A trio of Dolphins talking points to jump start your Thursday:
1. The first responsibility for the Dolphins? new head coach? Sell tickets.
It?s no secret that the Dolphins have had trouble at the gate this year, as the team has been forced to buy its own tickets to avoid local TV blackouts for five of seven home games. But how bad is their ticket situation right now? According to figures compiled by the Sports Business Journal, pretty bad.
Overall, NFL attendance has increased by 0.1 percent this year. But after five home games, the Dolphins had an average attendance of 59,246, a 13.8 percent decrease from last year (68,755). That?s the second-biggest drop in the NFL, ahead of only the Cincinnati Bengals, who have dropped 20.6 percent in attendance despite a surprising playoff push under rookie QB Andy Dalton.
The Dolphins are filling Sun Life Stadium to just 78.8 percent capacity, also the second-lowest figure in the league behind Cincinnati (only Cleveland, St. Louis, Tampa Bay and Washington are under 90 percent). The Dolphins have yet to fill the stadium to 98 percent capacity yet this year, and are one of three teams to host a game with less than 75 percent capacity (Cincinnati (three times) and Tampa Bay).
So this won?t be strictly a football hire for Stephen Ross and the Dolphins. The coach?s ability to excite the fan base and sell season tickets will be just as important as his philosophies and X?s and O?s.
2. Brian Billick says Dolphins must resolve front-office structure first.
Billick, the former Ravens coach who has been with Fox and NFL Network the past four seasons, was asked this morning on 560-AM if he has been contacted by the Dolphins about their coaching vacancy.
?No, I haven?t,? he said on The Joe Rose Show. ?We?re a long way from that kind of speculation.?
Billick said the Dolphins have more on their plate than just hiring a head coach. He didn?t mention Carl Peterson by name, but obviously Peterson?s role with the team needs to be resolved (will he be Jeff Ireland?s boss? Will he remain just an advisor?) before a team can hire a coach.
?I think they still have some structuring to do to decide how they want to piece the top end of that organization together, before they can go and approach and sit down and present to any coach to say OK, here?s the partnership that we?re advocating that we can put together,? Billick said.
Billick said he?s never met Ireland before, and while that wouldn?t preclude him from coming to Ireland, he would only take a coaching job if he?s confident in the relationship he would have with the general manager.
?This has become a general manager?s league to a large degree, and a lot of GMs are looking for a guay that I can lock in his room, feed his meals under the door, and just crank out a brilliant game plan,? Billick said. ?Regardless of who Miami wants to pursue ? and this is true of all the other clubs ? you?ve got to pursue a partnership.?
And if you?re wondering if Billick would keep Miami?s defensive staff intact if he were given the job, here?s all you need to know:
?There?s no better defensive coordinator in the league than Mike Nolan,? said Billick, who worked with Nolan as his coordinator from 2002-04 in Baltimore. ?Outstanding vision for the game. There?s no better coach than Mike Nolan, I promise you.?
3. Will Allen deserves a lot of credit for the secondary?s turnaround.
The Dolphins? secondary has been making plenty of big plays lately, with nine interceptions in their last seven games, but Allen doesn?t have one of them. The Dolphins? third cornerback, he has modest stats this year ? 39 tackles, three passes defended and zero interceptions.
Allen, though, deserves a lot of credit for the secondary?s turnaround, particularly for helping the development of young guys such as Vontae Davis, Sean Smith, Nolan Carroll and Jimmy Wilson.
?Will is so smart, he knows everything before it happens,? Smith said. ?He?ll call it out, and you?re nodding your head when he?s doing it, but you?re thinking, ?Nah, no way.? And then it happens, and he?ll come back and explain why. To know somebody out there is thinking like that, it takes our game to another level.?
Allen was a mere afterthought for the Dolphins during training camp. An 11-year veteran, Allen hadn?t played since tearing his ACL in Week 6 of the 2009 season, and although former coach Tony Sparano said Allen was competing with Benny Sapp for the starting nickel job this year, Allen didn?t feel like that was the case.
Allen pulled his hamstring two days into camp, making his situation worse.
?I felt like in training camp I really didn?t get a chance to compete at all,? Allen said Wednesday as the Dolphins prepared to face the Patriots. ?I feel like I didn?t get a fair shot, but that was on me. Maybe I should?ve had myself in better shape.?
Allen was cut by the Dolphins at the end of training camp but re-signed after the Dolphins cut Sapp after the Week 1 meltdown against the Patriots.
Yet Allen has made a big impact on the Dolphins? secondary during the second half of the season. Used only as a third cornerback, he led the Dolphins with seven tackles last week against Buffalo, and batted down a pass, as well.
Allen, 33, isn?t thinking about retirement.
?This is not the end for me by a longshot,? he said. ?The thing I feel the most confident about is that my body feels better now than it has all year.?
Tags: Benny Sapp, Brian Billick, Carl Peterson, Jeff Ireland, Jimmy Wilson, Mike Nolan, Nolan Carroll, Sean Smith, Stephen Ross, Tony Sparano, Vontae Davis, Will Allen
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