In the song Eminem tracked for the motion picture 8 Mile, he talks about getting "one shot, one opportunity and one that comes once in a lifetime."
Jeff Ireland is at a cross roads with the Dolphins franchise and fans come tomorrow at 4PM.
All weekend long, the Dolphins’ front office has been burning the phone lines to lure the likes of free agents Mike Wallace, Jared Cook, Eric Winston, and many others to South Florida for a revival unseen since last year’s spending frenzy by Jeffrey Loria of the Miami Marlins or Miami Heat in 2010.
In one example, you have a franchise (Marlins) predicated on pitching development in the minors with a blending of free agents from rival teams. On the other hand, the Miami Heat who have been the team that South Florida has all of a sudden taken ownership of after winning their second world title and have the best basketball player in the NBA in LeBron James. From both examples, the Miami Heat have become second nature in the closets of most Dolphins fans with James and Wade jerseys. As for the Marlins, their spending frenzy lead to disappointment after a season in their new home Marlins Park and a win loss record that fell short of making the playoffs. The result, their owner, Loria decided to sell off his talented high priced talent and send them packing to Toronto Canada. For the Marlins, this is nothing new, except they used to only sold players after winning championships.
Picture this, the Miami Dolphins bring the Lombardi back to South Florida. What a site that will be! That’s right South Florida, a region that makes up Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. This is the area of Florida that has the richest football talent. All of the best football players come from Florida, but don't stay in Florida. The University of Miami used to have market share if you will of this entire area.
See, the Miami Dolphins, the darlings of the NFL in the 1970s and 1980s, with an upcoming logo unveiling and finally the prospect of 400 million dollar renovations need to come through during free-agency this week. They must target and reel in the big names.
Ireland needs to strike quickly when the offers become real and agents aren’t just throwing numbers out. Jeff Ireland is looking to re-stock both his offense and defense to make the Dolphins playoff bound. Ireland must load up with the estimated 31 million in cap room after mortgaging the future on Brian Hartline for 30.775 million and Matt Moore for another 8 million dollars. Deals that by some estimation seemed overly generous by some media members and a sign that these players had real value to the Dolphins and no one else.
To achieve greatness and build a playoff caliber team, the Dolphins GM must act fast and have his hands all over every burner phone he can get to. Every potential free agent needs to have a meeting with Ireland. On one hand he has to have Mike Wallace in the building signing the larget contract for a wide receiver and other potential free agents waiting just outside his office.
The headquarters for the Dolphins in Davie, Florida must be open for business all week long and not worry about spending time or money on renovating locker rooms. Ireland must have theese guys that will be signed, sealed, and delivered for 2013 and beyond.
Most Dolfans can’t even stand any more bad news at this point. If Ireland still has 31 million in cap room left by tomorrow evening, we’ll know something has gone terribly wrong and the next GM can come in and take the surplus of cap room and use it wisely next year. Remember, this is it, "you only get one shot…do you capture it…or let it slip."
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