instead of swinging for the fence on blue chip Suh.
But Joe Philbin knew 2015 was a playoffs-or-bust year and so it was in his best interest to have the organization take a big cut, hoping to hit a homer. (Ok, enough baseball jargon). Mike Tannenbaum, in his first year as the football czar, wanted to do all he could to support his new head coach and so he gladly bought in to the swing for the ... push for Suh. And owner Stephen Ross, who had already told Philbin he needed to get in the playoffs to keep his job, bought in because he obviously believed his people when they said the Dolphins have excellent talent and we need just a bit more to get over the mediocrity hump.
Yeah, um, miscalculation. Tannehill did not do what he'd done the previous three years after he signed his new contract. He did not improve. Indeed, even as he got better at his deep ball accuracy, he showed no real improvement in pocket awareness, and instinct. And he took a significant step back in team leadership because some players in the locker room, with whom Tannehill had not built a relationship or high level of respect, started looking at him sideways and whispering questions about him.
Suh? He was good. He was very good. But he wasn't $144 million good. He wasn't $19 million per year impactful. The Dolphins handed him the keys to the defense and when he turned the ignition, Suh found out the engine needed a tuneup and one of the tires was flat. And his good-but-not-great-performance could not lift the defense to better results than it had in years before when he was not on the team.
So, while I understand that calculation the Dolphins made -- that they were nearly good enough and just needed an little added push to get in the playoffs -- it was nonetheless a bad calculation. And while I did not and do not agree the Suh signing was the thing to do, I understand why everyone was on board, particularly Joe Philbin. Everyone was trying to save their jobs.
That should not be the motivation for setting a course this offseason. New coach Adam Gase is brand new. His staff is generally brand new. General manager Chris Grier is brand new to his position despite being part of the past 16 years of not good enough, but that's another story. And Tannenbaum has cover in that, while he has been here a year, this is the first year he was able to shape the franchise as he would like with a new GM and a new coach -- all decisions he helped make and is fully responsible for.
So everyone gets a pass this year, more or less, in the eyes of owner Stephen Ross. No one gets a pass in the eyes of Armando Salguero but I am still collecting my pennies toward $1.5 billion (approximately what the Dolphins will sell for when Ross is done) so I don't get a vote.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolp...in-transition-because-they-have-a-new-he.html
More at the link.
