Think about this for a minute. We choose Tannehill with our 2nd pick. I did not say their 2nd round choice. Imagine the surprise at Radio City Hall when the commissioner walks up to the podium and says "the Miami Dolphins select Quinton Coples DE North Carolina". People like Mel Kiper Jr. would say that the Dolphins must know something about Tannehill. After all they hired Mike Sherman as OC and he did not pound the table hard enough to convince Coach Philbin and Ireland to select him at 8.

When Pete Carroll started with the Seahawks a lot of people thought that he would select Taylor Mays. When he selected Earl Thomas instead, Mays fell to the second round. I am not saying that Tannehill would slip to the 2nd round.

Today Ireland spoke with the media about the draft and one of the things that he said was their draft board has not changed very much since the end of the college season. For argument sake, let say that they have Tannehill rated in the 20's and Coples in the top 10. By passing on Tannehill at 8 one of the messages that is sent is that the team who knows him better than anyone else must know something that the rest of the league does not know. When in actuality all Ireland is doing is a smokescreen. The Fins trade back into the first round with Cincy @ 21 for instance and give them our 2nd and 3rd round pick for the rights to draft Tannehill.

I know a lot of you will think this is very risky but remember what happened with Brady Quinn. Most people thought that the Browns would draft Quinn at 3, but instead they drafted Joe Thomas. Later in round one, they traded with Dallas at 22 and picked Quinn.

What do you think about that strategy?

This reminds me of going to Las Vegas and putting your chips all in and expecting to win because two other tables in the same room won the jackpot and there must be a third. I cannot believe the amount of praise and how much Tannenhill's stock has risen since his pro day. Now you have Jim Irsay and Bill Pollian both saying that whoever wants Tannenhill better trade with Minnesota for the third pick of the draft. This is absolutely nuts and IMO, whoever does this will be a fool.

Think about a guy like David Carr. The Texans drafted him first overall and were never able to get him an O-Line and as a result he became shell shocked. Carr had all of the tools and had more QB experience than Tannenhill in college. A question that I have not heard answered is why didn't Tannenhill become the starter at the beginning of his junior year? He did not win the position during spring practice. He became the starter mid-way that season.

Secondly, I have confidence that Philbin/Sherman can teach the kid the nuances of playing QB in the NFL. The best thing that could happen for Tannenhill would be to sit on the bench for a year or two and learn. The real question is how much do we have to give up to get him and how patient is ownership going to be in letting him sit on the bench when the team is not winning games. Rodgers worked out so well in Green Bay because they had Favre and were in no hurry to move him to number one until he was ready. If Tannenhill gets picked in the top ten, then I seriously doubt Ross will give the HC/FO that kind of flexibility. Remember Ross's comment that he thought Henne had a chance to be the best QB in franchise history.

This team has a lot of holes that have to be fixed before we are going to be a consistent playoff team. If we end up trading 3 picks for this guy, then we have made a couple of mistakes. One we drafted a player who is definitely not worthy of the 8th much less than 3rd pick in the draft. Regardless we have no guarantee that he will become a franchise QB. As a result, we could have added a better player to our team and now we would lose two more players.

I say let KC or Seattle or some other organization move up for Tannenhill. Another example of what I am referring to is the Jets. Look at Mark Sanchez and how he has progressed. He did not lead his team to the AFC Championship, the rest of the team did and he was along for the ride.

In closing, I sure hope that our FO does not allow a frenzied hyped-up player ruin this franchise. Frankly, I feel sorry for Tannenhill because unless he becomes a consensus All Pro, his career will not be looked upon well.

In reading several posts there seems to be a lot of people who think our o-line can be easily fixed. Are you guys kidding or what? In the Ireland/Parcells/Sparano era besides QB, O-Line has been our biggest problem. That is why I could not understand why we allowed Eric Winston out of the building w/o giving him a contract. IMO this was the biggest mistake during FA because we would have solved one of our biggest needs. Unlike any other unit on a football team, the o-line has to work in concert. Each piece is very important. We have brought in over 50 offensive linemen since the IPS era and still have not fixed the problem. I would love to have De Castro on our team because I believe that he will be an All Pro Guard for a long time. Unfortunately, we have other needs to address and he will not be available in the 2nd round.

Philbin also mentioned the the o-line is critical to the success of both the passing and running game. We definitely need to address our o-line. We have also had some unfortunate circumstances that have affected the o-line namely injuries. For instance, in year one they drafted Thomas and he became a starter and got injured and was never the same again. Smiley was always hurt and Jake Grove was even a bigger disaster because we paid him a huge signing bonus.


We better hope that we get some good players in this draft and or FA, so that when training camp starts that we have five starters who are working in unison.

Cleveland surprises everyone and drafts Tannenhill with the fourth pick. Imagine that the draft works out this way.

1. Luck to Colts

2. RGIII to Redskins

3. Kalil to Vikings

4. Tannenhill to Browns

5. Claiborne to Buccaneers

6. Blackmon to Rams

7. Ingram to Jaguars

IMO, this would be an ideal scenario for the Phins and here is why?

In this scenario, Richardson is on the board. In two recent mock drafts, I saw this scenario play out with the authors of the mock drafts suggesting that we would trade w/Cleveland at 8 and pick up picks 22 & 37 from the Browns. The Browns would select Richardson and they assume that we would draft Weedon at 22. Their thinking is that the Phins are so desperate for a QB that we would take Weedon.

If that were the case, then I would ask for more than that from Cleveland, considering that Richardson is one of the six elite players in this draft. What I would do instead is ask Cleveland for their 22nd pick, 67th pick,(3rd RD), 100th pick (4th RD) and a 2013 1st RD pick. In this scenario, the Phins would have 6 draft choices in the first 100 picks in 2012. That would give Ireland the flexibility that he needs to help the Phins this year and allow us to be in position to draft a genuine franchise QB in 2013 as opposed to one who has the potential to be a franchise QB.

The other option would be to draft Richardson and then trade Daniel Thomas for a 2nd or 3rd rd pick in 2012.

What do you guys think about this?

It is clear to me that to me that the FO views our offense as in full rebuild. The comments made by Philbin at the owner's meeting were quite revealing. He is a strong believer in building through the draft as is Ireland. In addition, Philbin made it very clear that he is not happy with the OL. The fins are going to be switching to a zone blocking scheme which means that we no longer are going to draft the biggest linemen. I see this as a two year project at mininum.

Scenario 1: Move up and draft Blackmon at 4 from Cleveland

When Philbin was on the Finsiders, he said that we do not have any ones, twos, or threes at WR. Drafting Blackmon would give us a legit number one receiver. This offense currently has only one playmaker and that is Reggie Bush. We cannot count on Bush being healthy in 2012 as he was in 2011 because w/o other playmakers, opposing defenses are going to want to take him out. Blackmon will give Moore or Garrard a legit target to throw to and he will make our other receivers better. In addition, we have so many needs that it makes sense to target a few key postiions so that you don't go into the draft every year w/a bunch of needs. For ex. we could of had Earl Thomas, the FS a few years ago. We still have not solved that position. This scenario implies that you are going after quality as opposed to quantity.

Scenario 2: Trade number one pick to Indy for their 2nd pick in 2012 and their 1st pick in 2013

This scenario makes sense, especially if Tannenhill is off the board. In addition, I believe that there are a lot of question marks re: Tannenhill. This guy has risen from a 2nd rd pick to a top ten pick. How did Gabbert play for Jax?

In addition, Gil Brandt stated that after Osweiller's workout that he should jump to the 1st rd. This is utterly ridiculous. When QB's keep moving up because of their position as opposed to their talent, GM's who fall for that will not keep their job long. Personally I would rather see us draft a legit franchise QB and next year's draft looks very strong. In order to accomplish this we have to find the perfect suitor.

It is very clear that Indy is in full rebuild mode and we should definitely get a top ten pick which means that we should have plenty of fire power to move up and get the franchise QB that we all desperately want. Irsay has made it clear to his fans that they are rebuilding. Plus we know that they will not be interested in drafting a QB next year.

In conclusion, I believe that we should focus on quality players as opposed to projects or getting bodies to fulfill needs. We have done that before and what have we accomplished. It is time for Ireland to be bold and get playmakers on this team. Look at what Jimmy Johnson did when he was with the Cowboys. They drafted Aikman, Irvin, and Smith. Those three HOF's made the rest of the players on the team better due to their skill sets. It is a lot easier to draft quantity than quality.

Go Phins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For a couple of weeks now, Mr. Marvez, who lives in South Florida, has been bad mouthing the Dolphins organization on NFL Sirius radio. In particular, Mr. Ross and Jeff Ireland. His thinking is that the Dolphins will not sign Peyton Manning because of their business practices. As David Hyde of the Palm Beach Post pointed out in a recent article: Harbaugh had no plans on moving east and Fisher made a decision based on the fact that he wanted more say so in personnel decisions. Those are business decisions based on their preference not because Mr. Ross does not know what he is doing or did not make a quality offer. It amazes me how some in the national media portray the Dolphins organization. Just because the owner has spent money on the stadium to make it a fantastic experience for the fan does not mean that he does not know that the product on the field is the most important part. Ask yourself this question: why would Reggie Bush, Brandon Marshall, Karlos Dansby,and others want to come here via trade or free agency? We all know the situation regarding the QB, but a lot of that is luck too. If and when we get Manning, it will be a pleasure to have Mr. Marvez eat crow.

Brandon,

It is time for you to breakout for this team like you did against Tampa Bay during the pre-season when you scored that 60 yard touchdown and stiff armed the LB to get into the endzone. The first two weeks of the season you played well, but the last two weeks you dropped balls. In both the Cleveland and San Diego game, two of those drops would have been touchdowns. I know you had 86 catches for 1014 yards last year but you only had 3 touchdowns. This year you have 22 catches for 313 yards and only 1 touchdown.

To put this in pespective, let's take a look at Paul Warfield's first two years in Miami:

In 1970, Paul had 28 receptions for 703 yards, but had 6 touchdowns in 11 games.

In 1971, Paul had 43 receptions for 996 yards and 11 touchdowns in 14 games.

Now I know what you are thinking that Warfield and you are two different types of receivers and I will grant you that is true. Paul was a speedster just like Andre Johnson or Mike Wallace of the Steelers. However, in the era he played in was bump and run coverage and the league was a running league as opposed to a passing league. Today, the rules favor the offense like never before and therefore you should be a big producer like you were in Denver when had 10 touchdowns in 2009.

Brandon there are no more excuses. It is time for you to produce, especially against our biggest rival the NY Jets. Good luck on Monday Night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To:  Coach Sparano and Coach Daibol

From: Sundevil

Subject: Reggie Bush's role on team

 Reggie is not a workhorse, he is a thoroughbred and should be utilized correctly. We all know Reggie is an explosive runner and that he can create huge amounts of yardage if used properly. However, for some reason he is being used as a in between the tackles runner when he should be used out in space. Please line him up as a receiver, offset in the backfield and use him as our punt returner. No disrespect to Bess, but coverage teams are not worried about him taking a punt to the endzone like Bush has done in the past.

During the pre-season and the season Coach Sparano, you said, "that you want the offense to get chunks of yardage". However, it is hard to do that when your most explosive playmaker on offense is stuck in the stable and not able to roam free.

While all of us our frustrated by the start of a new season, the echoes of the recent past seem to be permeating in Phin Nation. Did we blow it by selecting Jake Long instead of Matt Ryan? I will grant you that there is no question that a franchise QB is a team's number one priority. However, imo we made the right choice. Our offensive line is still a problem when it comes to pass blocking. The purpose of this post is to put this into perspective. It is easy to look back in hindsight and say and I told you so. But when I hear this kind of talk, it sounds as if Long was a bust. Well we all know that is not true. Long has been to the Pro Bowl every year he has been in the league and Ryan has not. Even if we had drafted Ryan, I do not believe that he would have the success that he has had in Atlanta because Thomas Dimitroff, Atlanta's GM, also signed Michael Turner, and the following year they traded for Gonzalez as well as having Roddy White. Now they have mortgaged their future by drafting Julio Jones. This team reminds me of the Don Coryell/Dan Fout's Chargers of the 1980's. All offense and no defense. How many SB's did that team win. Atlanta has yet to win a playoff game!

Getting back to the original point. Let's look back at the 2005 draft, when Oakland selected Jamarcus Russell number one, instead of Calvin Johnson or Joe Thomas. How did that work out? In the 1999 draft, Cleveland selected Tim Crouch with the first pick, Akili Smith was selected by Cincy with the 3rd pick, Donovan Mc Nabb was selected by Philly with the fifth pick, Duante Culpepper with the eleventh pick by Minn, and Cade Mc Nown with the 12th pick by Chicago. The point is that there is no guarantee that selecting a QB in the first round guarantees that he will be a franchise QB. Joe Montana was selected in the 3rd round by the 49ers. The Redskins of the 1980's and 1990's won 3 SB's with 3 different QB's. When Long and Thomas finish their careers barring injury both of them will be HOF's.

By the end of this season, we will know if Henne is the guy. So far, we have only played two games. Let see what happens. 

 Game 3 of the pre season is the best indicator for things to come in the regular season. While Phinsider's has been focused on Chad Henne, we neglected our most important responsibility and that is protecting our QB and helping our ground game. I am a big fan of Coach Sparano, but the fact that our offensive line is still not fixed is on his shoulders. We finally have the necessary playmakers to make our offense exciting and our offensive line makes bone head play after play. If I am an opposing coach facing the Dolphins, then I will put pressure on the offensive line and have the Dolphins playing in many long yardage situations all game long.

Our defense looks good and will continue to improve. Unfortunately, Chad Henne will not be able to reach his potential this year because our offensive line plays terrible. In addition, we do not have a pulling guard at LG who can help spring Reggie Bush. Such a shame. In addition, we do not have a quality backup to Anthony Fasano.  Getting Jake Long back will help, but will not solve our problems.

I believe that this is great news for the Phins. Tony Sparano deserves the opportunity to turn this thing around and I believe that both he and Ireland will do that this year. Remember the 09' season, when we were so unhappy with our defense. Well look what happened. We hired a new DC named Mike Nolan and went out in free agency and the draft and became a top ten defense.

Now it is time to address the offensive side of the ball. Particularly the Need for Speed, the OL and a new OC.

We have to remember where this team was in 07' when we were 1-15. In retrospect ,the 08' season was an aberation. There were three important factors that contributed to us going 11-5 which turned out to be tied for the greatest turnaround in NFL history with the 97' or 98' Colts. First of all, the change in leadership at the top of the organization allowed the team to add talent through the draft. free agency and of course better coaching.  But the most unlikeliest of scenarios occurred that year. Just two to three weeks before the start of the season, we picked up Chad Pennington after the Jets released him. Remember before that we were going into the season with John Beck and Chad Henne. Then the first game of the season, Brady got hurt and later in the season, Favre got hurt. In addition, we played the two weakest divisions in the NFL (The NFC West and the AFC West) in combo with a last place schedule. In other words, while all of us really enjoyed that season. The reality was that because of these circumstances we were not nearly as good as we thought. Prior to that season, I do not recall anybody thinking that we would have won more than 5 or 6 games that year and certainly not going 11-5 and making the playoffs. This scenario created an unexpected consequence. 

As a result, we thought we were closer to the elite teams in the NFL. First of all, this hurt us in the 09' draft because we should have been drafting in the teens perhaps the single digits but instead our first selection was in the late twenties. Obviously this would have given us better players in that year's draft. That is why so many of us have been frustrated.

Now it is time for us to put on our chinstraps and support our team and Coach Sparano and his staff. Hopefully, we can find an excellent OC and make the necessary changes we all want for this team to be successful.

This morning I called the Sirius Blitz and spoke with Rich Gannon and I asked him about his leadership ability. Specifically, I mentioned the comments that Brandon Marshall said about the offense letting down the defense this year. After Marshall spoke with the media, Henne was asked about what he thought of Brandon's comments and his response was very weak. I thought Armando's article about what Henne should have said was on point.

Rich Gannon said that he sat down with Chad for a half an hour and that Chad admitted that his performance has not been up to par and that he definitely needs to improve. Nothing particularly newsworthy there. He also mentioned many of the same things that we have been discussing these past few weeks about the improvements that Henne needs to make.

Two things stood out about our conversation and that is Gannon believes that Chad can become a good leader and has what it takes to become a good QB. . However, he also said that he could not understand why it is taking Henne so long to make decisions regarding go through his progressions.  He said that he cannot pinpoint what the cause for this but he did mention that OC could be a problem as well as coaching that he has been getting. He also contrasted his performance w/Ryan Fitzpatrick who played very well and was willing to make throws and did not hesitate in his decision making.

It is clear to me that Henne needs to be given another year based on the fact that he believes that he will become a leader. That is extremely important because if he cannot lead then he will lose the locker room and then things will really get ugly. Obviously these last two games are extremely important as well as this off season. The other question mark in my mind is if Sparano remains the coach will he go out and get another OC. This will be very critical to a successful season next year. Finally, the team needs to find a quality veteran to provide Henne with competition in 2011. Hopefully we will have a 2011 season. That is a post for another time.

Happy holidays!!!!

All of us our extremely disappointed about this season and rightly so. We all agreed that prior to this season that the improvement of the defense was essential. Mike Lombardi of NFL Network said that the Dolphins need to get faster on defense. Now that is exactly what the offense needs to do. What made the Dolphins so great in the 1970's was our speed with both Mercury Morris and Paul Warfield. All of our RB's are out of the same mold, namely power running backs. Our WR's and TE's are all good route runners but do not scare opposing defenses with our speed. SPEED KILLS!!!!!  All you have to do is look it how teams have to defense a guy like a Randy Moss. When you do not have players that can outrun defenders, then you put a lot of pressure on the QB to make perfect throws everytime. I believe that the reason Henne has digressed this year is because he does not have enough confidence in the RB's or WR's to get seperation. When he was at Michigan, he would not hesitate to throw to Braylon Edwards because he knew that Edwards would outrun the defender. Imagine this team with Chris Johnson, CJ Spiller, etc. or a fast WR like a Calvin Johnson, Andre Johnson, etc. Former coach JIMMY JOHNSON would draft fast players and look at the results. SPEED KILLS!!!!!!!!!!!

We also have to draft a Center and a Guard. This is the second year in a row that our offensive line has been decimated with injuries. If we choose to pick another interior lineman via free agency, do not sign an injury prone player. I would love to see us sign Logan Mankins of NE as a free agent. A coaching staff can only do so much. You have to have quality players. We need to add nasty, strong, and reliable players to our offensive line. 

Once we do that then I think you will see Henne shine. The kid has a great arm and is smart. Right now he lacks confidence. Go PHINS!!!!!!!

I believe that this is the year that Parcells duplicates what he did in one of his Dallas drafts and trades down a couple of times in the first round. The reason I say this is that we have too many needs. Specifically, FS, OLB, NT, TE, & WR. That is one of the reasons why Parcells and company have put Justin Smiley on the trading block and are hoping for a 3rd round pick in this year's draft. I believe that to be wishful thinking on their part because it seems like Smiley has been hurt every year he has been in the league.

Another reason that I believe this to be true is that there are only a few difference makers in this draft and they are in alphabetical order:

Eric Berry, Dez Bryant, Joe Haden, Mike Iapati, Rolando Mc Clain, Gerald Mc Coy, Derrick Morgan, Russell Okung, Jason Pierre-Paul, C J Spiller, Suh, Earl Thomas, Sean Weatherspoon, and Dan Williams. Of those listed the most intriguing player is Jason Pierre-Paul. Is he Vernon Gholston, a one year wonder or is he the next De Marcus Ware?

In addition, we do not have a 5th round pick. We do have multiple picks in the 6th and 7th but that will not be enough to catipult us into the top three rounds. In addition, I do not see us moving up to acquire one of these players because we have so many needs and that would cost us a high draft choice in the 2nd or 3rd round. Therefore, I see us trading from 12 to either the NY Giants at 15, Tennessee at 16, or SF at 17 and in return receive a 3rd round pick. The reason I picked these 3 teams is that each of them has a specific need. The Giants have to draft a middle linebacker and the choice they would like to make is between Mc Clain and Weatherspoon. Tennessee also can use a linebacker but their number one need is CB and I believe that if Haden is available that they would like to move ahead of the Niners. Conversely, I believe the Niners would like to move up to secure the 12th and 13th picks so that they can get Haden and an offensive lineman. 

What do you guys think?