Parcells steps down with undetermined legacy in Miami

There’s a very thin line between lauding Bill Parcells for resuscitating a Dolphins team that was gasping for oxygen in a Himalayan village known as the House that Cameron built, and cursing the man who rode into town on a white horse and leaves Miami (sorry, sticks around as a consultant) a few short years later with Jeff Ireland and Tony Sparano to kick around -- nothing against Ireland and Sparano. Maybe they’ll continue to build a solid, if not impressive foundation that Parcells started to build at Sun Life Robbie Pro Stadium Park. Maybe not.

But you can’t really criticize the Big Tuna yet, because his legacy is far from determined in Miami an you have to remember what he came to fix.

The post-Don Shula Dolphins can probably be explained in one easy run-on sentence: Jimmy Johnson makes his heroic return to Miami, establishes the defense Dan Marino sorely lacked but Johnson decides he wants to run the ball first even though he’s doing it with Karim Abdul-Jabbar and John Avery, so Marino’s last years are wasted, and new coach Dave Wannstedt is left with underrated but not that good Jay Fielder leading Wannstedt to trade for Ricky Williams who dominates but the rest of the team is subpar and Ricky decides he wants to discover himself in Australia, so Wayne Huzienga gambles with a college legend named Nick Saban to coach who shows promise but is doomed when he chooses Culpepper over Brees, so when Saban leaves, Huzienga tries to stick a band-aid on that gusher by bringing in offensive guru Cam Cameron who goes 1-15 and turns the Dolphins into a laughingstock.

Enter Parcells, a new sentence and easily the freshest breath of air since Jimmy Johnson.

It’s well documented that Parcells only sticks around a locker room for four years, so it’s no shocker that he’s on his way out. Also, he’s nearing 70, but so is Bob Dylan who performs 150 concerts a year, so age isn’t everything.

The question is whether the Dolphins are really better off now that Parcells had made his mark on the team?

Miami went from 1-15 in 2007 to the playoffs in 2008, which nearly cemented his legacy right there.

Everything went right for Miami in ‘07 -- a little luck here, a career year for Chad Pennington there, an easy schedule to throw in the pot.

The Dolphins, with the league’s toughest schedule, understandably took a step back in 2009. No love lost.

Now it’s year four, and it would take a stunner for Miami to wind up back in the playoffs. The schedule is brutal again, the secondary is unproven and Chad Henne is still a project whether or not the team wants to admit it.

Even if the Dolphins miss the playoffs for the eighth time in nine seasons -- an unthinkable feat before the 2000s -- Parcells will have left his role as vice president bringing in one of the five most talented receivers in the NFL in Brandon Marshall. Miami hasn’t had a receiver of his caliber since the 1970s (sorry Marks brothers), so that’s an accomplishment right there.

But if Henne is a failure, which is still a distinct possibility, it will have negated the Marshall signing and leave Miami scrambling to find a new quarterback in the next couple of years. He also drafted Pat White 44th overall, which was such a reach that it’s the equivalent of two bad draft picks.

Parcells' legacy could lie with Ireland and Sparano. If the Big Tuna fades away but Ireland continues to build a winner on his own, Parcells did his job.

As it stands, Parcells looks like the NFL’s Barack Obama -- he entered the job following one of the biggest failures in recent history. He looked like a savior. Time will tell if he leaves one, but we’re still in a recession.