The Miami Dolphins are a couple of days away from perhaps their most important draft in the last decade plus. We all have been discussing possible draft scenarios: who we like, who we don't, who will be available, most important needs, etc. I don't want to discuss that in this post. I want to discuss philosophy, not draft philosophy (been done to death). I want to discuss the philosophy that will determine the direction of the franchise.

I've been reflecting on the last decade of Miami football. It's a painful exercise and I don't recommend it. It will leave you negative and bitter (hence Mr. Negativity!). But I think I have come up with the overriding philosophy of the Miami Dolphins in that time. From Dave Wannstedt to Tony Sparano, the overriding philosophy of this team has been: CONSERVATIVE.

This conservative philosophy has been evident in the draft as well as on the field. Here are the Miami Dolphins drafts for the last decade+.

http://www.nfl.com/draft/history/fulldraft?teamId=2700&type=team

I challenge you to find one impact player, one difference maker drafted in this bunch since 2001. Miami's draft philosophy, IMO, has been to take guys with High Floors instead of guys with High Ceilings. This philosophy leads to not finding any playmakers in the draft. They are afraid of failure, so you see a history of trading down, trading picks for marginal players, not taking risks, etc.

Then on the field you see the same thing. Name me one head coach from Dave Wannstedt to Tony Sparano that you would consider "aggressive"? I can't either. It culminated with the Tony Sparano's FG Fist Pumps.

I am a firm believer that any football team (any organization for that matter) is a reflection of leadership. The leadership for the Miami Dolphins is Stephen Ross, Joe Philbin, and Jeff Ireland. Here is my advice for each:

Stephen Ross - You Set The Philosophy: As owner, you set the direction of the franchise. So far, I think you are doing a good job. You are bold and not afraid to go after what you want whether its Jim Harbaugh, Jeff Fisher, or Peyton Manning.

"I'll do it again and again," he (Ross) said. "I can't worry about losing, because nothing ventured is nothing gained."

http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/thedailydolphin/2012/03/26/miami-dolphins-owner-stephen-ross-stresses-patience-defends-jeff-ireland-and-explains-his-teams-approach-to-free-agency/

That is the philosophy that you need to impart on Philbin and Ireland. That is the philosophy that has been absent from Miami for far too long. While doing that, you also need to look within the organization and figure out why your Bold moves are not being rewarded.

Joe Philbin - The Team Will Play The Way You Coach: During the game week and on game day, you set the direction. You are the ultimate decision maker. You say whether the Offense will go for it on 4th down or punt. You say on 3rd and Long whether the Offense runs a draw or throws deep to try and pick up the 1st down. You make the decision, up 14 with the ball on your own 20, 1:30 left before half and two TO's, whether to take a knee or try to score more points. You, up 14 at halftime, make the decision to sit on the lead and run out the clock or try and make it a 28 point lead. You say whether to try and block a punt or set a return. You say on 3rd and Long whether the Defense Blitz's to create a big play or play zone coverage to allow the other team to punt.

I'm not saying you need to be reckless. But you need to Play To Win! For far too long, this organization has gone the conservative and the Play Not To Lose route. Fans appreciate Bold. If your bold move fails, so what. You will get more respect from the Fans for being aggressive and failing as opposed to being conservative and failing. Ask Tony Sparano about that.

Jeff Ireland - If Ross Sets The Philosophy, You Figure Out How To Get It Done: If Ross says "this is where I want the organization to go", it is your job to figure out a way to do it. You are the "football guy" that needs to make the "football decisions". You need to follow your owner's philosophy and make it happen on the football field by acquiring the necessary talent.

By just about all accounts, you are an arrogant, egotistical bastard. You are a douchebag. I say embrace that. Embrace the fact (that you think) that you are smarter than everyone else. If you embrace this, you will become bold and make tough, unpopular decisions because you know you are right.

GM's for Miami have been reluctant to do this in the past. They have done half measures (like trading draft picks for other teams back-up QB's), made calculated decisions (Dante Culpepper vs Drew Brees), and settled on "safe" choices (Jake Long vs Matt Ryan). You don't win making the safe choice. Like Ross said, "Nothing Ventured Is Nothing Gained". Go out and "Venture" and damn the consequences.

If you think Miami can win now, make the necessary moves to make it happen. That was the purpose of pursuing Peyton Manning. Manning is a win now move. Re-signing Cameron Wake, an older pass rusher, is a decision to win now.

If you think Miami needs 3-4 years to build a Championship Team, make the moves necessary for that to happen. Draft for that team and select players with High Ceilings that will be difference makers. If that means trading up (like the Falcons did for Julio Jones last year or the Jets did for Mark Sanchez) then do it. If that means trading popular players (Wake and Long) because they won't be in their prime or their contracts will be too restrictive to build a Championship Team, so be it.

Identify what you believe needs to be done and do it. Don't take half measures and be wishy washy in your decision making process. Trust that you are better than everyone else, that you are smarter than everyone else, and make it work. You are either going to be right or wrong. Trust that you are going to be right. And if you are wrong, at least be wrong doing it your way.

In my industry, I am the GM. I am Jeff Ireland. When I walk into a room, whether it is meeting with my own company or with a customer, I am the smartest person in the room. If I'm not, I lose. I need to be Bold and Decisive. Otherwise, if I am non decisive, I let other people determine my direction. When your compensation depends on you being right, on the path being the correct one, you can make damn sure I'm going to be the one choosing it.

Stephen Ross, Joe Philbin, and Jeff Ireland need to have the same conviction in their beliefs. They need to be Bold and Decisive. If they are, they still might fail. But if they aren't, they cannot succeed.

The organization hasn't been Bold and Decisive in the past decade, from ownership all the way down to coaching. And they haven't succeeded.

PS: As an aside, if you haven't read Dave Hydes's "Four Myths To Avoid In The NFL Draft", here it is:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-dolphins/fl-hyde-miami-dolphins-prospects-0419-20120418,0,7294759.column

This talks about the Bold Moves Necessary to make an impact in the NFL.

There are several reasons I am writing this Post. Some of the things that I have heard this week have made my head spin. So I am channeling my inner Fr8train and going to "Spray To All Fields". (Fr8 has the market cornered on Rants)

Tim Tebow - Quit Talking: Tim, I like you. I like you as a football player. I like you as a person. I don't care about your faith or how you preach your faith. That is up to you. But lately, every time I hear you speak I cringe. I realize it isn't all your fault, that the spotlight is thrust upon you, it's just you sound like Nuke LaLoosh before Crash Davis works with him on his interviews in Bull Durham.

Did you listen to his press conference with the Jets? In the press conference he says "First and Foremost" about 726 times. Tim, there can only be 1 "First and Foremost". Every other sentence used this phrase. It made my head hurt. The one other thing more annoying than the "First and Foremost" was the use of the word "excited". If he used "First and Foremost" 726 times, he used "excited" about 3,482! Trust me Tim, no one is ever that excited about being a Jet! Take some of those millions of dollars and invest in some public speaking courses. Again, I like you, I just can't listen to you speak right now.

Sean Payton - Quit Lying: Speaking of bad press conferences, did you see Sean Payton's at the owners meeting? Did he say one factual thing in the whole press conference? Payton was asked if he thought anyone was injured as a result of the bounties and Payton said "No". No? Really? Didn't players get paid $$ in the bounty program if an opposing player was carted off the field? If no players were injured because of the bounty, then no $$ should have been paid, and we all know that didn't happen.
Then there was this gem:

"It's ... easy to get carried away with a certain side of the ball, more involved offensively or defensively, and that's something I regret."

He was told a couple of years before he got busted that the league knew about the bounties. Even if he had no involvement with the defense prior to that knowledge, you know he had to look into the defense after that. That is his job as HC. And the fact that he encouraged false denials of his staff AFTER HE GOT CAUGHT again proves that he was "involved" defensively.
But this is the coupe de grace is this one:

"I haven't seen specifically the report. As I mentioned, it's hard for me to go through each item line by line."

The report is only EVERYWHERE ON THE INTERNET! I mean millions of people have read the report. How can you comment on the report and it penalties when you "haven't seen specifically the report"? What a crock of shit! I used to like this guy. I don't think I can say that anymore.

Stephen Ross - Quit Telling The Whole Truth: Look, I can't advocate lying. I despise lying. But that doesn't mean you have to tell the whole truth. I praised his call(s) to fan Jason Lawrence. It is a good PR move. But if you are going to do that, don't say things like this:

"If Chicago didn't take [Marshall] ... they would have ended up cutting him very shortly after that, and got nothing."

Stephen, you just can't say things like that, even if it's the truth. I live in the Chicago area. As soon as this got out, the Bears Fans were ripping their new GM, Phil Emery, for "overpaying" for Marshall. Their argument was "if he was going to get cut, why give up draft picks for him". And they are right. If Ireland would have made that trade and then us fans found out later that the player was going to get cut, what would our reaction be? It would only add fuel to the fire against him and we would be right.

Ross, you can't throw other teams' GM's under the bus like that. It affects they way you do business in the future. Let your football people talk football.

"Nobody Works Harder Than Jeff Ireland": This is equivalent to a "vote of confidence". How do those work out? Stephen Ross and Leslie Frazier (hey Leslie, worry about your own team) both said this about Ireland this week to defend him.

Let me say, I don't care how hard someone works. Let me repeat: I DON'T CARE HOW HARD SOMEONE WORKS!!

Everyone works hard. If not, they don't work for very long. Working hard doesn't guarantee results. It is not about working hard, it is about results. I want Smart People.

In my experience, when that is one of the first things people say about themselves or have other people say about them, it means that they aren't accomplished. It means that they aren't successful but try hard.

When you apply for a job for a results oriented position (like sales), don't you list your accomplishments first? Aren't your accomplishments suppose to justify your hard work? That is what is happening with Ireland right now, IMO. He can't fall back on his accomplishments as a GM, so Ross and Frazier are justifying his existence by saying "no one works harder".

Bill Polian, Ozzie Newsome, Jerry Reese, and Ted Thompson have dumbass mistakes. All GM's do. But they have accomplishments. 3 of the 4 have won the Super Bowl. How often do you hear how hard they work? Yet I bet they work every bit as hard as Jeff Ireland.

I'm a big fan of The Office. In one episode, Steve Carrell's character, Michael Scott, believe's that he is being promoted. He is looking for his replacement to run his regional office. He considers John Krasinski's character, Jim Halpert, for the position.

Michael says into the camera (paraphrasing): "Jim is a possibility, but I don't think he works very hard. What takes me 5 hours to do he gets done in 30 minutes."

Which one do you want working for you?

Joe Philbin, I Hope You Can Coach: I say this because I like just about everything about you right now. I like your philosophy. I like the way you communicate with the press and fans (I wish you did this more often, but I digress). After the previous boobs in Cameron and Sparano, it is refreshing to have a HC that can communicate clearly and concisely.

But none of this means shit if you can't coach. So please, be a good coach. Use your timeouts wisely. Manage the game clock correctly. Be aggressive and attack. Please. We will all Thank You for it.

Ryan Tannehill, Come On Down!: You are the first contestant (since Dan Marino) as a 1st Round Drafted QB!!

I'm starting to like this kid. He supposedly had a great Pro Day today. Good. All the buzz is that he is going to the Dolphins at #8. If this regime believes he is a Franchise QB, then I don't care if he is supposedly a reach at #8. There is no such thing if he becomes a franchise QB.

And if he is the selection at #8, I will give Jeff Ireland some credit (I know everyone is shocked by this). Why you ask? Because Tannehill doesn't fit the Bill Parcells' rules for drafting a QB like Chad Henne did. Those rules are (in case you don't remember):

1) He must be a senior: Tannehill passes
2) He must be a graduate: Did Tannehill get his degree?
3) He must be a 3 year starter at QB: Tannehill fails this.
4) He must have at least 23 wins: Tannehill fails this.

http://smartfootball.com/quarterbacking/bill-parcells-four-rules-for-drafting-a-quarterback

Chad Henne passed all four (so did Pat White for that matter). That is why everyone thought Henne would be a good QB. So the most important rules set forth by Bill Parcells and followed by Jeff Ireland, will be broke IF Miami drafts Tannehill at #8. That means that Philbin and Sherman brought some sanity to the QB Search and Ireland will have changed his mind. Ireland would have adjusted and dismissed the old model. And I will give him credit for that.

So there you have it, 1400+ words later. If you made it this far, thanks for reading and let the debate rage on!!

PS: In a recent Fanshot, I was called Mr. Negativity. So I am embracing the title! Why not, me and others like me on this site are the counter to the Rainbows and Unicorns crowd that think everything concerning the Miami Dolphins is perfect.

I have a new hero in the NFL.  His name is Jack Mula and he worked as general counsel-player personnel for the New England Patriots for almost a decade.  He currently is a co-founder of Cornerstone Consulting which advises college programs on how to deal with the agents and boosters on campus.

But why is this man, a man I never heard of until today, my new hero in the NFL?  He lays out what he calls a "Winner’s Mentality" (in the process smacking down Jimmy Johnson, that’s never a bad thing because Jimmy Johnson is a tool, IMO) and completely agrees with me (which is also a way to get on my good side!).

I have had many discussion / debates with fellow contributors on this site on "rebuilding" an NFL franchise.  For those of you who don’t know, I think "rebuilding" is a built in excuse for losing.  "Rebuilding" is a built in excuse for poor coaching and front office decisions.  "Rebuilding" assumes that time is needed to win, that losing is justifiable.  I call it Bullshit and so does Jack Mula.

Jack Mula was the focus of this column by Mike Berardino (see link below) about establishing a "Dolphin Way" using the model of Robert Kraft did with the Patriots.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-dolphins/fl-mikeb-miami-dolphins-1110-20111109,0,3954942.column

Berardino suggests that Steven Ross needs to become more active in his involvement with the team, just like Kraft is with the Patriots.  Jack Mula says the following when it comes to making the offseason moves that will be necessary for the Miami Dolphins:

Ross, Mula suggests, should hang up immediately on any football "gurus" insisting on patience and offering a five-year plan to return the Dolphins to respectability.

"Unfortunately, there hasn't been a whole lot of winning, so people are going to expect it's going to take a while to rebuild that program," Mula says. "And I'm telling you that is not the way a championship organization builds itself and acts. A championship organization expects to win from the very first game."

He is exactly right.  How much did we hear about "Rebuilding" when Parcells and company were hired?  How much did we hear about "Rebuilding" was needed even after the Miami Dolphins won the division in ’08?  It never stopped and it continues to this day because of this year’s performance.

Here is another quote from Mula:

"If Mr. Ross makes changes, the attitude down there should not be, 'We're going to rebuild this thing and it's going to take a few years,' " Mula says. "That is a loser's mentality. A winner's mentality is, 'Let's get the right people. Let's get the right parts. Let's put the right organizational structure in place. Let's get our plan. Let's win from the very first game."

And:

"That has to be your mindset," Mula says. "Anything else is a loser's mentality. You will never get to the championship level."

(I told you I love this guy.)

Since Jimmy Johnson took over, taking over a playoff team by the way, this franchise has been in a constant "Rebuilding" mode.  We have told to be patient, that it takes time to build a championship.  But this entire time, with all the people that have been hired since Don Shula, this franchise has had a "Loser’s Mentality".

It is time to put "Rebuilding" where it belongs, in the trash.  "Rebuilding" is for losers.  It is time for the Miami Dolphins to become winners and that means expecting to win next year and the year after that, and every year going forward.

I have said in the past that I want the Miami Dolphins to be like the Patriots, Steelers, Colts, Packers, etc.  I want this team to be in the Super Bowl conversation every year.  To get to that point, this team must develop a "Winning Mentality".  It begins with Ross and his decisions that he will make this offseason.  Jack Mula lays it out on how to do it in the article.  If Ross is smart, and I think he is, he will follow this advice.