If your'e Ross..

[royalshank]

Just for a minute, you are Ross, the team owner and not a diehard fan. You have to make decisions for upcoming seasons in regards to player evaluation, attendance, stadium renovations, and general success moving forward.

How would you, as Ross, decide on the future of Jeff Ireland? How do you evaluate him? Past drafts or future moves based on what Ireland has learned over these past years?

I'm just curious as to what makes Ross say Ireland stays or leaves. I think it's a mixture of how past picks have worked out, what Jeff's vision of the future is, and does it mesh with Ross' and Philbin's view of the future.

I was at the game this weekend - flew down from NJ to watch an almost meaningless game against a bad team. The stadium attendance is awful. You can hear yourself breathing - even when the visiting team's offense is in 3rd and long. I don't know where to start. But ok - to drive attendence and build a winner you need team guys and star power. For both of those reasons I re-sign Reggie Bush - the one player with any "draw" that we have. RT will have it as soon as we can put some weapons around him - which takes me to my next set of moves. I'm not a College Football guy but I use at least 4 of those first 5 picks on offensive skill positions. We need a game breaking WR or 2 of them. Another RB that can move the chains and make big plays wouldn't hurt. An athletic TE would be nice. Perhaps we get a Victor Cruz in there somewhere - I don't know. What I do know is that continuing to draft O and D-linemen with our early picks isn't going to fill the stands.

[finfan54]

Ross already made the right move. He went against Irelands wishes and went with his head and got Philbin. Philbin then did not have a problem with Ireland because Ireland was willing to work for Philbin collaboratively, which by the way, is what he does. He worked with Parcells, yuk, then tried to get Sparano his guys, yuk, then scored pretty good with Philbin.

Philbin wont have a problem with Ireland as long as he keeps getting guys he approves of.

So you see, you need to take yourself out of the hatred for Jeff Ireland box and look at it as a new begginning. Jeff Ireland's contract will be up and Philbin may suddenly want his own guy in there with no hard feelings for Ireland but just wants to go with his guy. Its how Philbin goes about his business, which is why Shula likes him so much. He is a class act.

So Ross made the right decision IMO unlike when Huizenga regrettingly went with Mueller's coach and ted ginns family. Huizenga wanted Mike Tomlin.

[royalshank]

This is tough because he should of fired Jeff Ireland after last season.

Anyway I'd still fire him. I mean have people seen the amount of TD's our WR's have this year? 3 . .. 3 damn TD's by 3 different WR's, meaning no WR has more than 1 TD this year. Outside of our top 2 WR's, no other WR has more than 6 catches. That is ****ing pathetic.

We also have 12 turnovers in 14 games and will set a new Dolphins "lack of turnovers" record this season.

It is 2012 and Jeff Ireland can't evaluate skill position players . . . maybe you could get away with that in the Parcells era back in the late 80's and early 90's but you better have talent at those skill positions in today's game or you just won't have a team to compete for higher stakes.

I know stadium renovations are a hot subject but personally I'd focus on putting a winning product on the field. That will fill seats up, especially for a fanbase that is hungry as hell for a every year contender. Once you get the support of the fans back, it just makes it easier to approach renovating/building a stadium. Nobody gives a damn what you do right now to the stadium because the teams has been losing for over a decade. As the Marlins found out, you aren't going to fill a stadium right now with a losing product, even if it is brand spanking new.

Seriously I would do my best to bring in some quality offensive talent to this team next year . .. and I'd resign Reggie Bush.

Finally, someone who gets it. The inability to evaluate skill players (Jared Ordick over Dez Bryant) has been consistent since Ireland (a former kicker) got here... He just can't do it.

[royalshank]

Ross already made the right move. He went against Irelands wishes and went with his head and got Philbin. Philbin then did not have a problem with Ireland because Ireland was willing to work for Philbin collaboratively, which by the way, is what he does. He worked with Parcells, yuk, then tried to get Sparano his guys, yuk, then scored pretty good with Philbin.

Philbin wont have a problem with Ireland as long as he keeps getting guys he approves of.

So you see, you need to take yourself out of the hatred for Jeff Ireland box and look at it as a new begginning. Jeff Ireland's contract will be up and Philbin may suddenly want his own guy in there with no hard feelings for Ireland but just wants to go with his guy. Its how Philbin goes about his business, which is why Shula likes him so much. He is a class act.

So Ross made the right decision IMO unlike when Huizenga regrettingly went with Mueller's coach and ted ginns family. Huizenga wanted Mike Tomlin.

I like Philbin - he is mature, professional and classy. He can coach. I can't stand Ireland. He just cannot evaluate skill positions. We have passed on too many skill guys since he's been here. And he doesn't even realize that Reggie Bush is the only player on offense that other teams have to respect? I can only assume this due to the lack of movement to resign him. We will get no where with Ireland. What does a former kicker and Parcells lackey know about talent?

[finitis23]

Fire Ireland, Promote Brian Gaine

[finfan54]

I like Philbin - he is mature, professional and classy. He can coach. I can't stand Ireland. He just cannot evaluate skill positions. We have passed on too many skill guys since he's been here. And he doesn't even realize that Reggie Bush is the only player on offense that other teams have to respect? I can only assume this due to the lack of movement to resign him. We will get no where with Ireland. What does a former kicker and Parcells lackey know about talent?

what does Ireland have to do with what happens to reggie? Isnt that the coaches and the gameplanners fault? just checking here. I know people dont like me on this board cus I defend Ireland, but its more like I am trying to find the logic in a lot of what people say. Ireland got Marshall here. We havent drafted top WR's because we had Marshall. So Ireland got caught in transition with his pants down with Philbin not wanting "alpha" receivers. Thats how I see it. Its not all on Ireland. You have to take into account the new regime and what they said they were looking for in this offense.

Am I wrong about this?

[WesternNYDolfan]

OK I'll give it a shot.

If I'm Ross, I keep Ireland, he has shown improvement and growth in the draft. Along with not falling for one hit wonder QB's in Kolb, Flynn.

Yes, the revolving door at WR is a problem but the stock pile of draft picks this year keeps me calm and hopefull for the future. We have our franchise QB in place and can now build around him, instead of building a QB around a team. I would also say 2013 season is his "deciding" year. Ireland will have a boat load of cap space to re-sign our own FA's as he sees fit or move onto other teams FA's. Also as mentioned before he has a high number of picks (5 in the first 3 rounds) to get this team going for the next decade.

Stadium attendance is a major concern, one that is also connected to the teams reputation of delivering a sub-par product that people would not spend $400 on. Once the on field product improves so will attendace. Stadium renovations are at the front of the list thought, some sort of roof to cover seating but not the field would be in the works. Also, the high profile celebrity parades would stop immediatly as the national media turns this into a sour note.



As for player evaluation, I am fairly happy with our decision making so far based on what was availalbe. We did not spend money on one hit wonder QB's that every media outlet was drooling over. Our draft last year looks solid apart from one or two late round picks (Egnew is still a toss up), also brought in some promising UDFA.

The one major problem, Stadium Attendance, is not as much a symptom of Ireland, as it is years of mediocrity. Alot of the reason for that mediocraty is the revolving door of regimes constantly changing schemes and FO's. Our best bet at a true championship team is sticking with this Ireland-Philbin-Tannehill triumverate. Guarenteed when they start winning consistently starting next year, attendance will improve.

No splash signing or coach or GM will change the attendance, it has to be winning period. And Ireland at GM gives us our best shot at that

[finfan54]

once again, many many seats were empty alot when Marino was here. The upper deck corners were always bare.

[zach attach]

I posted and was not able to return to the conversation. Anyway, there are a lot of good posts on how this should be done. I want to say I'm not saying Ireland needs to be fired, instead, I was asking how his perfomance should be evaluated by the boss-Ross.

I like a group drafting effort with Philbin, the coordinators and Ireland. I hope this keeps happening. Jeff KNOWS he's on a hot seat, and I'm positive Ross has had the talk with him about losing seasons and the consequences of them. At this point, I believe Ross is a believer in Philbin and will give Joe's opinion a lot of weight in things.

I just get this feeling that Ireland has been telling Ross that he's almost there. "One more draft, a few more trades.." and Ross gives him more time. I also believe that all that Jeff says is wearing thin with Ross. I wish there was a source to confirm or unconfirm all of this.

['66'Fin]

If I were Ross, I would start selling off the Dolphins after the season ends.