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- May 12, 2006
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Another season ending in disappointment. As is typical of a fan of this team certainly over the past 25 years or so while we’ve mostly been stinky or mediocre, I’ve been thinking about what this team can do in the off season to get better. The trafficking of hope that the NFL draft and free agency, and sometimes the fantasy of a new General Manager and coaching staff bring every off season to a fan base who hopes that their team can return to it’s former glory which keeps fading into a distant memory. Obviously, those last two aren’t going to happen, but can this team with this leadership change course and make some changes to this team to make them a contender? What changes would those be?
In my head I’m breaking it down by Personnel/roster construction, coaching, and culture. This is based on the fact that we tend to lose games to good teams or when the spotlight is on us because of the following:
1. Lack of discipline, mistakes, & penalties.
2. Lack of Accountability because it never stops.
3. Poor roster construction in that we didn’t invest in areas like the offensive line, and or we have an old and often injured players and are paper thin on depth
4. Poor coaching decisions, adjustments, and game management.
Mike McDaniel. His first two years were promising in that he definitely helped fix Tua and unlock his potential. His offenses were exciting and it’s the most fun I’ve had watching Fins play since the Marino days. There were some things he needed to grow into but I wanted to give him a chance to do so and so I have been encouraging people to wait till the end of the season before deciding one way or the other about him. However while he has some strengths, he has some real issues that I’m not sure he can fix because it’s not who he is.
1. Accountability & Discipline. This is the biggest issue and the hardest for him to overcome and I’m not sure he can. You can’t be a nice guy and you can’t be so tolerant of repeat offenders being late and running the wrong routes and missing blocking assignments. There are too many veterans days off, they coddle players too much when they are injured, and apparently they have guys who show up late to meetings and practices and such, Tyreek being one of them. It was infuriating to hear him at the press conference basically throw up his arms and say something to the effect that “Fines don’t work.” Okay, so if fines aren’t working, how about you try something else? If it were me, I would post the rules clearly so there were no surprises and on the subject of players showing up late I’d do something like the following:
If a starter: Late once without a valid excuse, then you will be benched for the first quarter of the next game and everyone including the media will know why. 2nd offense, you will be benched an entire half. This may hurt the team, but that on you, the player who can’t show up on time to meetings. Miss a third time, and we suspend you for the next game for conduct detrimental and you miss a game check. I would imagine something like that would sort that issue out in a hurry. If you aren’t a starter, then you are demoted to the practice squad for the same offense and eventually cut if you don’t see the error of your ways and repent.
I think this “player driven” team thing is bullshit and doesn’t really work without strong leadership at the top and maybe an established winning culture already in place. I think captains have to be selected carefully, and if Tyreek isn’t traded next season, I don’t see how you can make him a captain again after he pulled himself out of the jets game and didn’t have the emotional discipline to keep his mouth shut after the game.
This is directly correlated with attention to detail and penalties and mistakes, and also with playing winning football in December and January, or simply against good teams in the national spotlight. Mentally weak, undisciplined teams collapse under the bright lights, and that’s what we have been the past couple of years.
2. Play Calling. Okay, I give in. He needs to bring in a play caller. He should stay involved in architecting/tweaking the scheme, as well as have some input into the game plan, but the entire offense would be better served if on game day he had someone experienced in the booth responsible for calling the game and ensuring the plays get in on time.
3. Fire and replace Danny Crossman asap. No reason this guy should still have his job. Special teams costs us games every year, this year was no different.
4. No more veterans days off. Everybody practices all the time and gets good reps. Don’t put old broken down players on your team who you have to rely on who cant even practice.
5. Use all available practice days and OTAs. He actually cancelled some of those this year as if this team has won anything to earn that?
6. Stop coddling injured players. They keep players out of games more than they should returning from injury. Listen to your medical staff, but also, let players play in critical games even if they are playing hurt a bit, especially if they want to. This includes Tua.
Anthony Weaver. Damn good coach. I wish he was our head coach. Would suck to have to replace him after one season.
In my head I’m breaking it down by Personnel/roster construction, coaching, and culture. This is based on the fact that we tend to lose games to good teams or when the spotlight is on us because of the following:
1. Lack of discipline, mistakes, & penalties.
2. Lack of Accountability because it never stops.
3. Poor roster construction in that we didn’t invest in areas like the offensive line, and or we have an old and often injured players and are paper thin on depth
4. Poor coaching decisions, adjustments, and game management.
Mike McDaniel. His first two years were promising in that he definitely helped fix Tua and unlock his potential. His offenses were exciting and it’s the most fun I’ve had watching Fins play since the Marino days. There were some things he needed to grow into but I wanted to give him a chance to do so and so I have been encouraging people to wait till the end of the season before deciding one way or the other about him. However while he has some strengths, he has some real issues that I’m not sure he can fix because it’s not who he is.
1. Accountability & Discipline. This is the biggest issue and the hardest for him to overcome and I’m not sure he can. You can’t be a nice guy and you can’t be so tolerant of repeat offenders being late and running the wrong routes and missing blocking assignments. There are too many veterans days off, they coddle players too much when they are injured, and apparently they have guys who show up late to meetings and practices and such, Tyreek being one of them. It was infuriating to hear him at the press conference basically throw up his arms and say something to the effect that “Fines don’t work.” Okay, so if fines aren’t working, how about you try something else? If it were me, I would post the rules clearly so there were no surprises and on the subject of players showing up late I’d do something like the following:
If a starter: Late once without a valid excuse, then you will be benched for the first quarter of the next game and everyone including the media will know why. 2nd offense, you will be benched an entire half. This may hurt the team, but that on you, the player who can’t show up on time to meetings. Miss a third time, and we suspend you for the next game for conduct detrimental and you miss a game check. I would imagine something like that would sort that issue out in a hurry. If you aren’t a starter, then you are demoted to the practice squad for the same offense and eventually cut if you don’t see the error of your ways and repent.
I think this “player driven” team thing is bullshit and doesn’t really work without strong leadership at the top and maybe an established winning culture already in place. I think captains have to be selected carefully, and if Tyreek isn’t traded next season, I don’t see how you can make him a captain again after he pulled himself out of the jets game and didn’t have the emotional discipline to keep his mouth shut after the game.
This is directly correlated with attention to detail and penalties and mistakes, and also with playing winning football in December and January, or simply against good teams in the national spotlight. Mentally weak, undisciplined teams collapse under the bright lights, and that’s what we have been the past couple of years.
2. Play Calling. Okay, I give in. He needs to bring in a play caller. He should stay involved in architecting/tweaking the scheme, as well as have some input into the game plan, but the entire offense would be better served if on game day he had someone experienced in the booth responsible for calling the game and ensuring the plays get in on time.
3. Fire and replace Danny Crossman asap. No reason this guy should still have his job. Special teams costs us games every year, this year was no different.
4. No more veterans days off. Everybody practices all the time and gets good reps. Don’t put old broken down players on your team who you have to rely on who cant even practice.
5. Use all available practice days and OTAs. He actually cancelled some of those this year as if this team has won anything to earn that?
6. Stop coddling injured players. They keep players out of games more than they should returning from injury. Listen to your medical staff, but also, let players play in critical games even if they are playing hurt a bit, especially if they want to. This includes Tua.
Anthony Weaver. Damn good coach. I wish he was our head coach. Would suck to have to replace him after one season.
