This weekends impending visit by the Miami Dolphins has caused Herm supporters to dig up some old lies. With Miami proving a one-year turnaround can happen when you gut coaching and management, those wishing for Herm to “lead” the Chiefs in 2009 are desperate for anything they can find to write off the Miami (and Atlanta) phenomenon.

Herm joined the lying parade this week during his Tuesday press conference, where he repeatedly referred to the Dolphins as a very “veteran team.” While you can pull a Bill Clinton and argue the exact definition of the terms
“veteran” and “team,” there’s no mistaking the intent of his comments. It seems to be one of Herm’s fundamental beliefs that if you say something enough (three times perhaps?), maybe people will believe you without checking the facts.

Lie #1:
Miami is just a “quick fix” with old veterans.

Truth #1:
Miami is the 5th youngest team in the NFL according to the League.

Lie #2:
Miami’s 53-man roster may be young, but their starters are old.

Truth #2:
Just not true. I did the painful calculations myself. The Miami starting offense has an average age of 25.45 years as of Dec 31st, 2008. That’s younger than our beloved Chiefs, who have a current starting offense averaging 26.73 years old. Defense is harder to judge due to all of the Chiefs’ injuries and the Dolphins use of both the 3-4 and 4-3 defensive sets. Therefore, I take the top 15 contributors to each defense throughout the year to calculate an average age of 28.00 and 26.13 for the Dolphins and Chiefs defenses, respectively. So in the end, our offense is a little older, but our defense is a little younger. But that’s splitting hairs. We’re both young teams who are, in general, built for the future. The difference is that the Dolphins are also built to compete now and have competent management and coaching.

Lie #3:
Miami sacrificed the future to be competitive, but flawed, this year.

Truth #3:
Miami has been stockpiling draft picks just like the Chiefs in recent years, having many extra picks each of the last two years. And they didn’t have to give up a 26-year old Pro Bowl NFL leading sack artist defensive end to do it.

Lie #4:
We have more rookies starting, so we have better young players. Therefore, we’ll be better in the future.

Truth #4:
It’s amazing how often people mistake a starting player for one who actually deserves a starting spot in the NFL. Unlike most teams, Herm does not require players to earn their spot. He prefers to throw young guys in there to get experience. Right or wrong, this does not make them a better prospect; just a somewhat more experienced one.

Lie #5:
The only way to have long-term success is to build through the draft.

Truth #5:
While it is true that drafting is a vital component of long-term success, it is absolutely incorrect to imply it is the one and only component. Nearly every franchise, in any sport, that has found long-term success has continually built and retooled their team through all six important components: drafting, developing, free agency, trading, coaching, and management. Miami has utilized all of these. We’ve effectively utilized only… hmm… blind hope?

VLTC’s OTC Grades:

I apologize for not providing my grades/comments in a few weeks, but all things considered, not many things have changed. Tony Gonzalez gets an A+ every week, coaching gets an F, and the defensive line gets a Y-play. Can we invent the 1-7 defense? Oh wait; we don’t have any linebackers either…