Jay Ajayi trade first step in major overhaul of Miami Dolphins offense

ARMANDO SALGUERO wrote:There’s so much we don’t know.

We don’t know whether the trade that sent Jay Ajayi to the Philadelphia Eagles will help or hinder the Dolphins. You may have an opinion but you truly do not know. Neither does the media that screams the season is over. Neither do fans who buy everything Adam Gase and Mike Tannenbaum and Chris Grier do.

And neither do I.

We don’t know.

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/armando-salguero/article182005816.html


If this is what Gase is calling an overhaul then I need to rethink the way I overhaul my life. The only way I agree to this is if Miami goes after that RB from Penn State.

I don't trust this team to overhaul the OL. They seem perfectly happy with what they have. I expect them to keep Pouncey, Bushrod and James, and of course Tunsil isn't going anywhere. Maybe they add a new LG, but I wouldn't count on it.

Armando is projecting here. He's listing all the moves HE would make, but I guarantee the team won't make half of them, and will botch the other half as usual. Hell, they needed a TE in THIS year's draft and didn't bother. They BADLY needed O-linemen in THIS offseason and didn't bother. What makes anyone think they'll upgrade anything more than cosmetically?

I have to agree that there isn't going to be any type of overhaul that would make this team better. IMO, until the front office is shifted Miami will be the same and the lack of talent will continue

One other thing about this trade: we all know that this is a soft, finesse offense. Ajayi, by himself, added a toughness and power that just doesn't exist elsewhere. He made teams fear the running game, even in games when he was ineffective. That toughness and threat are gone now. I think that's an important intangible that people are overlooking.

supposedly Pouncey and the rest of the team have woken up to the system.....wait didn't that happen last year

I don't know, this trade I think is a serious signal that an overhaul is indeed coming.

I think all along the team decided the power running approach was temporary. Also, I read opponents have adjusted and worked to take away Ajayi favorite play, the outside zone runs. Maybe a reason his YPC dropped this season so drastically.

I have decided to support this regime until they totally fail. As of today, you can't judge that one way or the other IMO.

Okay they want to change the offense. Our offense has been trash for so long, I don't blame them. Who failed us when we needed 1 win to beat the Jets or Bills and earn a playoff berth? The offense. It seems to be we've never ascended to anything better than average for so long, it's high time it was totally revamped.

My point is, this regime will live and die on its record of success, or record of failure. At least let them live and die doing it their way.

Overhaul needed? Fine. I really don't care what the offense looks like or who is on it, as long as it's effective and scores points. I really don't see that happening this year, but hopefully we see it improve drastically over the second half of the season.

It seems like there's a major disconnect on this offense. As Ja'Wuan James said in something I read earlier today, Gase has changed the offense in a way that took away the stuff that worked. Last week, Landry said something like "Don't ask me, I don't call the plays."

In year two, we should be continuing to build upon the successes we started to see last season - not totally re-vamping and going back to the drawing board. This is a major fail by Gase, IMO, and puts us in a position where year three will once again be about starting over.

And the question remains: why did it take half a season for Gase to realize that he didn't want to use Ajayi? Ajayi got the lion's share of carries this season - to the point where Williams barely saw the field and Drake might as well have been inactive. 7 games in, the problem with the offense has all of a sudden been identified as Ajayi? Really??? I call bullshit on all of this. To me, it's all about a coach that is in way over his head and doesn't know what he wants. Lack of preparation, poor playcalling and a crap OL are the real issues, and none of these are being addressed at all.

All this talk about making a statement by cutting Ajayi, and the spin making him look like the worst player ever, is all just damage control to hide the fact that the head coach is lost.

JMP wrote:It seems like there's a major disconnect on this offense.  As Ja'Wuan James said in something I read earlier today, Gase has changed the offense in a way that took away the stuff that worked.  Last week, Landry said something like "Don't ask me, I don't call the plays."  

In year two, we should be continuing to build upon the successes we started to see last season - not totally re-vamping and going back to the drawing board.  This is a major fail by Gase, IMO, and puts us in a position where year three will once again be about starting over.

And the question remains: why did it take half a season for Gase to realize that he didn't want to use Ajayi?  Ajayi got the lion's share of carries this season - to the point where Williams barely saw the field and Drake might as well have been inactive.  7 games in, the problem with the offense has all of a sudden been identified as Ajayi?  Really???  I call bullshit on all of this.  To me, it's all about a coach that is in way over his head and doesn't know what he wants.  Lack of preparation, poor playcalling and a crap OL are the real issues, and none of these are being addressed at all.

All this talk about making a statement by cutting Ajayi, and the spin making him look like the worst player ever, is all just damage control to hide the fact that the head coach is lost.

JMP TELLIN' IT LIKE IT IS!!! PREACH AWN, BRUTHA!!! TESTIFY!!!

Just ask yourself:  does Belicheck badmouth Garrapolo when he's decided to trade him?  Does he bad mouth any player who is on the trading block?  

Does he try to maximize value for a player he no longer wants, or is he always minimizing it by calling around the league desperately trying to find a trading partner?

If the answer to all three questions is "no", well, then you see the difference between a winning organization and the Wannstedt/Saban/Cameron/Sparano/Philbin/Gase Dolphins.

Just as you don't ask a chimpanzee to overhaul your vehicle, you don't ask Tannenbaum to overhaul your football team.

Also, Ajayi was moved because Gase didn't like him. It had nothing to do with performance or any of that other shit. It was a Philbin move from a guy that can't handle professional athletes and their particularly harsh form of alpha male-ism.

Degarmo wrote:

Also, Ajayi was moved because Gase didn't like him.  It had nothing to do with performance or any of that other shit.  It was a Philbin move from a guy that can't handle professional athletes and their particularly harsh form of alpha male-ism.

Right, but if he wanted him gone so badly, why did he continue to give him all the carries? He's now going to try to talk up Williams and Drake, but those guys sat on the bench for 7 games. The whole thing just doesn't make sense.

JMP wrote:

Degarmo wrote:

Also, Ajayi was moved because Gase didn't like him.  It had nothing to do with performance or any of that other shit.  It was a Philbin move from a guy that can't handle professional athletes and their particularly harsh form of alpha male-ism.

Right, but if he wanted him gone so badly, why did he continue to give him all the carries?  He's now going to try to talk up Williams and Drake, but those guys sat on the bench for 7 games.  The whole thing just doesn't make sense.

Politics. He can't say that Ajayi was being an asshole so that why I traded him because the fan would have stopped going to the games. He has to make seem like that it was a good move for the team but we true fans know what really happened. To be honest I only will accept this move if Miami moves up to get the RB from Penn State or Chubbs from Georgia

rightchea wrote:[To be honest I only will accept this move if Miami moves up to get the RB from Penn State or Chubbs from Georgia

Barkley will probably be a top 5 pick, so I don't see that happening. And it seems like Gase wants a receiving back, so that rules out Chubb. I think it's more likely that the Phins will go for a RB later in the draft that can produce in the passing game, a guy like Myles Gaskin (Washington) or even Chubb's backup at Georgia - Sony Michel.

Rightchea pretty much nailed it. I'll just add one thing. Gase is a pussy like Philbin, and Ajayi was a "star" on the team, so the front office is going to like him. I bet it took a lot of whining and bitching to get them to move him, but I'm also willing to bet that now Gase has no more "favors" left. He's a dead man walking, and his only salvation is the "but my QB was injured" excuse, which should be no excuse, because they went out and got his hand picked turd in Cutler for $10 million. Not that $10 million isn't a great deal for a starting-caliber QB, but Cutler is not starting caliber anymore.