Plain Truth, We Have Dumb Players | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Plain Truth, We Have Dumb Players

AJ Duhe

AJ Duhe

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When you watch the game, pay attention to Rizzi's face, Burke's face, and Gase's face, their expressions say it all. I watched every minute of that game and the same realization swept over me in the 4th quarter. We can't consistently play well because a lot of our key players aren't smart football players.

This team is not situationally smart. It's not an effort problem, and it's mostly not a physical problem (Bushrod and Thomas aside). A lot of our top players...Landry, Jones, Alonso, Pouncey, Suh...they play the game like wild men, but it also makes them unpredictable and undisciplined. This is the dilemma for Gase. He has players that love to play the game and they play with a lot of heart, but ultimately he also knows they won't get over the hump because they can't consistently apply what's happening on the practice field to the game.
 
J. David Wannyheimer said:
I agree with you that we have some dumb players, but I don't think Suh belongs on that list of dumb players. He's not a dumb player. He's a great player.
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For real, Suh is probably one of the smartest players in the league. He is easily the best player on our team, and no matter how much we suck, for me it will always be a joy to watch him.
 
Yes, I've posted some version of this theme repeatedly in the dozen or so years I've been here. It's such a contrast to the early '70s Dolphin teams I grew up with. I have no idea how any general manager can interview some of these guys and decide that's the person he wants to bank on. Every year approaching the draft we get the "Miami meets" list of players the Dolphins have interviewed personally. The draft picks tend to come from that list. And then we end up with so many dummies, guys who make me cringe when I hear them interviewed. They don't make smart football decisions either.

To be fair, at least we've advanced from blank-eyed Dion Jordan types.

Those early '70s Shula teams were incredibly smart and resourceful. That aspect marked the team more than talent level or anything else. I'm not sure that reputation has fully transferred to this era and younger fans. Will McDonough of the Boston Globe was the last major media member who really emphasized it, that those '70s Dolphins were the epitome of smart. It was like the Patriots today but minus the cheating stain.

Fans in this era look at Bob Griese's passing stats and wonder how he got into the Hall of Fame. They ridicule the old man who sometimes makes mistakes on preseason and radio telecasts and doesn't always appear to take the job seriously enough. The Bob Griese I remember is the quarterback who always saved the perfect play call for the most vital situation. The slant to Warfield was a dagger play in that era but Griese didn't abuse it. That play call all but disappeared when Morrall was quarterback because Morrall was 39 years old and by the time he dropped into position to make that throw the safeties were all over it. As soon as Griese entered the game after halftime in Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship Game my dad and I perked up. We talked about the return of that slant play. Sure enough, it came almost immediately as Griese sensed the need to spark the team. Warifled took the slant for a huge gain into Pittsburgh territory early in the third quarter.

So many examples. When it was third and 4 at a key point in the game I always got a grin and giggle in the stands. Griese would use the head bob for a cheap first down. It almost never failed. Granted, in that era the head bob could really be abused.

It was up and down the team. I just happened to spotlight Griese. Our stadium had the smartest design for home field impact. Shula in his early Dolphin years made very astute trades. Joe Thomas, George Young and Bobby Beathard were always atop the list as whispered top personnel guys.

None of us thought it would ever end. My old neighborhood friends and I have joked about it in subsequent decades. We assumed the Dolphins would never go more than 4-5 years between Super Bowl titles. That's literally how it felt, based on bottom line advantage in raw smarts. I imagine if you had sampled South Florida as a block in those years, that 4-5 year gap would have placed on the conservative end.

I never liked the Marino era once we stupidly abandoned the running game but frankly the status of smart team was abandoned years earlier. I would trace it to late '70s and if I had to isolate one moment it would be the Freddie Solomon trade to the 49ers. Shula was desperate for a running back. They were prized commodities in those days. Delvin Williams was a good running back. Not elite. And he was already 27. I remember that aspect distinctly. We have up a first round pick, plus a phenomenal talent in Freddie Solomon, a lanky safety in Vern Robeson, and I think a 4th or 5th round pick as well. I was numbed by the trade because it seemed like a panic move with no sense of value. Four decades later I would still summarize it that way.
 
andyahs said:
That's almost every NFL, NBA, Pro Sport player.
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I would disagree regarding the NBA. On average they come across as smarter, more thoughtful and more articulate than players from other sports. I've never fully understood it but it's been a distinct trend throughout my life.
 
DefensiveEnd76 said:
Listen to some of our players when they talk to the media. Some can't talk plain or even string a sentence together. It's sad. Makes you wonder what their intelligence level is.
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As much as I want to reply to this.... I think this thread is taking a dangerous turn and the site moderators willl need to close it very soon.
 
DefensiveEnd76 said:
Listen to some of our players when they talk to the media. Some can't talk plain or even string a sentence together. It's sad. Makes you wonder what their intelligence level is.
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I'll say this. I think one of the biggest mistakes we make is we consider those who speak well to be intelligent and those who don't not to be. Anyone in the workforce should know this is not at all true. I've worked with many manager types who could talk a dog off a meat truck but didn't have the know how to execute their ideas. I've also seen plenty of guys who can barely string together an E-MAIL or explain themselves who can dive in and diagnose problems the well spoken guys wouldn't know where to begin with. The "well spoken" angle as a measure of intelligence is really not a good one.
 
BenchFiedler said:
As much as I want to reply to this.... I think this thread is taking a dangerous turn and the site moderators willl need to close it very soon.
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SJW.

Tip, the assessment is about athletes. And if you take the time to understand the classes a majority of today's athletes take, you will understand the opposing POV.

But since this thread is deemed no longer "safe" but "dangerous", you effectively are trying to silence people.
 
This idea of the relative intelligence of football players and what a team needs to succeed tends to bother me quite a bit.

The problem is this:

- If you want intelligent, smart football players, you also get players who understand the NFL is a business, understand the horrible risks associated with CTE, likely have a perspective that they are entertainers and NOT actually competing in anything that truly matters like they did in college, likely also adopt the perspective that they should get as much as they can for their families while minimizing their personal risks as much as possible, etc.

- A team full of players that intelligent isn't really going to help you achieve a championship. It will get you a bunch of players that constantly question everything about the league, their team, the culture of football, politics, etc. Those types of players are generally considered distractions, intelligent or well-spoken as they may be. They understand football is nothing but a game, and understand that many things in life matter far, far more than a game. The money is awesome, but they probably long to do something more meaningful with their life. Again, you feel good about young people like that, but not for your football team.

- Those types of players also are probably able to identify when factors outside of their own control will lead to a lack of success - example when they are smart enough to identify poor coaching, poor personnel management, poor ownership, etc. (and not just piss and moan about it out of ignorance but actually BE RIGHT). Such players are likely to hang it up sooner than others and only play hard when they have personal incentives to gain (contract year, etc.).

- So then you don't really want players that are all THAT intelligent now do you? You're actually looking for players that are football smart but not necessarily smart outside of that. Players that don't have opinions about things, stay in their lane, study hard, do what you tell them to, etc. You know - "eat sleep breathe football" would be the politically correct way of saying that. Players that can't recognize that they're just part of an annual circle-jerk that doesn't really mean anything other than making some billionaires more billionaire-y and setting up their families for life (which by the way, happens regardless of whether they win) and entertaining fans that enjoy watching bodies crash into each other.

You're hoping to find smart people that for some reason put A LOT of importance into winning something largely meaningless. Less and less of those around I would think.

No, you probably don't want them to be THAT smart, save for a position like QB. And that's pretty disgusting when you think about it.
 
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