Stephen Ross Ruined the Franchise

[emoticon]

So an owner, who provides an excellent game day experience, Has no issue spending money to bring in the best for the players. Takes time to teach players smart financial management, spends his dime to make the stadium better. is in the process of building one of the best training facilities in the NFL for the team is a bad owner?

Get the **** out of here with that nonsense. The only issue he has is he can be too loyal to people. That is it.

None of that matters as much as the football people hired to make decisions. Jeff Ireland, Mike Tannenbaum....

 

[NJ Dolphan]

I have to disagree with your comment that “Ross is fine and really isn’t the problem”. As the owner since 2009, He hasn’t hired a single coach, GM, or football operations director who has been able to get this team beyond mediocre.

Now he has given the responsibility for building this team to a GM who has been a part of the problem for nearly two decades. He constantly hires head coaches who have had no previous head coaches experience and these coaches hire coordinators who have never held these positions before.

Obviously Ross can do as he pleases because he is the individual who put up over a billion dollars to purchase the team. Yet Ross in his time as owner of the Dolphins has clearly proved that no matter how much money he might have, he has no idea what he is doing with it comes to hiring individuals who know how to build a successful football team.

I understand the need to to rebuild this team after years of mediocrity. Unfortunately I just have zero confidence in Ross and his selection of Grier to be the GM responsible for this rebuild. I think that with Grier selecting the players, the Dolphins will be no more than mediocre at best in the coming years.

Obviously the people he personally involved in hiring, who haven’t done the job, are his responsibility. At the same time, it isn’t a fantasy league where Aaron Rodgers is available every year, or Bill Belichick is there to be had. He’s got to hire someone, and the people he’s hired have not been obviously unqualified. While that sounds like a low bar, the fact remains that unless you’re Jerry Jones or Dan Snyder, there’s a lot that’s out of your control.

But what is absolutely true is that tanking this season and whatever it leads to, will be his legacy, for better or worse.

 

[Phinatic8u]

**** off.


*(it must be noted, because some have serious difficulty with reading, that I am referring to Ross and not you)

I didn't even think you were talking to me lol.

 

[Rev Kev]

Face it, we are a broken franchise. Ross has been heavily involved in player selection and in the draft. Ross pressured his GMs and coaches to make the playoffs instead of building through the draft for most of his failed ownership. Ross kept Grier because Grier advocated building through the draft for years. We have drafted for need and the results have been poor at best. We are slightly better than an expansion franchise. Tanking is like ripping off a scab and experiencing all of the failures of yesteryear. Yet, we know something had to change with overpaid and aging players with terrible contracts signed by Tannebaum while under intense pressure to make the playoffs. At one point, we had three current or former 1st round picks on the OL and still could not move the needle with robotic Tannehill.

Blame lies with Ross' ever changing agenda and the coaches we have hired. Philbin was a joke. Gase inherited a better roster but the contracts issued were made to win now. We all knew deep down he would ruin the franchise and he has. To draft Minkah and then trade him is horrible (unless we get great value). Jersey sales will also tank because there will be no assurance that the player will be on the team. Because we are tanking, we will have boatloads of cash next year chasing greedy free agents who do not want to come here (except to make cash). We are now forced to accept Patriot castoffs.

So now we are tanking to get a QB who will be surrounded by very young or less talented players. The NFL has made having a stellar QB essential to team success. Scoring is what drives fans today. We are following the Cleveland model. Flores acknowledged upon being hired that there will be a period of pain before things turn better. I believe we are not playing Rosen to prevent him from being injured or demoralized. I will remain a fan but cannot wait for Ross to sell the team. Ross has ruined the franchise by forcing his hand on those hired to run the team. Parcells quit because of Ross' meddling. Every coach has failed because of bloated contracts and drafting out of need.

Blaming an Owner who sits in the reeds and isn’t overly meddlesome?? Something is out of balance with this thread

 

[gofins60]

Obviously Ross can do as he pleases because he is the individual who put up over a billion dollars to purchase the team. Yet Ross in his time as owner of the Dolphins has clearly proved that no matter how much money he might have, he has no idea what he is doing with it comes to hiring individuals who know how to build a successful football team.

I understand the need to to rebuild this team after years of mediocrity. Unfortunately I just have zero confidence in Ross and his selection of Grier to be the GM responsible for this rebuild. I think that with Grier selecting the players, the Dolphins will be no more than mediocre at best in the coming years.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: IMO, every personnel decision that Ross has made has been terrible. Ross took over a team that was average, but upon closer inspection they were actually close to being a playoff team. Here's my take on that team:

Defense - Mike Nolan's defense was Top 5 against the run. They were one of the few defenses that could actually get after Brady and slow down the Pats offense. However, they probably needed another good CB, and Nolan had a bad habit of losing games late by playing prevent defense. (The prevent might have been okay if the offense had been able to score more points!)

Offense - While I didn't hate Henne (he occasionally made some great throws), "Checkdown Chad" needed to be replaced. On the o-line, for some weird reason, they always ended up with a turnstile at RT. They could run the ball, and usually had no problem moving between the twenties. But, once they entered the red zone it was a different story. Because of their lack of talent at the offensive skill positions, they normally had to settle for FGs instead of scoring TDs. Dan Henning and Brian Daboll both ran what appeared to be vanilla offenses (many times the defense knew what they were going to run), but I don't know whether this was by design or forced upon them due to the lack of talent.

Adding some talent to the offense (QB, RT, #1 WR, and seam-threat TE), along with better playcalling, probably would have been enough to turn those FGs into TDs and possibly wrest the Division Title away from New England. But, from 2000 until Ross took over, the Front Office used nearly all of their early draft picks (rounds 1, 2, and 3) on OL and Defense. During this time, only 3 offensive skill position players were drafted in the first round (Ted Ginn Jr, Ronnie Brown, and Tannehill), and only about 8 or 9 total were drafted in the first 3 rounds. Clearly, this refusal to use top picks on offensive skill position players hurt the team's ability to score points.

What was the solution? At the least, Ireland needed to be replaced with someone who could recognize and evaluate both defensive AND offensive talent. I have no opinion concerning if Ross should have kept or fired Sparano, but they definitely needed a new OC with better playcalling. And, on defense, either keep Nolan or replace him with someone who runs a similar defense (why change what was working).

Unfortunately, Ross kept Ireland. And, if that wasn't bad enough, he replaced Tony with Philbin, an inexperienced nobody who wanted to turn the team into the complete opposite of what they already had (they were fairly physical, but Philbin wanted finesse). This first decision by Ross started the downward spiral into the toilet. Philbin got rid of physical o-linemen in favor of guys like Martin and Dallas Thomas. He neutered the running game. He hired Coyle, and they ruined the defense. Then, Ross finally fired Ireland and hired Tannenbaum. When Philbin was fired, instead of finally cleaning house completely, Ross promoted Tannenbaum and brought in Gase, another inexperienced nobody. And now, when a complete housecleaning, tear-down, and rebuilding was in order, Ross kept and promoted Grier (who may or may not have been part of the problem) to run the show. The Dolphins were very close to being a competitive playoff team, but the decisions made by Ross sent this team in the opposite direction and wasted the past 8 years!

 

[Semedi]

He really did. Ross has money, but he's totally inept at running a football team.

 

[ohall]

You don't really believe that, do you? Ross is 100% to blame for being a slave to his philosophy of half-measures (either firing the coach and keeping the GM or keeping the GM and firing the coach). It's never worked yet Ross never learns from his mistakes.

My previous answer was in the context to who I was replying who was inferring that a tank is never good and championship teams rarely go that route. I don't disagree with that POV. It can work. However those teams generally have drafted or lucked into drafting the right QB. Unfortunately, it seems to this point we've spent our luck drafting Dan Marino.

Ross was responsible in hiring those ppl, 100%. However IMO he was not responsible for the choices they made.

And I disagree. I think Ross has learned from his past mistakes as a owner. He was impatient and that has got all of us no where. He now appears to have decided to take the more patient POV, the long view and to rebuild the franchises on the field talent.

 

[ohall]

This is coming from someone who used to defend Tony Sparano, Jeff Ireland, and Joe Philbin. You used to make fun of the people who criticized them too. Do you get bitcoins for supporting the coach or GM, no matter how ****ty of a job they do?

By the way, I hope you and your family are okay down there after Dorian. I know I criticized you in my first paragraph, but I mean this in all sincerity.

I believe the ppl you are citing all had early success as HC and GM. Many of our recent coaches and staff had early success and at some point in there the future did look bright.

 

[J. David Wannyheimer]

If anyone ruined the franchise, it was Dave Wannstedt. He razed, scorched, and salted the earth, so to speak. This team has never quite recovered from the trainwreck he left in 2004.

I do blame JJ and Wayne for setting up Wannstedt as the coach, but Wayne genuinely tried to give the fans what they wanted and JJ at least drafted well defensively and took a cap strapped team that had loaded up to try to get Shula one last run and was able to win in the playoffs with it.

 

[Wildbill3]

Half this site was all aboard the suck for luck train, and half were advocating for tank for tua before the offseason really began. We lose one game and now most of you want to bail on the plan? Gtfo.

 

[Phinatic8u]

Ross will be a genius when his plan lands us Tua.

 

[J. David Wannyheimer]

What was the solution? At the least, Ireland needed to be replaced with someone who could recognize and evaluate both defensive AND offensive talent. I have no opinion concerning if Ross should have kept or fired Sparano, but they definitely needed a new OC with better playcalling. And, on defense, either keep Nolan or replace him with someone who runs a similar defense (why change what was working).

I appreciate your post in its entirety, but I wanted to nitpick on this part: Brian Daboll became the offensive coordinator in 2011. The Dolphins were an appreciably better scoring offense (20ppg vs 17ppg) over the 2010 team. I don't think Brian Daboll did a bad job at all. In fact, you may remember that after the offense started to gel with that romp against KC (the team's first win), they scored 30+ points four times and put up a very respectable number of points, despite JP Losman taking a significant number of snaps when Matt Moore couldn't go.

Daboll really didn't do a bad job. That entire 2011 season was mostly the result of bad personnel management and drafting (Ireland/Grier), and the insane Harbaugh situation that turned Tony Sparano into a dead coach walking. I don't think the coordinators were a big part of the problem.

 

[TarHeelFinFan]

I defend anyone working for the fins because I want success for the team. Why is that so hard to understand?

We all want success for the team, but sometimes that requires figuring out that the people in charge are morons and need to go. Grier was one of those morons and instead of firing him, Ross, another moron, promoted him.

 

[Adam Strange]

If anyone ruined the franchise, it was Dave Wannstedt. He razed, scorched, and salted the earth, so to speak. This team has never quite recovered from the trainwreck he left in 2004.

I do blame JJ and Wayne for setting up Wannstedt as the coach, but Wayne genuinely tried to give the fans what they wanted and JJ at least drafted well defensively and took a cap strapped team that had loaded up to try to get Shula one last run and was able to win in the playoffs with it.

Wannstedt hasn’t had anything to do with the Dolphins in 15 years. Zero, zip, nada. The team could have been rebuilt multiple times in that time frame, gone on multiple playoff runs, developed dozens of all pros. The fact that they haven’t is the fault of those after Wannstedt who haven’t been any better than he was at drafting or getting to/winning in the playoffs.

It’s not his fault that the team hasn’t drafted a franchise QB in fifteen years. It’s not his fault that the team hasn’t hired a good coach in fifteen years. It’s not his fault that the best the team can do in fifteen years is sneak into the playoffs twice and get their doors blown off each time. And if this tank fails, that won’t be his fault either. Just more of the same from the bunch that took a flaming wreck of a team in 2004 and poured gasoline on it before pushing it off a cliff.

 

[J. David Wannyheimer]

Wannstedt hasn’t had anything to do with the Dolphins in 15 years. Zero, zip, nada. The team could have been rebuilt multiple times in that time frame, gone on multiple playoff runs, developed dozens of all pros. The fact that they haven’t is the fault of those after Wannstedt who haven’t been any better than he was at drafting or getting to/winning in the playoffs.

It’s not his fault that the team hasn’t drafted a franchise QB in fifteen years. It’s not his fault that the team hasn’t hired a good coach in fifteen years. It’s not his fault that the best the team can do in fifteen years is sneak into the playoffs twice and get their doors blown off each time. And if this tank fails, that won’t be his fault either. Just more of the same from the bunch that took a flaming wreck of a team in 2004 and poured gasoline on it before pushing it off a cliff.

The point is that the Dolphins, at the time Dave Wannstedt took over the team, were the winningest franchise (win percentage) in American pro sports. And since then, the team has been, well, extremely bad. And that the being bad started on Dave Wannstedt's watch in such a way that he left a dysfunctional wreck of an organization for the guys who came after him, none of whom have really ever been able to fix it. So if the question is "Who ruined the Dolphins?" the answer is obviously 'the guy who put the team on its as-of-yet inescapable spiral into garbage.'

It's not that he's still sabotaging the team, it's that he sabotaged it really badly and nobody's been able to get it fixed. So, until it gets fixed, he will continue to bear the blame as the guy who originally broke it.