I think I know what you were talking about. I remember reading reports that we were offering 8 million, but then they were shot down. Now, obviously we didn't by signing Garrard.

 

 

It was a guy from the Denver Post who reported that the dolphins were offering him around 8 million.

 

Signing Garrard does not mean they did not offer Smith a deal. Why would Smith accept the exact same deal from the Dolphins as the 49ers? He would use one team to drive the price up for the other team. If he get a 4 year deal from the 49ers, he will have done just that.

 

I think it pretty much does.

 

And I didn't say he would accept the same deal from Miami as San Fran. I said the 49ers offered 3 years, 24 million. They weren't going to budge. If we increased the offer, he would be a Dolphin. We didn't.

After giving this plenty of thought and doing a bit of research and number crunching, I've decided two things:

 

I, like every single person in the Dolphins fan base, has been giving Matt Moore an unbelievably unfair shake this offseason.

 

And, I'm prepared to say I was wrong about Matt Moore. He very well may have the upside of a high-end NFL quarterback.

 

 

What other QB should they have signed? Alex Smith to a 3 yr 24 mil deal? Getthefuggouttahere.

 

 

8 million a year for a starting QB is not a lot. Alex Smith would have at least been a starter.

 

David Gerrard doesn't do anything. All it does is indicate that Matt Moore will be the starter in the fall.

 

Alex Smith is a starter because 32 teams need a start, and he's probably only worse than like 17 QBs in the league. He's not anywhere close to great, though. Matt Moore has been unequivocally better than Alex Smith in his career.

 

Counting just games he has started, Matt Moore has an 86.0 passer rating in 25 games. With a 32-19 TD-INT ratio.

 

(He has an 0-7 ratio in games off the bench.)

 

In 2010, he had a concussion in the first game of the season and spent a night in the hospital. Then he started the next game because the NFL is f***ing disgusting and being a fan of it really is morally indefensible.

 

He played five more games that year, and was completely terrible. Probably fair to not really weight those games super heavily.

 

In 3 games in 07 as a starter, he had an 85.6 QBR.

In five games as a starter in 09 he has a 104.9 QBR.

In 2010 he had a 61.7 QBR in five starts after suffering a concussion.

In 2011 he had an 88.7 QBR in 12 starts.

 

19 starts outside of the 2010 season, Matt Moore has a 94.1 passer rating, 7.6 yards per pass attempt, 26 TDs, and 9 INTs.

 

I had never looked at him seriously. But when you see these numbers, Can anyone make an argument that starting Matt Moore is a bad idea?

 

I've criticized Matt Moore as recently as yesterday without ever having taken a serious look at who he is. That's my mistake, and it's my fault for being arrogant and assuming I knew.

 

I didn't. And, judging by the popular perception of him, nobody does.

 

Matt Moore has been borderline excellent in his career as a starter. It's unfair to him how Dolphins fans have treated him, myself included.

 

The timing is what makes it look bad. If they signed Gerrard later this summer, no one would have cared. PR wise, it looks bad to miss out on three QBs in the span of a week and then sign Gerrard.

 

Gerrard was also cut before opening day in 2011, so I wouldnt put too much stock in that 90 rating.

 

 

He was cut because he had a herniated disk in his back and the Jaguars wanted to save salary. He could have played through it, and a number of teams were interested in bringing him to start in until he decided to have surgery and get himself ready for 2012 instead of trying to jump on a team in 2011 at the last minute.

 

It just seems the Dolphins keep striking out. Last year the Dolphins tried to get Harbaugh as head coach while Sparano was still coach... we know how that ended up. Then this offseason there was chatter that they would go after Gruden and or Cowher. They end up with Joe Philbin.

 

Then they make it clear they want a QB. They strike out on Manning, Flynn and Alex Smith all in a span of a week. There was also a report that they tried trading with the Rams for RG3 right before the Redskins got him. They also traded their best player last Tuesday.

 

While I am not making any claims or predictions on how the 2012 Dolphins will turn out, the signing of Garrard makes them look foolish at the moment.

 

 

"There was chatter that they would go after Gruden or Cowher."

 

Holy crap, this is meaningless nonsense. It really is. You're trying to criticize them for that? Wow.

 

The Broncos have reportedly given Peyton Manning 5 years, $95 million with up to $55 million guaranteed. Not only could the Dolphins in no way fit that into their salary cap picture, but that's also an absolutely atrocious contract.

 

They didn't strike out on Manning and Flynn. Manning wanted more money than they were capable of offering, and I'd say there's a very good chance that if Philbin wanted Flynn, they would have gone harder after him. It says a lot about Flynn that the guy who has seen essentially every practice he has had in the pros didn't seem all that enthused about pushing for him.

 

If they look foolish for not giving Peyton Manning that contract and not giving Matt Flynn $8 million a year and not giving up three first rounders and a 2nd for the RGIII pick, I hope they continue to look like fools to outsiders. Because every single one of those non-moves has been the absolute right one from the perspective of the long term health of the franchise.

 

I hope the Dolphins continue to give not one single, god-damned flying f*** about how people perceive them, if the opposite means being reactionary and stupid and making poor personnel decisions. You don't make a move to look good. You make a move to be good. People criticizing them for not selling the farm for RGIII or giving Manning everything he wanted are criticizing them for not looking good, regardless of whether they are the right moves.

 

You make moves to look good if you want to try to save your job for the next 6 months. But it's not how you build a winning team.

 

Also, the Dolphins didn't trade their best player. Brandon Marshall is not the Dolphins' best player. Not by a long shot. He's really not in the discussion.

 

They got two third rounders for him two years after the Jets gave up a fifth rounder to get Santonio Holmes. What's wrong with the trade the Dolphins made? Especially coming, what, 24 hours after he reportedly struck a woman in a club? Yeah, but kill the Dolphins for that move.

Hey man, I've been saying that I'm totally cool with Matt Moore because at the worst he's an excellent stopgap QB and he still has potential to be a very good QB (he hasn't shown otherwise so far).

Agree on all points.

 

Also, I knew about Moore's numbers relative to his starts without concussions because on another board, a poster crunched the numbers and posted them. I think his numbers are impressive, especially considering the amount of deep passes he attempts. However, I still don't view him as a QB that has Franchise QB potential, so I hope Miami still drafts a QB in the first if they believe in that QB.

jeff ireland, you are the reason i am never happy.

— daniel tosh (@danieltosh) March 20, 2012

That's the nicest thing anyone's said about Jeff Ireland all day.

Do you guys like the decision to release Bell? Does he play FS? The Jets still need one, even after signing Landry.

I nothing the decision. I saw either Dave Hyde or Greg Cote was killing them for it, which is just ridiculous. They're so intellectually lazy, it's insane.

Do you guys like the decision to release Bell? Does he play FS? The Jets still need one, even after signing Landry.

 

 

I love it because it saved the Dolphins 4.3 million in cap space.

 

And no, he's a one dimensional Strong Safety who is good against the run, but does not play well against the pass. Why don't the Jets bring back Jim Leonhard? Imo, he's better than both Landry and Bell.

Do you guys like the decision to release Bell? Does he play FS? The Jets still need one, even after signing Landry.

 

 

He was getting up in age and overpaid. I've always liked him, but it was time.

I nothing the decision. I saw either Dave Hyde or Greg Cote was killing them for it, which is just ridiculous. They're so intellectually lazy, it's insane.

 

 

 

Hyde's tweet regarding the Garrard signing.

 

David Garrard signs with the Dolphins. I give up.

 

MOAR knee jerk reactions but from people covering the team instead of the fans.

Do you guys like the decision to release Bell? Does he play FS? The Jets still need one, even after signing Landry.

 

 

I love it because it saved the Dolphins 4.3 million in cap space.

 

And no, he's a one dimensional Strong Safety who is good against the run, but does not play well against the pass. Why don't the Jets bring back Jim Leonhard? Imo, he's better than both Landry and Bell.

They may bring back Leonhard. But he's missed the end of both of the last 2 seasons with injury, and it was really bad for the team both times. And he's getting up there in age. I would only think he returns if they sign/draft another viable option at the position, because practice squad safeties against the Pats = Epic Fail.

Of course, practice squad safeties FOR the Pats = Super Bowl appearance.

Of course, practice squad safeties FOR the Pats = Super Bowl appearance.

 

 

Because elite QBs are overvalued.

Of course, practice squad safeties FOR the Pats = Super Bowl appearance.

 

 

Because elite QBs are overvalued.

Just a thought, just a thought.

Yeah, but NFL history has shown an elite QB almost literally cures all that ails a franchise.

 

The Patriots have kind of struck out on every free agent acquisition they've made over the last few years, but they don't receive any criticism for it because they drafted an elite quarterback 12 years ago.

[Misguided] thought.

 

But then that also cuts against the idea that the Dolphins were right to pass up on Manning and Flynn. Maybe Manning wouldn't be around for more than 4-5 more years, but he has a real chance to be an elite QB for that substantial time period.

I'm fine with passing on Flynn for sure.

 

Manning passed on the Dolphins though... anyone with any logic would take Peyton Manning as their QB if needed and given the chance.

They didn't pass on him. And the idea that the Dolphins 'missed' on Manning after the details of his contract have been released is completely opposed to reality.

 

 

It would have been next to impossible for the Dolphins to fit Peyton Manning into their salary cap right now. They don't have the money he wanted.

 

It's pretty clear that the reason he ruled them out so early on was because of this.

I doubt it was because of money. The Dolphins could easily make room.

The Denver Broncos have 4x as much cap space as the Miami Dolphins. I think that mattered at least a little bit.

Well what I'm saying is that Manning didn't care about what he was making.

 

Maybe he cared about the fact that the Dolphins had zero room to build?

If you don't care about what you are making, you don't get a contract that pays you $18 million guaranteed this season with a clause that says if you simply pass a physical next year you get $40 million more guaranteed.

 

If he didn't care about what he was making and it was all about the situation and team he was going to, he'd have taken the vet's minimum from Denver and left them with with an extra ~$16 million to play with.

Oh you're being so literal.

 

I bet he would've taken $14 million if he had to. He was more concerned about a team that was going to give him a shot at winning a Super Bowl. Surprise, he was looking at San Fran and Denver. Two superb teams that went deep last season but absolutely lacked that QB identity. Make no mistake -- that was a match made in heaven.

I just don't see how you can see he would have taken less when he didn't. Maybe he would have, but he didn't have to sign for $18. He did. He also signed for $20 for each of the next two seasons.

 

He wanted to win, but he also didn't seem particularly interested in missing out on money.

 

(Also, the Dolphins were a better team than the Broncos last year by almost any measure outside of W/L, so I don't think they'd have naturally been a better talent fit.)