Q&A With Cam Cameron
On the official Miami Dolphins website, Coach Cameron addressed some of the fans concerns about the draft, mini-camps and the team as a whole moving into this season.
I thought this was really well done and he answered some of those questions exceptionally well!
Here is the complete Q & A. Be warned, it is a little long :)
Dolphins Head Coach Cam Cameron contributes a regular column for MiamiDolphins.com.
In his second column below, Cameron discusses his first draft, mini-camps and his style of offense.
May 14, 2007
Q. What message do you have for the fans as this point? You've been the head coach here for several months and a lot of things have happened. What would you like to tell them?
A.I want them to know I understand. I understand and a lot of those fans will know exactly what I mean. But I understand. I understand the feeling the fans had in how it related to the draft. The fans who were upset need to know all that happened was well thought out by all of us.
I understand the concerns they might have. But it's a process. There is a lot of hard work being done. We need their support. We need it all season long. I want our fans to let our play on the field speak for itself and then start forming their own conclusions. But I understand what they're going through and I remain devoted to bringing them what they want most.
Q. How much work remains to be done in shaping of this roster?
A. Not a lot in how it relates to this year. There is a lot of development that needs to happen with the guys we already have, which is not uncommon. We've got to get these rookies ready to play. Go through our team, there is a whole group of second and third year guys - the Ronnie Brown's of this team - that can really grow. That's what we need to see.
Q. You recently had the entire team together for mini camp. What impressions remain most vivid?
A. Just the improvement we've made. Obviously we have a solid defense. That stood out. We have a consistent defense with some great leadership in Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas, Keith Traylor, Yeremiah Bell and Joey Porter. They are all real pros. Yet I think our offense finally on Saturday of mini camp, after getting handled pretty well on Friday, finally responded and went out and competed.
We have to get to the point where we are truly competing at a high level every day so it's not so one-sided. I told the offense we have to compete against a good defense like ours. Let's not just roll over here. I didn't see much improvement in the offense in the first mini camp, but I saw it in the second mini camp. We now have a legitimate competition at a lot of positions, and that's good to see.
Q. Let's talk about the draft. In retrospect, did it all unfold the way you had hoped?
A. I would say yes and the reason I say that is because on Day One we were able to address all of the things we wanted to address. We were focused on one or two guys in each round and every time it was our turn to pick, we didn't have to trade up to get our guy. We were able to hold our ground, which is a great tribute to Randy Mueller.
I mean our phone was ringing off the hook. There were opportunities to trade from the first pick through the second day to move up to get people. But we hung in there. Not only did we fill some crucial needs on the first day, but on the second day we were able to get the middle guard that we wanted, the punter that we wanted and so on. How it all fell into place I don't know, but it pretty much did.
Q. Was your first draft as a head coach in the NFL comparable at all to game day excitement and pressure?
A. There were some similarities as your pick got closer and closer and the phone started ringing and the excitement started building. People were focusing on us. I was sitting next to Randy watching it all unfold. We knew the guy that we wanted was Ted Ginn Jr., but at the same time there were other options we would have been happy with.
I thought it was neat that not one single time in the draft right before our pick did somebody come in and take the guy we wanted. You never heard the room gasp from disappointment. I'm sure there will be some times in the future when we'll lose the player we wanted, but it didn't happen this year. But watching it all unfold, seeing your guy out there, the pressure building as each pick goes by, and then actually getting the guy you wanted, it's a pretty intense feeling.
Q. What sold you on Ted Ginn Jr.
A. He's just a football player. He has tremendous speed and with that comes a rare ability to change the game. It is so vivid in my mind what an impact kick and punt returner can do to your team, especially if you're a good defense team. As we kept looking at guys, we looked at the team we have today with a sold defense, and we asked ourselves: How can we make the biggest impact on offense? Here's a guy who is an impact punt and kickoff returner and who is going to be a great receiver.
Whether it happens this year isn't a big concern, because he can help us in so many other ways. Then when you start talking about the financial investment you're going to make in a Top Ten pick, he better be the right kind of guy. I was sold on his family. I was sold on the kid. I spoke to Jim Tressel, his coach at Ohio State, and he didn't do anything to sell the kid. I thought it was great. We had other coaches sell their guy hard. Tressel didn't try to sell us on Ted Ginn because he knew he didn't have to. The tapes spoke for themselves.
Q. A lot of coaches say they want to go 80 yards in 18 plays, take up a lot of time and leave their defense on the sideline. Some coaches say they want to go 80 yards on one play. What's your mindset?
A. I'm somewhere in between. We want to score as many ways as possible. The long drives are good. But when you try that power possession thing and it doesn't work, it's not very good. We want to score and not turn the ball over. We will be aggressive. Where my philosophy really developed was watching the Jimmy Johnson teams in Dallas. Jimmy had that great defense, but they had an offense that was always trying to score, score, score. I loved to watch that Dallas offense and how proficient it was.
Q. Let's turn to quarterback John Beck. The common theme seems to be that people marvel over his accuracy. Is that what you saw and how much tape did you watch?
A. What I tried to do over the years when I evaluate quarterbacks is to first look at all their tape. I watched every game John played for two years. But once you do that, to really get to know the player, what you need to do is focus on how he did on the road in the fourth quarter or in close games. I isolated all of those games for John Beck. That's the closest correlation to what he's going to be doing in the NFL every week.
What did I learn about John Beck? You should all look at the tapes. It's amazing what he did. Go look at the Utah game. Go look at the Boston College game. There are a million guys who can play great at home or can be accurate when it doesn't really matter. But on the road in close games? That's what sold me on Phillip Rivers and that's what sold me on John Beck.
Q. How much are you looking forward to getting this team in pads and start really evaluating things?
A. I'm really looking forward to it. I told our staff we're not going to come to too many judgments now because we've all seen when the pads come on things can change drastically to the benefit of a guy and also to the detriment of a guy. We're not going to put the stamp of approval on any player until we see him in pads and we see him playing in some preseason games.