burmafrd;1352746 said:
No arguement that Brady was a major factor; that as well as having a good base that BP left there, and a good staff too. BUT that begs the question of WHY Jimmy failed at Miami in his second stint.
All just said it. There was no Franchise QB in place in Miami.
There was also no running game, no offensive line and no defensive line. Jimmy's offense consisted of a balanced attack. Miami was set up to throw the ball 70% of the time.
Jimmy also didn't have control where Marino was concerned. Dan was past his prime and injury prone at that point in his career IMO. In 1996, Marino only passed for 2795 yards. That's not a lot. He played in 13 games but was always nicked up. There running game consisted of Jabar, Spikes and Parmalee. They really only had Richmond Webb and Everett McIver on the OL.
Defensively, they had Trace Armstrong, who was a good DE, but nobody else on the DL. Tim Bowens was solid but not spectacular. Steve Emtman was injury prone, Daryle Gardner was a rookie, Aaron Jones was nobody, Daniel Stubbs was past his best days and Norman Hand, while a good player, was injured in 96. At LB they litterally had nothing except Zach Thomas. He was a rookie in 96. DBs they had Robert Bailey who was just OK, JB Brown (Same as Bailey), Terrell Buckley (who in those days was getting beat like a drum), Sean Hill (another nobody), Calvin Jackson (See Sean Hill), Tim Jacobs (See Calvin Jackson), Jerry Wilson, who was really a safety playing CB and that's it at Corner. They had Gene Atkins who was good at Safety, they had Louis Oliver who was also a good Safety and they had Shawn Wooden who was a rookie.
A future HOF QB who didn't want to run the offense in place, no running game to speak of and no personel on the defensive side of the ball.
Even so, Miami went 8-8 that year. Over the course of the next few years, Jimmy collected talent but he still had the issues of Marino. He also never had cap. In 97 Jimmy added Sam Maddison at CB, Brett Perriman through FA, Derrick Rodgers at LB, Jason Taylor at DE, George Teague thru FA and started developing the other young players on the team. That year Miami made the playoffs and went 9-7. The next year 98, Miami got John Avery to help the running game, Orlando Gadsden, Robert Jones to help the LBs, Broke Marion to help the secondary, drafted Sertain at CB and the team again improved. They went 10-6 and made the playoffs. In 99, Dan Marino was again injured, threw for only 2448 yards, 55% Comp, 12 TDs and 17 picks. With no passing threat, the running game stalled. The leading rusher that year was JJ Johnson with 558 yards. Abdul Jabar was traded to Cleveland and so it was running back by committe. The defense did play well thou giving up on 16.4 point a contest. The team went 9-7 with no offensive punch and again made the playoffs. They ran into a buzz saw in Jacksonville that year and lost 62-7 in the second round of the playoffs. I just think that between the whole Marino thing, the cap issues and that beat down by the Jags in the playoffs, Jimmy just looked at his life and decided life was too short. He had just gone through a divorce and Margaritaville was looking pretty good to him at that point.
You can look at it as a failure but in truth, Jimmy came to Miami with not much there. He left them much better off from the stand point of personel. He made the playoffs 3 out of 4 years and he was able to post a winning record of 36-28.
Sounds sort of familiar in a way. Either way, I don't know that I would call him a failure in Miami. I just think that the circumstances were not right for Jimmy to succeed the way he wanted to in Miami.
