Where does Sparano Rank in the list of Miami Dolphins HCs?

[AZ Fins Fan 55]

Burn in Hell $aban........that is all!!!!! 

[BigDaddyFin]

Jimmy drafted well on defense.  Marino never had receivers even approaching what he had after the Marks Brothers left and aside from Karim Abdul-Jabbar, our running backs that he kept drafting weren't worth the paper I wipe my ass with.  Jimmy never won a division title and at the end he totally fucked Marino.   That's my thinking putting Sparano above those guys.

[Spider-Dan]

Dave,

Do you hold Saban responsible for passing on both Brees and Rodgers?

[DZA]

Jay Feely wasn't with the Dolphins during Wanny's tenure.

I rank Sparano between Saban and Wanny. That position puts him ahead of Saban, Cameron, Bates (not sure he should be included), and Wilson. I expect Wilson is getting left off many people's lists either because they are too young or he is getting cut slack for coaching an expansion team.

SORRY MY BAD I MEANT TO SAY  A.J.  FEELEY

[Brian Fein]

I agree with Dave here.  Saban left us all with a sour taste but was doing OK while here.  I rank it somewhere like this, with Shula #1 by far and JJ a distant #2:

3-Saban
4-Sparano
5-Wannstedt
6-Bates
832-Cameron

(I left Wilson out on purpose cause I don't know much about him)

[Frimp]

^^^

I'd put Cameron at a solid 825.

[BigDaddyFin]

I have to guess mine would look like this.

1.Shula
2.Wannstedt
3.Sparano
4.Jimmy Johnson
5.Nick Saban
6.George Wilson
7.Cam Cameron.

[Dave Gray]

Dave,

Do you hold Saban responsible for passing on both Brees and Rodgers?

Fair question.

And it's kind of a gray area answer.

Since he's the ultimate decision maker and we ultimately missed out on two of the best QBs in the league, sure...he has to take some responsibility for that.  However, what I think is this:

For Brees:
I don't blame Saban for passing on Brees.  I, myself, thought at the time, that Brees was a better long-term fit for the kind of team we were, than a guy like Culpepper.  However, it was a doctor's decision.  Brees didn't get the nod from whatever medical advisers Saban was listening to.  I can't really see any coach going with a guy that had shoulder problems when the doc said otherwise.

For Rodgers:
Again, I don't really blame him.  We picked at #2 and Rodgers slid to the mid 20s to a team that already had a superstar QB.  It seemed like the conventional wisdom at the time was that he was someone who needed to be groomed and we weren't the team with the time or resources to deal with it.  Brown was a perfectly adequate pick there, knowing what we knew.

But, sure, in both cases we'd have been better off having gone the other way.  I just don't really pin blame on a guy when something doesn't work, so long as there was intelligent decision-making for the process.  I'm not trying to paint Saban as some kind of draft guru or anything like that, but I don't think that he was reckless with the choices.

[Brian Fein]

Dave,

Do you hold Saban responsible for passing on both Brees and Rodgers?

Similar question for you -

Do you hold Wannstedt responsible for drafting Jamar Fletcher instead of Brees in 2001?

[Thundergod]

Gotta go with E.

Nothing more embarrassing than being a Dolphins fan than that year. Sparano sucked, but Cameron is on a level all his own.

[Dave Gray]

Similar question for you -

Do you hold Wannstedt responsible for drafting Jamar Fletcher instead of Brees in 2001?

Yes.  On both counts.  This was a double whammy and my most angry at any draft pick we've ever made.

This was for 2 reasons.  1) We desperately needed a franchise QB.  Brees was the smart pick there.  2) We already had TWO Pro Bowl corners.  The Fletcher pick made no sense.  You wasted a first round pick on a guy who was going to be your 3rd stringer, at best.

The fact that Brees panned out and Fletcher didn't doesn't help, but my thoughts were cemented when we made the pick, regardles of how either played fared.

[Spider-Dan]

Similar question for you -

Do you hold Wannstedt responsible for drafting Jamar Fletcher instead of Brees in 2001?

Why would you think that Brees would have lasted any longer in Miami than he did in San Diego?

Brees was a bust as a draft pick, pure and simple.  SD drafted a QB #1 to replace him and got nothing for him.  So no, I'm not happy with the Fletcher pick, but I also wouldn't have been happy with drafting Brees and watching him fail.  If I could redo that draft pick (and only that pick), I would have Miami take Reggie Wayne; Brees would have been ran out of Miami just as he was in SD.

Anyway, I can't believe that some of you guys are rating Saban over Wanny.  Saban did nothing.  He didn't infuse the team with talent and he didn't even make the playoffs.  In Saban's best year, the team was eliminated from the Wild Card in week 14 and eliminated from the division in week 15.  He was horrible.

JJ built the core of the team for a decade.  Wanny took that talent to a division title and a playoff win, as well as making a blockbuster trade that would have made Miami a SB contender if not for one Ray Lucas.  Saban had a failed trade for Culpepper, multiple draft busts, and the crown jewel of his drafts (Brown) didn't do anything of note until two regimes later.

[dolfan13]

as an nfl coach, saban was god awful...

wanny was a better coach, but he just wasn't a very good talent evaluator. had no business picking players.

[Dave Gray]

I think that Wanny was a terrible adjuster and Xs and Os coach.  He lost games for us with stubbornness and an unwillingness to adapt.

As for the Dolphins being on a bus to the Super Bowl in the Jay Fielder year -- not so fast -- we don't exactly have a reputation for finishing the season strong.  How many good starts did we have, only to crap it up in December?  The Dolphins have a history of getting figured out late in the year.

[Pappy13]

I'm not sure that I'd put Sparano above Saban as far as head coaching ability goes. He's definately ahead of him from the standpoint of not being a douche, but head coaching ability I think Saban has him.  I honestly believe Saban would have been a decent head coach for the Dolphins if he actually WANTED to be a coach in the NFL.  It was clear midway through his career with the Dolphins that was not the case.