Meet the New Regime

There’s been a lot of turnover in the Dolphins’ organization this off season. It is always an awkward situation when my favorite team gets a bunch of new people in charge. Especially when these people have no ties to the organization or city and they were just working for a competitor a few months ago. Then the fans, who have been living for this team their whole lives, place what is so dear to them in the hands of these complete strangers who do not have nearly as much invested.

It's like if you were renting a basement apartment your whole life and occasionally the owners would sell the house to new people, but say “Yeah, there’s a guy renting out the basement, he knows all about the house and really loves it, because it’s been his home his whole life.” Then, the new owners, who have no attachment to the house, come in and change out your furniture and tell you how you are supposed to use your rooms because its their house. Now, to get the full sports effect, imagine that your dad had lived in that basement apartment and loved it as well. Maybe his dad did, too.

Well, this analogy is getting creepy, but you get the point. Let’s meet the new strangers living in our house.

Jeff Ireland

Let’s start with a familiar face. Ireland kept his post as GM and basically gained more power over the off season, becoming the football head of the Dolphins and Stephen Ross’ most trusted employee.

I know, everyone loves to bag on Ireland, but he hasn’t done that bad of a job. He just hasn’t found us a quarterback. I think it is only fair to judge Ireland on what he did this past year after Parcells left. Before that, any personnel moves were based on the Tuna’s discretion far more than Ireland’s judgment.

You can’t really judge a draft class for about three years, but the early indications are that the 2011 class was a good crop for Ireland. The first pick, Mike Pouncey, looks like a pillar for the future on the offensive line. Daniel Thomas showed flashes for a few games of becoming an effective back in the NFL. Clyde Gates was an attempt to bring in desperately needed speed. And I think Ireland hit on two of his late picks. Charles Clay is a special athlete at the full back position, and Jimmy Wilson can play corner back. In Wilson’s defense, he probably should have been drafted higher if it wasn’t for that pesky murder charge. What a steal!

Most NFL teams take 6-10 players in a given draft. The rule of thumb is that if you can find three good players, that’s a good draft. Ireland might have grabbed five.

He filled holes in free agency without committing big money to undeserving players. He didn’t give Ryan Clark a big contract at a low impact position. He had the vision to trade for Reggie Bush. Nobody thought that was a good move, but Reggie put up 1,000 yards this season, and made Kim Kardashian regret ever letting him go.

Ireland’s biggest move of the off season probably was NOT trading for Kyle Orton. Half of Miami was clamoring for the Dolphins to give up more than a 1st round pick for Kyle Orton and his wonderful neck beard. Can you imagine if we would have done that? That would have been enough to fire Ireland, for me. We didn’t trade for Orton, he lost his job to Tebow a few weeks later, and found mild interest on the waiver wire. Ireland brought in Matt Moore instead, who played better than anyone thought he would, and was a top 10 quarterback in the NFL for about six weeks this season.

All in all, it was a pretty good off season for Jeff Ireland. I know its easy to make him the punching bag, but let’s give him another year or two before we kick him out, Miami. I’ve already discussed how the Dolphins are trying to piece together multiple blueprints. We need some consistency to find success.

Joe Philbin

Our new, 58 year old, upstairs neighbor. We brought in Ol’ Joe from Green Bay, where he has been the offensive coordinator since 2007. Since then, Green Bay has finished in the top 10 in points and yards. That’s pretty good. While he didn’t call the plays, he did put together the offense during the week. Of course, Joe’s scheme was complemented by a great Brett Favre season and the best quarterback in the league, Aaron Rodgers.

I’m rooting for Joe Philbin. His son just tragically died, and it would be a great story if he won the Superbowl. I just want someone who can stick around for a while. I hope Philbin is the guy.

Philbin is bringing a West Coast offense with him: a passing offense with a high completion rate, and a lot of points. As someone who loves the artistry of the game, as well as winning, this is a welcome addition.

More importantly, Philbin is bringing a connection to many Green Bay free agents. The two most prized are tight end Jermichael Finley and back up quarterback Matt Flynn. Now the word on the street is the Packers are going to franchise tag one of these players, but the Dolphins would be in the running for whichever player they let hit the free agency market.

Aaron Rodgers said Flynn would be a good fit in Miami, and it sounds like Finley LOVES Philbin. The dude gushed over him all Superbowl week. That’s good for us.

My guess is that the Packers slap the franchise tag on Finley and let Flynn go. Flynn already knows Philbin and his system and Miami would be a likely landing spot. I’m weary though. We have been down the promising-back-up-with-a-few-good-games route before. (See A.J. Feeley) But, the good game that Flynn had, wow! He broke nearly every Packers’ single game passing record in the books against a playoff team fighting for a spot. It was impressive. Impressive enough to knock some of the luster off of Aaron Rodgers' stellar season.

Where we went wrong before, betting on a back up quarterback who might have been a product of the system, we have fixed. If we go get Matt Flynn, we don’t have to worry if he is a system quarterback, because we are bringing in the system, too.

Really, I don’t think the head coach matters as much as we think. The players matter. More than that, the quarterback matters. Just look at Jim Caldwell’s glassy stare for proof. That guy went to the Superbowl!

Mike Sherman

Mike Sherman was the head coach at Texas A&M, before that he was the head coach at Green Bay, and originally was Joe Philbin’s boss. Now thanks to the old boys network of coaching, he is our new offensive coordinator.

I mildly like the hire. I’ve liked A&M’s offense the past few seasons, and Sherman has made his quarterbacks look good enough to go pro, but I have been surprised by the team’s lack of overall success.

Hopefully this is the right mix of coaching and responsibility for Sherman. Enough coaching to improve the players, not too much responsibility to cost us late in games with bad time outs and challenges.

Hiring Sherman means the Fins might draft Ryan Tannehill late in the draft. Tannehill was the starting QB for Sherman’s Aggies and would be a late round investment. Some of the Dolphins guys that have looked at him have a surprisingly high opinion of him. He might blossom into something, and since it looks like the Fins will miss out on Luck and RG3, they may have no choice but to take a gamble on a 5th or 6th round QB to develop. He could be a sleeper.

I think that we will keep Matt Moore, bring in Matt Flynn (or maybe Peyton!), and draft Tannehill or another late round QB, and let them all compete in camp. We will spread our money on QBs and hope we strike gold with one of them, and hope none of them do this. If that doesn’t work, maybe next year we will get a 1st round QB.

Kevin Coyle

Who?

Yeah, I had to look him up, too. Let me tell you who Kevin Coyle is. He is a relative unknown in coaching circles. He was most recently the defensive backs coach for the Cincinnati Bengals. Coyle has some coordinating experience in college at places like Maryland, Syracuse, and Holy Cross. That’s about all I know on the guy. I guess its okay. The Bengals had some good corners these past few years.

I am slightly worried that our defense will regress this year, but I think that it is inevitable. I liked Mike Nolan, and think he is a good coach. Our defense has been in the top 10 the past few years he has been around, but he left to take the job in Atlanta.

I think our defense would have regressed with or without Nolan this year. While Nolan is a good coordinator, he benefited from the Dolphins playing a ball control type of offense. This limited possessions for the other team, and kept scores low, making Nolan look great.

With this new passing offense, and hopefully high scoring offense, of Philbin and Sherman, the Fins will let up more points. That’s not a bad thing, that’s just what happens when you score more, and you score quickly. This is the reason the Saints and Patriots always have poorly rated defenses, and the Ravens and Jets have high rated defenses.

The one thing to look at this year is how Cam Wake performs without Mike Nolan. Nolan had a knack for developing pass rushers and played an aggressive defense that I loved. Under Nolan, Wake became a premiere pass rusher in the NFL. Before Miami, Mike Nolan did the same thing with Elvis Dumervil in Denver. I wouldn’t be surprised if Wake’s numbers dipped this year, and somebody in Atlanta posted a lot of sacks.

All in all, it doesn’t look like a bad coaching staff. It’s not like we hired Wannstedt again. (The Bills just promoted him again.)

Only time will tell how this staff fares out. More importantly, we need a quarterback. A franchise quarterback. One we can build around.

While I’m bummed we didn’t get Chip Kelly, I like getting an unknown guy. There is some risk with Philbin, he could be a bust, or he could be the next Bill Walsh. We’ll see.