Dolphins cut Feely; Carpenter set for starting spot

[Sunstroke]

Seems like Parcells doesn't want anyone in his organization that isn't either his friend or his signee or his draft pick.

I certainly can see where you're coming from, but to me it just seems like Parcells wants as many "young and talented" players as he can get his meathooks on. For a ground zero type rebuilding job, I think that is a good approach to take.

[TonyB0D]

unfortunately complete total reconstructive surgery isn't pain-free....

[Brian Fein]

I'm all for good young players, but I'd take talented skilled players who are slightly older over young shots in the dark.

[Guru-In-Vegas]

I'm all for good young players, but I'd take talented skilled players who are slightly older over young shots in the dark.

I agree.  They're freaking kickers.  They can kick until their 80's.  What we need is accuracy under pressure to deliver those 3 point wins.  We all know how many of those are going to be happening the next couple of years.

[Dolphin-UK]

I see this as a pretty binary situation.  We're either a playoff team or we aren't.  With Feely we aren't, without Feely we aren't, ergo, bring in the cheaper rookie, give him some experience playing under pressure and in 2 years time when we can start thinking about playoffs again, he'll be that experienced kicker under pressure (hopefully!)  It seems he's got the leg and the accuracy at the moment.

I suspect my view differs a little here, because IMHO if we're not going to make the playoffs (which we shouldn't!) we ideally want to finish 3rd or 4th worst in the league to get the high draft picks (on the basis we could do without another number 1 pick to cripple our cap but still want a shot at the top talent).

[Rick]

I'm all for good young players, but I'd take talented skilled players who are slightly older over young shots in the dark.

  Brian, I read in one of the articles(somewhere) that because of Jay Feely's kickoffs, Miami lost 80 yards of field position in JUST ONE of the games last year.....Feely is really bad on kickoffs, which puts the defense in a tough position to start a drive....we do need a kicker who can make field goals, but he also has to be able to kick the ball deep or directionally on kickoffs....Dan Carpenter has been doing that very well so far, actually better then Feely!!!

[DZA]

HMMMM I knew this was going to happen.  Feely was not bad. Sources say he was old by Camoron to pooch kicks.

This was a bad move for now.  Dan C. did look good in his debut but it preseason. Who knows waht the reg season hold for the rookie.

[YoFuggedaboutit]

This is a gamble.  While the Dolphins will save money on the salary cap, we don't know what Carpenter is capable of. 

Although the theory of getting younger is spreading quickly all over this team. 

[DolFan619]

  Great move by the new regime....Dan Carpenter has clearly outperformed Jay Feely for the kicker position on this team....like Ethurst said, a kicker should be seen, not heard....Feely liked to be heard way to much for Bill Parcells/Ireland/CoachSparano's taste....its not like Feely had to make ANY game winning kicks last season as Miami only won 1 game!!

 As for Carpenter bombing...it's possible....its also possible he is the next A. Vinatieri

  Apparently, Carpenter didn't just beat out Feely.  Carpenter took him to school.  Check out this little tidbit from Coach Sparano's Press Conference.

"The decision was based purely on numbers and performance, and (Dan) Carpenter has outperformed him right now. That's the bottom line. We charted a ton of categories with the kickers and Carpenter has outperformed him. The kicking situation is different than a quarterback situation or any other position to be honest with you. What I mean by that is you get very few "at bats". Sometimes, you have to be real careful. We needed to make this decision now to make sure that we certainly get Carpenter the amount of work that he needs. Carpenter's had 40 kicks and he's made 23 in a row. Up until today, when he missed one kick today, he made 23 kicks in a row.

So when you talk about competition, you see a guy do that when he's competing and that's what we did out here. Up until today, prior to today's practice, he made 93% of his kicks, 40 kicks. Of 40 kicks, he made 93%. The numbers weren't close and in the categories that we go through, that's the way it was. It was based on performance and we needed to make a decision on this so that he gets enough work. We had two kicks in the game the other night, and by the grace of God, we had two kicks. (Chad) Henne had to put the ball down, make a smart decision to get us into field goal range or else you only have one kick. You don't get a lot of at bats sometimes and I think with the kickers, when you can, if you can make that decision and feel good about the decision, you have to make it."

[Philly Fin Fan]

^^ So they went with a guy who has made 93% of the kicks in training camp, versus an experienced kicker who made 91.3% of his field goal attempts in the NFL. 

OK Bill, you're the boss. If you say so.....

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

^^ So they went with a guy who has made 93% of the kicks in training camp, versus an experienced kicker who made 91.3% of his field goal attempts in the NFL. 

OK Bill, you're the boss. If you say so.....

Doesn't have the distances.  If most of the 93% were of the longer variety (which is suspect occurs in camp) than your comparison becomes meaningless. 

[DolFan619]

http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports_seasonticket/2008/08/fins-the-feely.html

Fins: The Feely cut

If this is about getting younger and getting better hang time on kickoffs, that's understandable. That's a football decision. Jeff Ireland is a former kicker, so he knows what he wants at the position (and Nick Folk was a great find in Dallas).

If Jay Feely's openness with the media, and pursuit of his own media opportunities, had anything to do with his release -- well, that's ridiculous.

But it certainly wouldn't be surprising if the latter contributed; and it wouldn't surprise Feely. Bill Parcells, after all, is one of the godfathers of this trend of paranoia around the NFL. Bill Belichick is a crooked branch on his tree.

Never mind that many organizations with less restrictive policies have still had great success.

Yes, Feely co-hosted a WQAM radio show for a while. Yes, he used to appear regularly on First Take (which made him an ESPN colleague of Parcells). Yes, he spoke to any reporter who asked him a question (and too many solicited his opinion on too many subjects, considering that he's a kicker). But, other than a comment about Ricky Williams that was misinterpreted, I can't recall him saying anything that compromised his teammates or the organization. He never acted unprofessionally. And, last season, he was the most efficient player on the team.

But this is an organization that, on its press release, listed the draft picks it received for Jason Taylor as "undisclosed," even when they were widely known elsewhere. It is an organization that (according to three players I've talked to) has warned guys not to talk too much to the media, or else risk getting cut.

Professional football is a great game. This league is no longer a great one to cover, however, because of paranoid organizations -- and the paranoia that started here in 2005 has only gotten worse.

The only thing an organization should worry about is winning games.

So, hopefully, this was a purely football decision.

It will be judged by whether Dan Carpenter helps, or hurts, on the field.

> Posted by Ethan J. Skolnick at 9:20:26 AM

[DolFan619]

http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports_seasonticket/2008/08/fins-who-is-dan.html

Fins: Who is Dan Carpenter?

Dan Carpenter grew up throwing the javelin and playing soccer.

He kicked at Montana, which has produced a handful of NFL players, including offensive lineman Scott Gragg, safety Tuff Harris and offensive lineman Cory Procter. Procter played for Tony Sparano in Dallas. And, of course, Lex Hilliard is a Dolphins running back draftee.

In 2006, he filled in as a punter after the regular punter was injured. That year, he executed two fake punts in the same game, running 45 yards on one play in the final minute. In that same game, he drew two roughing the kicker calls.

Tony Sparano said today that Carpenter had made 37 of his 40 kicks in practice.

In college, he made 75-of-103.

Feely made 20-of-26 at Michigan.

Don't make too much of the college numbers, particularly the 28 misses.

Adam Vinatieri made only 27-of-53 field goal attempts while at South Dakota State.

Robbie Gould made 39-of-61 while at Penn State.

Jason Elam made 79-of-100 for Hawaii.

Nick Folk made 30-of-47 for Arizona.

Olindo Mare made 15-of-24 for Syracuse.

Stephen Gostkowski made 70-of-92 for Memphis.

So Carpenter compares favorably.

Again, if the Dolphins believe that Carpenter gives them a better chance to win long-term, you can't take issue with that. If peripheral issues played a part, then it's a highly questionable move.

> Posted by Ethan J. Skolnick at 2:43:35 PM

[DolFan619]

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/football/story/639330.html

Cutting Feely business, not personal

BY GREG COTE
Miami Herald

The Dolphins cut placekicker Jay Feely on Tuesday like a guillotine cuts off a head, and for any who still doubted it, this should have proved it for sure:

There is nothing touchy-feely about the people now running the Dolphins.

A pragmatic ruthlessness permeates the way football boss Bill Parcells and coach Tony Sparano operate, and it is about time. It is about a decade overdue.

Healthy fear runs through the team like electricity, chasing away the last remnants of leftover complacency, of softness. Any player feeling any sense of entitlement has met an enemy he cannot beat in a demanding new regime that brings precisely the massive teardown and buildup -- the slap in the face -- a 1-15 team required.

Don Shula was the granite-jawed autocrat down here, the antithesis of a ''player's coach.'' He had that one chair in his office, where players called in for discipline had to sit. There hasn't been a more feared seat this side of Old Sparky.

Jimmy Johnson came next, every bit as much a ruling monarch. JJ's iron fist was legend. All you had to do was tell the story of the rookie Cowboys lineman who fell asleep in a meeting and was awakened and cut on the spot in front of the entire team.

Shula and Johnson left with the 1990s, and if you want to know why it has been a downward spiral for this franchise since the start of this decade, just look at the coaches who have followed in their place.

Players made fun of nice-guy Dave Wannstedt behind his back, with his dime-store psychology, the lobster traps hanging from ceiling the week of a ''trap'' game.

Nick Saban came in with his Napoleon complex, seeming tough but learning what worked with the college kids didn't translate in the pros.

Cam Cameron arrived next and was the one-year nightmare, losing the locker room and utterly disrespected, as when Joey Porter defied a specific order to return directly after a game at Pittsburgh and an emasculated Cameron did nothing about it.

NEW CULTURE

Miami hasn't had a man with the vision or spine to be an NFL coach since Shula and Johnson, but seems to have that leadership again in the tandem of the no-nonsense Parcells and his coach/consiglierie in the blunt-spoken Sparano.

The coach has talked of changing the ''culture'' here. That starts with the players knowing who is boss. Knowing that someone is.

So the new regime lopped Feely off the roster and the man just cut was bleeding in the media Tuesday about how he had been treated unfairly because of a perceived personality conflict with Parcells.

That idea that Parcells would place ego above team in eradicating a player not perceived as a ''Parcells guy'' might be easier to swallow if the Tuna's golden child this training camp and preseason wasn't a former pot-smoking and often-suspended Ricky Williams -- who has taken advantage of the clean slate given.

Feely's conspiracy theory is nonsense, and Sparano pretty much said so, noting rookie Dan Carpenter had outperformed Feely toe-to-toe in direct competition.

''The numbers weren't close,'' Sparano said Tuesday afternoon.

The new coach has shown a knack for candor, and it feels like fresh air. As when Sparano was asked this week what his wide receivers need to improve upon and, unsmiling, he said, ``Catching the ball.''

Feely made 21 of 23 field-goal attempts last year to set a Dolphins record for accuracy, but that only proves what you have done in the past counts for zero with the new regime.

Nobody on the team should be more worried than the well-paid veteran who is coasting on his résumé' or always in the trainer's room -- the man who feels above being cut. (Are you listening, receiver Ernest Wilford?)

Placekickers are famously interchangeable parts, as we will see again if Carpenter falters and a new leg is hauled out of the crowded waiting room called free agency.

EVERYONE IS FAIR GAME

For now, there is ruthless logic at work in this transaction. Feely is 32. The man replacing him is 22, makes a fraction of the salary, kicks deeper kickoffs, has been more accurate this camp, hasn't been injured and is hungrier.

The larger point is that nobody is safe in this systematic overhaul.

From beloved veterans Zach Thomas and Jason Taylor to that no-name lineman they cut a day after he missed a practice with blisters, no player gets a free pass as Team Tuna takes a machete to the status quo and builds a new team.

Quarterback Chad Pennington, 32, is the latest big piece brought to a puzzle gradually filling in, a welcome indication that the new bosses believe you try to be as good as you can now while simultaneously building for the future.

Signing Pennington was a nationally broadcast statement that veteran Josh McCown and second-year man John Beck are not good enough, and that rookie Chad Henne isn't ready to be good enough.

Egos surely bruised. So be it. This is a team under heavy construction. Men at work and hard hats required. This is a no-coddling zone.

''We're kind of out of the [not] hurting people's feelings business right now,'' as Sparano put it.

``We're getting into the real deal here.''

The new regime has three exhibition games and about eight practices left to whip this team into respectability.

After six consecutive years out of the playoffs and eight consecutive years of coaches too soft to earn respect, that whip sounds more and more like just what the Dolphins have needed.

[Frimp]

Shit