Was JJ's blueprint CC'd to Dolphins' new regime? -- South Flori...

Cam Cameron has Nick Saban's cadence, Don Shula's certitude and Dave Wannstedt's pleasant public persona.

[Sam]

I'm fine with that. I think JJ was on the right track and was a great coach. He just didn't meet his own self-imposed deadline and got saddled with trying to build a team around Dan Marino instead of just building the team, period. Dan was great, but it was time to rethink the entire team. We had some back breaks, and JJ left. I think if he stayed we would have been successful. I also think CC is smart, and on the right track. He's working toward a plan, and it's great to HAVE an actual plan again.

[Mike 17-0]

Maybe JJ without the ego?

[Juan Hernandez]

Jimmy was a defensive coach. He was great at coaching & evaluating talent on that side of the ball. In Dallas, he had great coaches like Norv Turner & Hudson Houck to augment him. This end result was a balanced staff that could coach & evaluate players on both sides of the ball. Together they built the Cowboy dynasty of the 90's

Jimmy never had a good offensive staff in Miami. He made a mistake by keeping Gary Stevens around & then compounded it by hiring Kippy Brown to replace him. He was never able to find an offensive cord. that he trusted enough to leave alone. That was the main reason he ultimately failed with the Dolphins.

Wannstedt hired good coordinators (Chan Gailey & Norv Turner) but could evaluate talent at all.

The great benefit Cameron has over Jimmy is Dom Capers. Capers provides a trusted, proven counterpart on the other side of the ball that enables Cameron to focus on what he knows best. If Jimmy had that, things might have been very different.

[GREAT ARTICLE]

I believe that if Dan the Man and JJ weren't so stubborn, the late 90's Dolphins could have gone deep in the play-offs.

[Jon]

good coordinators and chan gailey should never be in the same sentence, chan was a moron. ill give ya norv turner, i thought he was quite good, but chan, nope, he was trash

[Dan]

I honestly believe that JJ is one of the most overated coaches in the history of the game.(I do admit he was a great EVALUATER of talent, however.) The championships that he won with Dallas rightfully should be split with Minnesota, since they were the team stupid enough to trade a billion picks for Herschel Walker. All of the greats that came from that Dallas team were there as a result of that one trade.
Once Jimmy came to Miami, he did not have that stockpile of draft picks to work with. No running game, no defense, and an inheretid QB at the end of his carreer. No, all Jimmy did was leave us with Wanstead, for which Dolphin fans will be forever grateful.(Sarcasim.)
But CaMuller are doing things differently. I am hoping history proves Cam is twice the coach Jimmy ever was.

[dolfan12]

Miami Herald reports Schlesinger, Hakim, and P.K. Sam have all been cut. Mauia is now our starting fullback.

[dolfan12]

The Herald reports Schlesinger has been cut and Mauia will been the starter. Also cut is Hakim and P.K. Sam

[Broward Resident]

If you look really close at what Cam Cameron and Randy Mueller (call them Camueller) have done during the 2007 offseason, you'll see 1996 all over again. That isn't such a frightful sight, though those Dolphins had to rally to finish 8-8, and though Johnson's stint ended with a 62-7 defeat at Jacksonville in January 2000

So I guess they will suck again ......

[Dan]

Plus, he had Orinde " Give it to Gadsden" Gadsden and made him sit because he was late to a team meeting.

[West-Sider]

Dan wrote:

I honestly believe that JJ is one of the most overated coaches in the history of the game.(I do admit he was a great EVALUATER of talent, however.) The championships that he won with Dallas rightfully should be split with Minnesota, since they were the team stupid enough to trade a billion picks for Herschel Walker. All of the greats that came from that Dallas team were there as a result of that one trade.
Once Jimmy came to Miami, he did not have that stockpile of draft picks to work with. No running game, no defense, and an inheretid QB at the end of his carreer. No, all Jimmy did was leave us with Wanstead, for which Dolphin fans will be forever grateful.(Sarcasim.)
But CaMuller are doing things differently. I am hoping history proves Cam is twice the coach Jimmy ever was.

This was a very good read ... I believe you've 'nailed it.' I especially agree with the part of JJ being terribly overrated. In college he was a very good 'closer'(regarding recruiting) as a head coach.
At Dallas that Walker trade gets 'forgotten' quite a bit I believe.

I'm not even willing to say he was 'great' as an evaluator, because part of the evaluation process is determining the extent of a person's character flaws and how it would effect the rest of the team ... positively or negatively.

This guy goes out and gets Cecil Collins, Lawrence Phillips, and Dimitrius Underwood. Did any of them have a positive influence on the Dolphins?

So that's why I say I can't let him have a 'pass' as a talent evaluator. All 3 of those guys were known to be very good players before JJ got involved with them!

[BravPhin]

Broward Resident wrote:

If you look really close at what Cam Cameron and Randy Mueller (call them Camueller) have done during the 2007 offseason, you'll see 1996 all over again. That isn't such a frightful sight, though those Dolphins had to rally to finish 8-8, and though Johnson's stint ended with a 62-7 defeat at Jacksonville in January 2000
So I guess they will suck again ......

I myself would take an 8-8 record this year. It is an improvement over last year.

[BR sucks]

Broward Resident loves men.

[Dolfan from SF]

Juan Hernandez wrote:

Jimmy was a defensive coach. He was great at coaching & evaluating talent on that side of the ball. In Dallas, he had great coaches like Norv Turner & Hudson Houck to augment him. This end result was a balanced staff that could coach & evaluate players on both sides of the ball. Together they built the Cowboy dynasty of the 90's
Jimmy never had a good offensive staff in Miami. He made a mistake by keeping Gary Stevens around & then compounded it by hiring Kippy Brown to replace him. He was never able to find an offensive cord. that he trusted enough to leave alone. That was the main reason he ultimately failed with the Dolphins.
Wannstedt hired good coordinators (Chan Gailey & Norv Turner) but could evaluate talent at all.
The great benefit Cameron has over Jimmy is Dom Capers. Capers provides a trusted, proven counterpart on the other side of the ball that enables Cameron to focus on what he knows best. If Jimmy had that, things might have been very different.

Having the right assistant coaches as part of your staff makes a big difference. In recent years the only effective OC's that the team has had were Scott Linehan in 2005 & Cam Cameron who is the de facto OC for now. I liked the fact that JJ & CC were willing to replace older guys with younger ones. As good as Dan the Man was, he never had an effective OC to make him into an all around QB not just a great passer. In Marino's defense, he didn't have the RB talent to work with.

I give JJ credit for building the foundations for a strong defense. I hope that CC will give the team an overall offensive foundation to go with the defense. I also hope that CC is on target with Trent Green for now & John Beck for the future. I'm bullish around this last draft of ballplayers. My biggest concern for the team talentwise is around the OL and secondary.(It's not the same level of play that we once had with a pair of JJ picks like Madison & Surtain.) Shula got the most out of even lesser talent; he was not a GM talent scout. Shula was a source of stability; but thought he hung onto veterans longer than needed. JJ definitely did not know offense (except when he was able to get Troy & Emmit as a Cowboy coach.) One of my pet peeves over many years including the JJ & Wanny years involved the team starting off like gangbusters but finishing like dead fish. The 2006 team was a demoralized bunch after the coach quit before he officially announced his move to Bama.

My hope for CC & Mueller is that the team becomes a perennially stable organization that is a perennial contender (Not barely getting into the playoffs, then getting bounced early by 38-3, 62-7, 27-0, or 20-3 scores or fizzling out of playoff contention in 2002 & 2003).

[David Mckibben]

Johnson was always overrated, and we had to put up with his choices even after he left, with His Hand Picked replacement.

Stop trying to compare these guys and let Cam Cameron be his own man, and have his own game plan.

Now we just wait and see.

[JohnDB]

I'm So Fired up... Let's start out by destroying Washington like 35-10 or worse then just pound teams and make them play differently than they want too.Beat the F..... jets Twice they suck so does Buffalo and We can handle New England. The schedule always looks tougher before the season it's hard to say who will be tough at the end of the year but I think this team will be. Go Dolphins Kick Ass!!!!!!!!!!

[Eileen Eatmen]

I would put my legs up in the air for JJ anytime.

[NOT A COMPLAINER]

Sam wrote:

I'm fine with that. I think JJ was on the right track and was a great coach. He just didn't meet his own self-imposed deadline and got saddled with trying to build a team around Dan Marino instead of just building the team, period. Dan was great, but it was time to rethink the entire team. We had some back breaks, and JJ left. I think if he stayed we would have been successful. I also think CC is smart, and on the right track. He's working toward a plan, and it's great to HAVE an actual plan again.

I agree 100%!

[Juan Hernandez]

Dan wrote:

I honestly believe that JJ is one of the most overated coaches in the history of the game.(I do admit he was a great EVALUATER of talent, however.) The championships that he won with Dallas rightfully should be split with Minnesota, since they were the team stupid enough to trade a billion picks for Herschel Walker. All of the greats that came from that Dallas team were there as a result of that one trade.
Once Jimmy came to Miami, he did not have that stockpile of draft picks to work with. No running game, no defense, and an inheretid QB at the end of his carreer. No, all Jimmy did was leave us with Wanstead, for which Dolphin fans will be forever grateful.(Sarcasim.)
But CaMuller are doing things differently. I am hoping history proves Cam is twice the coach Jimmy ever was.

Having a bunch of draft picks & actually using them correctly to successfully build a team are two completely things. It's not as easy as you're making it out to be. You still have to make the right picks.

A year before the Herschel Walker trade, the Rams traded Eric Dickerson. They also stockpiled a bunch of draft picks but, unlike the Cowboys, they were unable to use them to build a great team. They took players like Bill Hawkins, Cleveland Gary, & Aaron Cox that had very little impact.

Jimmy also made additional moves that were very significant. Trading a #2 & #3 for Charles Haley was huge. Haley put that team over the top defensively. He also took Steve Walsh in the expansion draft & then traded him to the Saints for multiple first day picks.

There's a lot of people that don't like Johnson & he definitely came up short with the Dolphins, but that doesn't detract from the job he did with the Cowboys & the Hurricanes for that matter.

[NOT A COMPLAINER]

David Mckibben wrote:

Johnson was always overrated, and we had to put up with his choices even after he left, with His Hand Picked replacement.
Stop trying to compare these guys and let Cam Cameron be his own man, and have his own game plan.
Now we just wait and see.

JJ only brought us Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas, Pat Surtain, among others. Yes the Marino issue hampered us as did JJ's stubborness and loyalty to Wanny. But to say he did nothing for Miami is wrong..