“Too Bad YOUTH is Wasted on The Young”

An old bull and a young bull were standing on a hill looking down on a valley full of cows. “Hey”, says the young bull. “Let’s run down and mate with one of those cows…”
“No”, says the old bull. “Let’s walk down and mate with them all.”

The one thing that really upsets me with the young players we have drafted over the past 4 years (Jake Long excluded) is how these young players in my mind have the talent but they are missing the maturity to seize the great opportunity they have before them to cash in NOW while they are still young, to play at a top level and make huge money by the end of their rookie contracts.

I will tell you exactly who I am thinking of in a minute, but let me rant one more time that I do feel that the Former HC Tony Sparano was in over his head and did a very poor job of staffing quality coaches to help properly develop some of the young players entrusted to him. But only so much blame can be put on coaching, the players themselves need to take their careers seriously and understand that each year they fail to live up to their potential they are losing MILLIONS of dollars come time to get a new contract.

And the average lifetime of a NFL player is 4 years so unless they are blowing management away they will end up a veteran back up or out of the NFL at the end of their rookie contracts or before. So why the disconnect?

I think the title of this article explains it all, young folks have a hard time of understanding and seeing the future, they have no clue that they are sometimes wasting their lives away not realizing that “Father Time” is always ticking away as well as their youth. Not only can they not see the future, in many cases they don’t care about the future. Sadly they do not want to hear from folks (like that Old Bull with wisdom) who most likely care about them on what would be a wise course to take while they are young. It only hits them as they finally mature and by then they are to Old and that window of time where they SHOULD have taken advantage of has closed.

So just who do I feel fit into this category?
• Davone Bess (UDFA)
• Brian Hartline
• Vontae Davis
• Sean Smith
• Chris Clemons
• John Jerry
• Jared Odrick
• Koa Misi
• Nolan Carroll
• Reshad Jones
• Daniel Thomas
• Charles Clay
• Clyde Gates
• Mike Pouncey
• Jimmy Wilson
• Marlon Moore (UDFA)
• Roberto Wallace (UDFA)

These are the players who have been drafted or picked up as UDFA’s who SHOULD be looking to this year to make a difference NOW is the time and no excesses needed.

Now if you include the current rookies drafted this year who I will give a pass because most Rookies will need the first year just to get a clue on what the NFL is like as opposed to the amateur football they have played since pee wee leagues….

• Ryan Tannehill
• Jonathan Martin
• Olivier Vernon
• Michael Egnew
• Lamar Miller
• Josh Kaddu
• B.J. Cunningham
• Kheeston Randall
• Rishard Matthews

That is 25 players drafted by Miami on the roster who Miami has invested  time and money in and it’s time these players show the Team that they really appreciate the privilege of playing in the NFL and for the Miami Dolphins. Like I said earlier I blame coaching more than anything as to how these young players develop, these coaches should be smart teachers who can take these young men who are like a lump of clay and turn them into whatever they can and aid them (through TEACHING) to reach their full potential I had zero confidence in the previous coaching staff headed by Tony Sparano who I just did not feel he was a teacher more than a modern-day Sargeant Carter who after a while his style wears off and he ultimately never carry out the very thing he is responsible for PLAYER DEVELOPMENT!

I do not know what we will get with this new Staff headed up by Joe Philbin but I do feel much more confident that we have better coaches in place to aid these young players (through teaching) in reaching their goals. This team is now playing Chess rather than checkers.