Chris Grier asked Burke to research Robert Quinn, and Burke didn't do it. He felt he had enough information about the guy from watching him before. Grier wanted an independent analysis, and Burke blew it off. Now, what we've seen in practice suggests that Quinn has that kind of ability … but either we made a scouting mistake, of which Burke is partially at fault, or Quinn is injured, which we have not heard about, or Burke is at fault for how he uses Quinn. No matter how you slice it … this does not reflect well on Burke.
But, we're never happy here. We had Mike Nolan who had a pretty good defense, but it wasn't consistent, and we soured on him. Then we had Kevin Coyle from Cincinnati, who did pretty well, but of course we weren't satisfied with him either. Then we had Vance Joseph, who now coaches Denver … and we didn't like him either. Now we have Burke … and it's his fault.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that … maybe not every DC is bad. IMHO, Burke is not the answer. But, we need to start to recognize when we have someone that's pretty good. Historically dominant DC's aren't coming to Miami, and if we unearth a young hidden gem, he isn't staying long. Not every ill is remedied by simply firing the guy we have and expecting to miraculously attract an elite DC to play for a young HC who jettisons players like he's eating tic-tacs and has an average track record as a head coach.
The question isn't whether Burke is good enough. The question is who can we get that is better? Yeah, maybe we all wanted Wade Phillips … but he didn't want us.
