Why are the Miami Dolphins so Bad?
- Thread starter Noles_FSU
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Horrible management. Also, a lot of their fans are cane fans, and as FSU fans we see what their mentality is, they go to games when they're really good, if not.....
First the Roby children sold the team to Wayne Huezinga, who proceeded to fire Don Shula and bring in Jimmy Johnson, who began the downward spiral of the franchise. After mediocre results, Johnson left and insisted Dave Wannastadt be allowed to take his place. The leadership had been horrendous. Other than Zach Thomas and Jason Taylor, I can't think of a single player we drafted in the last 20 years that has become a pro-bowl player while with the Dolphins.
We had Shula for 25 years, and the last 20 years we have had 6 coaches. Other than Jimmy Johnson(56% winning) no other coach has had a winning record over all.
Stephen Ross, who now owns 95% of the team, thought it was a better idea to bring in celebrities owners like:Gloria Estefan, Marc Anthony, Venus Williams, and Serena Williams, instead of true quality front office help.
You have immense talent in south florida and the state of Florida, yet when draft time comes around, we take kids from big 10, or small schools, instead of tapping talent from FSU, UF, UM or even USF. That alone would help put more fans in the seats than bringing in celebrities that no one really cares about. I would think a Miami kid born and raised, would love to play for his hometown pro football team.
Over the years we have also let talent galore leave. Look no farther that the NE patriots, they have made a living winning with our players who have left miami. The Miami dolphins have become one of the worst run sports organiztions the last 20 years. During the 70's, 80's and 90's it was the most winning pro football franchise. Now its a waste land.
We had Shula for 25 years, and the last 20 years we have had 6 coaches. Other than Jimmy Johnson(56% winning) no other coach has had a winning record over all.
Stephen Ross, who now owns 95% of the team, thought it was a better idea to bring in celebrities owners like:Gloria Estefan, Marc Anthony, Venus Williams, and Serena Williams, instead of true quality front office help.
You have immense talent in south florida and the state of Florida, yet when draft time comes around, we take kids from big 10, or small schools, instead of tapping talent from FSU, UF, UM or even USF. That alone would help put more fans in the seats than bringing in celebrities that no one really cares about. I would think a Miami kid born and raised, would love to play for his hometown pro football team.
Over the years we have also let talent galore leave. Look no farther that the NE patriots, they have made a living winning with our players who have left miami. The Miami dolphins have become one of the worst run sports organiztions the last 20 years. During the 70's, 80's and 90's it was the most winning pro football franchise. Now its a waste land.
Jimmy Johnson encouraged the mob that wanted Shula out, coached four mediocre years, wanted to leave after three, got routed and embarrassed by Jacksonville, walked to the podium with his little dog Buttercup, quit and bequeathed the Dolphins Wanstadt. Johnson is a classless narcissist that brought poor sportsmanship to college football and showed none when he began the Dolphins decline from a premier franchise to one of the worst in the NFL. Ross brought in celebrity's instead of good players and has hired one bad personnel guy after another. How many more years can they drag that 72 team out for a celebration? I guess the 45th anniversary is next. They are, as I heard one fan recently say, the Ckeveland Browns south. Too bad.
They will never be relevant with the current ownership. I was a season ticket holder from 1982 Wood Strock days (pre Marino) until they decided to bring Wannstedt back for one more year 2003. I had enough then and dropped my club seats. They continue to try and build a team through free agency instead of the draft which will not work. They have tapped into Gator and Cane players. Since their last super bowl appearance they have drafted 10 Gators, 9 Canes, and just 3 Noles. They have not drafted a Nole defensive player in 34 years since 1982 Ron Hester.
Excellent synopsis. I was a fan for about a quarter century before Ross finally drove me off. The final straw was a few years back when the Broncos came to visit with Tebow, and he (Ross) decided to have a "florida gator national championship appreciation day". (This also shows how lame, powerless, and lacking in number "true" Cane fans must be. If someone tried to have an appreciation day for a rival program in my team's home stadium, I'd expect there to be a riot with pitchforks and torches.) I've been a man without a team since. (Well, there are the Bucs cause of proximity & Jameis....)
They have quite a few. Long was a 4 time pro bowler, Cameron Wake is 4 time pro bowler, Pouncey 3 times, Grimes 3 times, and several others who have made it once or twice in recent years. The problem with the Dolphins, is the same problem that any consistently bad team has (though to be fair, the Dolphins are more average than bad), and that problem is not having a QB. Tannehill has had his moments, but he is still young and inconsistent. But since Marino, their QBs have been Fiedler, Feely, Ferrotte, Harrington, Moore, Lemon, Henne, etc etc. Not exactly whose who of good NFL QBs. You cannot consistently win these days without consistent QB play, and the Dolphins simply havent had that at all.
What's ironic is that the Dolphins passed up Drew Brees...twice! First in the draft and then years later in free agency.
To be fair though, that is a hindsight type view. Everyone passed on Brees in the draft, as he was a 2nd round pick with some question marks. And the 2nd time, he was injured and it was tough to know if he would ever be 100% again. Plus, you also have to consider the the Chargers gave up on him too. His last season in SD he threw 24 TDs, 15 INTs, and they were only a 9-7 team. In 5 years in SD he had 1 really good year, and one pretty solid year, but he hadnt really shown that he was on his way to being one of the elite QBs in the league. And considering only 2 teams showed much interest, I think it is safe to assume most teams weren't sold on him. Culpepper was also coming off an injury, but at that point he had been the better QB of the 2. So while it was obviously a mistake in signing Culpepper over Brees, if you go back to that time period, it did seem to at least be a toss up between the two at best.
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A big part of why Nick Satan left the Dolphins. Satan wanted Brees and management wanted Culpepper. The Dolphins took Culpepper in free agency over Satan's wishes.
I remember watching that draft very clearly. I was at a party, and everyone laughed at my reaction after I'd been predicting/hoping Miami would take Brees with their late first round selection. Instead, Miami chose a corner (Jamar Fletcher...who incidentally would wind up in San Diego with Brees a few years later) when they already had two Pro Bowl corners in Troy Vincent & Sam Madison. Needless to say, Daddy wasn't happy and the rest of the room experienced great amounts of entertainment.
I always say this about Drew Brees, he should send a thank Phillip Rivers agent for every dollar he made once he left San Diego. As you mentioned above he really had only 1 good year in SD, but that was 2004. Rivers held out when SD wanted him to be their day 1 starter. Had he signed early, Brees likely never sees the field for SD in 2004 or 2005 and therefore, who knows how his career would've played out at that point.
Long and Pouncey and Grimes fit the criteria, but Wake wasn't drafted by the Dolphins, in fact he was undrafted. He starred in the CFL for a couple of years and then made the NFL and became the star that he is now.
Grimes wasn't drafted by Miami either. He was undrafted and picked up by the Falcons.
Yeah you are right, but I still think it fits the overall point. When talking about teams that draft well, is it essentially a discussion about the quality of their scouting dept. So no matter where a team finds a guy, whether that be in the draft, undrafted FA, from another league, etc etc, it still is a reflection of the scouting dept. So when discussing the Dolphins, they haven't been that bad in this regard. Their problem, has been the inconsistency of the QB position more than anything else IMO.
Their drafting is absolutely terrible. Who of the starting 22 is beyond mediocre other than Pouncy and Jarvis Landry that they have drafted? Their picks rarely ever pan out. Tannehill is at best mediocre but they gave him elite money. Now they are stuck with him and that contract.
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Tannehill's contract isn't a draft move though, and I dont blame them for picking him. You cannot win in the NFL anymore without a good QB, so it is worth taking a risk to get one when you know you dont have one. It obviously doesnt always work, but you have to try. And when you look at the 2012 draft, Russell Wilson is the only QB drafted after Tannehill who has been better than Tannehill, and Wilson was a mid round pick because no teams thought he would be the player he is. Plus Tannehill, he has thrown for over 15,000 yards and 87 TDs in 4 years, so let's not make him out to be terrible. I think the Dolphins bigger issue, has been their coaching. I never understand why teams flock to OC's who are coaching great QB's and don't realize that the QB isnt coming with them. I think Gase will be a better coach and will get more out of Tannehill, and the offense in general, than Philbin did.
But back to the drafting. They also drafted Vontae Davis and then traded him, and Davis is one of the better CB's in the league right now. Sean Smith has been a pro bowler since they let him walk. They just lost Vernon who has had 25 sacks the past 3 years. Charles Clay was a solid TE who was drafted late that they let walk, Reshad Jones is a good safety they drafted late. There are plenty of examples of good draft picks.
I also think that being with Payton helped him a lot too. That isn't to say he wouldnt have been good other places, as he is obviously a great QB, but Payton runs the perfect system for Brees. I think both of those guys owe a lot of their success to each other.
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