Will Philbin be our weakest link?

[Charlie Rivers]

It's really quite simple with coach: playoffs or bust. He should be sleeping better now that the o-line is (better be) an upgrade from last year; not to mention a new GM and Offensive Coordinator. I believe we will enter the post season this year and that should keep Joe on the sidelines for a few seasons - if, of course, team success continues with each passing year (to a degree).

GO JOE!! GO RYAN!!! GO DOLPHINS!!!!


:zorro:

_

 

[DeathStar]

he helps our chances to stay in the middle of the pack.

hooray!!!

 

[PhinFan1968]

clabo is washed up that's why he's still jobless right now...everyone else much prefers other options than soon to fall off the cliff (if he hasn't already of which i don't care how he finished up the season the signs are absolutely there)

i'd much rather take a chance on a young player with upside than a corpse...at least a jawaun james has potential for improvement...that doesn't mean james won't play a turnstyle right tackle either...i guess we will have to wait and see...i believe in the pass pro ability i don't believe in the move athlete and ideal move scheme fit but then again i havent seen what they are gonna ask the tackles to do yet either under lazors offense...

as for philbin if we can protect the qb and take some pressure off with a situational effective play running game i have no doubts this will not be the hcs last season in miami...if we can't well then it will

We ranked dead last in passes to an RB out of the backfield...throw some improvement on that, along with what you posted above, and it's party time.

 

[johngarryvo]

dude puts up quite the front.. truth: he's not The Guy.. homeboy showed he was AWOL with his team last season; and continues to have connectivity issues with his own children.. it's telling. if he's deficient with one, he should be over-achieving with the other.. he's neither.

figure maybe 8-8/7-9.. and posting Want Ads in 2015..

 

[gofins60]

Let's see what Lazor actually brings to the table first.

The problem is that if Lazor is that good, he is going to save Philbin's ass...our moron owner won't be able to separate in his mind the contribution between Lazor and Philbin. If we do so bad that Phibin goes, Lazor will probably be gone right along with him.

My vote for the weakest link is Ross. His failure to clean house when he fired Sparano was a huge mistake. By only taking half measures, he is partnering new hires with someone on the hot seat and that's not fair to the new hires. Ireland should have been fired with Sparano. Philbin should never have been hired as his vision for a team is not even close to what Ireland wanted. Hickey was probably the only GM candidate who was willing to work with Philbin.

Ross hired Philbin thinking that he could turn this team into the Packers. A better choice would have been to copy the Giants (who beat the Pats in 2 SBs), since beating New England on a regular basis should be Miami's goal. Jimmy Johnson built a team with a good running game and defense, but ignored the QB position and passing game and this has been the Dolphins of the past 14 or so years. Even though Miami has been one of the few defenses to consistently harass Brady, NE has dominated the division because they could put up high scores on a regular basis while Miami could not. Lately, Miami has had poor coaching and a GM (Ireland) who stubbornly refused to draft offensive "playmaker" positions (QB, WR, TE, and RB) in the first 3 rounds of the draft. Since 2000, the only offensive playmakers drafted in the first round were Ted Ginn Jr, Ronnie Brown, and Tannehill... that's it. This is why Miami can't score points on a regular basis. If Ross had any sense, Ireland should have been fired with Sparano. A new GM and Head Coach should have been hired who could build on the already decent running game and defense, and would be able to recognize offensive talent in the draft and get the passing game going.

Instead, Ross keeps Ireland and hires Philbin (who brings in Sherman and Coyle). Under Philbin's direction and/or leadership, the offensive line (most of them, anyway) who blocked for Ricky and Ronnie could no longer block. Philbin wanted the short passing game to replace the run, but his o-line was built for a different scheme. Coyle slightly improved the secondary, but between him and Ireland the team lost its ability to stop the run. I can't completely blame Philbin for all of this, since he was saddled with a GM who filled the team with average players (and very few above average players), although I do believe that Philbin was the wrong guy with the wrong philosophy to improve the team that he inherited.

 

[GoonBoss]

I miss Don Shula

I don't miss his absurd level of loyalty to Tom Olividotti.

 

[GoonBoss]

dude puts up quite the front.. truth: he's not The Guy.. homeboy showed he was AWOL with his team last season; and continues to have connectivity issues with his own children.. it's telling. if he's deficient with one, he should be over-achieving with the other.. he's neither.

figure maybe 8-8/7-9.. and posting Want Ads in 2015..

He's not the only NFL Coach to have "Conectivity Issues" with his family. The absolutely absurd hours you put in as
a coach will do that to any family.

 

[HoneyB]

(1)Miami has had poor coaching and a GM (Ireland) who stubbornly refused to draft offensive "playmaker" positions (QB, WR, TE, and RB) in the first 3 rounds of the draft. Since 2000, the only offensive playmakers drafted in the first round were Ted Ginn Jr, Ronnie Brown, and Tannehill... that's it. This is why Miami can't score points on a regular basis. (2)If Ross had any sense, Ireland should have been fired with Sparano. A new GM and Head Coach should have been hired who could build on the already decent running game and defense, and would be able to recognize offensive talent in the draft and get the passing game going.

Instead, Ross keeps Ireland and hires Philbin (who brings in Sherman and Coyle). Under Philbin's direction and/or leadership, (3)the offensive line (most of them, anyway) who blocked for Ricky and Ronnie could no longer block. Philbin wanted the short passing game to replace the run, but his o-line was built for a different scheme. Coyle slightly improved the secondary, but between him and Ireland the team lost its ability to stop the run. I can't completely blame Philbin for all of this, since he was saddled with a GM who filled the team with average players (and very few above average players), although I do believe that Philbin was the wrong guy with the wrong philosophy to improve the team that he inherited.

I agree with all of this, and I want to break it down.

1. Poor coaching and a drafting philosophy with offensive acorns (Camarillo, Bess, etc) instead of pro bowlers. I'll say one thing about the Ginn selection, at least Cam tried. He was an offensive minded coach who insisted on going offense with #9 and it backfired, but the concept was sound. Go look back at that round and tell me what player was a sure-fire hit at that draft slot instead of Ginn. There was nobody, it was a lousy class. But we ran Cam out of town. We had our chances many times, like Dez Bryant for example, to pair him up with our one good WR, and that would have created an identity, but we didn't do it. We also didn't create a dangerous TE tandem, or overwhelming running game. There was nothing to really hang your hat on.

2. Ireland fired along with Sparano: It's true we could have built on what we had. It's true Ireland didn't deserve to hang onto his job and continued to have poor drafts. But Ross actually compounded the problem. If you're keeping your GM, then let your GM hire your coach. Ireland didn't want Philbin. If there was a different coach here, there would have been different philosophies, different schemes, no Mike Sherman, no JMart, no scandal, and no animosity between Philbin and Ireland. We could have actually progressed. I know Ross did this because he wanted to be coach-centered, and that's why he went after Harbaugh, but Philbin was not the answer and it all blew up in his face.

3. Offensive Line: It's true, the line who blocked for Ronnie and Ricky suddenly couldn't block. So that tells you something. But even while Sparano was here, I was not satisfied with our ability to run the ball. People love to say how much the NFL is a passing league, and that may be true, but the top teams have strong running games, and also value good running backs. If RB's are so unimportant why was the 1st RB in this year's draft taken by the 49er's? There's more than one way to get to the superbowl, but you do have to have an identity and be highly successful in a couple aspects of your game, not just average in all aspects of it. Right now we are mostly average across the board.

 

[Zounds]

If you seriously think an OL of Albert, Thomas, Brenner, Shelley, and James is better than Martin, Richie, Pouncey, Jerry, and Claybo, then you are going to be in for a big surprise come week one. Our OL is CONSIDERABLY WORSE than it was this time last year, NOT better.

:m359:

 

[roy_miami]

Joe Philbin is not going to be the one to hold the team back. Joe Philbin is 12-1 when he gets a good performance from Tannehill, and the only loss came against Luck who posted a great performance with 100+ passer rating himself that game, which was the week Chuck Pagano came back into the locker room before the game after being out while getting treated for cancer.

Now if you want to say Philbin had a big part in selecting, and then going "all in" on Tannehill without a contingency plan then he is the weak link by association.

 

[roy_miami]

Ross hired Philbin thinking that he could turn this team into the Packers. A better choice would have been to copy the Giants (who beat the Pats in 2 SBs),.

Its funny you say that because in my opinion Philbin and Coughlin are both system guys through and through and very similar in their approach. Even Belichick himself plays a system on defense but obviously schemes quite a bit on offense. I think we actually do the opposite, we don't adjust our system much at all on offense but do quite a bit of scheming on defense, which goes unnoticed by the masses for some reason.

since beating New England on a regular basis should be Miami's goal

I think we are trying to copy them rather than build the perfect team to beat them. The Jets actually have a much better shot at sweeping NE than we do but is it at the peril of costing them wins against the rest of the league on average? If you are at a poker table and one guy is crushing the table you would be better off trying to copy him and cleaning up against the rest of the fish rather than focus on beating him, at least in theory.

 

[mnphinfan]

Hurt us.

I've seen too many mistakes on his part during games over the past 2 seasons to think he's going to help us. He's also not very flexible in offensive philosophy. I like Lazor but I think he's going to be handcuffed somewhat by Philbin's lack of imagination.

I think we Dolphin fans need to temper our expectations for this "new" offense because of Joe Philbin.

One of the main reasons Lazor took the job was because Philbin is very hands off when it comes to his coordinators. It was a huge reason why Sherman's offense never changed. Players have been quoted saying the difference is night and day between the two.

 

[mnphinfan]

I agree, those coaches you mention do have similiar demeanors, but they are no where near the same type of leaders. I agree there are different ways to lead, some do it loudly others with a quiet confidence. I see neither in Philbin, but that is just my opinion. Hope I'm wrong, but I really don't think I am.

Lazor on the other hand is a much better leader. You could see it the first time you heard him talk. Then watching him coach during mini camp made a believer out of me. I believe Lazor would be a better HC THIS year than Philbin.

How did you get to see him coach? Mini camps are closed to the public.

 

[mnphinfan]

You have him as neutral but you allow no neutral option in your poll.

I might have chosen neutral, instead of hurts us, and that would have been generous on my part. But I'm willing to go there and assume he won't derail our team like he has in the past by hiring Turner and Sherman, moving Martin from RT to LT, telling Incognito to toughen up JMart, allowing bullygate to blow up, being tonedeaf to his players, firing all the veterans, telling Sherman to abandon the running game, failing to develop Ryan Tannehill (up to this point), and allowing a late season collapse like I've never seen in the history of our team.

How would you have handled the LT position? He wanted to trade for Albert and Ireland said no.

When it comes to his coordinators Philbin is very hands off. Its one of the main reasons Lazor took the job.

Bullygate was a media driven farce. Not a single player spoke harshly about Philbin or Cogs. I still can't believe people are trying to pin that on Philbin.

Tannehill hasn't improved from his first to second year? Lol, no.

Last, you must not be a Fins fan for very long because Shula and the entire list of coaches behind him have had some epic end of season collapses.

 

[Bumpus]

Philbin is the best coach we've had since Shula was forced out.

You do realize that's not saying much, right?