Tag: Stephen Ross

The crystal ball: 1st Round Mock Draft

Apr. 25 AFC East Preview, Breaking News, Dolphins Gameplan, Miami Musings, News and Notes, Opinion, Uncategorized 10 comments

After about eight long months of intense draft preparations, we have all officially survived mock draft season and the real deal is finally here. As Mel Kiper has stated, “This has not been a comfortable year to do mock drafts.” Here we are less than 24 hours away from Roger Goodell announcing Kansas City is on the clock and there is still debate on who the pick should be. There are simply no ‘locks’ in this draft years draft, but with no ‘locks’ I can assure you there will be plenty of steals.

We here at PhinNation encourage comments, criticisms, and questions regarding our intelligence, or furthermore our sanity at this point in time. Enjoy!

Pick Position               Selection
1 Kansas City  OT     Luke Joeckel, Texas A&M
2 Jacksonville  OLB      Dion Jordan, Oregon
3 Oakland       QB      Geno Smith, W.Va
4 Philadelphia  OT        Eric Fisher, Central Michigan
5 Detroit        CB        Dee Milliner, ‘Bama
6 Cleveland     DE        Ziggy Ansah, BYU
7 Arizona       OT        Lane Johnson, Oklahoma
8 Buffalo         QB         Matt Barkely, USC
9 NYJ              FS         Kenny Vaccaro, Texas
10 Tennessee    OG         Chance Warmack, ‘Bama
11 San Diego    OT         DJ Fluker, ‘Bama
12 Miami           WR          Tavon Austin, W.Va
13 NYJ           DE/OLB     Keke Mingo, LSU
14 Carolina         DT         Shariff Floyd, Florida
15 New Orleans OLB       Jarvis Jones, Georgia
16 St. Louis         OG         Jon Cooper, UNC
17   Pittsburgh    DE          Bjoren Werner, FSU
18 Dallas            DT          Star Lotulelei, Utah
19 NYG              TE           Tyler Eifert, Notre Dame
20 Chicago          OT          Menelik Watson, FSU
21 Cincinnati     WR         Cordarrelle Patterson, Tenn.
22 St. Louis         WR         DeAndre Hopkins, Clemson
23 Minnesota     WR         Keenan Allen, California
24 Indianapolis    CB         Xavier Rhodes, FSU
25 Minnesota      DT        Sheldon Richardson, Missouri
26 Green Bay       RB         Eddie Lacy, ‘Bama
27 Houston          QB        Ryan Nassib, Syracuse
28 Denver            CB         Dez Trufant, Wash.
29 New England   WR        Justin Hunter, Tenn.
30 Atlanta             CB         DJ Hayden, Houston
31 San Francisco DE         Datone Jones, UCLA
32 Baltimore         LB          Arthur Brown, Kansas St

The Dolphins recent rumblings sending Bess to Cleveland lead to the selection of WR/RB/KR/PR Tavon Austin. Many will consider this a luxury pick, but the combination of Mike Wallace and Tavon Austin will bring an entire new dimension to the Dolphins offense.
Be sure to follow @Phinfanlyst on twitter for further analysis throughout the draft Saturday.

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Ross: “I’m willing to spend whatever it takes”…..but on what?

Jan. 07 News and Notes 1 comment

The Miami Dolphins season ended a week ago, but with the spotlight of the National Championship game coming to South Florida tonight, the Dolphins owner couldn’t help himself.  Stephen Ross spoke with Dolphins media representatives this afternoon for about 22-23 minutes.  Mr. Ross is a very accomplished businessman and is obviously very smart.  That’s why, when he makes statements like he did today, we can’t help but scratch our heads.

Photo Courtesy of Dolphins.com

Photo Courtesy of Dolphins.com

The Dolphins are heading into a very important offseason in a few weeks.  The Dolphins, by most estimations, will have about $46 mil in cap room to accompany their 5 high draft picks in the first 3 rounds of the draft.  This is a franchise defining offseason for a Dolphins franchise that has not won a playoff game since Bill Clinton was in the White House.

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Ross interviewing Giddings for Ireland’s GM position?

Jan. 02 News and Notes 5 comments

Are the Miami Dolphins secretly looking for a new general manager?  This could go down as a Twitter hoax, but this afternoon Twitter was set ablaze by the following tweet:

 

There is a large portion of the fan base that thinks Jeff Ireland should be fired as the Dolphins GM for a number of reasons that we won’t get into right now.  The source of the tweet is a little known NFL insider/bettor, so take the rumor for what it’s worth.  It’s hard to imagine that someone would make this up.  But who knows!  Right now, it appears it was just a meeting between Stephen Ross and Michael Giddings Jr.  Jeff Ireland is still the Dolphins General Manager.

If you’re wondering who Mike Giddings Jr. is……so are we.  We tried to do some digging on Giddings, but came up with very little.  Seriously, try googling him.  From what we know, he has been used by many NFL teams as a scouting consultant.  We’ll keep you posted if any more news develops on this story…..

[UPDATE 2:00pm] According to the Miami Herald’s Adam Beasley, who spoke with Giddings Jr. on Thursday, Giddings Jr. has not spoken with the Dolphins about their General Manager position.  Giddings Jr. confirmed that he consulted with the Dolphins from 1977 until about 6 years ago (when the Trifecta showed up) and would love to do so again.  He would not comment when asked if he had spoken to the Dolphins recently about consulting again.

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Anger will turn to apathy if Dolphins aren’t fixed quickly

Dec. 11 Opinion 4 comments

The Miami Dolphins are one loss away from finishing the season with a losing record for the 4th straight season.  In case you were wondering, the Dolphins haven’t had a stretch like that since they were an expansion franchise in the 1960′s.  That means the Dolphins haven’t been THIS bad for THIS long in almost 50 years.   It’s sad that the only undefeated franchise in NFL history, is in such a state of middling mediocrity.

The franchise has only played in 1 playoff game in the last 10 years….and they lost…..and they were in the playoffs that season, in large part, because Tom Brady was out for the year….and the Dolphins happened to play the weakest schedule in the NFL that season.  Take nothing away from them that year, the Dolphins won their games and went 11-5, we all celebrated and hoped that better times were ahead.  That was 4 years ago.  Since then, the team has gone 7-9, 7-9, 6-10, and 5-8….or to say it another way, they’ve barely won 40% of their games.  If I were the owner of the team, I’d view that as unacceptable.

Photo Courtesy of Dolphins.com

The problem is that the Dolphins fan base is being so turned off by this team that their anger has started to shift towards apathy.  That’s not good when you’re in the business of selling stuff.  And make no mistake, despite not being blacked out yet, the Dolphins are hemorrhaging tickets.  I expect the next two games at Sun Life to be pretty empty.  They may be on TV because the Dolphins could buy up remaining tickets.  But, the Jaguars and the Bills don’t exactly draw a ton of fans down to Miami…especially when both of those teams are terrible.

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Time to Vote…..for Dolphins mid-season grades

Nov. 06 Opinion 7 comments

The Miami Dolphins are officially at the midway point in the 2012 season.  The Miami Dolphins currently sit at 4-4 an alone in second place in the AFC East, as well as one game back of the two AFC wild card spots.  The Miami Dolphins season has been a bit of a roller coaster as they started 1-3, then improved to 4-3 after a 3 game winning streak, only to fall back to .500 on Sunday, losing to the Colts.  So what do we know about the Dolphins that we didn’t at the beginning of the season?

Well, I think we could all agree that Ryan Tannehill has all the tools to be the franchise QB the Dolphins have been looking for. Second, I think Joe Philbin is turning out to be a pretty good head coach, as the Dolphins players seem to be buying into his philosophies.  Third, I think the Dolphins realize they are a work in progress and that additional retooling will be necessary if the team wants to be a consistent contender in the AFC.

I think the overall feeling around Dolphins fans is that the team is heading in the right direction.  I mean, the team was 1-7 last year at this point, now they are 4-4.  I realize there is a large contingent of Dolphins fans that are still calling for a new general manager, but we will need to see how the rest of the season plays out before Mr. Ross will need to make that decision.

So, since today is Election Day, we thought we’d allow you to do some voting right here at PhinNation.com.  We want to know what you think about the current state of the Dolphins, their coaches, and even who you are voting for today in the ‘big’ election.  Don’t worry, these polls are completely anonymous, we can’t tell who’s voting for what person or grade.  We will be collecting your votes until tonight at 10pm, then we will count them up and publish the results tomorrow morning.  We will give you the reader’s average grade and our thoughts on what the Dolphins grade should be.  This should be fun, we’re eager to know what Dolphins fans think about the different units/players/coaches on the team!   (click on page 2 below to vote!)

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Dolphins Fans, take Cowher’s comments about coaching in 2012 for what they’re worth

Oct. 31 News and Notes 3 comments

Rumors have been swirling for weeks about the Miami Dolphins and their desire to talk to Bill Cowher about coaching the team in 2012.  First, there were reports that the Dolphins had intermediaries reaching out to Cowher.  Then, last week, a report surfaced that claimed the Dolphine Owner reached out to Cowher’s agent.  Well, yesterday Bill Cowher decided to address the rumors on the CBS NFL Pregame show.  Here’s what he said, courtesy of the Sun Sentinel:

“I have not been contacted directly or indirectly by any football team, or any organization. It’s all speculation and it’s unfortunate because it effects the lives of many people who are in the profession” 

“I’m here to say to you today, I do not plan on coaching next year. I love where I work, and more importantly I enjoy the people I work with [at CBS].  So I can put all this speculation to rest, and if I have to repeat this in December I will.”

Cowher clearly felt that he needed to say something about the rumors connecting his name to the currently filled Dolphins head coaching job.  After all, Cowher has reportedly told ALL teams that he will not talk to them about a head coaching job that is currently filled.  Last time I checked, Tony Sparano was still the coach of the Dolphins.

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Gruden and Cowher BOTH interested in Dolphins job in 2012?

Oct. 25 Breaking News 1 comment

Seriously, is there ever a dull day with the Miami Dolphins?  Earlier today the Dolphins signed JP Losman to backup Matt Moore…..and now this:

Report: Cowher, Gruden interested in Fins job http://t.co/QmS1KpFm
October 25, 2011 4:09 pm via dlvr.itReplyRetweetFavorite
@Rotoworld_FB
Rotoworld Football

Yes, according to Jason Cole of Yahoo Sports, both Bill Cowher and Jon Gruden have let it be known that they want to return to the sidelines in 2012.  The big question I have is whether or not one of them will choose to coach the Dolphins.   According to the report, both have suggested that they would be interested in the Dolphins job.  I wouldn’t expect either of them to say much publicly, because the Dolphins still have a head coach, Tony Sparano.  However, both of them probably want the Dolphins’ Owner, Stephen Ross, to know that they are interested.

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The Dolphins have left me no choice but to WEAR A BAG ON MY HEAD

Oct. 24 Opinion 1 comment

After watching the first Miami Dolphins games of the 2011 season, the team has disappointed me more than words can express.  I thought this Dolphins team actually had a shot at the playoffs.  I, like others, ripped some of the experts for predicting that the Dolphins would win 3-4 games.  As it turns out, those experts MIGHT have been a little generous.  The Dolphins have become a laughing stock all around the NFL.  Sure, the Colts are bad, but they’re missing their All-World QB.  Sure, the Rams are bad too, but they have been bitten by the injury bug.  But the Dolphins really defy explanation.  How does the defensive unit go from being ranked #6 in the NFL in 2010 to being one of the 5 worst defenses in the NFL?  They replaced TWO players on last year’s defense and one of them was considered an upgrade.

Photo courtesy of @PhinsRock (on Twitter)

Hoping for Chad Henne to develop, plus adding some stability to the O-Line and infusing some new running backs….none of it helped.  NONE OF IT!  A vast majority of the Dolphins fan base is now actively rooting for the team to lose by joining the Suck for Luck campaign.  Add to the fact that more fans want the Dolphins to lose than win, the team cannot give away tickets……Hell, the Dolphins couldn’t sell out Sun Life stadium when the chosen one (Tebow) was to be honored at halftime!!!!  From top to bottom, this organization needs a cleansing from top to freaking bottom.  Parcells left with his tail between his legs, throwing grenades back at the franchise he was supposed to turn around.

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