Uncategorized (Page 21)

Make no mistake about it:  It was a WIN for the Miami Dolphins when the Jets kicked that last-second field goal.  An absolute win. If we were in position to draft in the 14-17 range, then there is no harm in getting a few feel-good wins in December.  But we’re not in that range.  We are in the 1-4 range, and falling out of that range would be devastating.  We’re simply not going to get a marquee choice at #4, and probably not at #3. 2019 will be an utter unproductive failure if we don’t come out of it with a top pick, and weRead More →

I know this is a broken record at this point, but the Dolphins need to lose the rest of December and hope for Joe Burrow or Chase Young.   There is a steep drop-off (plus huge Tua question marks) after that. We simply can’t afford picking in the 3 slot of beyond.  Top 2 or Bust! Someone needs to get the word to Flores.  No more onside kicks, fakes, 4th-down risks, etc.  Just know you had a productive 2019, your job is very safe, and look for to coming out strong in April. CHAT ROOM LIVE AND OPEN AT GAME TIMERead More →

Although it would probably help the Dolphins if we lost that game, there was an awesome, funny feeling when we scored on that crazy trick play.  So I thought I’d open up a column here for us to discuss it.  We won’t be forgetting this play anytime soon! First of all, I don’t even know if you call this a trick play.  I mean, it was certainly a whacky, never-seen-before formation.  But the play itself was simply a QB rolling to his left and tossing the ball a few yards. The formation threw off the Eagles from the get-go, and it’s puzzling why Doug PedersonRead More →

Skip ahead.  Pretend it’s Draft Night 2020.   We gather around the TV and anxiously await the picks.   Will it be more exciting and profitable if the Dolphins can draft an elite player?  Or will it be more exciting to reminisce about the time we beat the Colts in a meaningless 2019 regular-season game? Don’t get me wrong.  Watching the Dolphins win is always, always a great feeling.   Seeing the excitement that Fitzpatrick brings to the game has been sorely lacking for years in Miami.  The feeling was great, but as the afternoon wore on, reality set in. Look at the chart below.   All those teamsRead More →

Former Dolphin QB Doug Pederson comes to town as coach of the Eagles.   For you youngsters, Doug was the winning QB the day of of Don Shula’s historic game that made him the winningest coach of all time. Doug then went on to be a Super Bowl winner as a player with Green Bay and as head coach with Philly.   Back when Stephen Ross was handing out jobs to the likes of Joe Philbin and Adam Gase, the Eagles hired someone who actually played the game and who actually had experience. The result?  Pederson won a Super Bowl for the Eagles with perennial backup NickRead More →

Seems like I say this very single week, but I agree with shutting down yet another Dolphin contributor.  In a competitive season with something on the line, I would ask Jakeem Grant to rest his sprained ankle for a week and then hurry back to us.  But this season, IR-ing him is the right thing to do.  I’m grateful that management knows how to tank correctly. Taking away some key pieces from Flores puts us in a better position to lose games, which is what we want now. In addition to our own early draft pick, the Steeler and Texan picks get worse and worseRead More →

The Bengals continue to make the Dolphins look like Super Bowl contenders.  Facing a Steeler team decimated by injuries, suspensions, and the benching of their QB, the Bungles still found a way to blow a game in which they led. Some rookie, unknown, undrafted free-agent bum came into the game and tossed an 79-yard TD on his first pass, and the Steelers had it won from there. Adding insult to injury, Minkah Fitzpatrick further proved how wrong Brian Flores was by picking up his 8th takeaway this season.  Minkah by himself has almost as many takeaways as the entire Dolphin team.  He’s scored more points–aRead More →

The scary thing is that this game is very winnable for Miami, in a season where we sorta-kinda really DON’T want to win. Beating the Browns (with NY Jets, Cincy, and NY Giants still upcoming), puts us in contention to win up to 6 games this year.   6 wins would really take the Dolphins out of contention for the elite draftees. Our defense is plagued with injuries, but Baker Mayfield is just bad enough and just inexperienced enough to not take advantage of that.  I would not be surprised if savvy veteran Ryan Beard Fitzpatrick outplays the kid.  Cleveland is also looking forward to aRead More →

If we were in a playoff hunt, or even playing for pride at this point, I’d be questioning these moves.  Ordinarily, I disagree with IR’ing a man who has a week-to-week injury. It’s the right move, however, this particular season.  We’ve done the same with some other temporarily injured players such as Xavien Howard.  This is the right year to do it. The loss of these starters makes our team weaker for sure.   These aren’t fill-in guys we can live without.  They’re our stars.  And this year, resting our stars is a good thing. While Brian Flores won’t tank, the team’s management has a differentRead More →

The good news is this week, the Dolphins, Steelers, and Texans all lost, so our 3 first round draft picks all became stronger. The bad news is that the teams ahead of us, Washington and the Bengals, also lost.  The Giants had a bye.  So as of now, we pick 4th.    I don’t think that is a strong enough spot to be in to ensure and elite player.   We must continue to lose and hope the boneheads on Cincy and DC get a few wins.  We still play the Giants and Bengals coming up.  Both of those teams are very beatable, but Brian FloresRead More →

17-0. To celebrate its 100th anniversary, the NFL put together a list of its greatest teams, and the 1972 Dolphins took the top spot.    Some say this was an obvious choice.  The Herald today said it was not a surprise. Me personally?  I’m very pleased and a little relieved.  A little surprised.  You see, despite their 17-0 perfect record, other teams and other analyses have pointed to “better” teams.  I remember a while ago, ESPN ran some computer simulation tournament using state-of-the-art statistical input, and the Dolphins didn’t win. Other writers say the 72 Dolphins were good “for that era,” but they couldn’t competeRead More →

As many of my readers know, I tolerate Jet fans and Patriot fans far easier than Bills fans.  There’s something about a fan base that watches their team lose 4 Super Bowls in a row, and yet they still won’t shut up.  So it really pains me to want to pull for a Bills’ victory in a few days, but I know deep down I have to. We got the one win I wanted.   We even got a bonus win that I didn’t expect.  As I’ve mentioned, it’s time to turn it all off now.  2019 was an experiment, and we need to look aheadRead More →

  The Dolphins are now extremely, dangerously, seriously, and positively close to blowing this once-golden draft coming up in 2020. The pundits and our own Dolphins Truth group here– for months–have discussed who we would take with the #1 overall pick. We went with the assumption that we’d get first choice, and the ability to pick anyone we chose.  The Steelers were 0-3, and we got their pick too. Tua’s name came up a lot. But then Justin Herbert and Chase Young entered the picture.   And we won a game.  We also beat the Jets, which means we pick after them.  And the Bengals. WeRead More →

Why does Adam hate the Dolphins so much?  He hurts the Dolphins almost as much as Stephen Ross does. Anyway, I would have gladly accepted a loss.  I probably would have preferred it.  But it wasn’t to be, and we got a nice little road victory.  Our draft stock is plunging. We’re gonna regret this win in April.  But for now, let’s live it up.  We won!Read More →

Now that we have a victory out of the the way, it saddens me to say that the Dolphins should start losing.  With no hope of the playoffs, we might as well experiment and let’s see what some different players can do.  Starting with Josh Rosen.  We can’t lose on purpose.  We can’t ask players to drop the ball or miss tackles on purpose.   But we can play some of the guys who otherwise might not be playing.  Let’s see what they have. There is a huge difference between picking 1st or 2nd in the draft and picking 5th or 6th, which is exactly whereRead More →

I won’t get into a lot of minutia and detail here, but I wanted to give some thoughts on how Brian Flores has done this year so far. Let’s break it into his pros and cons. Let’s start with the positives: He’s won a game.  That says something in this league, where it is indeed possible to go 0-16,and we can commend Flores for getting that first win. The players seem to like him.  I haven’t observed anyone giving up, not even in the blowouts.  The guys are hitting hard and trying. Penalties are way down.  Flores’s system is to make guys run sprints when theRead More →

Owners often hire bad coaches.  Owners allow inept GMs to draft bad players and throw money at lousy free agents.  Owners try to step in and pretend they know how to make football decisions. These are common occurrences, and no matter what team you’re a fan of, you’ve probably been mad at your owner at one point or another. But then there’s Stephen Ross. He doesn’t just make passive mistakes like drafting a poor player.   He makes active mistakes that hurt his team immediately. And I don’t think he even realizes it. I don’t know who is in his inner circle of advisers.  I don’tRead More →