Miami Dolphins End Of Season Tidbits
By Brian Miller
The season is over for the Miami Dolphins. Not figuratively, that was in October. The next time we see Miami line on a field will be sometime in August when the teams start pre-season games. For now, focus shifts from the field to the front office where Stephen Ross and Jeff Ireland will start working on finding the next HC. Here are some of the tidbits of information to get you caught up as we head into the 2012 off-season.
Schedule: The Dolphins won’t know the dates and times until well into summer, but everyone knows who and where they will be playing. The Dolphins 2012 season will look like this.
"Home: N.Y. Jets, New England, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Tennessee, St. Louis, Seattle, Oakland.Away: N.Y. Jets, New England, Buffalo, Houston, Indianapolis, San Francisco, Arizona, Cincinnati."
Draft slotting: It would have been nice to know where the Dolphins would pick, it would at least make it far easier to mock the draft. Unfortunately Miami and Carolina tied with their strength of schedule. In February when the league meets in Indianapolis for the NFL Combine, reps from Miami and Carolina will meet to flip a coin. The winner gets slot 8 and the loser gets slot 9. It will only matter for the first round.
Following the first round of the draft, teams alternate for the first pick. In this case, the Buffalo Bills will pick 9th in round 2 while the coin toss winner drops to 10 and the coin toss loser moves up to 8 for round 2. In round three and all subsequent rounds, the teams continue to rotate. Here is the draft order for non-playoff teams:
"1. Indianapolis (2-14, .539)2. St. Louis (2-14, .590)3. Minnesota (3-13, .559)4. Cleveland (4-12, .531)5. Tampa Bay (4-12, .551)6. Washington (5-11, .477)7. Jacksonville (5-11, .500)8-9. Carolina-Miami (6-10, .504)10. Buffalo (6-10, .520)11-12. Kansas City-Seattle (7-9, .512)13. Arizona (8-8, .469)14. Dallas (8-8, .473)15. Philadelphia (8-8, .488)16. N.Y. Jets (8-8, .500)17. Oakland (8-8, .504)18. San Diego (8-8, .516)19. Chicago (8-8, .527)20. Tennessee (9-7, .461)"
Coaching Rumors: After the jump
The Miami Dolphins so are rumored to have interest in NY Jets defensive Coordinator Mike Pettine. Pettine has been the DC for the Jets for the last three seasons but only this year took over play calling duties from Rex Ryan.
Jeff Fisher is also rumored to have been approached by Stephen Ross as well. No word on whether he declined as has been reported elsewhere regarding Jon Gruden and Bill Cowher.
Despite his two win one loss record, Todd Bowles who will likely interview officially for the Miami head coaching job is not considered a realistic candidate to finally land the job. I think the Dolphins are seriously wanting to interview him for more than just Rooney rule reasons, but ultimately, Bowles isn’t someone who is going to put fans back in the stadium and with the backlash from Jeff Ireland’s retention, Bowles represents a keeping the status-quo.
Brian Schottenheimer is rumored to be out in NY and a lot of that has to do with the play of Mark Sanchez to say nothing of the loud mouth free agent signings over the last three years under Rex Ryan. It’s hard to say where Schottenheimer will end up and I’m not saying he would be a candidate for a head coaching gig, but one thing we do know is that Carl Peterson is very knowledgeable about the Schottenheimer family. Keep that in mind.
Carl Peterson has yet to join the team officially in any capacity. That’s not to say that he won’t but many speculated that he would be named the President of Football Operations as the season came to a close. Ross and Peterson both denied speaking about the subject when asked earlier in the season by local media journalists.