Miami Dolphin Talk

The Miami Dolphins plan to hire Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator Joe Philbin as their coach, a league source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.

Philbin interviewed twice with the Dolphins, once on Jan. 7 and again on Wednesday. He interviewed Thursday for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coaching vacancy, a league source told Schefter.

Philbin decided to remain in consideration for the Dolphins job despite his son's recent drowning in a Wisconsin river. After spending a week away, Philbin rejoined the Packers on Sunday for the divisional playoff loss to the New York Giants.

With a handful of NFL teams still seeking a head coach, high-profile names are in short supply. Bill Cowher and Jon Gruden have chosen to remain in TV and Jeff Fisher decided Friday to join St. Louis.

But one familiar and successful coach - who has close ties to the confidant of Dolphins owner Stephen Ross - is looking for work: Marty Schottenheimer.

Schottenheimer coached the Kansas City Chiefs for a decade, and his boss for those 10 seasons was Carl Peterson, an advisor to Ross who tried to recruit Fisher to Miami.

Schottenheimer said Friday that he spoke with Peterson just last week about the possibility of resuming an NFL career that spanned 30 years. Schottenheimer also coached Cleveland, Washington and San Diego but has been out of the league since 2006.

"I told Carl I was going to make an effort to get back into the NFL, and left it at that," Schottenheimer said. "We haven't talked since. Notwithstanding the fact I'm 68, my energy level is very, very high, and I have the same drive and motivation I've always had.

"I think the Dolphins are a good football team," he added, "one that's got some players who have a chance to step up and make things happen in a positive way."

Schottenheimer, whose NFL record is 200-126-1, has interviewed with Tampa Bay for its coaching vacancy and is considered a leading candidate.

He was fired after a 14-2 season with San Diego in '06 because of the Chargers' post-season failures and his strained relationship with General Manager A.J. Smith. Schottenheimer admitted Friday that he thought he was done with coaching until the United Football League approached him early last year.

He was hired in March to be coach and general manager of the Virginia franchise - which had moved from Orlando - and won the league title after going 3-1 in the UFL's abbreviated season.

That experience further whet his appetite to return to the NFL.

"Imagine something you enjoy doing, and you're pretty good at it, and now the closest you get to it is taking your 9-year-old grandson and teaching him how to do it," he said.

"The thing coaching does is gives you a sense of satisfaction, when you can work with young guys who have a skill set superior to any I had, and teach them how to turn it loose. Then you can stand there and live vicariously through those players because you made a contribution to their success."

Former New York Giants coach Jim Fassel joined the UFL before Schottenheimer did and recommended it.

"I told him it was the most fun I'd had coaching," said Fassel, whose Las Vegas team lost to Schottenheimer and the Destroyers in the championship game. "When we played them for the title, he told me 'You were right on.'

"As a head coach, there's no substitute for experience, and Marty's got it. There's a tendency out there right now to think a good offensive or defensive coordinator will make a good head coach, but it's a different job description. The risk factor drops off a lot when you get a guy who's done a good job everywhere he's been."

Schottenheimer's head coaching career began in Cleveland, where from 1984 through '88 he took the Browns to two AFC Championship Games.

Peterson, named the president and GM at Kansas City in December 1988, brought in Schottenheimer soon afterward and the pair teamed up to make the Chiefs the NFL's winningest franchise of the 1990s. The Chiefs won four AFC West titles and reached the AFC title game in 1994.

"I had the ideal relationship with Carl, because nothing was left unsaid," Schottenheimer said. "The one thing that is critical in the relationship between the head coach and general manager is trust. I would go to his office or he would come to mine, we would shut the door, argue and disagree, but when all was said and done he and I were after the same thing, and that was to win a championship."

After nine straight winning seasons, including 13-3 finishes in 1995 and '97, the Chiefs went 7-9 in 1998, prompting Schottenheimer to resign. After spending 2001 in Washington and 2002-06 in San Diego, where he won two more division titles, his frayed relationship with Smith and his 5-13 post-season record got him fired.

Schottenheimer recently met with the Glazer family, owners of the Bucs, and said he thinks the club has the talent to be successful.

"Frankly, there's an opportunity there to teach the young guys how to do it," he said. "There are a number of other candidates, so whether a second round of dialogue will take place I don't know. But I will say this: I'm excited about the opportunity. ..."

"If the UFL experience taught me anything, it's that at my age I'm very comfortable stepping into the midst of 25- and 26-year-old kids, to help them grow and develop, and give them the opportunity to succeed."

A season torn by discord and dysfunction prompted several key Jets players and members of the organization to paint a sobering picture of Mark Sanchez, a polarizing figure within the franchise’s walls.

They raised serious doubts about his ability to lead the Jets, questioning everything from his practice habits to the organization’s coddling of him to how much of a role he truly played in the team making two consecutive AFC Championship Game appearances.

They also invited the opportunity to replace Sanchez with Peyton Manning.

The consensus among players who spoke to the Daily News was that, at the very least, the Jets must sign a legitimate veteran backup to push their young quarterback.

“We have to bring in another quarterback that will make him work at practice,” said one player. “He’s lazy and content because he knows he’s not going to be benched.”

On Dec. 28, Sanchez said that he was “light years ahead” in areas such as defensive recognition, clock management and understanding of the offensive system. Six days later, general manager Mike Tannenbaum said that Sanchez’s “rate of growth isn’t where it needs to be.”

The doubts crept in long before Sanchez stood in front of his locker on a Wednesday two weeks ago.

The Jets already were in free-fall when he tried to brush aside the undercurrent of a season gone wrong. Four days before Gang Green’s meltdown was complete under the South Florida sun with a 19-17 loss to the Dolphins, a final dagger in a season that began with so much promise and hype, Sanchez insisted that he didn’t need to validate himself as the starting quarterback.

“I’m not out to prove anything like that to people,” Sanchez said four days before the Jets finished out of the playoffs at 8-8. “I just want to work hard for these guys on the team. These guys know I’m leading by example. These are the guys I’m playing for right here in this locker room and in this building.”

Sanchez’s season was a microcosm of his three-year career, a confounding blend of good, bad and ugly. He threw for a career-high 26 touchdowns and committed a career-high 26 turnovers (18 interceptions, 8 lost fumbles). He helped the Jets lead the league in red-zone touchdown efficiency (65.5%) with 21 touchdown passes inside the 20 (fifth best in the NFL). He also committed nine turnovers during the Jets' season-ending three-game slide.

Since entering the league in 2009, Sanchez has thrown for the second-most interceptions (51) and committed the second-most turnovers (63) in the NFL.

His inconsistent play has teammates wondering if the Jets can upgrade. Several players and members of the organization were asked if the Jets should make a play for Peyton Manning if the Colts, who are expected to select Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck with the No. 1 pick in the draft, release him.

“Come on. That’s a no-brainer,” a Jets source said. “If you have a chance to get a healthy 36-year-old Peyton Manning and you don’t do it, then you’re stupid. If I could get a healthy 36-year-old Peyton Manning, then, hell yeah, I would trade Sanchez.”

Sanchez’s teammates didn’t hesitate when asked if the Jets should pursue Manning if he is medically cleared after his recent neck surgeries. They believed that the presence of consultant Tom Moore, who was Manning’s offensive coordinator and mentor during their decade-long run together in Indianapolis, would be a bonus to lure Manning to New York.

“We already have his coach — Tom Moore,” one well-respected player said. “Plus, he’s a field general and will get everyone lined up. He will get his playmakers the ball. We can win a Super Bowl with Peyton.”

But can the Jets hoist the Lombardi Trophy with Sanchez?

“How can we when he’s not improving at all?” one of Sanchez’s teammates said. “He thinks he is, but he’s not. He has shown us what he’s capable of.”

Sanchez, who has two years remaining on his rookie contract, wasn’t the lone culprit on the 25th-ranked offense. He was sacked 39 times. Edge pass rushers routinely beat left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson and right tackle Wayne Hunter, who allowed a combined 19 sacks — or 48% of the team total, according to Pro Football Focus. Sanchez lost confidence after getting hit so many times, according to several teammates. One Jets source admitted that Sanchez “worked his ass off” to correct his mistakes in meetings, but he was soon buried under an avalanche of offensive breakdowns on game days.

“At one point, he was looking at the (pass) rush and wasn’t seeing the receivers,” a team source said. “I think that’s a lack of confidence in what we’re doing. I think that's a lack of confidence in how we’re protecting him... When you get hit the way that he got hit, there were some quarterbacks that wouldn’t have made it through the season.”

Some of Sanchez’s teammates thought it was unfair to pin a lost season all on their young quarterback.

“Everybody got down on the quarterback,” a Jets source said. “But they weren’t looking at the situations we were putting him in. I don’t think he’s as bad as people are making him out to be. When the ---- started snowballing and he lost confidence, he never recovered. Then, you saw him making one stupid throw and one stupid mistake after another.”

The complex game plans didn't help matters, according to several people. Sanchez had difficulty absorbing the weekly wrinkles and changes, teammates said.

“So many games, he looked defeated before he ever took the field,” a team source said. “He didn’t have much confidence in what he was about to go do. You could tell throughout the week in practice. He never felt comfortable with some of the things we were doing. It was too much for him.”

Other teammates were less forgiving. They pointed to Sanchez’s career arc as reason for change.

Sanchez has finished 29th, 29th and 27th in completion percentage in his first three seasons. His passer-rating rankings: 28th, 27th and 23rd.

He has taken a step back in yards per attempt each season from 6.7 to 6.5 to 6.4. Rex Ryan admitted that the inability to stretch the field was one of his primary concerns all year. Sanchez completed a league-worst two passes of 40-plus yards this season. By comparison, Tim Tebow completed three passes of at least 40 yards in the second quarter of the Broncos’ wild-card overtime win against the Steelers Sunday.

Although Sanchez won four road playoff games in his first two seasons, some teammates remained critical, pointing to the successful rushing attack and defense as the key reasons for the Jets’ success in 2009 and 2010.

A couple weeks ago, Sanchez dismissed a report that he was being coddled. His teammates disagreed.

“They don’t want to be truthful with him,” one prominent player said of the way that the organization has handled Sanchez. “They treat him like a baby instead of a man. He goes in a hole when someone tells him the truth.”

A Jets spokesman declined to make Sanchez available for this story. A source close to the team pointed out that Sanchez’s inability to handle mounting criticism prompted him to unfollow every Jets beat writer on Twitter earlier this season.

“So that should tell you everything,” the source said. “He just doesn’t have the mental toughness to be great... especially in New York.”

Some in the organization told The News that many of Sanchez’s teammates have grown resentful for myriad reasons.

“They see the organization babying him,” said a Jets source. “They see him with a sense of entitlement. He’s been given all this and hasn’t done anything. They call him ‘San-chise.’ They make him the face of the organization. They gave him the captain tag. He’s not a captain. He should have never been a captain.”

None of the players who spoke to the Daily News for this story agreed with Ryan’s decision to anoint Sanchez as a captain.

On Dec. 28, Sanchez denied the notion that he was a victim of a high standard set by going to two AFC Championship Games in his first two seasons.

"We hold ourselves to a high standard,” Sanchez said. “I don’t want to feel like I’m a victim or anything like that. We expect to win... I don’t feel like we’ve set the bar too high. There is no way. I don’t feel like that.”

Six days later, Sanchez expressed a much different outlook.

“You go to back-to-back AFC Championship Games, and everybody thinks, ‘OK, we’ll just get a little bit better and you are winning the Super Bowl,’” Sanchez told ESPN Radio on Jan. 3. “I don’t want to make excuses at all. That’s not my style. But we’ve kind of been a victim of our own success.”

The hope for some players this offseason is that the Jets will pursue Manning if he is healthy and available. Of course, there is no guarantee that Manning would choose them even if owner Woody Johnson and Ryan put on an all-out blitz.

“I don’t think that he’ll come here,” a member of the Jets organization said. “We have to change the perception of our organization. We’re not the organization that players said they wanted to play for a year or two ago. We’re starting to come across a little flaky. We talk the talk. We don’t back it up. We’re out of control. There’s no discipline. It’s a mess right now.”

Jimmy Johnson knows a thing or two about building franchises, and successful football programs.

He’s done it at every one of his college and NFL stops, and that includes his tenure with the University of Miami and Miami Dolphins.

If you missed Johnson’s talk with WQAM’s Joe Rose morning show Tuesday morning you better listen to the replay because the Fox analyst put down his fishing pole to drop a few nuggets of knowledge that might help everyone from Dolphins owner Steve Ross to Tony Sparano, and the average South Florida football fan. Listen below:


He touched on the Dolphins, Hurricanes, and his coaching profession.

Mike Berardino addressed a couple of Johnson’s musings about the Dolphins in his most recent blog, breaking down how Johnson claims talent evaluators are more important than who the team owner and coach is.

That one made me want to scream “hallelujah” considering I suspect the groceries haven’t been purchased properly during the Trifecta’s era.

But the other aspect of Johnson’s talk with Rose I found extremely interesting was Johnson’s plea for Dolphins fans to support the hiring of a “young, hungry” up and coming coach instead of going after retreads like Bill Cowher, Jon Gruden and Jeff Fisher when/if Sparano is removed as head coach.

I’ve avoided coaching candidate talk for months, and will continue to do so out of respect for Sparano, his staff, and the team.

Even Johnson says the team is clearly “playing hard” for Sparano, which is not a debatable topic from my standpoint.

“They have given tremendous effort every single week regardless of the circumstances,” Johnson said. “Credit [goes] to him.”

But I happen to agree with Johnson, and have consistently said so in a few WQAM spots. I’d prefer going young, fresh and hungry instead of old, proven and set in their ways.

The NFL teams heading in the right direction are the Steelers, Ravens, 49ers, Tampa Bay, Atlanta and Carolina. What do they all have in common? They hired first time head coaches who all brought a new approach.

Johnson acknowledged that Fisher “is a friend” immediately before pointing out he’s had six winning seasons in 17 years as Tennessee’s head coach before being ousted last offseason.

Johnson also said serving as a head coach in the NFL is like voluntarily wanting “to spend night and day [working] and not have any family life,” hinting that those coaches with cushy and lucrative TV gigs – individuals like himself, Cowher and Gruden - might not be interested in coming back to the grind.

“I know all the Dolphins fans want to get that big name, but there are some very talented people out there that are young, hungry and passionate, and want to turn this thing around,” Johnson said. “Don’t get so carried away with that big name, who has the perception of the guy who is going to get you to the Super Bowl the next year. That’s not going to happen.”

Johnson said at this point, sitting at 1-7, the Dolphins need to evaluate younger players: “doing some things that will help you in the future. I know it’s tough on Sparano because he wants a future…. But you got to find out before the draft if some of these young guys can play.”….

On the Suck for Luck campaign, Johnson said it’s important to give the team’s best effort. He also pointed out there are “two or three quarterbacks in college this year who look like they’ll be good quarterbacks.”

He’s referring to USC’s Matt Barkley and Oklahoma’s Landry Jones, the quarterbacks rated behind Stanford’s Andrew Luck.

When asked if the Dolphins have talent, Johnson said “they have some talent.”

“In the NFL the difference between the best and worst is not that much. That’s one reason why every single week, if a team is not playing well, not protecting the ball, they have a chance to get beat. Doesn’t matter who they are playing,” Johnson said. “This team has talent. Now, does it have the talent in the right places?”

Johnson mentioned the quarterback position, referring to the struggles the Dolphins have had there. It’s also become abundantly clear the Dolphins lack playmakers outside of Brandon Marshall, who hasn’t been consistent, and Reggie Bush, who is now stepping it up.

“That was a problem for this team,” Johnson said. “You have to have the right pieces to the puzzle. Obviously they didn’t have the right pieces to the puzzle.”

How desirable would the Dolphins job be for a prospective coach?

“There’s only 32 jobs,” Johnson said. “Then after the 32 you look at teams with traditions. Then you look at the teams in big market. If you have those three things….forget about what they did the year before, or the year before.

“In the NFL, with the draft, free agency, you can turn this thing around in one year. A coach is not going to look at what the team did this year, or last year. He’s going to look at if they have tradition and are in a big market.”

The Dolphins have both.

Johnson said a prospective coach will evaluate the situation based on whether “the owner is supportive and will give you the tools you need. The Dolphins have that. They had it with Wayne Huizenga. The Cowboys had it with Jerry (Jones). He’s going to do whatever it takes to win games. Most, all of the owners are that way.

“You don’t want an owner making decisions when he doesn’t know anything about football. You got to avoid that,” Johnson said.

For the record, Ross doesn’t make football decisions, and he’ll be the first to tell you his role is to “hire good people” to make those decisions.

Ross hasn’t made one hire on the football side since becoming owner in 2008. He inherited Bill Parcells and his people, whom Johnson points out hadn’t won a playoff game in over a decade.

“Ownership in my opinion is the least important thing,” Johnson said. “The most important person in your entire organization is your talent evaluator. Whoever that guy is. When I say talent it’s not necessarily just the players. Talent evaluator as far as coaches, assistant coaches, the people inside your organization. The talent evaluator is the most important person there. It might be your General Manager, Director of Player Personnel. It might be your head coach.”

Johnson, who held that duel role with the Cowboys and Dolphins, said “it’s an overwhelming job with the salary cap and free agency, and you really need to separate it.”

Johnson said holding that duel role is swallowing Pete Carroll up in Seattle, and it’s crippling Bill Belichick, who has that role with the Patriots.

Again, it was a great interview and I encourage everyone to check it out.

I’ll be doing an interview with (560AM) WQAM’s Michael Irvin show today around 1:30 p.m.

by: Omar Kelly October 26th, 2011 | 10:04 AM

Here’s a few tidbits of information that will become very useful to you over the next few months.

1. People in NFL circles, and those on the peripheral, gossip like junior high school girls.

2. The standards for what’s deemed journalism these days have become obsolete. Some outlets believe in it. Some don’t. And those who do have begun to fold to the pressure of those who don’t.

3. People in the media routinely get used to accommodate other people’s agenda. Just because you’re fed it doesn’t mean its right. But why bother with accuracy when it’s a juicy bit of gossip.

Put it out there and see your clicks dance.

That’s how the NFL game – the one that surrounds the game – gets played. Sometimes it gets messy, and the Miami Dolphins are at that point considering the franchise is off to an 0-6 start.

At this point you could throw just about any bag of poo against the Dolphins wall and it would stick. Media outlets would run with it, the fans would pick up their pitch forks, and true or not, reputations and credibility gets damaged for everyone but the person who wrote it.

I generally try to stay out of the muck because I value my integrity over clicks, but sometimes you’ve got to get your hands dirty.

There are reports from CBSsports.com that the Dolphins, through ”intermediaries,” have contacted people close to former Steelers coach Bill Cowher about replacing Tony Sparano.

This very well could be true because Steve Ross’ friend and business partner, Carl Peterson, is friends with Cowher. I’ve consistently informed you Peterson is the one football person Ross trusts and consults with, even if he’s not on the payroll.

Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino, who still has affiliations with the Dolphins, sits next to Cowher every Sunday during their CBS broadcast. Marino certainly fits into the  ”intermediaries”category and might just be gauging if Cowher’s FINALLY ready to come back to the NFL as a coach.

Let us not be naive to think Marino and Cowher haven’t talked about the Dolphins at some point during their seven weeks together this season.

Also, this could EASILY be a ploy by Cowher’s agent to drive up his television contract, or his asking price for when he eventually returns to the NFL. Hell, it worked for Jon Gruden two weeks ago. I hope you don’t think his new ESPN contract – which really means NOTHING – was a coincidence?

But those thinking Ross has anything to do with this gossip, especially after the Jim Harbaugh debacle back in January, are misguided.

Ross knows his NFL reputation is already damaged, and sources inside the organization say “he’s doing everything in his power to repair it in NFL circles.”

Talking to Cowher, or Jeff Fisher, or Jon Gruden, or any other prospective candidate about coaching or running the Dolphins - before firing Sparano - is tacky and would harm the franchise AGAIN.

Plus….here’s an important piece of information everyone is overlooking. We don’t even know which General Manager, or new team czar will be making this football decision. Ross is very aware he doesn’t have the skills to do it on his own, and the jury is still out on whether Jeff Ireland is safe.

But it is a good, juicy bit of gossip, and at this point the national media has taken on the pile on approach….so carry on.

I have no interest in denying it, defending it, pouring gas onto it. Just trying to help you understand the game we’re playing, and you’re watching.

While I might defend Ross on this topic, I am pointing the finger at him for creating an “every man for himself mentality” within the organization, which I suspect know has poisoned the 2011 team.

I’ve sat on that information/theory for a while, hoped the coaches, players, front office figured found a way to pull it together. That CLEARLY hasn’t happened.