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The State of the Dolphins franchise... and a comparison with the Bucs

crowder_rules

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the problem on this team is that we have an improper balance between age. young players, in-their-prime players, and veterans. and that creates a salary cap imbalance.

we didnt draft well for a couple of years (wannstedt and spielmann). so we didnt have any players in-their-prime. saban has tried to bring guys in who are in-their-prime. like will allen, renaldo hill. two years ago with vonnie holliday, donnie spragan, and kevin carter.

the problem is bringing free agents costs more money than developing them yourself. so, we really are lacking in money to have enough quality players. and until we bring young players that have smaller salary cap numbers, we wont compete.

i think saban is doing a good job of making this team younger in order that we can consistently compete. this year we may we be bad, but at least we are bad and somewhat younger.

i think we are a good comparision with the tampa bay buccanneers. they had the number one defense in the league last year. but this year, they have struggled and shown signs of age (brian kelly, mcfarland, rice, barber, quarles, brooks). they have not done a good job of integrating young players; therefore, their rebuilding will be much more difficult.

the dolphins had a great run in the late 90's with those great defenses. and people were always talking about when is the window going to close. i thought saban would keep it open for at least one more year. and i think some people (myself included) thought maybe we wouldnt even have a down cycle before we got strong again. well, we are finally paying for all those good years. if you dont believe me, look at the dead cap numbers this year and the past several years.

in conclusion, i believe you have to build through the draft, which saban has preached. which the pittsburghs and new englands have done. and i believe once we get those younger players, the salary cap will be more balanced. and we will start competing again.
 
well i never even thought of it that way, it does make a lot of sense
 
yep, that's exactly how you do it. After five or six years of good drafting and cheap free agent pickups, you should have a nice mix of young guys and veteran players that ought to compete. Marquee free agents are never cheap, so you have to gamble on career underachievers or second-shelf guys.

It also involves getting good coaches to prepare these guys right. Also not overpaying guys when they hit free agency, you saw the Steelers lose Randel El and the Patroits lose Branch.

Fortunately Saban seems to understand every one of these things;

1) It's hard to argue with his drafting thus far since so many guys are contributing.
2) Saban has been purging some high-priced veterans (Surtain) and bringing in younger talent cheap. It's hard to argue with the free agents, since so many are on short-term contracts. You can't expect them all to pan out, maybe 50% at best will.
3) The very first thing he did was hire great coaches.
4) Saban refuses to overpay, even for a position of need. He let Madison walk, didn't match Brees, and didn't budge on Arrington. He's even anticipating free agency by locking his draft picks up for long contracts.

I don't really understand why this board is in an uproar. Take a step back and realize this team is moving forward. It sucks to be 1-3 right now, but there's still a lot of work to be done.
 
Good post. Like everybody else I sure wish our record was better, but in the midst of the loses I am looking at the positive steps that are being taken to build a very good team. In time we will be a threat every year, and that is worth the painful process we are going through right now.
 
Pocoloco said:
yep, that's exactly how you do it. After five or six years of good drafting and cheap free agent pickups, you should have a nice mix of young guys and veteran players that ought to compete. Marquee free agents are never cheap, so you have to gamble on career underachievers or second-shelf guys.

It also involves getting good coaches to prepare these guys right. Also not overpaying guys when they hit free agency, you saw the Steelers lose Randel El and the Patroits lose Branch.

Fortunately Saban seems to understand every one of these things;

1) It's hard to argue with his drafting thus far since so many guys are contributing.
2) Saban has been purging some high-priced veterans (Surtain) and bringing in younger talent cheap. It's hard to argue with the free agents, since so many are on short-term contracts. You can't expect them all to pan out, maybe 50% at best will.
3) The very first thing he did was hire great coaches.
4) Saban refuses to overpay, even for a position of need. He let Madison walk, didn't match Brees, and didn't budge on Arrington. He's even anticipating free agency by locking his draft picks up for long contracts.

I don't really understand why this board is in an uproar. Take a step back and realize this team is moving forward. It sucks to be 1-3 right now, but there's still a lot of work to be done.

post of the day man. excellently said
 
Pocoloco said:
1) It's hard to argue with his drafting thus far since so many guys are contributing.
Three guys are contributing. None of them have been spectacular compared to a lot of the guys that came out the last two years.
2) Saban has been purging some high-priced veterans (Surtain) and bringing in younger talent cheap.
You get what you pay for.
3) The very first thing he did was hire great coaches.
Mularkey is an expert at crippling offenses.
4) Saban refuses to overpay, even for a position of need. He let Madison walk, didn't match Brees, and didn't budge on Arrington. He's even anticipating free agency by locking his draft picks up for long contracts.
You get what you pay for. If we're lucky, we'll have Matt Roth and this year's entire draft locked up for seven years.
 
Poor drafts are very hard to overcome, Wann/Spiel made it impossible for us to keep Surtain. Ricky cost us big time 2 #1 picks plus the one we used on Ronnie, and the 3rd rounder for Lamar Gordon. The AJ Feeley trade perhaps helped get rid of Surtain, since we needed picks.
Failure by Wann/Spiel to land Olin Kreutz and John Tait is an indication of weak personell management, signing Damion MacIntosh without medical clearance and his imediate surgery was a joke. Waynes loyalty to Wann/Spiel may have cost us a lot of on the field talent. But we already know that.
 
Pocoloco said:
1) It's hard to argue with his drafting thus far since so many guys are contributing.

3 starters (Brown, Daniels, Crowder), I think Daniels and Crowder are not exactly lighting things up. There is a lot of hype over Vickerson, Evans, RWright - all DL, all NOT contributing. Roth - again more hype, and still a back up.

I realize people need to develop, our DL is getting up there in age, but how many freaking DL do we need?

Where is the young blood on the OL? No starters, Damn little on the roster to help out in the future, yet everyone agrees the OL is our big issue.

Maybe Allen and Brown turn into consistent pro bowl players, but the jury is still out on Saban's drafts.

In the NFL today, much more is expected of draft picks - they need to start contributing sooner than they used to.
 
All of this would make sense except for one move Saban made: trading a second-round draft pick for a 29-year-old quarterback coming off a bad season and a devastating knee injury. How does that fit into the plan of getting younger and building through the draft? I know Saban stressed how important it was to "get better at the quarterback position," but if it's really just a team in transition as he builds for the future, it would seem to me that Frerotte fit the bill just fine.
 
it was obvious last year we needed to upgrade at qb to get better. gus did ok for us, but he inaccuracy killed us in alot of games.
 
Pocoloco said:
yep, that's exactly how you do it. After five or six years of good drafting and cheap free agent pickups, you should have a nice mix of young guys and veteran players that ought to compete. Marquee free agents are never cheap, so you have to gamble on career underachievers or second-shelf guys.

It also involves getting good coaches to prepare these guys right. Also not overpaying guys when they hit free agency, you saw the Steelers lose Randel El and the Patroits lose Branch.

Fortunately Saban seems to understand every one of these things;

1) It's hard to argue with his drafting thus far since so many guys are contributing.
2) Saban has been purging some high-priced veterans (Surtain) and bringing in younger talent cheap. It's hard to argue with the free agents, since so many are on short-term contracts. You can't expect them all to pan out, maybe 50% at best will.
3) The very first thing he did was hire great coaches.
4) Saban refuses to overpay, even for a position of need. He let Madison walk, didn't match Brees, and didn't budge on Arrington. He's even anticipating free agency by locking his draft picks up for long contracts.

I don't really understand why this board is in an uproar. Take a step back and realize this team is moving forward. It sucks to be 1-3 right now, but there's still a lot of work to be done.
Agreed. I think what is killing so many fans are the expectations that many in the media placed on the Dolphins. There were several people who actually predicted a SuperBowl appearance. The Dolphins are improving (even if the rcord doesn't show it). One of the more intereting questions is will Zach and JT be around if the Fins become serious contenders.
 
in time we will need a new qb we can be sory like this and rebuild all we want and thats fine but DC is 30 and if with already a mjor injury and a messed up head so i mean the future is fine but here we go with a qb problem again cause joey isnt stayinbg around as back up when he can start elsewhere
 
Only problem taking 5-7 years to rebuild, by the time your competitive again, they are free agents and leaving for the almighty $$.
 
crowder_rules said:
in conclusion, i believe you have to build through the draft, which saban has preached. which the pittsburghs and new englands have done. and i believe once we get those younger players, the salary cap will be more balanced. and we will start competing again.

I agree we need to build through the draft, Someone needs to tell Saban to start practicing what he's preaching though. Spending 50 mil to bring a 30 year old QB here whilst also giving up a second round draft pick for him is not rebuilding through the draft.
 
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