Win Now versus Win Later Mentality | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Win Now versus Win Later Mentality

Itiswhatitis

Itiswhatitis

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If you had a choice to win now and mortgage the next 5 years to get to a Super Bowl in 2008 (no guarantee of winning it though) or win 3 years from now and be a consistent playoff team/Super Bowl threat for the following 5 years, which would you choose?

I would rather sacrifice the here and now and be a winner tomorrow. I realize that people THINK this is a win now league just like the real world is a short term profit world. However, SHOULD it be? Great organizations find the balance and rarely sacrifice the future or the long term for the short term gamble. In football, the teams that give up their 1st day draft picks for big name free agents usually get burned in the not too distant future. In the real world, businesses that focus soley on the next quarter and not 5 years down the road find themselves in trouble 5 years down the road. Yet the only thing that seems to matter is what have you done for me lately.

Too much emphasis is placed on the present and not learning from the past and building to the future. I realize as a Dolphin fan it has been a pretty hard last 5 years to swallow. However, we have to learn from the past of trading high picks for free agents, high management turnover, contract reconstruction, poor talent evaluation during drafts and take the high road now and practice patience to do it right for the future. As fans, for those calling for big named, high priced, free agents or for the firing of the Trifecta, think about what got us in the mess to begin with.

In a nutshell, I have confidence in the Trifecta and while they will make mistakes, I think they will make many more good decisions than bad. I plan on being patient for at least 5 years before I call for a change.

Patience and foresight is something our American society lacks these days in my book from NFL owners, to CEO's right on down the line. That being said, I am sure those "Win Now at Any Cost" folks have some valid points and arguments to be made as well. So sound off...and feel free to flame me now...or in the future...since I have become used to it in the past... :up:

PS - Did I mention it was time to start Henne? :D
 
personally,i'd rather sacrifice now,and win 3 years from now as you put it,and be a consistent winner every year. i've got faith in the trifecta....BP has been a winner everywhere he's been,and the teams he made winners,he didn't do it in one year either,it took a few years,so i have faith in him to turn the Dolphins into winners...
 
definately would rather be a consistent winner and sacrifice now for thet future instead of trying to win now and being a 1 hit wonder
 
Id rather just play to win every season. That dosent mean you have to try and load up on overpriced players in FA and mortgage draft picks for the future. You cant play to win like that. I mean take what you have and do the best you can with a goal of getting in the championship tournament every year while delicately balancing moves without sacrificing too much for the future.

Play to win.....EVERY YEAR. In this league, with the competition so close and the margin of victory so close, and the difference between 5 win teams and 11 win teams being a couple plays or a couple injuries, play to win every year.
 
Itiswhatitis for president!!!!!! You have my vote of confidence. The almighty Trifecta!!!!
 
Every team has to find the happy medium in drafting for the future and playing to win.

My problem with waiting 5 years, is Ronnie Brown will be 31, Vernon Carey 32. Realistically, you have 4-5 drafts to draft the foundations of a team, the depth, role players and the rest need to be picked up in free agency and in the later rounds. Signing any free agents over the age of 28/30 (depending on position) is not what this team needs right now but could be a in a couple of years.

Nobody wants to go to the big dance once, lose, then not have an impact a la Chicago. This FO needs to complete the foundations soon, to avoid wasting the carreers of the few success stories of years gone by.

This off season we will invest heavily in DB / WR / LB. What we can't improve upon will be addressed the following year.
 
In building for the future we build a strong team core, that will serve us well to be competitive for a while. That is something we haven't done since Shula was here.
 
Good post. The problem is that you do not understand why playing Pennington is important for building for the future. You need stability at QB to evaluate the rest of the offensive players. If a rookie QB is in the game, then his inconsistencies make it difficult to accurately evaluate players. We need to know if we want Satele to play for 10 years. We do not know that yet. We need to know if Ginn can grow. This why Parcell always has a veteran QB. You need to know the pieces you need to add.
 
If I'm guaranteed a Super Bowl in 2008 but we will miss the playoffs for the next years, I'll take the Super Bowl. I've never seen the Dolphins win a Super Bowl, nor win an AFC Championship, nor make it to an AFC Championship. I'm starting to think I'll never see the Dolphins win a world championship and I hate watching the Super Bowl every year and watching somebody else celebrate. The Heat have been awful for the past couple of years but whenever I go to their games I look up to the rafters and I see our massive world championship banner and think "Wow, I saw the Heat win a championship and, even though we suck now, it's all worth it." When I go to Joe Robbie's Mistake and see the Super Bowl VII and Super Bowl VIII championship flags, I still feel pride in our team's historical achievements, but it doesn't feel the same because I wasn't around to see it. So, in a nutshell, definitely win now over suffering for another three years before contending for a wild card berth.
 
WVdolphan said:
Id rather just play to win every season. That dosent mean you have to try and load up on overpriced players in FA and mortgage draft picks for the future. You cant play to win like that. I mean take what you have and do the best you can with a goal of getting in the championship tournament every year while delicately balancing moves without sacrificing too much for the future.

Play to win.....EVERY YEAR. In this league, with the competition so close and the margin of victory so close, and the difference between 5 win teams and 11 win teams being a couple plays or a couple injuries, play to win every year.
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I get what you're saying, but I dont think its realistic at all. The teams that are consistently winning in the league have been good for years (for the most part outside of the teams that are up and coming) and built their teams up. Everything is a process. You can't just win games with less talent like a video game. Different things change every organization. In our case, bad personel decisions 5/6 years ago have hurt us a great deal (i.e trading away high draft picks for players that are garbage). If you're stuck with a bad contract or alot of bad contracts, you're stuck with the player even if they dont contribute. And you can't cut them because of cap hits.

If it were as simple as to cut and trade players with no repercussions, then I'd say win every year. But it just doesn't work like that.
 
Very good stuff fellas.

For WVdolphan - I agree that we need to play to win every game. Even if you throw your third stringers in there play to win. I also agree that the margin between 7 and 10 wins can be VERY slim. That being said, I think PerfectFinz is on the money stating without a good core and a good future plan, poor decision making by win now mentality can really set a franchise back. Protecting the future is more important than risking the now on my scale. I hear you though in that there needs to be some balance. A 4th round pick for a starting LB and TE who are producing is the kind of draft pick for player trade I am talking about.

Phinglish - You make a good point as well that all of our good young players will be old by the time we are actually good if we go down the future only path. However, I would state that we are building a foundation and once Ronnie Brown or Vernon Carey, etc. are no longer at the top of their game, young players are ready to step right in due to the focus on future. Also with a better core of players, you can let big contract players go if you think somebody is behind them that can fill their shoes. I think it is intriguing how the Patriots let the best CB in the league (Tye Law) go to free agency years ago and then have a great CB (Samuels) step right in his place. The Pats also let a low round draft pick go to sign a stud risk like Moss and a 2nd rounder to get the always solid Welker. I don't think a franchise can paint a broad stroke and say never make deals with draft picks but I would be VERY VERY VERY VERY cautious when pulling the trigger and giving up a 1st day pick.

FinHopeful - I am not sure I totally agree that Pennington helps us evaluate talent whereas Henne might not. It could be that Pennington is actually hurting Tedd Ginn's progress. I do understand the experience factor that Penny brings to the table, good decision making and solid leadership. However, if this season becomes a wash, I would like for Henne to get out there and learn. I think he will be good enough that he will not hurt other players developing around him. In fact, he could help in ways Penny cannot - throwing balls into small windows, etc. We might learn something about our WR's that we currently do not know.

Untouchable - I feel for you. I was too young to remember winning a Super Bowl but I still feel the pain and tears of losing to the damn Redskins and 49ers in the 80's. Losing the Super Bowl sucks worse than any defeat to date, even that Monday Night Jet debacle.

I must admit, I used to say finishing 9-7 or 10-6 and always getting beat in the divisional round or by Buffalo had me believing we really need to get bad before we can get better. However, now that we have been bad for an extended period of time, I have learned being bad does not guarantee getting better. Bad teams can still make bad draft picks and bad trades and bad contracts and bad free agents. We have. I think that was WVdolphan's point to me in a past post. That being said, I would prefer to be a team like the current day Eagles or Patriots that always seem to be in the mix and have solid backups behind the starters. My belief is that a team that refuses to sacrifice the future for the present has a much better chance at long term success while still being competitive in the present.

The Dolphins used to be the winningest team not just in all of football, but in all of sports. From what I read in DolfaninPA70 reply, he believes that the Trifecta is the ticket to that kind of team again. But it is going to take time to undo what has been done unless we want to try to sacrifice the future again for short term risk. I for one do not want another 5+ year stretch like the last 5 years. I will suffer through another year or two of basement dwelling with the confidence that the Trifecta will make the good decisions to get us to the AFC East Penthouse throughout the decade to come.

If that doesn't happen, maybe I should stay home and help the wife house clean on Sunday afternoons...say it aint so!
 
Major problem with any theory like this is that no particular way or philosiphy is a garunteed success. You play every game to win, every season to win...All the time. Player evals is for TC. Always follow the same philosiphy. Play to win, and, bring in player to help you win. However, don't overpay for those players.
 
GoonBoss said:
Major problem with any theory like this is that no particular way or philosiphy is a garunteed success. You play every game to win, every season to win...All the time. Player evals is for TC. Always follow the same philosiphy. Play to win, and, bring in player to help you win. However, don't overpay for those players.
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i agree, depending on the moves you make any team can turn it around in a year.
 
I would agrue though that usually quick turn arounds are the result of a few suprises on the team and also a favorable schedule. Long term success is usually due to solid draft after solid draft after solid draft.
 
Itiswhatitis said:
I would agrue though that usually quick turn arounds are the result of a few suprises on the team and also a favorable schedule. Long term success is usually due to solid draft after solid draft after solid draft.
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the Keys are develop the good you have and keep them while not overpaying, draft well, dont trade picks for reaches or damaged goods. Sign free agents that wont break your cap. I think we would be in worse shape this year if we had signed Calvin Pace.
 
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