Miami, we have a problem: Dolphins players questioning Philbin & coaching staff

I’ve been saying for weeks that Philbin is not good at getting his team motivated for games.  It’s a problem. It has been since last season.  Apparently some within the Dolphins organization feel the same way:

“One player complained that teams take on the personality of their coach and said because Philbin is flat and unemotional, the team too often plays like that. That has become a serious concern, but it goes beyond Philbin’s lack of motivational skills. Another said his personality better fits a coordinator.

“Players don’t see him as a really good X’s and O’s guy,” said one of the players’ close associates. “He’s just an organizational guy who’s on top of the scheduling and planning.””

As much as I don’t like them, would you rather have Jim Harbaugh, Pete Carroll, or even Rex Ryan giving the team a pep talk….or Joe Philbin?  Being outspoken and extroverted is not a requirement of becoming a successful NFL coach. But you need to find ways to motivate your players and Joe Philbin simply hasn’t been able to do that.  Bill Belichick isn’t a fiery guy, but he gets his team ready each week. The fact that he got to the AFC Championship game with the number of injuries and practice squad players that took the field each week, is pretty amazing. Don’t get me wrong, I was just as happy as you were that they got knocked out of the playoffs!

The point of all of this is that the Dolphins have chosen to retain their head coach, giving him at least another year to right the ship.  They’ll be doing so with a new General Manager, who has yet to be named.  Just because Joe Philbin has been retained does not mean that he can’t learn from his past 2 seasons and make changes in his management/coaching style for 2014.  If not, we may see more of the same in 2014.