When all was said and done, Dolphins management decided that the offensive woes were Jay Ajayi’s fault. This morning, the top brass, including Adam Gase, told the world that the worst-ranked offense in the past decade will suddenly get better because our All Pro running back is gone.
It defies logic. 2 shut outs in the first 7 games. 6 total points in our 3 losses. Yep, it’s all because Jay Ajayi refused to run hard. It defies logic.
The Dolphins “punished” Jay Ajayi by shipping him off to a first-place team, where he’ll work under former Dolphin Doug Pedersen. He moves to a team with 3 more wins than its closest rival, and he no longer will be burdened with blame like “Our coach is a genius. Therefore, it must be the running back’s fault.” Jay must be an elated man today. Way to punish him, Gase!
Adam Gase’s threats to bench/trade players who aren’t good enough? Well, he sorta-kinda lived up to that threat, but he benched he got rid of the wrong guy.
Mike Pouncey gets a free pass of course, because once upon a time somebody said he was good.
Laremy Turnstyle escorting pass-rushers into his QB’s lap? No problem. You get to keep your job.
Kiko Alonso takes a guy’s head off and Kong Suh chokes out a third-string QB? No problem.
Julius Thomas stealing money each week by collecting a paycheck and not showing up on game day (figuratively, of course; Lawrence Timmons is the one who literally doesn’t show up on game day.)? Can’t cut Thomas because he is a friend of Adam Gase.
Damien Williams refusing to block and then tripping over his own two feet? Perfectly acceptable to Gase.
Matt Haack, whose average is 26th in the NFL, can’t turn the field over…consistently allowing the opponent to start from their own 35 or better? No one (except Dolphins Truth) points this out, so Gase thinks he’s safe here.
Last year, we started the season by losing to Seattle by 2 points. I have to think that if we had Jay Ajayi for that game, we would have won. But no. Adam Gase put Adam Gase ahead of the team. He allowed his dictator ego to get the best of him, and he suspended his best player. Why? From all accounts, it was because Ajayi wanted to play more.
Ajayi knew he was a better RB than aged Arian Foster, and he spoke up about it. The whole world knew that Ajayi was better than Arian “The Quitter” Foster, except for Adam Gase.
Just think about that for a moment. You have 2 players. One of then wants the ball and becomes vocal when told he’s going to be a benchwarmer. You have another player who kneels during the national anthem and then quits the team after 3 weeks, his head obviously not in the right place.
Who would you suspend? The one who’s dying to play or the one who doesn’t care anymore? Gase made a huge error in suspending Ajayi. It cost us the game.
This was Adam Gase’s very first NFL game as a head coach, and his hatred of Ajayi was made clear. His under-usage of Ajayi was very evident. Gase made up for it a bit during the 2016 season, but only because of external factors. Arian Foster sulked away into insignificance, which meant Gase was forced to use Ajayi. And Jay took full advantage, proving what a stud he was. So let’s not give Gase any credit for “discovering” how good Ajayi is. You must remember he only found out because Arian Foster deserted his teammates.
So when Ajayi sealed the Pittsburgh game last year with a brilliant 70-yard run, Gase didn’t care. When Ajayi sealed the second Bills’ game with a brilliant 60-yard run in overtime to set up an easy field goal, Gase still wouldn’t budge and admit how good Ajayi was. Time after time, carry after carry, Gase did not recognize what he had in Ajayi.
200-yard games are so rare in the NFL, and yet Ajayi did so, more than once, against some outstanding defenses. And yet Gase only cares about Ajayi not finding the right whole now and then?
Arrogance arrogance arrogance.
But Gase isn’t the only one to blame in this horrible trade. The front office who enables him must bear some burden. We receive a 4th-round pick from Philadelphia. A 4th rounder. We give up an All Pro and will receive a risky prospect next year.
So where does this leave us? Well, Damien Williams has had years to assert himself, and he still stinks. I can’t see him being a workhorse starting RB. Kenyan Drake? I think he could be a stud and this could be a blessing in disguise for him. However, if Gase disliked Ajayi so much, he had all this season (and last) to give Drake more carries. But he didn’t. For some reason, Drake hasn’t been on the field too much. That will probably change, by necessity.
It’s a puzzling, angry, sad time to be a Dolfan.
I guess you have to reason to live now. Your favorite boy is gone and your only post was,time after time,”hand the ball to Ajayi on every play” is no longer possible. A dark day indeed.
Yes it is sad to see him go and they are throwing in the towel for the near future. Expect a salary purge soon too as mentioned yesterday.I said 7-9 when the schedule was announced and that appears to be optimistic now. All those idiots talking about playoffs in columns I read are hilarious.
Getting a 4th round pick may be one of the worst trades in our 51 year history and we’ve had some sinkers.This makes their GM a candidate for GM of the year. And ours as the worst in the league.
I simply based that objectively on Ajayi’s production. He was 4th in the NFL in rushing last year, despite being benched on opening day and then playing behind Foster 4 games after that. He was (still is) a workhorse stud who can carry a team.
Drake might have that in him, and now we’ll find out.
I just heard that they were very afraid that his knees may give out any time now so cut their losses. Probably more to it. Either way they could have given Drake more of a shot and moved him next year now they may be short on RB’s.
Yes I have heard some talk about something physically not being right with Ajayi this year but two things.
1 – He has to pass a physical for the trade to be done doesn’t he? Unless he has something wrong and they took him anyhow knowing about it.
2 – We got a stupid 4th round pick!
If they traded him for a late second round pick I might see it but what the hell are they thinking with a fourth round compensation? They call that a win? Thats like calling the 40-0 loss to Baltimore a win!
Stupid for all the reasons Admin mentioned and more I’m sure of it!
And heres the thing, I do agree with Gase that he is the head coach and your ether going to do it his way or not. I’ve been in his position and had to make some tough calls on personnel but one of the duties he has to to figure out how to bridge the gape between himself and the people he has and motivate them to do it your way – NOT DEMAND IT!
Gase go and study Jimmy Johnson. He had your same approach – Do it my or else but he motivated guys to WANT to do it his way in a positive way. Sometimes it means being a hard ass but not usually.
Gase has a long way to go.
Let’s hope he isn’t the only one left on the sideline come Sunday!
And the swirling rumors now involve Jarvis Landry as trade bait. I thought we could afford to lose Landry, because of the WR depth. Much different situation with RB.
Imagine if we had traded Landry. That would have been a sure sign we had thrown in the towel-trading the top 2 players on offense and basically the top 2 fan favs as well. Tell me about season ticket sales then…………I think the only reason we didn’t trade Landry is b/c we didn’t et what we wanted for him,otherwise he’s gone too. Then we’d almost be down to Browns an 49ers level.
It’s a bad trade because of the return. I’ve been the only one on here to point it out previously but ajayi isn’t a workhorse running back with his injury history and I think Miami is banking on that. After this year Miami would have to pay up to keep him and that’s a big risk so ship him off for what you can and let another team take that risk. Now obviously ajayi is going to have a great rest of the year so this is gonna look really bad at first. But what happens in the next 2 years after this will really tell us if this was a horrible move or just a bad one.
He’s never missed a game. I’m not sure what scary injury you guys and Gase are worried about.
Maybe Halloween made Adam Gase spooked by the possibility of a knee injury instead of being spooked by calling Pass-Run-Pass predictable offense all the time.
The Patriots continue to laugh at us.
Also, yes, I think we’re all agreeing that a 4th rounder in exchange for an All Pro is an unwise return.
In college he tore both of his knees up, so he has basically no cartilage in his knees. I’ll give u he did play every game but he is a ticking time bomb.
Btw I hate this move, ajayi was one of my favorite players on the squad and just adds to the insane amount of talent Miami has let leave. Hell they had Lamar Miller and ajayi at the same time which today would be by far the best running back duo in the NFL. Let Oliver Vernon walk than wasted a 1st round pick to replace him. Let vontae Davis leave and never found a great corner to replace him. I could go on all day lol
Yep. Sad. i don’t mind trading a starter if you get value in return. 50-50 for each team, ya know? But it’s not how the Dolphins do it.
Right we should of gotten at least some oline help for him.
Also, going under the radar is the fact that starting safety Nate Allen is now gone for the year with a broken leg. Combine that with the ridiculous decision to cut Byron Maxwell, and our already-bad secondary now faces an unrecoverable situation. Backup Michael Thomas has never proven he can be a full-time player. I sincerely hope they give Jordan Lucas an extended chance to prove himself. No matter how bad he may look in practice, some guys just step it up on game day…if they get the chance.
TJ MacDonald is back soon it’s almost like they predicted one S would go down. They can hold the fort for a week.
I’m just praying that Larsen is ready that will help.
Wouldn’t shock me if Drake rips it up now that he’ll get some more carries. Williams isn’t horrible as a number two but we need Drake to fill the gap.
I’ll repeat you never see great returns in trades especially RB’S. Plus Gase obviously wanted him out. Hopefully works out.
Adam Gase must be dressing up as Pennywise for Halloween because this man is a clown.
But honestly Adam Gase must be stopped. He’s the Chip Kelly, supposed to be an offensive genius, and then guts the team when he fails. And I’m usually one of the last person to say a coach should go but Gase must be stopped
I’m done with the team. You can bet I won’t be parting with any more of my money to see the bullshit this organization puts down.
You guys do realize that Belicheat would run over his own mother to win a game right? He will cut Brady in a second as soon as he falls off more than his liking. For all we know Ajayi told Gase to go F himself and was missing his blocking assignments, not running the pass routes he was told, not studying the playbook, etc…so because he had a few good games we should all lose our minds? Do what you want but odds are Ajayi did something bad real bad…and if so I’m glad the coach cut ties instead of sucked him off.
I don’t disagree with you at all but a forth round pick is what hurts.
Think about this a moment.
One of our best players on offense was deemed a forth round pick!
If he’s healthy he would demand more but the NFL is harsh in trading current players they value the draft more than any league. Plus you get low cap to boot. They basically got to use him bail out now and get back more than they originally paid. That’s with attitude problems and we don’t even know the extent of it could be real bad…
I’m glad you mentioned the Patriots. The Dolphins franchise has a history of doing head-scratching dumb shit. Like when they sent Wes Welker packing off to the Patriots. Wes came back and played the team who sent him away and blitzed the Dolphins ass. There are many more examples I can bring up. Jay Ajayi was the single most biggest reason the Dolphins made the playoffs last season. If it weren’t for his dazzling 200 running yard games he put up last season, there is no way the Dolphins make the playoffs.
I’m tired of these experiments with quarterbacks and coaches:
Joe Philbin – 1st Head Coaching job (what a fucking joke).
Ryan Tannehill – Converted Wide Receiver to Quarterback in college. Drafted by the Dolphins and placed into starting Quarterback his first season (still can’t get 8 wins no matter how much money they throw at him).
Adam Gase – Didn’t play College or Professional Football. Giving his first Head Coaching job by the Miami Dolphins (the newest genius like Philbin because somebody said so).
And then these dumbasses in the Dolphins organization go out and get Jay Cutler, a quarterback the Bears cut, and nobody else wanted.
All of these fucking experiments, I’m sick of them!
No, we’re not losing our minds, the people running the Dolphins lost their minds a long time ago. And I’m not spending anymore money waiting to see if they found it.
“Jay Ajayi was the single most biggest reason the Dolphins made the playoffs last season”. No,the single biggest reason was the easiest schedule in the league AND we beat the 2 worst teams,Cleveland and SF by unbeliebable shit happening. Like I said THIS YEAR when the schedule was announced,7-9 while everyone was saying playoffs again. 7-9 was optimistic on my part.
Gotta agree with you, plus the fact that Miami won an incredible amount of close games last year it was pretty obvious they would be worse this year I predicated 8-8 but I doubt they get to 8 or 7 wins. Looking at the rest of the schedule not many easy wins left.
Sorry, Karma, but I do agree with Phil:
Jay Ajayi was the single most biggest reason the Dolphins made the playoffs last season.
3 separate 200-yard games… We would have lost all three of those games without JA
The problem with KARMATOURER’s argument – “No,the single biggest reason was the easiest schedule in the league,” which he is stuck on, is that he talks as if the Dolphins were head over heels better than ninety percent of the opponents in their 2016 schedule. Maybe he had high hopes that the Dolphins would be one the teams to play in the superbowl last season?
Whatever KARMATOURER”s reasoning for talking as if the Dolphins were some kind of juggernaut who should have steamrolled over most of the teams they played in 2016 is just plain illogical to me.
Don’t forget Cam Cameron, his hiring was the beginning of this sh*t show. Remember Cleo Lemon and Jon Beck? How about drafting Ted Ginn Jr. in the first round? Tony Sparano doesn’t look too bad these days…
Ah, yes. Scam Cameron. I cut him some slack because Trent Green was supposed to be our starting QB but got hurt. it’s not like Cam purposely went out and brought Lemon and Beck into the mix. But, man! Dolphins ownership must have a very lax interview technique, and they still do.
“Mr. Gase. Why should we hire you?”
–Well, some people call me an offensive genius.
“Congrats. You’re hired”
Trent Green was the starting quarterback…Jon Beck and Cleo Lemon were backups. Plus, the Dolphins defense and offense along with special team were at the bottom or one or two notches from being at the bottom in every category on the field when Beck and Lemon were on the team.
Yes, that was the season when Jason Taylor took snaps as a wide receiver. What an ugly, desperate season. Thank God for Greg Camarillo.
This all points to two things in my view: 1) Gase has no clue what is wrong with this team and does not know how to fix it 2). the Dolphins just threw in the towel on a season in which their record is 4-3 and in the thick of a playoff hunt. I dont see how your first move is try to reanalyze the offense and call the plays that allowed you to make the playoffs last year. Giving up like this should mean Gase’s job
How is he giving up? In his mind if Ajayi wasn’t performing he could have been holding the offence back. Drake may step in and blow the doors off who knows but we’ll see. He did make a comment about players not being prepared plus he has bad knees.
On another note good gamble by the eagles because if he holds up he can help them this year they don’t care about next year it’s win now.
Yo Dude what the fuck are talking about? Gase said he really cut the plays down to simplify things before the Dolphins went to Baltimore to play the Ravens. And that simple shit he kept calling showed because the Ravens ate that garbage up. And like Admin said, Gase had no clue on how to adjust, or what plays to use to turn things around.
How many games have they come back in this year? Problem isn’t adjusting it’s starting out not being behind 14 or more. His second halves have been decent when they are within fighting distance.
LA Phins-JUST STOP with your playoff crap. How ‘effing stupid are you? When you say crap like that,it proves you’re absolutely clueless about football. We are the 3rd best team on a 4 team division and we split with the other. Playoffs-LOL!
Calm down cowboy. Never said they would make the playoffs. My comment was out of an astonishment at Gase’s thought process. They, at this point, were still in contention for playoffs( although we know that to be unrealistic). So why trade a player that helped make your team successful for next to nothing? Just questioning the path their on and what this says about that path
I agree,the trade was crazy but we are not in a playoff race,with or without Ajayi OR Tannehill. This team is simply not good.We got to the playoffs last year b/c of the weakest schedule.And we needed 2 gifts from the 2 worst teams to get there.
Yup. No doubt. But Gase still does not show signs of adjusting. I guess the only argument is 1). Gase does not understand how to adjust. 2). The team is so bad that he feels any adjustments won’t work. I think probably both. But the first premise, if true, is most troubling.
LA Phins, I wonder if Gase TRULY doesn’t know what’s wrong and how to fix it. He seems to have a massive ego. I wonder if he accepts any blame at all?
Is it too late to get Philbin back?
Please Jimbo…don’t make me take my gun out and blow a hole in my head………..
That I can agree with that is complete nonsense… philbin ffffuuuuuccckkk
LOL. Clueless Joey P would misuse Ajayi. He would make him stay in to block for Tannehill. He would line him up as an outside decoy. He would hand off to Ajayi when it was third and 30. He would do all of those insane things,…and yet he would NOT be stupid enough to kick him off the team.
Ajayi’s knee is basically bone on bone. That’s why he fell in the draft. Dolphins got a 4th-round pick for a player they picked in the 5th-round. In a league that no longer values the runningback position l ack of high compensation could be expected. And let’s be realistic. Gase inherited Ajayi when he took the job. Meaning he’s not a Gase guy like Drake may be. Gase is still trying to purge the old Dolphins and tailor the team to fit his system and personality. And if you feel like guys won’t buy in then they should be expendable. I expect much more turnover between now and the end of Gase’s second year.
Hmmmm….I wonder if the Patriots would’ve given up Tom Brady for a fourth round pick because Brady was drafted in the later rounds?…hmmmm……………….
24 year old stud with a long way to go. Fuckin Gase just sucks. “My way or the highway” is great after you prove your way works
I don’t see one comment or article…not a single opinion…which says this is a good thing.
I’m fairly certain that Gase just lost the defense. Did you see the tweets and stuff they were sending out. They are all pissed !
WTF!
Perfect gif, John !