The Miami Dolphins need some stability; A Dose of Don Shula Part II
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For the benefit of the decision makers at Miami Dolpfins HQ, here follows my simple recipe for the future. For filling in the hole that has been dug and for building a firm foundation. I know you read my articles eagerly and with anticipation of great wisdom, so here goes.
1. Don’t turn over the Miami Dolphins coaching staff every year!
2. Gather draft picks, don’t give them away!!
There it is.
If that seems a tad puzzling and radical, let met try to expand and clarify.
The biggest mistake the Miami Dolphins can make at the end of this downer of a season would be to have a shake up in the coaching staff.
 The Miami Dolphins have suffered from a crippling lack of continuity. Learning new systems each year is counter-productive. Witness the slow start to each season over the last four years of turmoil. 2004 0-6, 2005 2-4, 2006 1-5, 2007 0-6.
And just as big a mistake would be to have less than the full compliment of draft picks.
Just as huge!
The fact is that those two gargantuan mistakes have been perpetuated over and over again since Don Shula was hustled out of town, and that is precisely the reason why Miami Dolphins football is the current laughing stock of the NFL.
Wayne Huizenga? I know you’re reading this, so please, stop the madness. It’s time for some stability, some sense of continuity in a long term plan, and time to right this ship before it actually sinks!
Mr Huizenga, the buck stops at your desk. You have directed your energies towards creating a mega stadium instead of a mega franchise. It’s a wonderful facility. Problem is that there’s nobody outside supporting the Miami Dolphins at Club Level because they are all inside feasting on gourmet food & drink and watching the game in a state of the art sports bar! Meanwhile the opponent’s supporters drown out the real Dolfans.
You have allowed huge sums of money to be spent for veterans who to a great degree have not given you anywhere near value, and you have presided over the precipitous decline of a once proud franchise.
For the past five years the Miami Dolphins have been in a constant state of change concerning the guys who direct this football team. The only other constant has been the seemingly mindless, stubborn belief that we were just one or two experienced veterans away from a championship team.
That has been the policy. From the Ricky Williams trade right on through to Joey Porter. All at the expense of draft picks and/or a hit on the salary cap
Mind you, given the evidence of most of the draft picks actually made from 2002 through 2006, I agree that there may be an argument for giving them up for an overpaid veteran. Only ten of thirty-one picks remain on the roster, and just five are starters. Miserable, but that’s not the point. And none at all from the previous drafts. Twenty draft picks during that period, including two 1st Rounders and four 2nd Rounders, were traded away in the search for the one or two pieces of the puzzle needed to create a championship team. A strange policy really, considering that the excellent Miami defense of that period was created almost completely via the draft.
For the record, during those five years the Dolphins gave up two 1st Round picks (for Ricky), four 2nd Rounders, two 3rd Rounders, three 4th Rounders, two 5th Rounders, two 6th Rounders and five 7th Rounders. Think some of those might be on the roster today?
Considering what we see these days with seemingly ordinary running backs coming into good systems and excelling, the two 1st Round picks for Ricky was a mind-numbingly bone headed decision in retrospect, especially given Ricky’s performance off the field.
But the Ricky fiasco was simply the beginning of a pattern of seeking success via trade and free agency rather than committing to build a team through the draft.
If the policy had been to hang on to every draft pick possible, developing playmakers and strong offensive and defensive lines, and putting together a playbook that has some consistency to it, the Dolphins would more than likely be contenders right now.
What a waste of five years and the careers of outstanding players like Jason Taylor and Zach Thomas.
So, please let’s stop the mindless screaming for Cam Cameron’s head, or any of the other coaches for that matter. They have inherited a mess, and they have made a start to put things right, one draft pick at a time.
It’s the right thing to do, but unfortunately we will need to be patient. Again.
Supporting a winning team is easy and it’s fun. Supporting a team as rock bottom as the Dolphins are at the moment requires a rare level of loyalty found only in the hardiest of fans.
This isn’t going to be pretty my fellow Dolfans, but the prize when they do turn it around is going to be very sweet. Keep the faith. And you too Mr. Huizenga.
2002: Seth McKinney, Randy McMichael, Omare Lowe, Sam Simmons, Leonard Henry
2003: Eddie Moore, Wade Smith, Taylor Whitley, Donald Lee, J R Tolver, Tom Provost, Yeremiah Bell, Davern Williams
2004: Vernon Carey, Will Poole, Tony Bua, Rex Hadnot, Tony Pape, Derek Pope
2005: Ronnie Brown, Matt Roth, Channing Crowder, Travis Daniels, Anthony Alabi, Keith Vickerson
2006: Jason Allen, Derek Hagan, Joe Toledo, Fred Evans, Rodrique Wright, Devin Aromashodu
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