Dolphins Truth

Man, what a boring week. But it could be worse.    Last year at this time, there was no Dolphins news either…but we already knew we were doomed because Stephen Ross had given Joe Philbin the reigns for another year.  This year, at least, we have some hope in Adam Gase. I’m not a huge fan of the Gase hiring, but we can at least give him a chance.   Last year at this time, we all knew we had no chance.   The fans knew it.  The players knew it.   Only Ross and Philbin didn’t know it. So this year is infinitely better,Read More →

Don’t worry about it. That’s our take.   Don’t worry,   It will all work out. If there’s a player we really really want/need, we’ll find the money to make it work.  If there’s a player who is expendable, he’ll be gone.  The money has less to do with it than you think. I remember really really wanting to keep Paul Solai a few years back.  The Dolphins let him walk, ostensibly because of salary cap demands.   But in retrospect, the Dolphins let him walk because his best days were behind him.   This has been proven over the past two years, as SolaiRead More →

Let me start off with the same caveat:    I want Adam Gase to be a winner and I hope he succeeds wildly as Dolphins head coach. I’m not gonna be negative, but I owe it to my readers to be factual. And the fact is this:    When Adam Gase was the Broncos offensive coordinator last year, they failed in the playoffs.   This year, once they got rid of Gase, they made it to the Super Bowl. On top of that, a year ago the Broncos interviewed Gase to be their head coach.  This is very notable for the same reason I willRead More →

Well, it’s pretty obvious that most Dolfans are or should be rooting for the Broncos to defeat the Evil Empire, the lying and cheating Patriots. But can Denver actually pull it off? The Patriot Express is very difficult to derail.   For all of its predictability, it still works.  Little Julie Edelmann will run a crossing pattern.  Gronk will run through a seam.   Amendola will cause traffic jams.   And Brady will run a QB sneak when they need two yards or less.  Without fail  100% predictable. Then why can’t anyone ever stop them?  It’s mostly because defenses overthink things.  “Oh my!  What ifRead More →

Although not acknowledged by the team, many media reports are saying that Clyde Christensen will be the Dolphins next offensive coordinator. Given the fact that Adam Gase is head coach and will call all plays himself, one has to wonder what the offensive coordinator will do.   To find out what a figurehead offensive coordinator with no power really does, you need only look back as far as Joey Philbin in Green Bay. As we’ve stated many times here at Dolphins Truth, Philbin worked as Mike McCarthy’s OC in Green Bay.  McCarthy saw Philbin and worked with him day in and day out for many years.Read More →

When Don Shula surpassed George Halas as the NFL’s all-time leader in wins., Dan Marino was not the QB that day. It wasn’t Scott Mitchell.   No even Steve DeBerg. It was Doug Pedersen.  Who?!! Doug then went on to Green Bay and won a Super Bowl ring as Brett Favre’s backup.   And now Pedersen is an NFL head coach. The Dolphins 4th-string QB in 1993 got Don Shula’s 325th win for him, a trivia answer for the ages. The Eagles signed an offensive coordinator from a team who is STILL active in the playoffs.  Imagine that!   Unlike the Dolphins, who signed anRead More →

Mel Kiper has released his first mock draft, and he believes the Dolphins will select defensive end Shaq Lawson from Clemson. This would be par for the course for the Dolphins, who don’t need a defensive end.   Why pick a player you need when you can instead select someone you don’t need? That is the Dolphins motto!    Dion Jordan is the salvation, remember? Yes, I know our defensive end situation is iffy right now.   Wake might not be ready for the season (Achilles injuries are far more severe than a simple ACL).  Vernon and Shelby might go for more money.  Dion Jordan mightRead More →

New Head Coach Adan Gase has already started to mold his staff and his on-field personnel, which is good and bad. It’s good to get the staff settled in early so they can start working together.   But it’s bad who he is choosing. Vance Joseph is our new defensive coordinator, coming in from being the Bengals’ defensive backs coach.  The same coach whose defensive back cost the Bengals a playoff win the other day.   If Joseph can’t get Pacman Jones  to  just walk away, how will he control Kong Suh? The main problem with signing coaches too early is that all the good ones areRead More →

As we said last week, it’s virtually impossible to beat the Steelers  in the playoffs or even leading up to the playoffs.   Still can’t prove what kind of hold the Rooney family has over the NFL, but the Steelers continue to get all the calls.  All the time. In the Bengal game, for example, a Steeler leveled a Bengal by diving at his head–helmet first–and received no penalty.   Coach Joey Porter later ran onto the field in the middle of a melee, and the refs looked the other way.  The only other team to get as many calls is New England. It willRead More →

Stephen Ross has done it again. In yet another slap to the face of all Dolfans (and there have been many slaps), Ross abandoned a long, thoughtful and meaningful coaching search. Instead, he listened to his inexperiRead More →

It was hard to figure out what the Patriots were doing. Were they playing to win?  They did have something to play for, and it could cost them dearly.  Facing a hostile AFC Title Game crowd in Denver and a rejuvenated Peyton Manning is not what the doctor ordered for New England, and it would have been so easy to avoid. All New England had to do was defeat the cellar-swelling doormat of the AFC East, our beloved Dolphins.  But something strange happened along the way.  Miami won.   I watched the game live and I re-watched it for analysis.  It’s hard to pinpoint what New EnglandRead More →

Dennis Hickey is out as the Dolphins’ GM, making me slowly start to believe just how chaotic the inner workings of this team truly are. The bottom line is this:  What did Hickey do wrong in his two seasons? His acquisitions of Suh and Kenny Stills were excellent, and his drafting of Landry, Parker, J’wuan James, and others have a ton of upside.  There is no way that Hickey bears any responsibility for Philbin/Campbell/Lazor/Zac benching Lamar Miller every time he gets red hot. Is it Hickey’s fault that we run 94% of our plays from the predictable 4-wide set?  No. Did Hickey call timeouts toRead More →

Much of the news concerning Chip Kelly’s firing in Philadelphia concerns the fact that Kelly had total control:  the players,  the team, coaches, draft, personnel, etc. Reporters are covering Kelly’s dictatorship like it’s a bad thing. However, that “bad” thing might be exactly what the Miami Dolphins need. Let’s say the Dolphins hire the exciting Chip Kelly and his innovative offense.  If we give Kelly all the power he wants (draft, coaching hires, etc.), that means that other Dolphins executives would have less power, or be fired altogether.  Would the Dolphins suffer if Mike Tannenbaum has less power?    If Stephen Ross took a step back, wouldRead More →

I got a lot of hate mail yesterday for blaming our COACHES for the loss.  Most of our readers felt compelled to blame Tannehill or our terrible offensive line.  Those blamers are not wrong. The offensive line is horrible and Ryan Tannehill didn’t do anything to earn praise (just ask Miko Grimes, who lambasted T-hill on public media), but it’s the way those players are utilized that makes the Dolphins lose week after week. This will sound like a broken record to many of our readers, but when we employ extra protection packages, we have success.  Period.   Case closed.  On the pass when DeVanteRead More →

The Dolphin coaches blew this game.  Namely Mike Sherman’s son-in-law once again. Yes, I know some of my readers will blame Tannehill and others will blame our D. And by the way, if you’re going to blame the D, then start with overrated Reshad Jones missing an easy interception on the first pass of the game, and then getting plowed over embarrassingly by Frank Gore on Gore’s first TD run.  Combine that with Jones’s game-changing fumble last week and you see what the Pro Bowl voters saw. But enough of that.  Zac Taylor and his ridiculous obsession with 4 and 5-wideout formations doomed us once again.Read More →