http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/...p03,0,3400247.column?coll=sfla-dolphins-front FIRSTDOWN? Jets roll dice with Wise N.Y. entrusting 2 first-round picks to embattled coach. Alex Marvez NFL WRITER September 3, 2006 Is it wise to have two new Ferraris serviced by a hack mechanic? In NFL terms, that's what Tony Wise's critics believe the New York Jets are doing. As the team's new offensive line coach, Wise has tutorial responsibilities for two 2006 first-round draft choices -- tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson and center Nick Mangold. The Jets have to hope those rookies develop better than many of the youngsters Wise coached during four seasons with the Dolphins. Of the nine linemen drafted by the Dolphins between 2001 and 2004, five are no longer with the team. Two picks (center Rex Hadnot and right tackle Vernon Carey) are playing with the first-team line, Wade Smith is a reserve guard, while right guard Seth McKinney was projected to start until undergoing season-ending neck surgery. But current Dolphins offensive line coach Hudson Houck deserves the credit for Carey's emergence after a disappointing rookie season under Wise in 2004. The role NFL assistant coaches play in molding college talent shouldn't be underestimated. Just ask Dolphins defensive tackle Dan Wilkinson. Cincinnati selected Wilkinson first overall in the 1994 draft. But Wilkinson was handed to a position coach who had never worked on the NFL level. Joe Wessel was shifted to special teams coach the next year and is now out of football, but the damage to Wilkinson's development already was done. It took Wilkinson almost three seasons and three different position coaches to begin playing consistently well. "Looking back on it, there were things on my end and on the organization's end that just went wrong," Wilkinson told Bengals media last December. "From my end, it was just immaturity and not really knowing what I was going into and having that type of support of veteran guys and coaches that know how to get a young team headed in the right direction." By the end of his Dolphins tenure, Wise was vilified more than any of the franchise's other assistants since deposed defensive coordinator Tom Olivadotti in the mid-1990s. Wise's line played well in his first two Dolphins seasons, helping to pave the way for Ricky Williams' NFL-leading 1,853 rushing yards in 2002. But when the team's offense sputtered in 2003 and 2004, Wise and his charges faced mounting criticism. Wise's reputation was so damaged after the Dolphins' 4-12 record in 2004 that he sat out all of last season while collecting on the final year of his coaching contract. Wise, who was not made available by the Jets for comment, looked even worse when Houck produced a much better unit in 2005 with four of the same five starters from the previous season. Hired by new coach Eric Mangini in February, the Jets are hoping Wise regains the touch that helped him build one of the NFL's great all-time lines with Dallas in the early 1990s. Two of the unit's five starters in Super Bowl XXVII (center Mark Stepnoski and right tackle Erik Williams) were groomed by Wise beginning with their rookie season. It shouldn't take long for New York to learn whether Ferguson and Mangold are on track for the same kind of success. Both will be in the starting lineup next Sunday when the Jets open the regular season at Tennessee. Alex Marvez's football column appears Sundays during the season. He can be reached at amarvez@sun-sentinel.com. Material from other beat writers was used in this report.
Well this is a extremely disressing article to say the least. However the writer being a Dolphin beat writer may just have a tad of bias in him since he wrote the article more towards blaming Wise then blaming Wanny for the Dolphins failures.
I love how he was good in '01 and '02 but all of a sudden it's all his fault when ricky plays poorly then when Ricky quits on them.
Yeah I think it was funny how it's this guys fault that the dolphins drafted a bunch of crappy lineman. You can't get blood from a rock.
Like with any coach, time will tell. But linking Stepnoski and E. Williams to Wise, along with a league-leading rusher in R. Williams, isn't exactly proving your point. Just like it wouldn't be fair to lay all of the Jets problems last year on Marrone given the spate of injuries.
How many #1 picks were on that Dolphin line? Sometimes you can't make chicken salad out of chicken &^%&
What does it say about Wise, when he came begging for a Oline job from his good friend Norv Turner last year. Norv turner went in a diffrent direction.
A stupid article from a stupid Dolphin beat writer. Wise joined the Jets after most recently coaching the offensive line for the Miami Dolphins in 2001-2004In 2002, his unit helped pave the way for an AFC best 156.5 yards rushing per game. Prior to joining Miami he served in the same capacity with the Carolina Panthers (1999-2000) after spending six seasons with the Chicago Bears, four of which he also served as the assistant head coach. Wise entered the NFL in 1989 with the Dallas Cowboys and worked on Head Coach Jimmy Johnson’s staff until the completion of the 1992 season. Wise then departed for Chicago where he first served as the Bears’ offensive line coach from 1993-1994 and then added the duties of assistant head coach to his responsibilities through the 1998 season before taking the offensive line position with the Panthers.
It says that Turner is an idiot. the Raiders oline was horrible last year and Turner was even worse hence his firing. Wise could have helped that oline out alot.
The scariest thing about the article was that Wise had to sit out last year because he could not get a job. Nobody wanted him last year or it appears this year. But at least he has expereince and maybe he can make th most of his second chance. Unfortunatley being unwanted appears to be the case with almost all of Mangini's staff and is one of the huge drawbacks in hiring a young inexpereinced coach who lacks in contacts, charisma and respect.
I'll take a wait-and-see approach. His lines have had great years and they've had terrible years. We'll see what he does here.
Guess you missed that I was the one who ID the writer as the Dolphin beat writer. However, in listening to WQAM.com there was a ton of negative verbage about Wise until he got axed.
I'm not worried. He had success in Dallas, and then not elsewhere. Anyone remember the discipline of the players themselves from those Dallas teams? They were coachable guys. I love how Wise is to blame for Wilkinson, but 2 other coaches couldn't fix him. To me, that says more about his own personal immaturity than anything else. Mangold and Brick are coachable players. I don't see how Wise is automatically going to make them bad. So far, I've liked what I have seen.
I hate for my first post to be somewhat negative but here goes: The Dolphins line was just completely awful the last two years of Wise's tenure. I mean probably the worst line in the league bad. Was that because of Wannestadt or Wise? I do not know. One thing for sure it was plain terrible coaching any way you want to slice it. I do not read the papers down here because I have zero interest in Florida sports. I do listen to sports radio because they have some great radio personalities. Judging from what I hear on the radio, the Sun-Sentinel does have some excellent beat writers (do not know about Football). I can also tell you the people with inside knowledge of the Dolphins absolutely skewered Wise and his piss-poor coaching. That much is fact. This was the one hire that made me cringe. I get free tickets and went to a lot of games down here the last two seasons. (both Jet Games). Trust me those offensive lines sucked bigtime. Given my druthers I think this hiring sucked. However, I think this FO has done a lot of good things, I just hope they can overcome this or Wise turns out to be ok. I worry for obvious reasons , we have a young line and this is the time they should get solid coaching.
Is it possible that the players he was coaching sucked? Like I said earlier you can't get blood from a rock...
Bad players, injuries, and a lot of mistakes by the front office contributed to the dulphin's o-line mess.... They still haven't recovered yet in my opinion.....
