Talking Head at ESPN's view on the Phins in 2009

[DuderinoN703]

I just wanted to highlight what I thought were the dude's key points:

Are you old enough to remember the film the above song lyrics came from? It's "Wildcats" -- a 1986 movie about a ragtag team of football underachievers who get a new coach, add a little bit of trickery and hard work to their repertoire, and suddenly find themselves at the top of the heap. If that doesn't describe the 2008 Miami Dolphins, I don't know what does.

Of course, that's the glossy, romanticized view of this team. The fact is, the Dolphins were not nearly as bad as their 1-15 record in 2007 would have you believe, and they weren't nearly as good as their 11-5 record last season. Quarterback Chad Pennington came over from the Jets to manage the offense, and he did it better than anyone could have imagined, throwing only seven interceptions all season, helping to propel Miami to a turnover differential of plus-17, tops in the NFL. That's why we think this team is due for a setback in 2009. There's very little chance that this team will hold on to the ball as well as it did last season.

If you saw the playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens, in which Pennington threw four picks and the Dolphins were soundly thrashed 27-9, you saw a sneak preview of what this season holds for the Dolphins on a much more regular basis. The receiving corps on this team is very average, and with so many Wildcat imitators around the league, the one weapon that made the team unique last season won't be so unfamiliar to opposing defenses. That's not to say this team can't contend for a playoff spot, but with Tom Brady back in New England and Terrell Owens now with the Buffalo Bills, and with two rookie defensive backs joining a unit that finished 25th in the league against the pass, we'll be surprised if the Dolphins do any better than 9-7.

Thoughts?

http://sports.espn.go.com/fantasy/football/ffl/story?page=nfldk2k9dolphinscamppreview

 

[GoonBoss]

Lol...Well, it sucks that we are apparently going to be playing the Ravens every game this year.

I will agree that it will be tough to top 9 wins looking at the schedule on paper. I think the Pats are still the team to beat for the AFC East, and if we don't manage to beat them out, we won't see the playoffs, because I don't see the wildcard coming from the AFC East.

 

[Lorenzo Rules]

I hate to say it but they are right our wrs are way overrated and i dont think that we have improved as much as the other rivials have.

this crap that miamis wrs are as good as the bills and jets is perplexing I dont see it . if miami would have brought in a bigtime wr i would say that Miami could win the division but since miami cant throw the ball deep and the wrs are unknown I would think that a 8-8 season would be liberial to say the least.
I think a 5-11 or a 6-10 is very much a reality.

lets gjust hope that we do throw downfield more then i will predict more wins but untill such time I think dolphin fans are overrating the wr corp.

 

[oasis]

That we underachieved in 2007 and overachieved in 2008 is IMHO, a fair assessment.

But I think all the analysts do underestimate the impact of the improvements made this offseason...and we overestimate them, lol. So where will reality settle? Probably somewhere in the middle...

 

[Nublar7]

I hate to say it but they are right our wrs are way overrated and i dont think that we have improved as much as the other rivials have.

this crap that miamis wrs are as good as the bills and jets is perplexing I dont see it . if miami would have brought in a bigtime wr i would say that Miami could win the division but since miami cant throw the ball deep and the wrs are unknown I would think that a 8-8 season would be liberial to say the least.
I think a 5-11 or a 6-10 is very much a reality.

lets gjust hope that we do throw downfield more then i will predict more wins but untill such time I think dolphin fans are overrating the wr corp.

Pretty much the same WR corp did fine last year and won 11 games. Not to mention Pennington had the best year passing of his career. He did that without having a guy like Owens or Coles.

Not saying our recievers are something to marvel at, but to think this team is going to suffer because there are no "star" recievers is what is perplexing. Did Owens take the Cowboys to the playoffs last year? No. Did Randy Moss take the Patriots to the playoffs last year? No. Did Coles take the Jets to the playoffs last year? No. Did Andre Johnson take the Texans to the playoffs last year? No. You know who did take their team to the playoffs? Ted Ginn, Davone Bess and Greg Camarillo.

 

[DuderinoN703]

I posted this article well knowing that the author of it wrote it for Fantasy Football purposes. The rest of the article discusses what Dolphins, if any and not many apparently, would be good FF players.

But the quotes I added go beyond just Fantasy Football. It's a guy's opinion on the team as a whole (as if we don't get enough of others opinions).

That being said, I chuckled when he listed the Bills getting TO as why the Phins won't be 11-5 again. As if he himself will make the Bills a great team.

The other logic I always find amusing is when someone says that Pennington throwing 7 INTs all year and not getting hurt won't happen again. Well, this guy had this opinion that he'd get hurt last year and didn't so he wrong. Yet now b/c of this, it's unlikely it will happen again? Wouldn't it be likely to occur again as opposed to not?

 

[oasis]

The other logic I always find amusing is when someone says that Pennington throwing 7 INTs all year and not getting hurt won't happen again. Well, this guy had this opinion that he'd get hurt last year and didn't so he wrong. Yet now b/c of this, it's unlikely it will happen again? Wouldn't it be likely to occur again as opposed to not?

Don't you know that if you flip a coin 9 times and get heads 9 times in a row, there's a 99.9% the 10th flip is definitely going to be tails? :crazy:

 

[dolfan94]

Surprised at anything better than 9-7? A team with playoff experience? A young team one year older? A team coached by Tony Sparano? A team that pretty much has every key player from last season? A team that has the toughest record in the league
IF YOU LOOK AT LAST SEASON!

If we went 11-5 and you say we wont go better than 9-7, then we dont really have the toughest schedule in the league.

Anyone get what I mean?

 

[SR 7]

I have been sayng it since teh season ended...Penny will cost us many games this year. those defenses we play this year are 10 times better then most we faced last year and they will watch and break down evrey second of hte Baltimore game and run the same defense which is to have the LBs sit in the middle and let penny go to the sidelines which is where he can't b/c of arm strenght....expect to see henne in if we go worse then 2 and 4.

 

[MDFINFAN]

I have been sayng it since teh season ended...Penny will cost us many games this year. those defenses we play this year are 10 times better then most we faced last year and they will watch and break down evrey second of hte Baltimore game and run the same defense which is to have the LBs sit in the middle and let penny go to the sidelines which is where he can't b/c of arm strenght....expect to see henne in if we go worse then 2 and 4.

The funny part of this article is:

The bottom line



Miami is a "team" in the truest sense of the word. The Dolphins don't have a lot of superstars, and the big personalities they do have -- Porter, Taylor and Ricky Williams -- are content to take on supporting roles rather than starring ones in the name of winning football games. That's terrific for fans of the team and refreshing in this age of "me first" players who spend more time figuring out how to tweet from the sidelines than watching game film. However, from a fantasy standpoint, it's awful. Outside of Brown, who should be able to handle lead-back duties all season long now that he's another year removed from his ACL surgery, there isn't a single player we'd feel confident about drafting for our fantasy team, except as a very late-round roll of the dice. If you're drafting a Dolphin in Round 5 of your fantasy draft, I've got just one thing to say to you: "U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi."

don't that beat all.. when you say that every team will break down baltimore's d and do the same, did you forget that we'll have 3 interior OLmen that we didn't have in that balt. game? We'll have an additional year under our belts in this system...Now what don't we know about our WR's, are they smarter this year, are they now comfortable and don't have to think as much in this system? Do our additions suprise.. I'd say this much, the 3 interior OLmen plus new WR's, plus another year in system = a better O. Now if penny did get stronger in terms of arm strength as some said during ota's and mini camp.. who know what might happen this year. Of course the additions could also cause us to regress just as well. But If remember correctly, NE won their first SB with basically the same situation, and a at the time backup QB.

 

[crazyfin]

Pretty much the same WR corp did fine last year and won 11 games. Not to mention Pennington had the best year passing of his career. He did that without having a guy like Owens or Coles.

Not saying our recievers are something to marvel at, but to think this team is going to suffer because there are no "star" recievers is what is perplexing. Did Owens take the Cowboys to the playoffs last year? No. Did Randy Moss take the Patriots to the playoffs last year? No. Did Coles take the Jets to the playoffs last year? No. Did Andre Johnson take the Texans to the playoffs last year? No. You know who did take their team to the playoffs? Ted Ginn, Davone Bess and Greg Camarillo.

Great point Nub!!!!!! i agree IMO we have enough to make the playoffs this year.

 

[bastid]

I simply still do not understand why fin fans still say the Pats are the ones to beat in the AFC East. WE ARE THE CHAMPS not them. The phins earned it last year on the road in the meadowlands in a upset victory to not only send the jets home, but to also send New England home as well. Brady went down yeah, but a guy by the name of Cassel came in and performed very well. Hate to say it but I really don't think the Pats missed pretty boy last year because of how Cassel played. So to say just because Tom is back doesn't mean the pats are still the team to beat. WE ARE THE TEAM TO BEAT!!!

 

[ThaGame17]

I hate to say it but they are right our wrs are way overrated

.... says the guy with the chris chambers profile picture

 

[Despacio]

I can't believe that last observation used Terell Owens as a setback to Miami.

 

[4THand10]

I have been sayng it since teh season ended...Penny will cost us many games this year. those defenses we play this year are 10 times better then most we faced last year and they will watch and break down evrey second of hte Baltimore game and run the same defense which is to have the LBs sit in the middle and let penny go to the sidelines which is where he can't b/c of arm strenght....expect to see henne in if we go worse then 2 and 4.

When you can't run the ball in the playoffs its pretty easy for any defense to sit back and wait for Chad to throw the ball.

The interior of the offense line was so bad at run blocking.If it wasn't for Chad the Dolphins wouldn't have even come close to making the play offs.