Report: Dolphins owner was against drafting Fitzpatrick

Jesse Reed wrote:People who cover the NFL for a living almost universally agree that the Miami Dolphins landed a steal when they selected Alabama product Minkah Fitzpatrick at No. 11 overall. One person who wasn’t wild about it, however, reportedly was owner Stephen Ross.

“A well-placed league source tells us that the Dolphins had the pick of Alabama safety Minkah Fitzpatrick all ready to go at No. 11 when owner Stephen Ross stepped in and implored his team to trade back, both to acquire more picks and to save money on the first-rounder,” wrote Ben Volin of the Boston Globe. “Ross’s football people talked him out of it, and the Dolphins went ahead with the Fitzpatrick pick.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/report-dolphins-owner-was-against-drafting-fitzpatrick/ar-AAwQByS

I am surprised about everything that was said right here. Did Ross hear me about trading down but i not made the pick

I'm not surprised at all that Ross actually tried to stop the Fins from making their best first pick in years. Sums up his ownership perfectly. BTW where was he when his BFF Tannenbaum was trading away multiple picks? I don't recall ever finding out about Ross objecting to that. I also don't recall Ross ever objecting to shelling out huge contracts to Suh, Pouncey, Alonso, McDonald, etc. but all of a sudden now he wants to save money on rookie contracts which are significantly cheaper now than they were 10 years ago?

And of course it's the Pats hometown paper that breaks this. Just more salt in the wound.

i can see the money part but, i don't think trading back was a bad idea. This team had so many holes that the could have benefited either way. I like the Fitzpatrick pick but, I really thought that the Tannehill experiment is over and they should have went QB.

What money part? Isn't there a rookie cap now?

Degarmo wrote:What money part?  Isn't there a rookie cap now?

Not to mention more draft picks = more money, at least I would assume. Is the salary of the #11 pick really that much higher than, say, the #16 pick? How far did Ross want to trade down?

Imagine getting hired somewhere and then on your first day finding out the company CEO really didn't want you because he deemed your salary too expensive. Talk about a de-motivator I'm sure Fitzpatrick will really want to bust his ass for this team now

Sometimes that is motivation. Knowing that someone don't think you are great when you get drafted that high should make you want to try harder.

Ross should have absolutely no input on football decisions.  if he thinks he knows enough about football to be meddling into draft picks then he is even dumber than i thought.

The salary for the #11 pick in the draft is not going to make or break the Dolphins salary cap structure. If Ross wants to bark about spending money, he should target the absurd contracts given to TJ McDonald, Andre Branch and Kiko Alonso...not to mention the $12 million that was added with the Robert Quinn trade. But worrying about a rookie salary??? Pointless.

And yeah, these two quotes sum it up perfectly:

DolFan 316 wrote:
I'm not surprised at all that Ross actually tried to stop the Fins from making their best first pick in years. Sums up his ownership perfectly.

merc wrote:Ross should have absolutely no input on football decisions.

I really don't think that Ross should have anything to do with Football Operations. But again. This team has so many holes to fill that more draft picks could have had its benefits. I think this draft was solid in terms of the middle rounds but we screwed the pooch with Smythe. I don't see drafting a blocking TE in the 4th with so many others out there.

Umix10 wrote:This team has so many holes to fill that more draft picks could have had its benefits.  

Absolutely...BUT Tannenbaum and Gase think this team is close, and I don't think they see all the holes that we do. They probably believe there aren't many open roster spots and extra picks weren't needed. Crazy.

Well, I was definitely in favor of trading down before the draft, but hearing this, I now realize I was wrong.

In his defense, he thought he was Irish, and he hates the Irish being from Michigan and all.

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/armando-salguero/article210681804.html

Interesting read. As I suspected, money was never an issue. What I took away from this article was that Ross is simply not happy, and not impressed with the players we draft. Including this year.

My advice is this.

If he's really not happy with the draft picks, and that's the lifeblood of an NFL roster, then he needs to do something to fix it. That doesn't mean screaming about trading down, and wondering out loud if we made the right picks.

This regime is heading into year 3. If there is no direction, and no sign of success, then this is the time to make a decision on front office leadership.

Keep Gase if you want. Hell, give him a year under new management and let them make the call if he's worth retaining. But FIRE TANNENBAUM AND CHRIS GRIER. Hire a real football guy at VP, who will in turn hire a GM to run the scouting department and the draft.

white1 wrote:http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/armando-salguero/article210681804.html

Interesting read.  As I suspected, money was never an issue.  What I took away from this article was that Ross is simply not happy, and not impressed with the players we draft.  Including this year.

My advice is this.

If he's really not happy with the draft picks, and that's the lifeblood of an NFL roster, then he needs to do something to fix it.  That doesn't mean screaming about trading down, and wondering out loud if we made the right picks.

This regime is heading into year 3.  If there is no direction, and no sign of success, then this is the time to make a decision on front office leadership.

Keep Gase if you want.  Hell, give him a year under new management and let them make the call if he's worth retaining.  But FIRE TANNENBAUM AND CHRIS GRIER.  Hire a real football guy at VP, who will in turn hire a GM to run the scouting department and the draft.

Very interesting. I agree with most of what you say here, white, but here's my bottom line: if you dump Tannenbam and Grier, you MUST dump Gase too. Let's do it right this time. Hire a football guy to run the team, and let him pick his head coach. No more half-measures.

And this quote in the article, from Tannenbaum, could explain why Ross is not happy:

Tannenbaum wrote:“I think it’s still like a work in progress," Tannenbaum said. "I think Adam, Chris and I sat down with Steve after the season and talked about a lot of things. We feel like we’re heading in the right direction.

"We really like the group here as a whole; but as Chris already mentioned, I’m sure between now and opening day, there will be some other changes. There always are. That’s what our charge is. That’s really the fun part of the job now that this is over. Maybe the media spotlight isn’t as bright, but there will be opportunities to improve.

"We feel like we’re going in the right direction, but there’s still a lot of work to be done."

Ross has invested a ton of money in this team, and I guarantee that the last thing he wants to hear is that, in year 3 of this regime, "it's a work in progress" and "there's still a lot of work to be done". Ross has seen teams like the Rams and Jaguars make monumental strides in just one offseason...yet his team is three years in and still has nothing to show for it.

If the Phins have another disappointing season, I have a feeling that Ross will man up and fire everyone. You can tell, going back to the end of last season and now hearing this about his reaction to the draft, that he's pissed. And really, what's left to do if they suck again? They traded their best players for nothing, they added a new coaching staff hand-picked by Gase, and spent a bunch of money on veteran stopgaps. The time for excuses is over. Results matter.

One other point...as much as I like the Fitzpatrick and Gesicki picks, they were absolutely safe picks and required no effort or thought or creativity. An untrained monkey could have made those picks. From that perspective, I can understand why Ross might be underwhelmed with the job his staff did...especially considering that they didn't acquire more picks, they drafted a bunch of role players, and they ignored QB. The Baker and Smythe picks, especially, were highly questionable.

Degarmo wrote:In his defense, he thought he was Irish, and he hates the Irish being from Michigan and all.

Ross has seen teams like the Rams and Jaguars make monumental strides in just one offseason...yet his team is three years in and still has nothing to show for it.

Yeah, exactly. Good post JMP.

You hit on this later in your reply, it's shocking this offseason how much talent we dumped, for next to nothing in return.

Landry, Pouncey, Suh... you could argue their leadership was lacking, personality was "off", lack of discipline... whatever. But ALL OF THEM have been elite performers, with Pouncey the only one you can see real risk of injury and declining play. In return, we patched holes with lesser players and role players.

This kind of approach does not generally lend itself to immediate improvement. Treading water is more likely.

If Ross is out of patience, then after this season he must act. His fan base has suffered far more than he has himself. Hell, it's been a longer wait for us.

Hold the phone? I like the Fitz pick and think his leadership skills MIGHT be a big boon to the defense, but are we saying the Phins had a CHANCE to trade down for extra picks and INSTEAD DECIDED to stick and take Fitz???

I wonder what the trade was?

white1 wrote:

Ross has seen teams like the Rams and Jaguars make monumental strides in just one offseason...yet his team is three years in and still has nothing to show for it.

Yeah, exactly.  Good post JMP.

You hit on this later in your reply, it's shocking this offseason how much talent we dumped, for next to nothing in return.

Landry, Pouncey, Suh... you could argue their leadership was lacking, personality was "off", lack of discipline... whatever.  But ALL OF THEM have been elite performers, with Pouncey the only one you can see real risk of injury and declining play.  In return, we patched holes with lesser players and role players.  

This kind of approach does not generally lend itself to immediate improvement.  Treading water is more likely.

If Ross is out of patience, then after this season he must act.  His fan base has suffered far more than he has himself.  Hell, it's been a longer wait for us.

Great post, and brings up an interesting point about the fanbase: who are the fans paying to see? As bad as we've been, we had a few stars - or at least near-stars - like Landry, Suh, Ajayi...players that people want to see and want to root for. Now, those guys are gone. We're left with a total non-star QB and an on-his-last-legs Wake. Maybe Drake emerges, maybe Fitzpatrick or Gesicki...but even with that, this is a team that lacks starpower and isn't very interesting to the casual fan.

Of course, winning cures everything. For me, in year 3, making the playoffs and getting blown out in round 1 is not enough. At the bare minimum, the Phins must win at least one playoff game to show that thngs are truly headed in the right direction and we should stay the course. Unfortunately, to me this looks like a maximum 8-win team, and that's if the stars align perfectly. And that's just not good enough. A playoff win, or GTFO. That's my bottom line heading into this season.

Actually, this schedule shakes out to have the possibility of 10 wins, or so. And I am one to never pick wins and losses before the season begins. There are many winable games against not so great teams.

Now, do I feel we will win 10 games? Hell no.

Most likely, another up and down, inconsistent 7 to 9 win season, at best.

If things unwind early in the year, it could be as bad as 5 and 11.

So, I see this as the final year of this regime,

The big question is, will ross blow the whole thing up, or do another patch job, leaving gase or greer to fit in with the new regime?

scotgif wrote:Actually, this schedule shakes out to have the possibility of 10 wins, or so. And I am one to never pick wins and losses before the season begins. There are many winable games against not so great teams.

Now, do I feel we will win 10 games? Hell no.

Most likely, another up and down, inconsistent 7 to 9 win season, at best.

If things unwind early in the year, it could be as bad as 5 and 11.

So, I see this as the final year of this regime,

The big question is, will ross blow the whole thing up, or do another patch job, leaving gase or greer to fit in with the new regime?

The thing is, scot, when other teams look at their schedule, they circle the Phins as one of their winnable games!

I don't see any way the Phins win 10 games, especially with the way the second half of the season is set up.  Hope I'm wrong, but when I look at the schedule 8 seems like the max.  To be honest, I see mostly games that the Phins should lose IMO.

Keep in mind, we won't have Matt Moore around to win 2 meaningless games late in the season to make the record seem better than it really is.

scotgif wrote:Keep in mind, we won't have Matt Moore around to win 2 meaningless games late in the season to make the record seem better than it really is.

LOL Exactly!

This article is on topic, and points to the reasons Ross SHOULD feel unsatisfied with the progress made to date.

By most outside accounts, we're in the bottom-4 teams of the AFC.

Not the direction he was hoping for...

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/nfl/miami-dolphins/article210688634.html

white1 wrote:This article is on topic, and points to the reasons Ross SHOULD feel unsatisfied with the progress made to date.

By most outside accounts, we're in the bottom-4 teams of the AFC.

Not the direction he was hoping for...

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/nfl/miami-dolphins/article210688634.html

Sad to see how low this franchise has sunk over the years.

I can't blame anyone for thinking the Phins will tank. This roster, despite all the changes, is still not good. And, to the non-Dolphin fan, there's no Pro Bowlers, no stars, and very few recognizable names. Add in a head coach that has a great reputation despite never actually doing anything, and a 30-year old QB coming off knee surgery who has never won more than 8 games in a season, and there's very little to get excited about. Yes, the Dolphins can be one of those "surprise teams" we see every year, but realistically that is not very likely.

Thing is, the "win now" pressure is NOT a good thing.  Really, not ever.

It stops long-term thinking, which is what the steady, consistent winners do.  Think New England, Pittsburgh, Green Bay.  They constantly draft QB's to develop: Pittsburgh took Rudolph one year after drafting Dobbs and just 4 years after Landry Jones.  They have a future Hall of Famer starting but they never stop looking for the next one, and they never stop thinking years ahead.  Same with New England and Green Bay, they consistently scoop up and develop long-term values.

The Pats let Amendola go, and we pay him $6 million while they draft the next Amendola in Braxton Barrios (from the 'Canes, to boot).  They let Welker go at age 33 after developing Edelman (who they spent a 7th rounder on) to replace him.  They never stop looking years down the road---well, unless the owner interferes, like Kraft did last year when he demanded that Belicheck trade Garrapolo.  (A move that I think might end up biting them on the ass, btw)

Miami is constantly plugging holes in "win now" mode.  The problem is not with the scouts, IMO--it's at the top, and has been for a long time. (Remember, we had scouts pounding the table for guys like Drew Brees, Anquan Boldin and Jordy Nelson over the years.) Shula stopped thinking long-term in his last two years with Jimmah out of work and angling for his job.  Jimmah stopped thinking long-term about two years in, knowing he wasn't hanging around much longer.  We stopped being a consistent winner because we stopped looking at the long-term.

If Ross is frustrated, he has no one to blame but himself.  He's the one who kept Sparano a year too long, kept Philbin two years too long, kept taking half-measures in the front office.  Dude needs to chill.  The first two picks this year were excellent.  If they'd have started scooping up values (i.e. Hurst, Rudolph) looking at the big picture after that, I'd have called this a great draft.  As it is, I hope I'm wrong about it.  

I don't see this team completely tanking, but I don't see a break out of mediocrity either.  Then what?  Another half-measure?  Probably.