What Will Huizenga Find?

Wayne Huizenga is an owner I not only like, but I respect. He has ordered, as most of us know, an in depth internal analysis of the Miami Dolphins from management decisions, to players, to play calling. No one, including Wayne himself is immune to the inquisition. The question is direct. “What will he find?” The answer is a lot more complicated, but in the end, may be only one word. “Nothing”.

The Dolphins will perform two of these internal revues, with the first coming now, as we speak, and the last coming after the season is over. Which for the Dolphins will be the conclusion of week 17.

Wayne has insisted that everything be looked at dating back to the Jimmy Johnson era. Draft picks, trades, free agent selections, money expenditures, cap management, salary structures, contract structures, and on and on and on. Jimmy has already managed to try and save his rear end by making public on air comments about the fact that he still has 2 draft picks still on the Dolphins roster. He has spoken out on why the Fins are in such a bad situation, and conveniently left his own participation in this mess out.

The Jimmy Johnson drafts and trades have been talked about and talked about and talked about some more, I will not rehash them here, however, you can read what has already been written by following this link.

So no I am sorry Jimmy…you are not absolved of any wrong doing here.

The list goes on and on, from the miserable choices of Dave Wannstedt, to the hard nose in your face temper tantrums of Nick Saban to the first year head coach Cam Cameron. Everyone is at fault, everyone will be scrutinized, and everyone will need to find an answer for something.

It is easy to get on a rambling roll of metaphors and blame when it comes to this team but as I stated above, what will this review actually find? I say it finds nothing, lets look at what the somethings’ may be.

1: Jimmy Johnson – As much as I really can not stand Jimmy, his presence in Miami led to one single mistake. The hiring of one Dave Wannstedt. Jimmy used his relationship with Wayne to get his friend and coordinator his next head coaching job. Draft picks aside, and only 4 made significant contributions, it is hard to fault Jimmy completely for what is on the field today although it easy to fault Jimmy for the rest of his draft picks that were in reality…jokes, still, not every pick will stick for 10 plus years.

2: Dave Wannstedt – The majority of the review should initially be focused here. In a span of 5 seasons, Dave Wannstedt made poor draft decisions, was the direct cause of the salary cap situation that only now has finally been resolved, of his entire drafts, only Chris Chambers was on the roster at the start of the year, (2004 draft was by Rick Spielman), his trading history never helped this team formulate a true contender, his resolve for not finding a franchise quarterback only enhanced his failure as not only a head coach, but also a general manager. I refer to his tenure in Miami as the “Dark Ages”. I always will.

3: Rick Spielman – Oh it would be fun to throw blame at the incompetent Rick, but reality says otherwise. Spielman was GM for only 1 year and his draft has at least produced a couple of starters. It was his lack of trading ability and his poor judgment in throwing draft picks away (2nd rounder for AJ Feely, 3rd rounder for Lamar Gordon, 4th rounder to move up one spot and draft Vernon Carey) that Spielman will be judged. His ability to throw good money away on bad players should also be revealed in this review. Rick Spielman did not do much right, but perhaps his biggest wrong was spending good money on very bad talent. Rick Spielman was part of the reason that Nick Saban inherited a bad cap.

4: Nick Saban – Let’s face it. Very few Miami Dolphins fans like Nick Saban. I am one of the few, albeit with exceptions. Nick Sabans’ fault with this mess should start at square one. He never saw it through to the end. That is one of the reasons that the Dolphins are in this position. Because he quit. The draft picks of Nick Saban have been scrutinized, but in reality he has had the best draft over all in the past 10 years for the Dolphins, in 2005. His 2006 draft is not looking good and when you throw in the wasted pick on qb Daunte Culpepper, it looks worse. Nick inherited a salary cap that was better suited for hell. He made cuts and more cuts and in year 2 he was still making cuts just to get under the cap. That is not something any coach should have to deal with.

5: Dom Capers – On the surface Capers was clearly the best choice for retention this past off-season. He is being paid as a HC, he was given the reigns to a number 4 overall defense and the reigning NFL DPOY in Jason Taylor. All he has done is reduced that defense to nothing. It was Capers who lobbied for the signing of Joey Porter. It was Capers who has publicly admitted to not using Jason Taylor the way he was used last year. It is Dom Capers who ultimately is the responsible party for the collapse of this defense, and in the end, Capers should lose his job.

6: Randy Mueller – It is realistically hard to blame much of this mess on Randy Mueller. This is his first real year as the Dolphins GM. Although he held that title under Nick Saban, his disagreements with Saban last year over everything from draft picks to personnel would have led to the unemployment line had Saban not resigned. Mueller has, in one year, reduced the cap to the point where a possible 30 million dollars will greet the staff this next off-season. He has had to make tough choices with veteran players and those decisions have cost the Phins some aging depth. The key word in my opinion is depth. His draft, this year, has been scrutinized for guys like Ginn and Booker but more along the line of who he didn’t draft, Brady Quinn. The desperation and the disgust for many fans starts there. In reality, his blame can be had on Ginn, on Porter, and in reality, little else. Randy Mueller made tough decisions. Guys like Carter, McMichael, Mare, Zgonina, and Chambers, contributed very little overall, but their cap numbers were preventing this team from moving forward. Like it or not.

7: Cam Cameron – The decision to hire Cameron is at the corp the very reason most fans now want an internal review. Many want a report to show that the reason for this teams 0-8 record and very possible 0-16 season can be pointed in the direction of one man. The head coach. Fans want to have someone to take the blame. It easy to look back when others are pointing to the past to bring up the records of the past and then say “at least we were winning!” This team is not. Cameron is not in the clear as some of his decisions will make you scratch your head. The lack of Ted Ginns’ offensive involvement. In game clock management and other decisions on Sundays. His inability to get the youth of his team on the field to gain needed experience. Lorenzon Booker, John Beck, etc. Cameron is a man who has a plan. He has an agenda in his mind that he will not waiver from. I like Cam Cameron. I see a coach who treats his players like men while trying to instill confidence. It becomes harder to teach and even harder to motivate when you can’t get into the win column. Cam Cameron deserves some time regardless of his record now or at the end of the season. Still, at some point, he will need to re-evaluate his own actions. He will seriously need to consider turning over play calling to an actual offensive coordinator and should start thinking of a new defensive coordinator as well. This team is not very good. The reasons belong to everyone mentioned above him. Not just Cameron.

8: Finally, the players. Each position, the money spent at each position, the talent, the attitude, and of course why they are here in the first place. Wayne Huizenga is not a cheap owner. He does not pocket the money not spent on this team. He tells his President and his GM that they can spend every dime of the salary cap. His problem is that he has stayed out of it for too long. Wayne needs to be more involved. He needs to oversee where that money is going, and that money has been going to overpriced underachieving players at every level and at every position sans 2. ILB and RDE. Or Zach Thomas and Jason Taylor.

CLOSING: In the end, this review will find nothing. No one above will be singled out, Wayne does not do that. No one above will lose their jobs directly because of it, Wayne does not do that and the real reasons this team is where it is lies mostly with people who are no longer with this organization. Dom Capers should be fired, and in all likelihood he will be. Cameron will not and nor should he. IF there is to be a fall guy, his name is Randy Mueller. Only because there are some big names on the horizon that could jump in and take his place.

This internal review will publicly read something like this: “After deep analysis of our team, we have found that the reasons are due to bad cap management, bad trades that did not make our team better, draft choices that could not pan out, and free agent pick ups that were made because we had overspent our cap dollars. This team is where it is because veterans needed to be released for salary cap reasons and due to bad drafts our team could not get younger to off-set the veteran losses. No one person was or is to blame for the state of this team, and because of that, we do not feel that any individual should lose their job because of it. Changes will be made this off-season, but those changes were going to be necessary with or without this review.”

Those changes? Probably Randy Mueller, although again, I do not think he deserves it, because a Bill Parcells and a Marty Schottenheimer are out there. Dom Capers, because, well, he deserves it. I would like to see Ron Rivera brought in to coach the defense. The rest? The scouting department will take the biggest hit. Many of the scouts have been here for a long time and have been with each of the coaches listed above. Someone has not done their jobs, OR, the coaches just do not listen to them. In both cases, they should be gone.

Unfortunately, for us fans. Nothing will be publicly revealed to us.