As week 15 ended last night, I took a glance at some stats on NFL.COM to notice, Brandon Marshall sits 12^th in the league in receiving yards with 1,201 yards and 12^th in receptions with 70. Marshall is also 10^th in the league with 17 20+ yards receptions. Those numbers place him with the top names in the league. However that is the good Brandon Marshall.

The bad Brandon Marshall has been thrown to in the end zone 23 times this season, which is the most in NFL only resulting in 5 touchdowns, in large part to a lot of key drops that plagued him early in the season.  Marshall’s drops haven’t really gone away as he suffered two potential TD drops this past week in Buffalo. The Palm Beach Post counts seven dropped touchdown passes for Brandon Marshall on the season. That number is simply unaccpetable for an "elite" NFL WR.

 

Marshall season has been very solid statistically and 90 % of the season he has showed up in a big way on the field however he leaves you still thinking what could have been. Marshall’s numbers are up from last year but that might also be in part to Matt Moore playing significantly better then Chad Henne.

While Marshall has probably been one of the league’s best receivers this year it is important to note that with the money Miami is spending on him they need him to be special. We have seen glimpses of special play like his unbelievable grab against the Cowboys being dragged down by Newman but it has not been there at a consistent enough level.

Brandon Marshall truly gives you the good, the bad and the ugly on a week to week basis. In a 5-9 season I don’t think the Dolphins would have been much better had Marshall been able to get to the next level however despite a strong year this year, I will be expecting even more from Marshall next year. Marshall needs to give it 110% of his effort on every single snap. There is no question Marshall has all the tools and skills to be one of the best in the NFL. 

My thought is that Brandon Marshall has been good this year but not good enough yet. 

As Marshall tweeted earlier in the season:

Brandon Marshall @BMarshall19 5 Dec

Note to self: You haven't arrived.

Well here’s to hoping you land in Miami sometime soon.

In anticipation of one of the final games of the season against arguably the Dolphins toughest opponent year in and year out, Phins Phocus and Foxboro Blog have decided to hold a little Q+ A and find out what we think about each other’s squads.

1)    When you see the Dolphins on the schedule, what is your first thought?

For this year, I see the Dolphins as yet another challenge on the schedule. Let's face it. The Patriots are having trouble stopping any offense right now. Just look at the two games where Dan Orlovsky and Rex Grossman were continuing to drive down the field. Miami is red hot even without their head coach winning five of their last six games. The Patriots need to show in this game that they can beat up inferior competition if they want to be taken seriously as a defense that could take this team to Indianapolis in February. Miami may have nothing to play for, but you can never take division rivals lightly as we saw in September when Buffalo knocked off the Patriots.

2)    Do you really believe the Patriots defense is good enough to win a super bowl?

I don't think they can win the Super Bowl right now, but there is luckily plenty of time for the Patriots to prove skeptics wrong. Andre Carter was their best player on defense and now he is out for the season with a quadriceps injury. If Brandon Spikes and Patrick Chung do not come back, this defense is definitely vulnerable. Its hard to imagine Julian Edelman and Matthew Slater starting in a Super Bowl on defense. That being said, the Patriots can stop the run with the exception of the last two games and Mark Anderson was a nice sign of a pass rush against Tebow on Sunday. It is possible they can win a Super Bowl with the defense, but I am not as optimistic now as I was a couple of months ago.

3)      Which Dolphins player scares you the most?

For me, the one player that scares me the most is Brandon Marshall. Devin McCourty has been a shell of his 2010 self for the Patriots and Kyle Arrington is a cornerback that is known more for his interception ability than his pass coverage. Marshall has been a thorn in New England's side for the past few seasons. In 2009, he was the guy who helped the Broncos knock off the Pats under Josh McDaniels. In 2010, he had ten catches for 147 yards despite two Miami losses. This year, in New England's 38-24 win, Marshall came up big with seven catches for 139 yards. If the Dolphins are going to win this game, Matt Moore is going to have to beat the guy to beat them and having Brandon Marshall can definitely assist with that.

 

4)      Who is your Patriots MVP … Gronk or Brady?

The MVP on this Patriots' team is still Tom Brady. As great a season as Rob Gronkowski has had, Brady still is the driving force behind this offense. Chad Ochocinco has done nothing, Deion Branch has had his share of injuries and numerous young players like Taylor Price and Brandon Tate have been cut. Yet, Brady is still able to find a way to put up another great statistical season, with the exception of the four interception game in the loss to the Bills. He has to deal with all the pressure of having a defense that just can't stop anybody and yet he still puts up 30 points per game. But, think of all the times Tom has come through with drive after drive. Whether it was the TD to beat Dallas, the TD to almost beat the Giants, the 2nd halves against the Jets, or the 900 yards he put up in the first two weeks, Brady is delivering. I would go Brady 55%, Gronkowski 45%. That's how close and how great each of them have been so far this season.

 

Thanks to the folks at Foxboro blog for doing with us this week and I have a feeling they will be having a more enjoyable weekend then us Dolphins fans.

First off, I’d like to do something you want find me doing very much ever, thank you Jeff Ireland for trading for Reggie Bush.  While a lot of doubted can be placed on Ireland and most warranted, one place he did not screw up is with Reggie Bush.  Reggie had his first career 200 yard game and has just continued to play with his heart on the field every game. Reggie will end up being a 1’000 yard back for the first time in his career and has proven he can certainly carry the rock.

 

Personally, Reggie has become one of my favorite players to watch this year and can’t wait to see more of him in the Aqua and Orange.

The Dolphins certainly have the Bills number as the score was much closer then the game actually was. Vontae Davis had a highlight interception and Brian Hartline came down with a couple of beautiful grabs. The Dolphins really seemed to be clicking as they took down the Bills for the second time this season.

While it is important to enjoy all Dolphins wins, it is also important to have some perspective on Mondays. The Dolphins now move back to the 10^th pick of the NFL draft next year, as Washington won their game however Cleveland did not. The Dolphins might be playing themselves out of RG3 or Matt Barkley.

The Dolphins face the Patriots and Jets in their final two games of the season so there is still room to move up on the draft board. In my eyes the number 1 priority of this team should be to find the next franchise QB, so I hope we don’t have to look back in April and wish the Dolphins didn’t win some of these games.

We shall see it is only week 15 and there is still a lot of time for change!

It appears after all the speculation of all the different head coaching options for the Dolphins, Brian Billick is the current front runner.

 

Billick recently spoke with the Miami Herald where he told him “The Dolphins are a marquee franchise,” Billick said.  “But at the end of the day, it’s the structure of what they put together.” He told Barry Jackson of the Herald that the former Super Bowl winning Ravens coach would be interested in the coaching job in Miami.

When Billick was in the league there might have been no coach I hated more as it seemed his arrogance showed at every moment on the sidelines that being said his post football career has led me to a bit of a changing of the heart. Hearing Billick talk football on NFL Network and doing media bits on Mike and Mike and other places have led me to gain a strong respect for Billick’s football IQ.

Billick has a regular season coaching record of 80-64-0 and a post season record of 5-3 including a Super Bowl win. Billick has worked around the league as a tight end coach and offensive coordinator as well as being an assistant head coach at Stanford. Billick was also a part of an offense in Minnesota which was very explosive.

Although Billick’s Baltimore teams were not based on offensive fire power as you all know he was still able to manage games and get a team with Trent Dilfer at QB to a Super Bowl.

Billick led the Ravens as head coach for 9 years however only had 4 winning seasons. An issue I have with Billick is that his teams were either hit or miss. Billick either had strong contending teams or had complete slouches.

A Strength of Bilick is that he always had a strong staff that included names like Rex Ryan, Marvin Lewis, Jack Del Rio, Mike Smith, and Mike Nolan.

Bilick is a name with experience that isn’t as flashy as some of the others and might be more realistic to land. Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald said Billick would also be his best bet for the job.

A couple of days ago when we all found out that Tony Sparano had been relieved of his duties as head coach of the Dolphins the obvious big names started popping in people’s minds as the replacement for Tony. Now that a couple of days have settled, there are already a couple of reports of coaches who are planning on pass on the Phins should they be offered the gig. It is important to note that Jeff Ireland could possibly hold back the Dolphins in their coaching search as he would take away the power that a new potential head coach might be looking for.

Bill Cowher: Maybe the biggest A list coach on the market but however according to Dan Marino, he believes Cowher has no intention of returning to the sidelines. It was hard to picture Cowher could co-exist with Ireland anyways but at this point it would not be a stretch to say Cowher will not be taking any coaching positions in 2012.

 

Les Miles: Les made a statement made a statement to a CBS reporter (http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/rapid-reports/post/16453797) that he is not interested I the Dolphins head coaching position. Even though Les’s crazy ways have been rather successful in LSU, I am not certain he would have been a great fit with the Dolphins anyways.

 

Jeff Fisher: While Fisher hasn’t made any public comments on his availability or preferences in terms of coming back to the NFL, Tony Pauline reported that league sources have told him that Fisher might be in line to be the next head coach of the San Diego Chargers.

 

Something else to monitor is that Tony Dungy recently put out a video of head coaches he would consider for owners looking to fill a vacancy. The names on his list were Jay Gruden, Mel Tucker and lastly he highlighted Chip Kelly the head coach of the Oregon Ducks.

With all the new updates of the different coaching situations a dark horse name to look out for is Brian Billick. Billick did mention on one of his NFL Network programs you never know, when talking about the different vacancies around the league. Also note that Rob Chudzinski remains a hot name around the league. 

It should be an interesting offseason for our Dolphins