The Phins Report

Jeff Ireland was on WQAM in a pretty good interview and the Sun-Sentinel broke it down for us, So the less the work the more time we get to write, So I’m fine with that. The sticking point of this interview was that Ireland said that everybody was avaialable but heres the Sun-Sentinels breakdown…

WQAM’s Dolphins Tonight program has taken a shot of The Juice lately, providing some pretty informative interviews with Dolphins executives, coaches, and players over the past month. It’s turning into must listen programming.

On Wednesday night Dolphins General Manager Jeff Ireland spent about 12 minutes touching on various topics, and he provided a decent amount of insight into the Trifecta’s thinking, their concerns, and their hope for where the Dolphins are, and where they hope to be headed in the coming seasons.

I plan on giving you a summary of what Ireland said, but if you want to listen to it yourself just click here.

The most controversial think Ireland said came from Jimmy Cefalo sidestepped into a Jason Taylor-ISH question about every player on the team having a trade price.

“Every player is for sale,” Ireland said close to the end of the interview.

While that bold statement might be controversial, it’s not surprising. Pat Riley put it best one time during my stint covering the Heat. He pointed out that, to executives of a professional team players are poker chips.

“You’ve got to have a lot of good chips to play the game right,” Riley said during the Brian Grant, Eddie Jones era of Heat-land. And by the game, he was talking about personnel management.

The point is, some chips are worth plenty, like Jake Long, who one might think is untouchable. However, let Dallas offer up Tony Romo or have Cleveland dangle Derek Anderson, a quarterback the Dolphins did have interest in, and see how fast that trade starts getting worked on.

So, in professional sports, everyone has a price. Ireland just admitted it.

Moving on….Ireland couldn’t put a time frame on how quickly this 1-15 franchise can be turned around, but he hinted that three seasons was something they are shooting for. According to Ireland, how fast depends on 1. momentum, 2. leadership, 3. chemistry, 4. the ball bouncing the right way. That’s typically GM talk.

He pointed out the he’s still addressing areas of concern on the roster, and plans to continue doing so throughout the season by raiding other teams cut downs, searching the waiver wire.

“No doubt about it, we will be spending a ton of time in training camp, in the 53-man cuts, to try to steal a couple of players off waivers,” Ireland said.

He said the next “prime trade window” is right around the end of camp, when teams have discovered what they’ve got, and don’t have from the exhibition games, which exposes strengths and weaknesses to the coaching staffs and front office personnel.

As for the present concerns, he admitted to working out a receiver on Wednesday and said the Dolphins presently have “decent depth” there, but seemed concerned about how young the group was. It seems like the Dolphins would like to find some veterans leadership at receiver.

He also singled out David Kircus, Jayson Foster and Davone Bess as young receivers who impressed him during OTAs. I second the Kircus endorsement. He speculated that Bess might be a young receiver they can “hang your hat on for a little while.”

Ireland also admitted to making a call inquiring about free agent center LeCharles Bentley, who was recently released by the Browns. Ireland said his philosophy is to turn over “every rock that comes your way to see what there is,” gauging interest levels.

He also said the scouting staff evaluates AFL, CFL players on a regular basis, and every NFL teams current roster, and players have grades that are usually no older than 9 months. When one becomes available their recent games are evaluated, they are investigated, and the grades get updated.

Ireland also touched on the team continuing to explore playing in a 3-4 defensive scheme, and said he thinks Jason Taylor would fit perfectly in it, especially since he’s done it already in the Nick Saban era, winning the NFL Defensive Player of the Year honor in a role as a pass rushing outside linebacker.

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