Rebuilding the Dolphins

[Papa Pearce]

So as most of you are aware, the Dolphins are supposed to be the hardest team to rebuild in a career. It even took some of the devs a couple of tries and many years from what I hear. So, I thought I would give it a try. My friends, you will not believe these results..First I'll tell you the outcome, then I'll tell you how I got there...

After going 1-3 during Preseason, I finished my first season with a 13-3 record, missing out on a chance to play in the playoffs. The reason for this is because the Patriots were also 13-3, however they won the head-to-head tiebreaker (I lost both times to the Pats) so they won the AFC East. Now I'm sure you're still wondering how a 13-3 team misses the playoffs. Well, in the AFC South, the Colts won the division at 14-2, the Titans finished second at 13-3, and the Jaguars finished third at 13-3 (the Texans finished 9-7). I'm not entirely sure how, but the Jaguars finished one spot ahead of me in the final standings (Jags were 6th best, Phins were 7th). So needless to say, while I was disappointed in getting screwed out of the playoffs, I was grateful at least to have the opportunity to replace my worthless coaching staff. To wrap up this outcome summary, the Colts beat the Bucs in the Super Bowl, and I ended up with the 1st overall pick in the Jack English draft

Now, how I got these results...

I chose to start in the off season for starters. I didn't tag anyone, because the highest rated player I had to tag was like 79 OVR. During FA, I signed WR Bernard Berrian, RG Ben Noll, CB Randal Gay, and CB Marcus Trufant.

On Draft Day, I did something that apparently is sacrilege for anyone rebuilding the Phins; I traded away the first overall pick of the draft!!!

First let me tell you why. Going into the draft, I was well aware of my need for a LT, and I was going to draft Jake Long as he is an outstanding player. But then something hit me; signing a first overall pick is pricey. So I decided to look into trading down. Before doing this, I made sure to have a safety net in case Jake Long was taken after I traded down. I figured that if I didn't drop too low, then Ryan Clady would still be on the board if Long wasn't, and even though Long is talented enough to justify the cost, I felt that there were more cost effective options later who were still talented enough to do the job.

Needless to say, the odds looked very good for trading down. So I decided to see what offers I could get for my pick. I was pleased to see some decent offers, however there was one that I just couldn't pass up. In the end, I traded my 1st overall pick to the Ravens for the 8th overall pick, 38th overall pick, and their 2009 1st round pick.

To make this quick, I'm just going to tell you what my draft selections were:

Round 1, Pick 8: LT Ryan Clady - excellent pick, very useful, Team Captain
Round 1, Pick 19: LG Branden Albert - excellent pick, very useful
Round 1, Pick 32: WR Donnie Avery - outstanding pick, super useful, Pro Bowler, NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, runner up NFL WR of the Year
Round 2, Pick 25: CB Patrick Lee - still developing, productive rookie season, should develop faster with better coaching
Round 3, Pick 7: RT John Greco - great pick, very productive, developed quickly
Round 3, Pick 31: MLB Philip Wheeler - outstanding pick, super productive, Pro Bowler, NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, finalist for NFL Defensive Player of the Year and NFL LB of the Year
Round 4, Pick 1: QB Josh Johnson - useless pick, never utilized
Round 5, Pick 22: SS Craig Steltz - outstanding pick, converted to FS, currently at 86/90 overall
Round 5, Pick 32: HB Xavier Oman - solid backup, not yet utilized
Round 6, Pick 1: QB Alex Brink - useless pick
Round 6, Pick 28: K Alexis Serna - useful pick, Pro Bowler
Round 7, Pick 1: TE Mike Peterson - useful pick, converted to receiving FB, Pro Bowler

During Undrafted Rookie signings, I signed LE Tony Bake, OLB David Vobora, and SS Kelin Johnson.
Thus, heading into Training Camp, I had a solid O-Line, a solid WR corps, and a solid backfield on offense, all lead by a decent QB who ended up producing huge numbers. On defense, I had solid DBs, decent LBs, and a decent DL.

This was my first ever attempt at rebuilding the Dolphins, and so far, I seem to be having success. Because the Ravens managed to go 0-16, I have the first overall pick (read Jack English) in the draft, as well as the 20th. I have a few 2nd, 3rd,4th, and 5th rounders as well from other trades. Going into the offseason, my biggest needs are OLB, DT, DE, SS, and QB. I plan on filling all of those in the draft, because all of those positions are loaded with talent in this class. I'll keep you all updated on this career as I keep going. Until then, I would love to hear your strategies/stories of rebuilding the Dolphins!

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I am using Tom Moore's Pass Attack, and the Tampa 2 playbooks currently.

[scorp]

I have used the, for me season one is the issue, I start offseason and trade down also.
My biggets issue is the Trainer he is a 14 so it's easy to lose 7-10 players due to injury. After year 1 it's pretty much playoffs from then on out. I think I lost the SB year 2 and was a 5 win team year one.

The only other issue is nobody knows the playbook so expect pleny of dropped passes and missed tackles until the plays learn the plays during the season.

Great job getting 13-3 out of them year 1.

[Papa Pearce]

You know, I was expecting a lot of injuries from the trainer, but somehow I had the fewest injuries in the league (well, major ones anyway).

As far as learning the playbook, I stuck to just mastering a few plays a week each week in practice, and it seemed to work just fine.

I did fire the trainer though, just because I'm still uneasy about next year. My biggest issue this year was having some of my players develop because the coaching staff on a whole sucks. I'm worried about next year though because this years schedule was relatively easy in general terms. There's no telling how tough next year's will be. Though I think if I can upgrade those five positions I listed above in the draft, I'll be alright.

Also, I'm debating trading Ronnie Brown for some picks and drafting Leron James in his stead. My biggest concern with James though is I've never used him before so I don't know his problems. I am comforted by his extremely high BCV though, which is what I have found to be the most important stat (outside of injury) for a Running back to have to be productive.

[Limbombe]

keep Ronnie hes not always the healthiest but give him a good oline like you have, good RB coach and a trainer... then you should smell probowl

[scorp]

I trade Ronnie my 1st tiem through, took James, he's a stud fumble issues at first untill his carry improves but has at least 1300 yards his rookie season.
If you sub out Brown he stays healthy and he is a very good back.

I tend to trade away most of the player in the last year of a deal and get picks Miamis GM is so good you can easily replace who leaves with the picks you get.

[Papa Pearce]

Yeah, that's exactly why I'm thinking about trading Brown. I have an outstanding trainer now, and my O-Line will be more developed going into this season than they were last season (the most experienced player now is in his third year, the rest just finished their rookie seasons), but Brown was injured a bit too much. Even though he was still a Pro Bowl selection and finished with 1223 yds and 12 TD on 257 carries, he's at that point now where trading him would net nice picks, and there's a replacement that I can draft late and cheep.

Next year I have my sights set on a playoff berth, although I don't expect to finish 13-3 or better again. I also don't expect to win the division yet, as the Patriots will still have most of that talent around.

Oh, and about the Ravens. I though it was hilarious that the worst team statistically in the NFL had traded away all but their second round pick for this years draft. In other words, the Ravens are currently screwed as they will be missing out on some deep talent this year unless they trade up

[gamer454]

I rebuilt the dolphins also.Won super bowl in season 2 with Zazalli and Burner Turner.I had to trade R. Brown even though i hated to.His contract was too much. Plus i had to free up some cap space to sign Ty Barber and WR Bender.I had many many injuries till i fired trainer and signed a better one.New trainer is a 99.Well gotta go start preseason and get my new players playbook mastered.Go Phins.

[Papa Pearce]

Nicely done gamer454!

And an update on my Phins career.

The Colts beat the Giants in the Super Bowl, and I had an outstanding Staff Signing period (at least it seems I did). Here's a recap.

FIRED OC Dan Henning (37 OVR), HIRED OC Cam Cameron (55 OVR)
FIRED DC Paul Pasqualoni (26 OVR), HIRED DC Mike Nolan (51 OVR)
FIRED QBC David Lee (16 OVR), HIRED QBC Dan Mifflin (55 OVR)
FIRED OLC Mike Maser (3 OVR?), HIRED OLC Jim Colletto (63 OVR)
FIRED LBC Jon Rose (4 OVR?), HIRED LBC Brett Bourbin (56 OVR)
FIRED Trainer Roger Rodriguez (14 OVR), HIRED Trainer Robert Wyman (99 OVR)

Not sure why the ratings of Jon Rose and Mike Maser dropped after I fired them. I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to happen

My current staff for next season:

OC Cam Cameron (55 OVR)
DC Mike Nolan (51 OVR)
STC John Bonamego (60 OVR)
QBC Dan Mifflin (55 OVR)
RBC James Saxon (66 OVR)
WRC Karl Dorrell (42 OVR)
OLC Jim Colletto (63 OVR)
LBC Brett Bourbin (56 OVR)
DBC Todd Bowles (42 OVR)
DLC Kacy Rodgers (33 OVR)
GM Gil Darnell (56 OVR)
Trainer Robert Wyman (99 OVR)