Just making the playoffs regularly again would be a step up from the last 30 years of Dolphins football.
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NFL 2025-2026
- Thread starter mrpackerguy
- Start date
Just making the playoffs may sound appealing, but unless you're going to win in the playoffs you'll end up stuck in a pattern of mediocrity since you don't end up with a draft pick decent enough to make a difference.
Then it brings up the age old debate among sports fans. Is it better to go and get blown out, or not go at all?
Having lived through the latter for the last 10 years, I vote to not go.
-Mike
Then it brings up the age old debate among sports fans. Is it better to go and get blown out, or not go at all?
Having lived through the latter for the last 10 years, I vote to not go.
-Mike
You make a good point here. Since the NFL encourages parity it seems to me that most teams have a need to "bottom out" for a few years in order to have both the draft booty and the cap room to rebuild aging and costly rosters with younger cheaper talent and fill some gaps in free agency.
Of course some teams managed to stay on top by trading away costlier vet talent for the draft picks they needed to rebuild with but to make that work they still need a top grade QB and enough talent around him to keep winning while they rebuild on the fly. The Pats managed that quite well with Brady/Belichick.
But I'd still favor having a competitive team every year. The only road to a championship is via the playoffs and if you're never getting there at all you have zero chance of ever winning one. Lesser ranked Wild Card teams have won Super Bowls before and they will win them again.
Yes sir, you have to get there to have a chance.
It does seem the QB is more critical than in days gone by when you could line up Jim McMahon or Trent Dilfer behind center and snag a ring.
Circling back to Pittsburgh, they haven't developed a QB in 20 years and are no closer to a replacement for Ben since the day he retired. Although I do think with the right head coach, Will Howard can turn into something special.
-Mike
It does seem the QB is more critical than in days gone by when you could line up Jim McMahon or Trent Dilfer behind center and snag a ring.
Circling back to Pittsburgh, they haven't developed a QB in 20 years and are no closer to a replacement for Ben since the day he retired. Although I do think with the right head coach, Will Howard can turn into something special.
-Mike
There is a hierarchy of needs for a fan. The lowest level is to have a winning record most years. Some teams never get there but if they do, the next level is regular playoff participation. After that is winning at least a wild card round game, then making a Superbowl run. The Steelers have been stuck at the 2nd level for over a decade and not making the 3rd level. Other fans may look at that with envy, but at our level of needs, it's been frustration, especially for those of us who lived through the glory years of the 70's.
If the new regime blows this team up, we may be resetting our needs at level one for a bit. Steelers may never see a dominating Steeler dynasty again, but we can hope.
As a life long Bears fan I concur with the need to always have a top shelf QB AND a competent #2 if you expect to compete throughout a 17 game season. Fewer and fewer teams make it through a season without their #1 QB missing one or more games. You need a good #2 who can at least beat teams he should beat.
It would appear that in Caleb Williams the Bears have finally solved a problem they've had since the 1940s and Sid Luckman in his prime. Mac was a much better big play QB than many give him credit for but he couldn't stay healthy long enough for the '80s Bears to win more than one championship.
But it also took a clever trade and a whole lot of luck for the Bears to have landed him. It took having the worst record and the #1 overall pick which they traded to Carolina so they could draft Bryce Young then getting fortunate enough to have the first round pick they got from Carolina turn into the #1 overall pick the following year. If none of that happens whose playing QB for Chicago now? No Caleb, no playoffs.
But the Dolphins have been bad enough for many years to get good draft picks. And still suck. So I would take a playoff game, maybe two every year. Mediocrity would be better than cellar dwelling.
Hopefully since they fired pretty much the front office and HC the new management can actually turn things around. But. We've been here numerous times already.
From that perspective it does sound appealing I suppose. @gln1955 made a valid point earlier about the levels of fan expectation. Maybe 25 years of cellar dwelling and poor drafting awaits the Steelers and their fans. Tomlin is gone to kick around, so it's all on Rooney now.
My opinion, if they are smart they'll get an offensive guru and build around Will Howard. Ryan Day is much older than they like to pick, but I'd hand him a blank check. Then Day could get really sneaky and bring JT Barrett over as his OC. He's already got Patricia as his DC, solid pick there.
That's it. I'm calling Art in the morning with my plan.
-Mike
My opinion, if they are smart they'll get an offensive guru and build around Will Howard. Ryan Day is much older than they like to pick, but I'd hand him a blank check. Then Day could get really sneaky and bring JT Barrett over as his OC. He's already got Patricia as his DC, solid pick there.
That's it. I'm calling Art in the morning with my plan.
-Mike
The problem I see for the NFL QB position is that Mahomes sort of set the mould. However, that mould comes with a price. Not everyone can be Ben Roethlisberger and shrug off hits. The 6'2" and under 220lbs and under mobile QBs have short NFL lifespans. Josh Allen takes the hit's better than most, because he's a monster. The Bears really need to make sure that O-line is sound or they will have 3 or 4 years at most of Celeb being in prime form. The Chargers are seeing their QB slowly get chopped down and they have an excellent o-line, when healthy.
This doesn't bode well for Ward, obviously.
This doesn't bode well for Ward, obviously.
There is a lot of talk about how Rooney wouldn't go with a college coach over someone with NFL experience. IMO, the gap between coaching college and NFL has greatly narrowed since the last Steelers coach was hired. Coaches at the powerhouse schools are essentially running pro teams.
Totally agree buddy. Especially with Day, he's sending a handful of guys to the NFL every season and they're usually legit NFL players. Some aren't, but he is running a nearly pro program there.
-Mike
-Mike
Whoa, I didn't see that coming. I figured he wanted to go somewhere and keep winning.Harbaugh to the Giants seems a done deal.
Promising QB and RB (if the knucklehead can stay healthy) and some very nice Defensive bits ( I love me some sexy Dexy ).
Interesting.
-Mike
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
The Browns will screw it up. That's a given.Stab in the dark time
Mike McD to the Chargers as the O.C.
Mike Tomlin to the Dolphins.
Harbaugh is tough, He will bring his entire coaching staff, more than likely but his age, 66 gives me the idea a team in win now mode is the more likely destination. The talent on the Browns is astounding aside from the QB, which can be improved ( certainly not fixed ) in the off season. I'm leaning that way.
Steelers will bring in a young coach from the college ranks, they have a history of going young ( Tomlin was the youngest NFL when he was brought on. I like Notre Dame coach Freeman, personally as a fit )
The Titans will hire a mouth breather. It's what the do now. However Daboll wouldn't make me mad.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
The Seahawks seem to have figured something out. Even when they are theoretically in a rebuilding year, they do OK. Not always great, but OK. Then they have years like this one. Now that I have completely jinxed them, fans of all the other teams in the playoffs can thank me for doing that.There is a hierarchy of needs for a fan. The lowest level is to have a winning record most years. Some teams never get there but if they do, the next level is regular playoff participation. After that is winning at least a wild card round game, then making a Superbowl run. The Steelers have been stuck at the 2nd level for over a decade and not making the 3rd level. Other fans may look at that with envy, but at our level of needs, it's been frustration, especially for those of us who lived through the glory years of the 70's.
If the new regime blows this team up, we may be resetting our needs at level one for a bit. Steelers may never see a dominating Steeler dynasty again, but we can hope.
The GM is more important too. Between free agency and the salary cap, every team has to do at least a mini rebuild every year. Even the draft has become more complicated, with compensatory draft picks, plus more (and more sophisticated) wheeling and dealing than ever.
If you want to be a perennial contender these days, the right GM, coach, and QB are the bare minimum to start building a team.
I'm sure there are more than a few coaches that are hoping for the Dolphins, the Ravens, the Steelers .... and then if the sky is falling and the planet ending meteor is inbound, maybe, POSSIBLY, they might take a call from the Browns or the Titans.
But they might not.
From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette....
"The Steelers have told all of Mike Tomlin’s assistant coaches they are free to pursue other opportunities and won’t be retained unless the new head coach wants to rehire them."
I dunno, I think Rooney is nicely telling them they're fired.
-Mike
"The Steelers have told all of Mike Tomlin’s assistant coaches they are free to pursue other opportunities and won’t be retained unless the new head coach wants to rehire them."
I dunno, I think Rooney is nicely telling them they're fired.
-Mike
I happen to be in Cleveland right now. The weather reminds me why I'm glad I left the south shore of Lake Erie many years ago. Even if the Browns organization wasn't totally incompetent, this isn't a pleasant place to live.
