Alex Smith also not all that into Dolphins

More bad news?

How about this: Multiple sources tell me that the only way Alex Smith is going to sign with the Dolphins is if Peyton Manning goes to San Francisco.

That's right, even the jilted 49'ers quarterback would prefer to return to the team that jilted him over the Dolphins organization that on Sunday tried to recruit him to Miami. Smith's camp has made this clear to the Dolphins.

I suppose that is one reason they are today scheduled to host former Jacksonville quarterback David Garrard -- a quarterback that obviously does not rise to "franchise quarterback" status but is, well, a body.

I posted previously that the Dolphins should be wise in handling Smith because, frankly, he has been a good-not-great player in seven previous seasons. So the Dolphins must resist the temptation to go overboard on this guy because making a splash for the sake of public relations may soothe feelings short-term but is a long-term road to unemployment.

And there is definitely pressure on the Dolphins, particularly general manager Jeff Ireland, to give a public relations answer to what is a business approach. Peter King of Sports Illustrated wrote in his Monday Morning quarterback column that Ireland needs to do something out of desperation.

These are King's words:

"In the history of NFL general managers, Ireland is on the coldest streak ever. He needs to do something right. He doesn't even need to hit a home run. A seeing-eye single would do. That may make him more aggressive on Smith today -- and it may make Smith more inclined to go somewhere I don't think he really wants to go.

"Miami looks like the worst team in the AFC East right now. Would Smith rather rub it in 49er GM Trent Baalke's face and run off to a bad team, and would he rather pray for Manning to pick Tennessee or Denver and go back to where he's got the best chance by far of making a Super Bowl run? Ireland may have to do what he loathes -- overspend for an OK player -- just to deodorize the stink of the last few years in Miami."

So the pressure is on Ireland to pay, probably more than Smith is worth. Of course, if Peyton Manning decides to play in Denver or Tennessee, it is now clear he won't get that chance. Because Alex Smith doesn't want to play here that much.

Comments

[Rob M]

First!

[Rob M]

And the Dolphins are a pathetic joke. They officially make me sick to my stomach. Ross and Ireland should be connected to a human centipede.

[mikk]

Well finally some good news.. Who wants Smith.

[JJ]

I guess we are now down to Plan F, as in Failure.

[Billy]

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE FIRE JEFF IRELAND. The man is a JOKE of a GM and Ross loves the guy? Why is Ross so in love with the bum?!?

[JJ]

I was listening to Ross Tucker this morning on the Sirius NFL channel. The entire morning conversation was about how horrible the Dolphins situation is and how inept they are. This is what we have been reduced to, a laughingstock.

[Rob M]

Ireland must give one mean hummer. That must be why Ross always has that creepy smirk on his face.

[Ireland Strikes Again!]

Can we get this guy to call Ross?

[Andy]

What have we learned from years of observing the Dolphins? When coaches and front office personnel get desperate, they make errors...huge ones. Remember Spielman/Wanny? Saban? Overpaying for an average QB that doesn't even want to come here would reek of desperation, and would do NOTHING to solve our offensive woes. Weeden or Tannehill may be options. I've always liked Garrard, but he's a Chad Pennington type stopgap, at best.

Ireland is a classic case of the Peter Principle. Awesome scout, poor General Manager who typically ends up on the losing end of any deal. Does ownership realize the damage he's doing to their brand?

[Ireland Strikes Again!]

Boycott Fins .... Fire Ireland!! Boycott Fins .... Fire Ireland!! Boycott Fins .... Fire Ireland!! Boycott Fins .... Fire Ireland!! Boycott Fins .... Fire Ireland!!

[JOE PHILBIN'S CLIPBOARD]

Why is Bill Polian and his son sitting on a couch right now??

They both should have been hired when they were fired!!

[Hayden Fox]

Good. I hope he does not want to come here.

[bond, david bond]

I would rather sign David Garrard anyway. Garrard can throw the deep ball very well and he can run out of the pocket when the line is breaking down. (youtube highlights) Then next year we can draft a qb.

[NJphinsfan]

Let's trust Philbin to try and turn this organization around. We'll have a new GM next year so this year we will be "building through the draft" I'm sorry to say. Philbin is good with QB's, I say trade back in the 1st and then try and grab Tannehill. Philbin can mold him into something special with the athleticism he is gifted with. Draft 2 WR's in the early rounds and a TE. Sign Anderson from NE and we won't need to draft a pass rusher. Defense will be set. Who knows, maybe Moore can get us to the playoffs with some good coaching from Philbin. Stay the coarse with Philbin and we WILL return to glory...

[Rob M]

How can we get a hold of Ireland's home address?

[Luteke]

The Failure is not in not getting a QB. There was lots of comptetition for Manning. The lone success was NOT signing the mediocre Flynn since Moore is better anyhow. The bigger issues were wasting 5 million $ signing back-up offensive lnemen instead of signing Eric Winston as well as getting basically NOTHING for our best play-maker and second-best player overall. It's beyond pathetic and makes you wonder how Ross ever made money and what Ireland has on Ross to keep his job. We've been cursed for a long time highlighted by the selection of Ted Ginn with the 9th pick in the draft and having zero elite QB's available the lone time we got the #1 pick.

[jedivader]

Isn't Alex Smith the same player as Matt Moore?

[Stra8balla]

Ireland needs to just resign. There isn't a worse GM in sports today. Reduced to chasing Alex Smith? REALLY!We went from a competitive team last year to an easy W for most teams in the league this year.

No wr's....no safties....no te....no o-line filled with aging scrubs...no talented depth at rb...one pass rusher..unproven fb etc. The draft won't even come close to healing what has infected this team.

[Nick]

Trade back for Tannehill?? Not happening, if anything they might have to trade up. Peter King is saying Clevekand might take him at 4..

[M48]

I wonder if these are the same people that told you that Flynn was going to be a Dolphin?
I'm not sure which is worse, watching the Dolphins miss out on these guys ar reading all the crap you writers stick out here. Look the sky is not falling, was Flynn worth 8 million a year? What about Smith? Heck his own team is ready to walk on the guy and he took them to the NFC title game! I do not see any upside to these guys over Moore right now and if we go into the season with Moore at QB and a rookie QB on the side lines that is fine.
People just want a big name in free agency signed. We forget that we have a new coaching staff, new defense, and no matter what we want there is a great change we will once again be a middle of the road team.
I'm not sure what they ( front office) are doing maybe they don't either. But I would think that if Flynn was the answer to our QB problem then he would be a Dolphin no matter what the cost. Remember last year all the fans were upset that Ireland did not pay Orton 9 million a year, well that now looks like one smart move.

[luis]

It is obvious to all of us fans that no one wants to play for this jerkoff jeff ireland. The guy is a pathetic joke of a gm and got the job handed to him by that ancient dinosaur bill parcells. Their makeup for a football team is better suited for pee wee league games. I can make better decisions than this fool on crack! Armando please right an article on how the fins luck won't change unless this moron is out. I am starting to think that bill parcells really is a genius and got sent to the dolphins organization to systematically destroy the fins. Who paid him off? New england or the jets? What a joke. I hate being a dolphins fan.

[Jostle]

I would rather start the season with Matt Moore than start an overpaid Alex Smith.

[Kris]

@ the end of the day.....

This is still PARCELL's MESS......

and it STINKS.......

[willnyc]

Wow! This is some way to run an NFL team. The Dolphins are the joke of the enire league. Coaches,and Players want nothing to do with this organization. Did these guys have a plan? If you want a guy,you sign him. Not low ball him. Why bring him in at all? When is this horror show going to end? Year 4 under these idiots,and we are looking at 2007 again. Pathetic.

[joe]

Ross is sticking with this guy too long ,I admire his loyalty to Ireland ,but in the process we are losing respect from players ,coaches and personel around the league, and most important the few loyal fans we have left in Miami.

[maoriii]

There is nothing wrong with Matt Moore. In my opinion he saved a bad season but again Ireland and Ross don't know how to value football. The Cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde. And unfortunately the Dolphins FO is currently run by cynics.

But you should lay the blame where it truly belongs. Ireland and Ross are not without fault here but they also inherited a bad situation. Joe Robbie built that stadium in unincorporated Dade County. The notion that football players don't care upon which field they play is foolish.

That stadium was built in the wrong place!

We who have suffered through this debacle have witnessed this fact first hand. So there are multiple factors that are contributing to the Dolphins demise but first and foremost the problem is that stadium and the location that was chosen for it.

Personally I would have looked to the South of Miami for the location of that stadium. They have no trouble getting folks to drive to the car races in Homestead and they are asking folks to Drive to Joe Robbie. So the notion that Dolphins fans would not drive a little further into So Fla to get to a Dolphins game doesn't make any sense to me. If you go back and look at the sub-contracts you will see what Shenanigans were played at the time. Joe Robbie wanted cheap land and the people he moved out of their homes to build that stadium did not matter to him. They got what he considered to be "fair value". Yeah and I have some swamp land to sell you if you are interested.

[Rob M]

NJphinsfan....this has nothing to do with Philbin. It has to do with Ireland. There's only so much Philbin can do. Especially when even his former players can smell the stink of the dolphins from miles away and make a b-line for the west coast. As long as Ireland is running the show here and that bumbling idiot Ross keeps writing his checks, the Dolphins will be a pathetic joke.

[Nic]

Suck for luck!

[disgusted1]

Mando, don't you think we got played by Seattle? They pretend to want Smith, offer no contract to Flynn, and then sit back and wait for Ireland to misread the cards and give Flynn a low offer. Do you really think it is coincidental Seattle put out their 26mm incentive laden offer the moment Ireland put his crap on the table? This is worse than trading up for Vernon Carey. The Dolphins continue to be run by baffoons.

[test]

Only the blind faith fan boys of Ireland want Moore and Tannehill...

They both are mediocre.

Why do homers love mediocrity and Matt Moore?

[Mia Orange]

Our football self esteem is at its lowest ever!
So poor an image does the front office project, that
our collective ego has been deflated to non existance.
Money Bags is aloof and uncaring, trying to use gimmicks to arouse the interest of fans (celebrity partners)and the Gen. Mgr. has the personality and demeanor of
a bullish camp guard.Nothing endearing or upbeat about that couple.Football is not salsa and BS for the public and threats and mistreatment for the employees.

[maoriii]

They need to turn the Dolphins back into a COMMUNITY football team. The only way to do that at this point is to actually partner with the community and build a new stadium TO THE SOUTH! I would try to put it right next to the Speedway and start creating a sports complex down there. An attraction, a spectacle, FOR the community in a place where there is already the infrastructure to support high volume traffic. But we'll see if Ross is really "All In" on the Dolphins or not... If they remain at Joe Robbie they are DOOMED because no one wants to play there.

[BB]

I said it over a week ago.....everyone is just realizing now that the realistic QB options are not that great, across the board (even before Smith entered the fray)--36 yr old with major health concerns, not in a position to draft Griffin, Flynn is unproven and created virtually no interest across the league--Smith has been mediocre-the reality is that, its difficult for Miami to make a splash when the choices are lean--draft a QB, Tannehill or Weeden or whoever, and develop him.

[Cellar Dweller]

Peter King's column has a full page on how bad the Miami FO has been for the last decade. Really bad.

[maoriii]

I would also work to make all that surrounding land east of the Speedway a permanenet state park, so the setting is natural. If you look at who is attracting talent, San Francisco, they set their stadium on the Bay next to 2 state parks. A beautiful setting for a player like Manning to finish his career. Something should be learned from this experience. Without a devotion to the beauty and well being of the community that supports them the Dolphins will not succeed, no matter how much Ross and Ireland spend or bang their fists to try to get it done the hard way. The Orange Bowl succeeded because of the community that supported it, NOT Joe Robbie!

[Mark]

Why dont they just go with Moore?

I know he's not an elite QB but with better protection and picking Blackmon at 8 (if not then trade down and grab Floyd) Moore might just be ok.

Continue to grab another WR and a TE and maybe we'll be alright...

[Cellar Dweller]

I sense another housecleaning in two years. Wow, this org has been totally incompetent for a really long time.

[Swamy]

Armando,

Tell me if you know if the Fins have made any inquiry to get Vince Young.

Are there any other FA QBs out there with two Pro Bowls or more?

He wanted to come to Miami before he signed with the Eagles last year.

After seeing how Fisher used the Fins (it was about the money not more personnel control), fans should realize that the problem in Tennessee with Young/Fisher was Fisher.

[maoriii]

Only the Cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde.

[Count Mahdrof]

"How can we get a hold of Ireland's home address?"

Why, Rob M? What do you have in mind? Is your obsession with a sports team enough for you threaten someone and their family? Get a grip friend and stop being a brainwashed media sycophant. Since there were 7 teams with worse records than Miami last year, should their fans be even more threatening to their GMs?

[octavio de armas]

Somewhere in a safe Ireland has a picture of Ross with his two 14yrs. old cousins ( wink ) from Thailand. Because why would this A-Hole still has a job is beyond me. As long as the ROSS/IRELAND combo is running the Dolphins this team will never be good.

[Cellar Dweller]

Icky.

That is the one word description of Ireland's personality.

[Phin4Life]

Just read on PFT that "no one, wants to go to Dolphins ,.....because of Ireland !" This all goes back to Ross, really. Not knowing what he was doing and not cleaning house like most new owners do. He should have fired Ireland and sparano and not brought Sparano back for another year and then kepted Ireland.

[Michael L]

When the NFL network, ESPN, and every other sports outlet in this country are laughing at how inept the Miami Dolphins have become, you would think that a man who became a billionaire running a successful company such as the Related Group could be so terrible at being an NFL team owner. Even someone who knows nothing about football must be able to see that he has a real mess on his hands. NO ONE wants to come to this pathetic mess of an orginization, and I guess when Mr. Ross starts losing money when no one is in the stands, then he will finally wake up and either sell replace Jeff Ireland or sell the team. Why anybody thinks that the draft will solve our problems is beyond me. Matt Moore will be our starting quarterback next year, and hopefully someone will be there to catch the ball.

[maoriii]

Oh and anyone who hasn't already put it together, Manning is a 49er. Both Harbaugh and Manning want to play there. They WANT to play THERE. Why? Because football players and coaches make their living on a football field and where that field is LOCATED is the PRIMARY CONCERN because that is where they make their homes and careers. The LOCATION IS WHAT MATTERS!

[Rob M]

Hey Count....it was a joke. Take it easy you wound up little freak. Read my other posts. You think I really want to connect him to a human centipede as well?

[bond, david bond]

No one is admitting it but one of the main reasons that no one wants to come to Miami is because Ireland traded away our best offensive player. This move frightened every high profile free agent. So, every qb knows that it is going to be touch to shine without a deep threat. If we had kept Brandon Marshall, we still would be one of 2 teams that Manning would be considering. I am really starting to believe that Ireland is the last of the mole group who is intentionally trying to destroy the dolphin's winning heritage.

[maoriii]

This community has become too myopic and egotistical in my opinion. Reason and analysis has been lost and you and others in the press are partly to blame Mando. I sincerely hope you guys turn it around soon.

[.]

bond this started loooong before Marshall.

[Count Mahdrof]

What was the joke, Rob? Why did you want Ireland's address? Do you plan to stalk him? Not too funny to one who has been stalked by a psychopath. Are you a psychopath, Rob? Am I a "wound up little freak" because I don't appreciate someone insinuating payback because a GM's moves don't meet approval? Rob, you are not a nice human being, I'm afraid. Little wonder Miami FANS are laughed at nationwide.

[.]

Miami was never on Peytons list. We had to chase him down for a short courtesy interview.

[Swamy]

I believe Gerrard is being considered to be the 2nd or 3rs string QB.

Watch how the Manning sweepstakes plays out this week.

Ross will push to get the QB left over.

He'd love Tebow. The only QB to fill the stadium even with a losing team.

[NHFINSFAN]

Screw free agency! Draft a QB with our #8 pick and continue Philbin's strategic plan to build a winning team through the draft.
Did anyone know that last year the Packers did not sign one free agent....not one!

[dmooreiii]

The FO is hell bent on signing a QB, even if it makes no sense. Even if it gets down to Caleb Hanie. I have to disagree that signing Alex Smith would erase the stink. An OK at best QB? Signing Manning would have erased the stink. Signing Smith would just finalize that they settled on somebody...even if it's the wrong somebody.

[.]

Tebow LOL. He won't even be in the NFL two years from now.

[NHFINSFAN]

Hey dave...it was PHILBIN who wanted to trade Marshall.
His offensive scheme calls for many talented receivers to run a multitude of routes...it does NOT account for an Alpha Receiver who is always coming back into the huddle and telling the QB 'I'm open again, throw me the damn ball'.
I'm glad Marshall is gone as he dropped more balls than he caught and was probably the reason we started 0-7 because Henne was always trying to please him on every set of downs....only to watch him drop a key first down ball.

[TonyCane]

Two of the largest factors in Miami's current situation are:

1) Refusal to invest a first round draft choice in a quarterback in the last 28 years. Every other team except KC and NO have done so. We pass on obvious fits like Brees in favor of Jamal Fletcher, and for 12 years now have been under the heel of defense minded coaches or GMs that are obsessed with accumulating as many defensive players or offensive linemen as possible. And make no mistake, we'll draft another lineman or defensive end in the first round this year.

2) Treating the wide receiver position with the same priority as a punter. In the same 28 years, we have drafted just 7 wide receivers in the top three rounds:

1st Round: Randall Hill (91), OJ McDuffie (93), Yatil Green (97), Tedd Ginn (07)
2nd Round: Chris Chambers (01)
3rd Round: James Pruitt (85), Patrick Turner (08)

[TonyCane]

And Bond, every free agent QB knows that the Dolphins will not be drafting a comparable player to replace Marshall for five to six years, based on previous trends.

[Brady Meadows]

Amazing we don't have a star player, yet no money to sign one. Ireland is the best, isn't he? Please note this is sarcasm.

[echmjh]

This is going to be the kiss of death for Ireland. It is unfortunate that it took a fiasco like this but I hope that Ross is finally seeing what he has in a GM. Ireland has no respect in the league and the player agents are using him and then refusing him. When a situation gets this bad someone has to be held accountable. I like the fact that Ross is loyal but he is also a businessman and unless he is not as smart as I think he is he will be hiring a new GM for 2013.