As for the season opener against the Cleveland Browns this past Sunday Mike Wallace had a right to be upset and I will explain to you exactly why. He is being used! Somewhat in the way we expected him to be used because we all know that one benefit of having Mike Wallace is that he would open up the field for the other players to benefit like Brian Hartline who can exploit the #2 CB or even #3 CB’s if Gibson is playing well too. It’s by design that the team take advantage of Wallace’s speed as it opens up defenses or as the NFL jargon puts it “Taking the top off the defense” that is all good and it seemed to work very well Sunday.
Wallace helped out the OTHER receivers in the game Sunday. Hartline, Gibson & Clay all had more catches in the game and more targets in the game (targets being balls thrown their way) than Mike Wallace. There is no excuse to use the guy and not reward him too. How is it possible that he gets no balls thrown his way, no hand offs, reverses, screens, time in the slot, not even a look in the first half of the first game of the season? Zero balls thrown his way in the first half!
Now the most logical and natural way to think about the game is Miami won so why should he complain? And I am sure if you look at Wallace’s reply “ask coach” to those pesky reporters who are looking to create a story, knowing what they are writing will create drama. They knew Wallace was not happy and they knew exactly why or at least think they know. Apparently Wallace had to be escorted from the field by Jeff Ireland when Wallace seemed extremely upset, So the natural response from a person whose job/career is not on the line is to say ”They won the game what does he have to complain about?”
I will tell you exactly why he has the right and should have complained. What will happen if game one repeats in game two or game three or become the norm for the season? You and I both know the media and fans (yes the same ones saying he should be happy for the win) will be calling Mike Wallace a bust. The Ireland haters Will use this as another reason to bash him and the team? The un-knowledgeable fans will be saying why is he being paid 60 million dollars and he is not producing?
He is already taking hits from fans now because he is being portrayed as an unhappy camper with his limited production Sunday. Some already are calling him selfish and he has not even said anything but the pots been stirred by the media already.
I always try to look at life with a view towards being empathetic and so let’s put ourselves in Mikes shoes. You spend 60 million dollars to get me and put all this pressure on my shoulders only to have me run decoy routes? The #2 WR who proved he is a #2 WR last year with 1 TD all season is getting 15 passes to my 4 passes in the game and I am the guy who is looked at as the #1 WR? (the truth is in this system they treat all WR’s the same they want them interchangeable)
Some will say he is jealous of Hartline, many who are Hartline fans will compare the two no matter what. Some want to call him the new problem child it goes back to my article on the TMZ reporting football (https://dolphinseer.wordpress.com/?s=TMZ) is turning into where gossip and drama are the flavor of the day. It is a dangerous way of reporting because of it’s insidious nature to undermine teams management, fans and owners and create mostly negative reactions. (See Armando Salguero)
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolphins_in_depth/2013/09/dolphins-win-but-wallace-upset.html
What happened to Wallace is concerning to me just like my concerns in how Reggie Bush was underutilized when he was in Miami and Bush had similar speed (the kind that Wallace has) and Mike Sherman failed to capitalize on it. If you go back to all of my writings since we let Reggie walk you will see that I questioned WHY they failed to do with Reggie what the Lions did Sunday with him. 90 yards rushing and 100 yards receiving! Wow….did they even give Miami a kiss when stealing Reggie away?
Wallace also can be under-used in the way they failed to use Reggie in screens, in the slot, in motion anything to get him the ball in the open. The fact that they failed to do that with Reggie leads me to believe it is a fundamental flaw in the offensive planning. I am officially question Mike Sherman’s play calling as of this article and my follow-up article. It is a concern for me and I am not reacting after game one, I have held these concerns ever since I failed to see Reggie Bush utilized correctly under his watch. So Wallace should be concerned as well. Especially considering the natural reaction headed his way about why did we pay him 60 million dollars? That coming from the illogical fans and maybe some with life’s issues who will easily go there.
So this idea that Wallace is a good decoy is ok IN LIMITED USE! What was witnessed Sunday was negligence the same negligence that has Reggie Bush in Detroit!
Is it possible, knowing who we have on the schedule in the next few weeks that Miami planned to show as little as possible on offense to not have on tape some of our plays for our opponents to study and so they applied the one trick pony approach to keep some things close to the vest? If that is the case would it not have behooved the coaches to explain that to Wallace before the game?
Miami paid this kid 60 million dollars it will be hard to ever prove his worth with that kind of money. That is a lot of pressure on any player to live up to that and if he is our number 1 WR how can you justify not having Wallace involved in one single play in the first half of the game against Cleveland Sunday?
It border lines on either incompetence or negligence (see article titled Calling out Mike Sherman) https://dolphinseer.wordpress.com/2013/09/10/calling-out-mike-sherman/
The Dolphin Seer 