Cinderella Team in 2012?

[13Dolfan87]

I say no but that we will be better than people think. Sure, that could mean 7 wins but people seem to be pegging us to be pretty damn bad.

I think we'll be competitive and around .500.

[LANGER72]

I think Cleveland will be a Cinderella team this year. They are vastly improved, but they have a really tough division.

[Miamifinz]

What's that stat? Many years in a row now 2 or 3 teams that didn't make the playoffs last year make it. We could be that Cinderella team - probably could even plead the best case for it. But I put other. I think we'll be a team that'll perform well above the expectations of many, but come up short in terms of making the playoffs.

[TebowOfNazareth]

I see the Cinderella team coming from the NFC South this year with Carolina or Tampa Bay. New Orleans is having a terrible off-season and the new offensive coordinator in Atlanta was previously in charge of the Jaguars offense. I give a slight edge to Cam Newton over the rookie coach Schiano for my Cinderella pick.

[NYinBostonFin]

Are you always this cheery?
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


Not ONE person yet has commented that we're going to be a playoff contender and already you are attacking anyone who has anything positive to say about this team, let alone the draft. Jeez, lighten up man.

To be honest, I don't think we'll be a Cinderella team this year, but we could shed the losing season curse. There's just too much that has to go right with this young (but upandcoming) team, but the schedule at least is favorable for us. Who knows, though...maybe we'll catch a few breaks with the old "OL guru" out of the picture. In time, though, I think Philbin and Tannehill could lead this team to greater things...at least greater than we've known for the last several years!
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Isn't a Cinderella team one that makes it to the playoffs and is a contender that you didn't expect? I mean, you can't be a Cinderella team and go .500 or even 9-7. Anyone voting yes is saying we will make the playoffs really.

[MarshallFin1]

Dolphins improved way too much this offseason to not have any hopes of a contender type season.

-We got rid of chad henne and tony sparano, the 2 main problems with the miami dolphins.
-We added A great coach and offensive mind Joe philbin as our new heach coach and also added a 1st round qb to our roster tannenhill(whether he will be ready or not for this season is not known yet but still something to be excited about)
-We added richard marshall, another good corner.
-We added lamar miller, a potential 1st round running back gotten for a 4th round pick. A true homerun threat. Reggie and lamar will be skysthelimit if phiblin pounds the rock.
-Our defense needs an offensive to feed off, if philbin improves this offense with all these new weapons, our defense will be that much better. Our defense with sparano and henne was dead, unmotivated and out of shape. Defense knew our offense sucks, so whats the point of them getting turnovers for henne to just give the ball right back to the other team?

Even with all the new weapons, the #1 im excited about is joe phiblin, if you want to be a debbie downer and say were a 4 win team, go ahead, doesnt bother me at all, but it wont change my faith in philbin and what i believe is a capable 10-6 contender potential team. Tony sparano makes the dolphins look that bad, that is why i have high expectations for this team.

[safrench1]

Using that line of thinking, we will never be better than other teams. We improve, so do they.....

[Vaark]

We've closed out more than the last half of the season outplaying 2 of our 4 divisional competitors playing .667 ball. Ditto Moore vs anyone in divisional QBs not named "Brady." If T/Hill steps in at any point, it'll indicate that the position will be even an upgrade beyond that status quo.

We lost Marshall which looks like a blow, but lets see how our new sure-handed TE does, how Clay develops, whether Gates or one or 2 of our new WRs pick up the slack in our now superior coach's scheme. Our running game now includes a bonefide Home Run hitter and a year of understanding how to get the best out of Reggie. Hopefully it'll also include a healthy season for Thomas who showed much promise when healthy, so the running game should be a strong suit against just about anyone in the division on its own as well as aiding and abetting the passing game.

We have fortified the OL with another year under the belt of our stud center and through the addition of a first round talent who was instrumental in Luck staying upright and becoming the number 1 draft pick. Fasano is an excellent blocking TE so now that he can concentrate more on that role, that will also help fortify the OL. Did I mention that Jake says he's now healthy for the first time since Sparano ruined him in exhibition game 4 2 seasons past?

IMO the biggest hit we took on the defensive side was losing Nolan and the flux that comes from transitioning into a hybrid defense. Those could be issues. Personnel wise, we've resigned a better than average and athletic NT, added 2 potential pass rushers which can only help out our elite one in Wake, a more competent corner -slash nickel back; safeties do remain a concern. Hopefully Dansby will report in shape and Burnett will get going a lot faster than last season as IMO it's no coincidence that once these guys worked their way into shape, the unit performed better.

While you could have inserted even Dick Kotite in to replace the Meatball and it likely would have been an upgrade, we have a smart, universally professionally respected replacement who played an instrumental role in GB becoming an offensive juggernaut, (and is credited by the great Aaron Rodgers as playing a major role in his professional and personal development), so sight unseen I cannot see how that's not a major improvement in general and specifically, in sidestepping boneheaded field calls during crunch time.

Yes it's true other teams have gotten better too, but it's also true we performed more than half the season better than most of the other teams in the league, so I think some of the pessimism is both naturally hard-wired and as likely if not more so to be misplaced. That's not to say I think we'll end up in the post season, but that's not to say either we won't if we can pick up where last season left off, as I'm firmly convinced that if the Meatball had conducted an open TC QB competition, we'd have been playing for a Wild Card playoff spot in game 16 instead of merely being the spoiler. This time last year, SF was going through a lot of flux, was also a 6-10 team, going 5-4 over their last 9 games, with a new smart incoming HC, an undependable QB they were trying to draft out from, a strong running game, a better than average defense, and some questions surrounding under-performing receivers. Sound familiar?

[Wind]

you are really positive!

[PyroDOLFAN]

^ Appreciate the breakdown Vaark, I always enjoy listening to your quaint witticism's ^^b