Philbin Supporters: Make Your Case

[gofins60]

I think the man did pretty well all things considering.

The lack of an oline causes all kinds of problems.

Did you really expect a first time head coach to wave a magic wand and rebuild a decades worth of damage in 2 offseasons.

When Philbin took over, everyone knew that the o-line needed upgrading. After two years, the o-line is worse. You can try to blame that all on Ireland, but the fact is if Philbin knew what he was doing he would have demanded a better o-line.

Philbin's "magic wand" (his philosophy and system) ruined the strengths of this team. He (and Coyle) took a Top 5 run defense and changed schemes, turning it into a 13th (?) ranked run defense. In their second year, with the help of Ireland's LB swap, they turned it into a Bottom 5 run defense. Miami had a decent (not great) running game which kept drives alive via Polite's automatic 1st downs. An OL and RB upgrade would have made it a very good running game. But, Philbin's system uses short passes rather than the run, and after installing his system (and getting rid of the FB position) they now can't even convert on 3rd and inches. An o-line that was "not terrible" but needed upgrading turned into a terrible o-line with mostly the same personnel and the change to Philbin's system. Passing stats are up over the previous regime, but only because the running game is not reliable or consistent. Even Sherman has said that he wanted to run more, but Philbin said no. They can now score TDs in the red zone, but have trouble getting there with no running game... too many stalled drives. Philbin's "dynamic, explosive, and high-scoring" offense (as he described it to Ross before being hired) struggles to score points, and has too often been shut out for whole quarters, halves, and pretty much the entire last two games. The only major tangible improvement over the past two years has been Grimes... period.

How could anyone defend Philbin? I could see how some may defend Ireland (to a point), but not Philbin!

 

[Bob512]

At the risk of life and limb....I'll give it a shot....



First, who do I hold responsible for:

Offensive Line - part Jeff Ireland for not have a plan to have solid players and part buzzards luck with the Martin and Incognito issue. I don't pin that on Philbin

QB - I believe that Tannehill progressed this year and is on his way to being a very good QB, so no issues there.

WR - Losing half of your new toys (Gibson and Keller) is just unlucky. If I'm going to whine about Wallace being a one trick pony....that is on Ireland.

RB - Again, talent and O-Line decisions. To the extend that player decisions fall to the GM, that would have to be Ireland again. Also, I'm still mad he let Reggie Bush get away.

Linebacker Play - I look to Ireland to this. We got younger and cheaper, but certainly not better.

"D" line play - I wasn't thrilled about this. I think this is a coaching issue and on Philbin and Coyle.

Pass Defense - Greatly improved. Gotta give credit to Ireland to bringing in Grimes and coaching for working on Carroll

My main issues with Philbin, are the "D" line play, offensive play calling and the half time adjustments and poor performance in the last two weeks of the season. I think, if he replaces Sherman, the "D" line coach and perhaps the QB coach, the on the field issues can be overcome. My main concern about Philbin that I am left with is the lack of urgency of the team these last two weeks. This is a big concern and is it a leadership issue or a player issue....I don't know. However, I balance that against the energy that the team exhibited in the Patriots game.......and I'm not sure what to think. So, unless I have seen some other indications of poor leadership, I'm going to give Philbin the benefit of the doubt and not blow up the whole organization based on this.

Bottom line, if Philbin makes some key coaching changes, I think he can be successful and move us forward and replacing him would do more harm than good. I think that the revolving door of coaches with the Phins has proven it doesn't work and some continuity, while at the same time making changes within the organization where we are weakest is an important part of being successful long term. Additionally, I look at the Carolina Panthers, who have had Ron Rivera on the hot seat for a couple of years....but he was given time to allow his plan and vision to work. I think this year has validated that patience.

If Philbin refuses to make the required coaching changes....he has to go.

 

[Namor]

Philbin is not honest with the fans, he usually gives the canned generic responses. Second, he seems aloof and stoic on the sidelines...like his brain is having difficulty processing what his eyes and ears are telling him...there is no physical or facial reaction to anything that happens on the field.
Third, he seems to have decided that his coaching career takes the back seat to his friendship with Shermin. Shermin appears to be in control and Philbin is just an agreeable puppet.
If Philbin was truly in control, he would have made some comments critical of his staff and the teams performance, instead we get the everything is hunky dory...it will all come together in due time.
I do not see the team improving, we are regressing.
This team needs to replace the GM, head coach and both OC and DC, as well as the assistants.
I also don't believe that it would set us back 2-4 years. We went from 1-15 to 11-5 in one year. Teams like KC went from door mat to division title. One year turn arounds with the right staff are actually common place now.
We are going nowhere in a hurry, and Ross treats this team as a hobby. I have no faith in him either.

Bingo!!!They are all extensions of Philbin....They fail as a package deal....rebuild the whole coaching engine....

 

[spiketex]

At the risk of life and limb....I'll give it a shot....



First, who do I hold responsible for:

Offensive Line - part Jeff Ireland for not have a plan to have solid players and part buzzards luck with the Martin and Incognito issue. I don't pin that on Philbin

QB - I believe that Tannehill progressed this year and is on his way to being a very good QB, so no issues there.

WR - Losing half of your new toys (Gibson and Keller) is just unlucky. If I'm going to whine about Wallace being a one trick pony....that is on Ireland.

RB - Again, talent and O-Line decisions. To the extend that player decisions fall to the GM, that would have to be Ireland again. Also, I'm still mad he let Reggie Bush get away.

Linebacker Play - I look to Ireland to this. We got younger and cheaper, but certainly not better.

"D" line play - I wasn't thrilled about this. I think this is a coaching issue and on Philbin and Coyle.

Pass Defense - Greatly improved. Gotta give credit to Ireland to bringing in Grimes and coaching for working on Carroll

My main issues with Philbin, are the "D" line play, offensive play calling and the half time adjustments and poor performance in the last two weeks of the season. I think, if he replaces Sherman, the "D" line coach and perhaps the QB coach, the on the field issues can be overcome. My main concern about Philbin that I am left with is the lack of urgency of the team these last two weeks. This is a big concern and is it a leadership issue or a player issue....I don't know. However, I balance that against the energy that the team exhibited in the Patriots game.......and I'm not sure what to think. So, unless I have seen some other indications of poor leadership, I'm going to give Philbin the benefit of the doubt and not blow up the whole organization based on this.

Bottom line, if Philbin makes some key coaching changes, I think he can be successful and move us forward and replacing him would do more harm than good. I think that the revolving door of coaches with the Phins has proven it doesn't work and some continuity, while at the same time making changes within the organization where we are weakest is an important part of being successful long term. Additionally, I look at the Carolina Panthers, who have had Ron Rivera on the hot seat for a couple of years....but he was given time to allow his plan and vision to work. I think this year has validated that patience.

If Philbin refuses to make the required coaching changes....he has to go.

Reggie was a plain and simple $5M pa cost saving. They expected the passing game to be much stronger and thought that the RB gap would be covered by Lamar Miller's expected improvement. The $5M was also the cost of keeping Matt Moore. It appears that Irish preferred better QB insurance than RB flash.

 

[jvw]

I don't consider myself a Philbin supporter but I am and will always support the Dolphins HC for at least the first 3 yrs and be evaluated based on all 3 yrs...I think this important for the organization, for one it helps when recruiting FA, players don't want to play for a team that is always rebuilding, when you do need to hire a coach all of the top prospects will not want to coach here if they previous regime is fired early, .....say you hire the next coach and this team goes 5-11 next yr do you fire him? I hope the Dolphins do not make emotional decisions changing coaches.....when you hire a coach I want my team to support him from day one and not second guess him every step of the way, when he sat down with Ross he told him his vision and what he wanted to do, Ross hired him so he needs to let him do it....two yrs is not enough time to fairly evaluate the coaches performance IMO.....now if you want to look at only the last two games and say you lost them you are fired, then we will be setting a precedent that will repeat this process every 2 yrs

 

[gofins60]

At the risk of life and limb....I'll give it a shot....

Bottom line, if Philbin makes some key coaching changes, I think he can be successful and move us forward and replacing him would do more harm than good. I think that the revolving door of coaches with the Phins has proven it doesn't work and some continuity, while at the same time making changes within the organization where we are weakest is an important part of being successful long term. Additionally, I look at the Carolina Panthers, who have had Ron Rivera on the hot seat for a couple of years....but he was given time to allow his plan and vision to work. I think this year has validated that patience.

If Philbin refuses to make the required coaching changes....he has to go.

I can't disagree with your perspective. But, my opinion is that Philbin was the wrong guy in the first place because his plan and vision have ruined what strengths this team already had. I see nothing to believe that he can lead this team in the right direction. He seems to be nothing more than an Admin guy, and the only way I'd keep him is as a figurehead with strong coordinators that know what they're doing running THEIR (not Philbin's) offense and defense. That's not a solution, so he needs to go. I would allow him to resign rather than get fired though... he is a decent guy; he's just not Head Coach material.

 

[roy_miami]

I know people are emotional over the way the season ended but there are some serious flaws in your logic. Every game is important so where is this "extra" coaching supposed to come from in week 17? So we lost an extremely important game in week 17 to the lowly Jets, the same Jets that beat the Patriots and the Saints mind you but here's the flaw: the Patriots lost an extremely important game week 15 to us.

We lost the game due to variance, plain and simple. Geno Smith played the best game of his career statistically and Ryan Tannehill played his worst game of the season statistically, thats it, thats the reason we lost. And if you need the coach to motivate the QB for important games then you've already lost, the QB is supposed to be a leader HIMSELF, he should not need a coach to explain the gravity of situations.

As for the playoffs we missed it because we had a ****ty roster and a raw QB. Ask yourself this: Why didn't we get McKinnie here during the bye-week? We cleared a roster spot that week so I think its safe to assume it was for McKinnie, so what happened? Did they have a change of heart? Did Ireland try to get cute in exercising his trade prowess?

I'm not going to go out on a limb and predict Philbin is great but he's clearing hurdles for me. The team is improving and he's not a moron, the next hurdle is I want to see a major improvement in year 3.

 

[ProStyle]

No, that answers why "he can't implement the offense he wants." It doesn't tell me what you see that is "unique" and why you want to continue to see it. To me, this offense has been completely boring and vanilla. I see NOTHING special about it, and does not exhibit characteristics of most WCO's.

It is a passing offense, and that makes it fun. It is also an offense that features low risk passing which makes it successful. The offense also feature decent number of intermediate and deep passes. The details of why Sherman used only certain plays, or why the playbook is implemented in full is a different question that goes back to limitations in talent level, experience of the personnel, as well as the OC.

 

[SkapePhin]

It is a passing offense, and that makes it fun. It is also an offense that features low risk passing which makes it successful. The offense also feature decent number of intermediate and deep passes. The details of why Sherman used only certain plays, or why the playbook is implemented in full is a different question that goes back to limitations in talent level, experience of the personnel, as well as the OC.

They scored more than 27 points ONCE this season, and threw up a few stinkers (7 total points!) to end the season? You call that a FUN offense?

This offense was just about as boring as any other Dolphins offense I can remember.

 

[psfign]

They scored more than 27 points ONCE this season, and threw up a few stinkers (7 total points!) to end the season? You call that a FUN offense?

This offense was just about as boring as any other Dolphins offense I can remember.

But you dont blame our broken Oline for that?

 

[Bob512]

They scored more than 27 points ONCE this season, and threw up a few stinkers (7 total points!) to end the season? You call that a FUN offense?

This offense was just about as boring as any other Dolphins offense I can remember.

I think he is referring to a normal WCO being fun. He also mentions that we used on limited parts of the playbook.......

No question, there was nothing "fun" about our running of the WCO. I'm guessing we eliminated most of the longer patterns since Tannehill would never have time to allow them to develop.

 

[ojmcduffy]

how can you all contend that philbin had "basically the same talent" when he didnt have john martin, ritchie incognito, mike pouncy missed some time. and 2 guys where brought in. Oh yeah we can add a rookie in the mix to. Claybo was a fa from atlanta. 7 linemen count in the turnover there is 5 positions on the oline. You do the math. I don't care if shula came out and coached the replacements they weren't going to play like richmond webb. There is a reasons some guys start and some guys are on the practice squad coaching can only do so much.

 

[Roman529]

I know Philbin looks like Uncle Fester, and he has that deer-in-the-highlights look, and he is BLAND, and not a rah rah fist pumper like a Tony Sparano or Pete Carroll......

BUT, is it his fault we went 8-8 and missed the playoffs? Did he run the offense? Is it his fault our linebackers cannot tackle Geno Smith? Is it his fault Tannehill is not in-sink with Wallace and some other receivers at times? The players have to nut up and take the blame for most of this. I would be willing to give him Philbin 2014 (next season) to either make the playoffs or clear out his office...but I think Ireland and Sherman have to go RIGHT NOW.

 

[J. David Wannyheimer]

When Philbin took over, everyone knew that the o-line needed upgrading. After two years, the o-line is worse. You can try to blame that all on Ireland, but the fact is if Philbin knew what he was doing he would have demanded a better o-line.

Philbin's "magic wand" (his philosophy and system) ruined the strengths of this team. He (and Coyle) took a Top 5 run defense and changed schemes, turning it into a 13th (?) ranked run defense. In their second year, with the help of Ireland's LB swap, they turned it into a Bottom 5 run defense. Miami had a decent (not great) running game which kept drives alive via Polite's automatic 1st downs. An OL and RB upgrade would have made it a very good running game. But, Philbin's system uses short passes rather than the run, and after installing his system (and getting rid of the FB position) they now can't even convert on 3rd and inches. An o-line that was "not terrible" but needed upgrading turned into a terrible o-line with mostly the same personnel and the change to Philbin's system. Passing stats are up over the previous regime, but only because the running game is not reliable or consistent. Even Sherman has said that he wanted to run more, but Philbin said no. They can now score TDs in the red zone, but have trouble getting there with no running game... too many stalled drives. Philbin's "dynamic, explosive, and high-scoring" offense (as he described it to Ross before being hired) struggles to score points, and has too often been shut out for whole quarters, halves, and pretty much the entire last two games. The only major tangible improvement over the past two years has been Grimes... period.

How could anyone defend Philbin? I could see how some may defend Ireland (to a point), but not Philbin!

I really can't disagree with any of this.

 

[Zounds]

Let's read your reasons for supporting Philbin, then.

Much easier to bash on other people than it is to actually offer a reason?

Right, because when you said "anyone who votes no in this poll is a moron" was really constructive. No actual reasons for your opinion offered by you, just a blanket "you are a moron" statement for anyone who disagrees with you. Pot calling the kettle black here.