OT: Dolphins hire Mike Nolan as DC

[RobertWeathers]

Well, where is his money. There are plenty of billionaires who are billionaires because of assets or paper (stocks, bonds, etc.) and aren't very liquid. Ross could be in that situation.

Lets see. His net worth in 2007 was $4.5b. In 09 is $2.9b. His losses are due to the real estate market bottoming out- plus the banks probobly shut him off for a bit during the credit crunch. Maybe he got Ponzi'ed. Maybe his securities are tired up in the Morgan-BoA acq. He could be a financial mess as you highlight.

But the 'Fins as a business is fine. Debt to equity is fine. Good profits. Good revenues. Team value of over $1b which means he can borrow cash. But if hes shaking down Jimmy Buffett and J.Lo for some green you gotta wonder if hes bustin' out the place. LOL.

 

[Sicilian]

coool! Looks like were just going to sit back and a) hire the guy that nobody wants or b) go in house.

Not saying we're going to go out and make a splash, but this move in no way means we're "sitting back". We have no idea why Nolan and McDaniels decided to mutually part ways. It's very possible Nolan simply does not mesh with the Belichick tree's style of coaching, and had no intention of considering a job with us.

Not every non-move by the Pats is a decision completely of their own making. No one has that much control.

 

[Rob0729]

Or, he could just be incredibly cheap (more than likely).

You don't buy a professional football team these days and expect to be incredibly cheap. I can see if he was like Ralph Wilson and owned the team for decades when players didn't even get paid enough to not work in the offseason. But Ross only bought the team a few years ago and knew the costs of running a team and was even a minority owner when he decided to buy the team.

 

[mayoclinic]

Sean Payton gave up $300,000 out of his own salary this year in order to get Tom Benson to hire Greg Robinson as DC. Now that that's a coach who's willing to put his money where his mouth is.

The Patriots are one of the most profitable teams in the NFL. The salary cap has restricted play expenditures, but there's no reason the team can't afford top coordinators.

 

[Kontradiction]

You don't buy a professional football team these days and expect to be incredibly cheap. I can see if he was like Ralph Wilson and owned the team for decades when players didn't even get paid enough to not work in the offseason. But Ross only bought the team a few years ago and knew the costs of running a team and was even a minority owner when he decided to buy the team.

Buying a team and not having assets is even less likely, IMO. I live in South Florida. The word around the campfire is that the guy is a cheap P.O.S., to put it nicely.

 

[RobertWeathers]

The Patriots are one of the most profitable teams in the NFL. The salary cap has restricted play expenditures, but there's no reason the team can't afford top coordinators.

Who said that they can't afford them?

 

[Sicilian]

Sean Payton gave up $300,000 out of his own salary this year in order to get Tom Benson to hire Greg Robinson as DC. Now that that's a coach who's willing to put his money where his mouth is.

The Patriots are one of the most profitable teams in the NFL. The salary cap has restricted play expenditures, but there's no reason the team can't afford top coordinators.

So the Patriots are willing to pay up to the cap, build a brand new stadium with private money, pay their coach top dollar (presumably), and I assume have up to date, top notch facilities. But for some reason they're not willing to pay a little more for a coordinator they like?

BS. Right or wrong, Belichick believes that consistency in the program is the most important aspect to his coordinators. You can argue if he's right or wrong to do so, but I see no evidence that these decisions are based on money.

 

[BionicPatriot]

It really would have been nice to grab Nolan. I didn't expect it but man...Outside of HC I don't think our coaches compare to the rest of the AFC east, and that's scary considering our talent is thinning out too.

I don't know why Bill wouldn't go after a guy like Nolan. But no, lets hand the job over to another guy because we like him, hopefully that makes him a capable DC too. It's just scary in terms of experience, our staff no longer matches up.

I've been asking myself lately.....wtf happened with Capers? If the Pats didn't re-sign Pees this year, it was obviously not a short sighted decision, that has never been Bill's thing. The question I have though is if going into the season he knew Pees was on a short leash, why let an absolute guru in the 3-4 (who is wayyyy experienced compared to Pees by the way) go, when he wasn't that happy with Pees?

This is just getting frustrating, mistake after mistake at this point.

 

[BPF]

Sean Payton gave up $300,000 out of his own salary this year in order to get Tom Benson to hire Greg Robinson as DC. Now that that's a coach who's willing to put his money where his mouth is.

The Patriots are one of the most profitable teams in the NFL. The salary cap has restricted play expenditures, but there's no reason the team can't afford top coordinators.

I guarantee you that the Pats spend much more total $$ on coaching than the Fins do. This has more to do with Miami's desire to implement a Jets/Rex Ryan scheme on D as Lombardi wrote about in his Sunday post this past weekend:

Sunday at the Post | National Football Post

3. Miami was not going to hire Al Groh or Keith Butler right now and might take more time to discuss its vacant defensive coordinator position. Dee Pees, formerly of the Patriots, might even talk with them, but there’s no guarantee he’ll get the job. One thing’s for sure, the Rex Ryan Jets scheme intrigues the Fins.

They wanted Nolan more and actually formally asked permission to speak with him last week about their DC job. The fact that Nolan wanted to speak with them probably has something to do with he and McDaniels "mutual" decision to part ways.

 

[mgteich]

The team can afford whoever they want. However, I would be surprised if our coordinators under Belichick were paid anywhere near the league average or the average for playoff teams.

So the Patriots are willing to pay up to the cap, build a brand new stadium with private money, pay their coach top dollar (presumably), and I assume have up to date, top notch facilities. But for some reason they're not willing to pay a little more for a coordinator they like?

BS. Right or wrong, Belichick believes that consistency in the program is the most important aspect to his coordinators. You can argue if he's right or wrong to do so, but I see no evidence that these decisions are based on money.

 

[Snake Eyes]

Other than Belichick, the Patriots don't pay the other coaches very well.
This is why they don't have well known coordinators and use coaching
assistants as position coaches. They also have one of the smallest
coaching staffs in the NFL.

Yes, and it doesn't seem to be doing them much good. There is a consistent pattern here, we lose RAC and CW and we don't win the Superbowl since.

The NY Giants had a ferocious defense which has withered since the departure of Steve Spagmuolo.

The Chicago Bears were great but they never won after Buddy Ryan left as DC.

If the Patriots don't invest in coordinators they will continue to fail.

 

[Kontradiction]

Yes, and it doesn't seem to be doing them much good.

Please name a coordinator that can do wonders with a lack of talent. If you say "Charlie Weis" I'm going to die laughing.

 

[Brady to Brown]

The team can afford whoever they want. However, I would be surprised if our coordinators under Belichick were paid anywhere near the league average or the average for playoff teams.

You see any coach hanging around the Patriots once someone else offers them a contract? You see any coach that once worked for the Patriots come back when looking for work?

And to the guy who said that the Patriots pay more for coaching than the Dolphins do, that may be the case, but its all to do with how much Belichick makes. No one else in the coaching staff would stay if offered a job with another NFL team. History shows us this. Trading back to save money on draft picks, moving up a coach from "in house" and paying him peanuts. Its all starting to catch up with Mr Belichick.

 

[furley]

Ugh. Obviously, this was a done deal before it was made official.

Then I take it the Patriots will elevate someone already in their staff. Damn.

I prefer to hire a proven commodity, someone who has a history of turning defenses around that were previously poorish or mediocre. But the Patriots need to get themselves play-makers on defense first.

 

[Kontradiction]

Ugh. Obviously, this was a done deal before it was made official.

Then I take it the Patriots will elevate someone already in their staff. Damn.

I prefer to hire a proven commodity, someone who has a history of turning defenses around that were previously poorish or mediocre. But the Patriots need to get themselves play-makers on defense first.

Exactly. Without playmakers, it wouldn't matter if we brought Vince Lombardi in to coordinate the defense.

 

[mayoclinic]

Ugh. Obviously, this was a done deal before it was made official.

Then I take it the Patriots will elevate someone already in their staff. Damn.

I prefer to hire a proven commodity, someone who has a history of turning defenses around that were previously poorish or mediocre. But the Patriots need to get themselves play-makers on defense first.

You want to try and re-build the team in FA and the draft without a DC in place? That doesn't make sense to me.

The DC is going to be responsible for molding these guys into a unit and getting them to work together. I would think you would want to have a coach in place to work with BB and the personnel people to identify targets. Obviously BB is going to run the show, but I suspect in the old days that Romeo and Charlie Weis had their share of input into the offseason process.

 

[Snake Eyes]

Exactly. Without playmakers, it wouldn't matter if we brought Vince Lombardi in to coordinate the defense.

One reason why playmakers are "playmakers" is because they're working within a system that allows them to maximize their strengths. You don't need to look far to see a team's performance change significantly with different coaches yet with similar personnel.

I think Nolan did very well with what he had and think we would be better off with him as opposed to him being with the Jets.

 

[Kontradiction]

One reason why playmakers are "playmakers" is because they're working within a system that allows them to maximize their strengths. You don't need to look far to see a team's performance change significantly with different coaches yet with similar personnel.

I think Nolan did very well with what he had and think we would be better off with him as opposed to him being with the Jets.

Well then it's a good thing he's not with the Jets then.

 

[Snake Eyes]

You want to try and re-build the team in FA and the draft without a DC in place? That doesn't make sense to me.

:agree:

The coordinators are going to be invaluable in being able to determine which players are going to be better suited for the defense they want to run, I'd also want to have the DC in sooner rather than later so they can begin laying down the foundation for the changes they want to make.

 

[Snake Eyes]

Well then it's a good thing he's not with the Jets then.

Dolphins, my mistake, but how much does it actually matter? They're a divisional team that beat us this year and has given us plenty of problems in the past, I don't want them any stronger.