What Caused Miami to Become the NFL’s “Next Year” Team

[fisi]

GREAT READ FOR ALL DOLFANS!
These are all questions that can be answered when delving into the organizational structure of the Miami Dolphins.

1-Playing Up & Down To Opponents:
The Miami Dolphins are a confusing football team. They have moments in which they go toe-to-toe with the best units in the NFL, and can often beat them. However, they are also fully capable of coming out the next week and losing to one of the worst teams in the league.

Last season, Miami came out and beat the New England Patriots in Week One to open up 2014. They also were within one score of beating Denver, Green Bay, and Detroit, all of whom went to the playoffs. This year, Miami has not beaten a good team, but the point still stands that if they are blowing out very bad teams (Houston and Tennessee), they should be at least beating mediocre teams (Jacksonville). TRUE

2-Structure of the Organization:
There are too many cooks in the kitchen. The organization seemingly has no direction because, well, it doesn’t. It has individual directions. Dawn Aponte, Stephen Ross, Dan Campbell, Mike Tannenbaum, and Dennis Hickey all have different directions. At this point, the janitor could have a say in team matters for all we know. VERY TRUE

3-Misuse of Free Agency and the Draft:
The team uses draft picks to occasionally fill a hole, and free agency to find players to build around.I am not bashing individual signings. Ndamukong Suh was not a bad signing, Branden Albert was not a bad signing. Mike Wallace was a VERY bad signing. It’s a mixed bag. However, there are some instances in which Miami has used free agency correctly and still misused the draft. NUFF SAID

4-Not Coaching to Strengths of Players or Drafting with Intent:

Miami has a bad habit of making players adapt to coaches instead of vice versa. Brandon Marshall and Vontae Davis didn’t fit Joe Philbin’s mold, so the team basically dumped two top players in the NFL for nothing. The front office traded up for Dion Jordan, who is a talented player, but the coaches just couldn’t find a way to get him on the field. Coaches need to learn that they will have to adapt to talent, not vice versa. Otherwise, you end up with situations similar to that of Miami, in which massive resources have gone into players, yet they will still not make it onto the field. FOR SURE

5:What Does It Add Up To? Not Establishing a Culture.

It is all a cycle. One vicious, long cycle that Dolphins fans endure every year.

The front office misuses free agency, and appropriates players that really should not be built around.



http://thedeependmiami.com/2015/11/...i-to-become-the-nfls-next-year-team/#comments

 

[mmansfield]

That's Miami in a but shell. The FO organization is just a disaster who wants to work where you don't know who your boss is and everyone thinks they are the others boss. What's the draft like I wonder who's the head of the snake or is it whoever says a name first.

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[dolpns13]

Al points 100% accurately depict this franchise

 

[whizafriz]

The FO's plans were not very smart considering the existing issues on the team, and with the coaching staff's quirks with respect to playing-time.

Parker was a decent idea as a 1st rd pick to solve our WR abilities, but that injury history, plus deciding to do the surgery and then play Jennings/Matthews over Parker continuously even when he was back to 100% health... it's just very poor planning by the FO and the coaches. You can't waste draft talent like that -- draft the guy with intent to play first and foremost. Soon as he's 100%, he should have been factored in to the game, regardless of how well Matthews was playing. He needed snaps, and IMO would likely have made an impact on this season with the ability to move the chains in tough coverage, and add a dynamic to the red zone -- the exact kind of situations that were/are plaguing our offense still, even with Matthews playing well.

Why go through the trouble to get Suh if they weren't going to lock-down, or draft, any key LB prospects? I get that they wanted to double-down on the DT spot with Suh and Phillips, but did the LBs really give much confidence to anyone? They were a problem last year, they're a bigger problem this year. Suh is making a name for himself again, but if an opponent gets past Suh, then we're looking at last years deficiencies all over again.

The skimping on OLine this offseason -- I assume they must have (foolishly) respected Philbin's word that the OLine was improving in practices, despite early signs that they were still getting blown up. If it was Joe's word that led to this decision... why trust Joe's opinion on a unit that hasn't improved in over 2 years under him, and has statistically gotten worse?

All that said, I think Hickey and Tannenbaum can do a much better job with a better HC who will play more players throughout a season and invest time and competition in the youth on this team. It seems they expected Philbin to comply, but he clearly wasn't on the same page, but dumb on their part for expecting anything different.