Is it possible that our greatest need going into the draft is RB? I guess that would depend on who you talk to, but even if it’s not the most glaring need, if we intend on running the ball considerably more than we did last season, we’re going to need an infusion of talent and numbers in our RB stable.
Jay Ajayi RB 6’0″ 221
As it stands now, the feature back would be 2nd year RB Jay Ajayi. Ajayi, who played his college ball at Boise St., was considered by many to be a 2nd RD talent. Medical news day of the draft circulated like wildfire and the red flags went up immediately. Apparently, the news was Ajayi had so little cartilage remaining in his knee that he was basically almost bone on bone, at which point it becomes so painful, it’s career ending. Ajayi tore his ACL in 2011, his redshirt season at Boise St. In 2012, Ajay came back slowly from his injury, garnering only 82 carries for 548 yards, 6.7 YPC and 4 TD’s. in 2013, Ajayi figured more prominently, getting 249 carries for 1425 yards, 18 TD’s, along with 22 receptions for 222 yards and 1 TD. Obviously, Ajayi was back and healthy. 2013 cemented that Ajayi was not only back, but he could be a workhorse back. Ajayi carried the ball an astounding 347 times for 1823 yards, and an unbelievable 28 rushing TD’s. He also caught 50 passes for 535 yards and 4 TD’s. OK, so just how much was Ajayi the Boise St. offense??? 2378 total yards, and 32 TD’s! Incredible!
Ajayi performed well at the NFL combine. While not a speedster, he ran 4.57, but as important for a RB, is that quick burst. Ajayi ran 4,10 20 YD shuttle (top performer), a 39 ” vertical (tp), 121 broad jump (tp), and 11.60 60 YD shuttle (tp). OK, so Ajayi is an athlete, a former soccer player with very good feet, and we can see from the drills, lots of explosion.
Who can we draft to be part of an effective rushing attack in 2016? Let’s take a look!
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Ezekiel “Zeke” Elliott RB Ohio St. 6’0″ 225
The clear cut best RB available in this draft will most likely not be available to the Dolphins if we stay at #13, but if somehow Ezekiel “Zeke” Elliott makes it to our pick at #13, it will give the Dolphins a very difficult choice. Elliott has been compared to former Colts and Cards RB Edgerrin James. Elliott was a great back for Ohio St., a true 3 down RB. Elliott topped 1800 yards in both his sophomore and junior seasons, 1878 and 1821 respectively. Elliott averaged 6.9 YPC his sophomore year and 6.3 YPC in his junior, along with scoring 18 TD’s and 23 TD’s respectively. He’s the real deal, and while he may not be a prospect of Adrien Peterson’s ilk, he is a great prospect, quite worthy of an early first pick. In 592 carries, Zeke has a fumble rate of 162.5, which means he fumbles once per 162.5 carries, very solid. Fumbling is clearly not an issue. Again, odds are, Zeke is gone by pick #13, so although he would be a great addition to our rushing attack, let’s look at some RB’s who have a better chance of being available to us after our 1st pick.
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Derrick Henry RB Alabama 6’2″ 247
Derrick Henry is the big boy of the group, at 6’2″ 247, Henry is reminiscent of former NY Giants RB Brandon Jacobs. Not quite as big as Jacobs who was 6’4″ 264, he’s certainly big enough. A physical RB who is fast for his size, Henry ran a 4.54 40, along with a 37″ vertical, and 11.50 60 yard shuttle, which shows he’s athletic for his size. One of the negatives with Henry is he tends to run more upright, partly due to his size, and that opens him up for more hits and punishment from defenders, despite the fact that Henry delivers his fair share of punishment too. If we’re looking to really become a run heavy team, or at least closer to a 50/50 ratio of run to pass, we could do worse having a tandem of Ajayi and Henry. We could then pick up a change of pace back later on, one that’s faster and smaller, as we don’t have that type of back at the moment. Henry rushed for 2219 yards on 395 carries last season (junior year) for 5.6 YPC average along with a college football leading 28 TD’s. Henry doesn’t offer much as a receiver, logging only 17 total receptions in 3 years at Alabama. He is, however, a workhorse who finds his way into the endzone, and lord knows, the Dolphins could stand to score more of those.
__________________________________________________________________
Keith Marshall RB Georgia 5’11” 219
Keith Marshall is about the same size as former Dolphins RB Lamar Miller. He’s actually a bit faster too, running the 40 at a blazing 4.31, and may be an intriguing choice for the Dolphins later in the draft. Marshall chose to play all 4 years at Georgia. In his sophomore year, Marshall suffered a torn right ACL. Due to that injury, Marshall has a very small body of work, only 253 total carries, 117 of which were in his freshman year. Marshall appears to be very healthy, and could be a steal in mid to later RD’s. Marshall also has good ball security, so he has low mileage, speed and agility, and holds on to the football. He could be that change of pace type back for us initially.
___________________________________________________________________
Kenyan Drake RB Alabama 6’1″ 210
Kenyan Drake is Derrick Henry’s RB mate at Alabama. Drake was the change of pace for the workhorse Henry. Drake had a total of 233 carries in 4 years at Alabama for 1495 yards, for a nice 6.4 YPC. Drake finished with a total of 18 TD rushing TD’s in his college career, but understandably a low figure, considering he took the backseat to Henry who scored 28 TD’s in his senior year. He’s a potential mid to late RD pick for Miami.
________________________________________________________________
There are quite a few other prospects that the Dolphins will be looking at, especially if we don’t pick up a solid veteran RB to compliment what we already have. Last week we picked up two former 2nd RD picks, Isaiah Pead from the Rams and former Dolphins 2nd RD pick, yes, the infamous “DT 3”, Daniel Thomas, who rejoins the team. Can either of those 2 recapture what made them 2nd RD prospects in the first place? Not likely, but I think there is a chance Daniel Thomas can stick on the roster, because one thing Thomas excels at is pass protection as a RB.
Piggy/Wedge have already gone into depth with many of the RB’s, and will likely continue to do so, so I won’t tread on “their” territory, and leave that to them. If there are RB’s that you think we should be interested, bring them up on the blog and we’ll discuss them!
Finsmob Unleashed 
I do like my UF players but when i search for people for the Phins i simply want the best for my pro team, if they match up thats great. UF’s defense was one of the best in the nation, not hard to understand why players off that squad would be good fits for just about any team but in particular their top DL/DE, their top CB, their top SS and their top LB are in this draft with us having needs at LB, CB, S and DE…..so…..
Not to mention the fact i watch closely, all UF games means i know these guys really well.
A lot of the same reason are why my mock drafts typically are so heavy with SEC players until closer to draft time because i know those guys, i know the competition level, and i have seen most every game they have played…. more research i put toward other guys the more i become a little more diverse in my drafts. I am firmly convinced though you could make a roster out of all SEC talent and have a VERY strong team. Its a really competitive division.
Ken, I didn’t say Henry was slow, I said he’d be too slow to get thru in a ZBS. He’s more a PBS guy.
Mike & others, I don’t know for certain what scheme the OL will employ. But Gase does run variations of a WCO w/ elements of ZBS.
You said “too slow.” I don’t care what scheme it is Henry is not slow. He is pretty damn quick.
D, that’s what I see in Bullard too.
“Gase is not locked into one specific type of scheme, and his offense is a combination of various concepts and principles. He likes to spread defenses out to create mismatches for his receivers and tight ends, but he also likes to run the football with a combination of zone-blocking and power-running schemes.”
Sounds like to me his run will come more out of a power scheme and perhaps passes will be more WC like with zone blocking concepts.
In Chicago they definitely showed more power run than zone run from what i saw.
Henry combined with Ajayi would be a pretty decent combo. Henry has shown to be really durable, he doesnt have a lot of mileage on the tires and for carrying the bulk of the load he would be a great addition, as for the zone style runs, Ajayi could easily fill that role, giving him a better chance at a longer shelf life and he most likely would be a better option for passing. I think that combo would be pretty solid and definitely would server to help Ajayi avoid injury.
I agree. I could dig it!
That GIF Tim posted above of the Kangaroo is one of those examples of crazy inter species animal friendships. As it turns out the Kangaroos’ best friend is a crocodile that lives in that water hole. LOL
LOL
I’m not a huge fan of Henry
Not only does he not create anything for himself
but he is not very physical at all and doesn’t use that great size he has
I think Henry has good vision
but I think he is the kind of back who needs a ton of carries to be effective
We don’t need a guy like that to split carries with Ajayi
Like I said: Howard, Booker, Collins or Dixon are all excellent targets IMO
If we are talking about some one o split time with Ajayi – I think one of those 4 can do a great job for us
More than anything else
It bothers the heck out of me to see a guy that big avoid contact
Hey Rock
Have you seen any of my posts about the Riftwar saga?
Hey Rock – Did you see this post? lol
Here is your physical runner
Not as big as Henry
But scrappy as hell
Piggy likes his draftees scrappy
Is he almost as good as Seastrunk? 🙂
this guys might actually play in the NFL
Hey I nailed Jeremy Hill that year
Give me a break on Seastrunk
everyone has a Brady Quinn moment
Looking at the backs this year, Zeke i think is a guy you are going to invest in IF you feel you want a primary back and not a back by committee approach. You therefore invest in him, and a first rounder makes sense. I think though Gase likes to mix things up and i think he likes to change out his backs so he can heel you guessing what package he is running any given play and therefore i dont think a primary back is of much consequence to his offense. I dont really see us going RB in the first with our pick because of that and i do think someone will draft him in the first.
Henry is considered by a lot to be the second best back in the draft and if you never watched him at Alabama running over a lot of talented SEC defenses you might not see why. I would suggest however you go watch those films and it will easily become apparent. He is a back you could use as a primary back in a pure power based run scheme, our in a hybrid scheme like ours most likely will be, he could be a tandem back. As a second round pick he would be solid addition to the team and would take a lot of pressure of Ajayi, who i think might wind up having a good career with us IF we use him sparingly. Henry helps with that as he could be more of the bell cow.
Kieth Marshall and Kenyan Drake i think could be the flip of that, Ajayi would be more of the grinder back for power runs and Drake/Marshall would be more of the change of pace, receiving backs, zone run backs. Drake because of his size can handle power runs and he make second level cuts well so out of those two he is probably closer to a every down option for us and probably the closest thing other than Dixon to filling a primary back role.
Dixon i heard people comparing him to Lynch, but to me he’s Matt Forte. I think if anyone would be on the field for most the downs in an offense that will have both zone and power runs, and also feature a lot of designed mismatch RB passes, its probably Dixon. As i mentioned before i think if we go the route of drafting Dixon we are pretty much going to use Ajayi more as a true backup, or someone we use to let Dixon catch a breather not so much a complement back or as a RB by committee approach. I mean this isnt a bad thing, but of all the backs we are featuring here, Dixon is the most complete/versatile.
I see a lot of Henry running all over the field
but not so much running over defenders
He must have ran to the endzone part of the field a lot then, because he scored 28 frigging TD’s! Along with the 2219 yards.
We need a scrappy Running Back
(Piggy tears a piece of meat off a cow with his bear trotters and eats it)
SCRAPPY!
Hey Rock
Did you see Mike E’s posts
they start off with “Hey Rock”
LOL!
Piggy
I think you have the bacon eye for WR’s. You got that shit down.
I haven’t even looked at WRs this year
Yeah Mike
He scored a ton of TDs for Alabama
but Alabama has been opening holes for RBs who run all over people for a few years now
I just don’t see a RB who runs at people or over people
I don’t think you can mistake Henry, bc of his size, with Lynch or other big backs
He just does not run that way
This was one of the worst OL’s in several years for Alabama, their OT’s we pretty bad, and truthfully only Ryan Kelly was worth mentioning.
Piggy and more of his man on man sex stories:
“Hey I nailed Jeremy Hill that year”
I was drunk
I really could care less about landing a stud RB this year as long as we are prepared go after Fournette or Nick Chubb next year, again next year’s RB class is diverse and studly.
@AdamSchefter: Dolphins claimed DB Ifo Ekpre-Olomu off waivers from Browns, per source.
Smile piggy
Ifooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
(Blowing in a conch)
Ifooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
He has potential but i hear his injury is pretty bad. I dont know if he will ever really recover so i wouldnt get hopes up.
its no reason not to draft a CB high
but it might be a gift we need
I don’t know how bad it was
But appear entry Ifo thinks it feels fine
That article itself says a recent MRI made the browns decide to cut him. Its not like they save much cutting him because of his low salary so the decision to do so must have been because they dont feel he will be able to hold up to NFL punishment.
Sometimes they get it wrong, hell a lot of people say Drew Brees was done, our team was one of them, and they were very wrong as it turns out.
I darn near forgot about opening day
GO MARLEENS 🙂
For you Mets fans
Elias Sports Bureau (@EliasSports) | Twitter
2 hours ago – View on Twitter
For 1st time since 1962, #Mets will open a season with a 2B-SS combo of veterans making their team debut (Walker & Cabrera). 4 pm on @SNYtv
“For 1st time since 1962, #Mets will open a season with a 2B-SS combo of veterans making their team debut (Walker & Cabrera”
Huh?
Rock always shows his ASS then leaves.
Piggy must be delighted. I’m actually kind of excited about Ifo too!
Dolphins claimed DB Ifo Ekpre-Olomu off waivers from the Browns.
Ekpre-Olomu “redshirted” for the Browns last season after a severe knee injury torpedoed his draft stock. Still only 22, Ekpre-Olomu has enough theoretical upside to warrant a 90-man roster spot, but his health is working against him.
I agree with Piggy. Henry is far from a power back. Despite his size, he’s more of a finesse runner. Reminds me of a bigger version of DT3 with his one cut ability but he really doesn’t power over people. you’ll see him every once in awhile take on someone head on but more often than not he tries to use a move to go around then to use power to go over them. And, like Piggy said, he doesn’t create anything. If he’s got too much in front of him at the line he’s usually dead in the water.
When he is running through the middle the will take on a defender, i have seen him lower his head and drive through a guy, and i have also seen him stiff arm and shed runners draped over his legs. He definitely runs with power, you cant have 250 lbs moving that fast and not bowl through people. You are right though when he has open field he avoids contact, but he doesn’t “finesse” that indicates he dances around, he is a true north south runner and i haven’t seen many times he doesn’t get positive yards. I want my backs to read cuts and make them and stay north south, but i also want something more than a guy who just lowers his head and rams it up in there (that was worded just for you FFR). Two things about those guys, they have short lifespans in the NFL and they dont always get the most out of every play.
Im not all rah rah Derek Henry but i do not think finesse runner is at all fair for a moniker.
Dixon isnt one of those runners either for that matter… in fact Jordan Howard i think is one of the only guy i think is a elite drive it up in there guy and i think he is going to wind up out of the league in a few years from injury. He got hurt a good bit at Indiana and there are much bigger boys in the NFL.
A power runner is a guy like Earl Campbell or Bo Jackson who constantly take on defenders when they run the ball. Henry is not that guy. He avoids contact more than he initiates it and THAT is the definition of a finesse runner. He’ll go into a defender once in a blue moon but more often than not he does not.
Why does it matter if Dixon is out of the league in a few yrs? How many guys actually stay on any team longer than 4 yrs? Ideally you to draft a rookie, have him be a great player, and stay on your team for 10 yrs, but that doesn’t happen often enough to worry about it.
That plays into my philosophy of win now, you don’t know what the future will bring. I don’t like the big FA signings, because it screws up your cap for yrs to come, but you do have to have some great players, just hope they’re at the right positions.
Tim
First time since 1962 the Mets will have a new veteran 2B and SS on opening day. Not a rookie, but someone who wasn’t on the team before.
Oh. Is that a big deal? LOL
IEO is only 22. So let him simmer some, rehab, & let VJ coach him up. He’s undersized & his technique needs work, but he’s got a ton of talent. Let him hang around for as long as it’s reasonable & see if it all comes together at all.
Browns fans and Ducks fans say we got a steal. One actually said I don’t know why I’m a Browns’ fan after trading this future HOFer. I’ve never heard of him before, but this seems like a no lose situation, at a position of our biggest need.
If you watch Daniel Thomas’ highlights from KState and Derrick Henry’s highlights from Alabama you see a lot of similarities. Yes, Henry is a much bigger back but neither try to take on defenders like Csonka, Jackson, Campbell and others. They are both finesse backs despite the size. Once cut, avoid contact.
I think with our issues blocking for RT, DT3 might be a good 3rd down back, and he can catch. We should’ve signed him last yr and let Damien go.
D says:
April 5, 2016 at 4:33 pm
I really could care less about landing a stud RB this year as long as we are prepared go after Fournette or Nick Chubb next year, again next year’s RB class is diverse and studly.
i agree with you but i would take dalvin cook over either of those two if he has the same kind of year he had last year.
Son’s first mock:
1. Shaq Lawson – DE
2. Connor Cook – QB
3. Landon Turner – OG
4. CJ Prosise – RB
5. Bronson Kaufusi – DE
6. Alex McAlister – OLB
7. Joe Dahl – OT
(The Connor Cook love from the Fins is real)
You think Kaufusi lasts that long?
‘in fact Jordan Howard i think is one of the only guy i think is a elite drive it up in there guy’
what and that wasnt worded just for me too.
(The i am any qb even unproven college ones are better then tanny and i would waste an early pick on one rather then fix other needs of the team that dont even have an average player there cause i cant see past just hating the qb love from the Fins is real)
there i fixed it for you.
perfect
‘A power runner is a guy like Earl Campbell or Bo Jackson who constantly take on defenders when they run the ball.’
lou,
i wonder in todays nfl how those two would be considered coming out of the draft. i get maybe jackson cause of his overall athletic ability maybe thought of as a good player but i just wonder in the world of lets make sure even your half ass qb can throw for 3500 yards what running backs like that would be thought of in the draft.
you’re kidding, right? There wouldn’t be a rb in this year’s draft who would come close to what these guys were coming out. If they were in this year’s draft they’d still be the two best.
who’s the half ass qb?
I can’t tell what you’re trying to say there “I just wonder in the world of lets make sure even your half ass qb”. you wanna try again?
No it’s the Gase got a close look at the tape love
I heard Gase left the building with obvious jitters for the first couple of weeks as he studied the tape of his new offense and in particular his new QB.
Like Tom Hanks in “Saving Private Ryan “
I know that’s not true because it wouldn’t be just jitters. He’s shit himself.
son
ok come on dude that was average at best. if you really want to stir up the masses you got to do way better then that. here let me show you how the master does it
i heard gase was caught walking ouf or tannys house yelling over his shoulder. now tanny, that is how you deliver the long deep ball
A source heard Mrs Gase referring to her husband as not sleeping and walking through the house in a trance muttering and occasionally banging his head into walls
The Mets finally beat those pesky Royals 2-0 today. They need to get away from the Royals for awhile and go play someone else. LOL
I thought it was Rudock from Michigan they really liked?
Passers by of Gases’ closed office door almost unanimously hear coach shouting things like ” are you kidding me”
“You didn’t just… Holy crap”
” what in the hell was that”
Cook = Cassel
Cook is the one who can make NFL throws and hit the tight windows. He’ll be good.
Ok, but he did failto complete over 60% in any of his season with the Sparty’s ya know?
He holds the record for career wins at MSU.
Son, hate to break up your ‘trash the hotel party’ but Gase has been on record saying he already saw Tanny playing in both Denver & Chicago in preseason.
He took the job partly because of Tannehill, not in spite of him. Let’s not forget Gase turned down other offers.He knows what he’s getting and said he thinks highly of the skill set & work ethic.
He didn’t just open a CrackerJack box and find a Tanny….lol 🙂
So, what if Gase turned down offers from other teams? We don’t know squat about this guy. He’s never been an NFL HC so nobody knows if he’s going to do shit in Miami until the team actually takes the field for at least half the season. Even then you don’t know. Look at Atlanta. Gase could come in and go 5-11 the next 2 seasons so the fact that Gase “endorsed” Tannehill in his comments means nothing.
Whatever, that could be said about any coach no matter how much experience they have.
Fact Gase was the most highly sought after HC candidate.
True. I remember a lot of fans wanting Fisher to be the HC. I also remember a ton of fans who wanted Matt Flynn as the qb when Philbin was first hired. Point is, doesn’t matter if Gase was highly sought after as a HC. He’s nothing until he proves it in Miami. Bears offense didn’t look too good last season. In fact, they were worse than Miami in passing.
here’s a guy who’ll be starting in the CFL next season:
Gase wants to know if there’s a lemon law for coaches? Lol
professorloumiamidolphinsblog says:
April 5, 2016 at 7:09 pm
perfect
lol lou,
dont get my response wrong to son. was just having some fun with him. he loves to come here and make his over the top troll comments about tanny to have fun and stir up the masses. not like he really means half the shit he says
lou,
i was serious about the rb question. i am not saying those two would not be some of the highest rated rb’s in the draft but i was more asking with the changes in the nfl for ‘even half ass qb’s to throw for 3500yards’ how valuable they would be to teams.
and i wasnt meaning any qb in particular but here. tanny threw for 4200 yards last year on a 6-10 team and you think he is an absolute horrible qb. i think he is just slightly better then average but yet he still threw for 4200 yards. it doesnt take much for a qb to rack up the yards in todays nfl
I think the running game is still very valuable. This team last season was a perfect example. We can’t rely of throwing the ball 37 times a game to get us in scoring position. That’s pretty much a proven fact. If we ran the ball consistently and were able to average about 120 yds a game rushing it would have made a huge difference.
We can’t have Tannehill throwing the ball more than he does right now. That’s not going to win games for us. If we don’t run the ball more and run it effectively our offense will never improve. If we improve pass protection we’ll get minimal ROI but if we run the ball better we well definitely be a more difficult offense to defend.
son of a son of a shula says:
April 5, 2016 at 7:27 pm
Cook is the one who can make NFL throws and hit the tight windows. He’ll be good.
yep, he will be great. i mean every qb coming into the nfl is always great. especially the ones you say
That’s political to turn my word from good to great because it suits you. I said he’d be good even Tannehill is good.
getterdone says:
April 5, 2016 at 7:29 pm
Son, hate to break up your ‘trash the hotel party’ but Gase has been on record saying he already saw Tanny playing in both Denver & Chicago in preseason.
oh come on gdp you know better then that. you know son is just saying shit to stir up the masses. no one has heard or read anywhere the crap he is saying he is just having his fun with the tanny crowd
Funny stuff thinking anyone knows who we like in the draft. This goes on every year and then we draft someone we never met with. Come on guys, this is poker time. LOL
Two little birds… Sat by my door step…
Singing a sweet song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n03a7cLf0M
son of a son of a shula says:
April 5, 2016 at 7:51 pm
That’s political to turn my word from good to great because it suits you.
aahhhhh nope you completely missed the point. there were a lot of people who thought leaf would be ‘good’ in the nfl. my point was more you have no idea if he will be good, great, HOF, awful, average or anything in the nfl. but you want to state it like you know it for a fact
Not a fact but a feeling. If someone were to scour the archives I’d put my QB predictions up against anyone’s – anyone’s especially Kiper.
Hellen Keller could put her QB predictions vs Kipers.
Tim Knight says:
April 5, 2016 at 7:51 pm
Funny stuff thinking anyone knows who we like in the draft. This goes on every year and then we draft someone we never met with. Come on guys, this is poker time. LOL
yep and i find it just as funny how anyone knows who will make it in the nfl and who wont. like they all have that special power that no one in the nfl has
Well Tim, you already know my picks vs what we took going back to 2010 and my picks aren’t in hindsight. Those guys were there when we were on the board and we took someone else.
Odrick over Thomas. Tannehill over Keuchly. And, plenty more where that came from. So, there’s plenty of people in the NFL that suck at what they do.
We could have Cousins, Eifert and Keuchley playing along side Suh.
lou,
i agree with you about running the ball more. i think the fins would have been a different team last year if they had stuck with the run more in the second half of games. as to whether or not tanny can get better or not i will leave that up to others to say yay or nay. i know it maybe old school but i still think a team can win with a great running game, an average qb and a great defense.
I agree. As the owner of the Chinese Restaurant around the corner says, “there’s more than one way to skin cat”
Put Tannehill on the Browns. Are they a playoff contender? Are the Vikings a better offense with him than they are with Bridgewater? What about the Ravens? People say Flacco isn’t that good. Are they a better team with Tannehill there?
Lou, here’s how I changed my view on the draft a few years back. I look at it as a whole now more than just the 1st rd or even the 2nd. In 2014 nobody was talking up Jarvis Landry for us and now look, he’s one of our core guys and a fan favorite. The draft is always full of surprises.
At the end of the day, the Dolphins team comes first for me. Whatever helps the team do well I’m on board. Yeah we all like certain players or not, but the standings are what is most important.
My hope is our final 53 man roster is stronger than last year, our coaches are better and they help us make the playoffs. That’s all I want to see. I don’t care who’s making it happen.
NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reports the league’s competition committee has endorsed expanding the playoffs from 12 to 14 games.
It’s newsworthy, but playoff expansion is entirely up to the owners. The issue has been percolating for years, but the league has admirably done its best to avoid fixing what isn’t broken. With the lure of more money — what else? — the owners might not be able to resist much longer.
Whatever they do we’ll watch. LOL
professorloumiamidolphinsblog says:
April 5, 2016 at 8:13 pm
Put Tannehill on the Browns. Are they a playoff contender? Are the Vikings a better offense with him than they are with Bridgewater? What about the Ravens? People say Flacco isn’t that good. Are they a better team with Tannehill there?
who cares. how in the world can anyone say yes or no. no one has any clue. like sons post
son of a son of a shula says:
April 5, 2016 at 8:09 pm
We could have Cousins, Eifert and Keuchley playing along side Suh.
yeah and ok in south fla keuchley gets stabbed in a night club he never was in in carolina. who the hell can predict what if situations. you have no idea if tanny was on those teams if maybe they would have been better. i seriously doubt if you put marino on some of those god awful buc teams he would have made much of a difference by one or two wins but i have no idea
Just asking for opinions. People have opinions on everything else from how good certain players we already have are or are going to be to what players we would like to see drafted. So, a “healthy” debate is what I’m looking for. If you don’t want to participate that’s fine.
I like about 20 prospects at #13 not including prospects I don’t think will be there. Does that count? LOL
lou,
good luck with that ‘healthy debate’. when you constantly rip the qb to no end and anyone that says anything of the difference it is kind of hard to expect a healthy debate.
but i wish you the best of luck with it.
I “rip” people who disagree w/me on Tannehill?
lou,
ok maybe rip is the wrong word but come on it is me. you cant put to much in what i say cause i am never deep into a topic more just lightly talking about it unless it is NLC’s. i am always deep into NLC’s. but yeah you go over the top deep into the discussion of tanny dislike. there is nothing wrong with it is some what enjoyable at times
and i mean no disrespect to you or son (well ok some to son, that guy allows jets fans into his family) but i get you two guys really dislike tanny and imo go over the top sometimes so i have what i consider some fun with hit but by all means no disrespect. i have always thought you two were great to converse with and if i do seem disrespectful at times then you can call mike e for a hand to cry into.
You forgot the part about what an amazing prognosticator you think I am
ok i think tim just fixed the fins needs. he is getting the fins 20 prospects with the 13th pick.
tim for president the squirrels be damned
I’m serious too. LOL
lou,
oh yeah i forgot. if you want to double your fortune ask son for some prognosticating advice.
(hows that you big lump of tanny hatred)
i just love these turbotax commercials how easy they are to prepare. i have picked up more clients this year then any year in a long long time cause of the obamacare tax complications. but you have at it turbotax and all those other ‘free’ sites.
His healthcare plan is banging too. LOL
Tim Knight says:
April 5, 2016 at 8:25 pm
Whatever they do we’ll watch. LOL
well yeah, it is making my bank account more healthy
lou,
here i will play along with you earlier question about tanny on those other teams.
do you think putting bridgewater or the browns multiple qb’s of flacco on the fins makes them a better team. i am pretty sure none of those qb’s can play defense
put Flacco on last season’s team with the weapons he had on offense and we’re probably at least 10-6.
I’ll play along but I should have stated the “rules of the game” as Tannehill goes to the other teams since I’ve been told by so many people that a lot of other teams would love to have Tannehill as their starter and since there’s a lot of fans who think Tannehill is so much better than he’s been able to show with a bad o-line and coaching.
The way I look at the draft is if a prospect is legit at #25 he’s probably got the same chance to be a good player as anyone else drafted before him. We’ve seen busts at every phase of the 1st rd. It’s not a perfect science. The top players in the league come from every angle. This is not an elite draft and I’m not sure the projected elites are even elite. However I do think Ramsey is going to be special. I think he’s an every down player who will be a core top defender for some team who plays multiple roles. I think he’ll have a Troy Polamalu type impact, but he’ll play more corner.
lou,
ok i do so hate the what if games. i mean what if i was mike e. i mean i wouldnt help out married men i would help out all men.
but ok here goes. yeah i think flacco would have generated more points but i have no confidence putting the fins d back on the field would have stopped the other team. see to many what ifs. come on how many games did we watch marino score what should have been a game winning td only to watch the d give up the losing one. the what if game is no way of basing a judgement, anyone can turn it into something. i admit it can be fun to think about the what if game.
and guess i am not the one to talk about this with. i really cant tell you if tanny on any other team is nothing more then who he is just like you cant say him on any team if worse or better. yeah he is not elite. never said or thought he would be. but like i keep trying to point out and everyone keeps just ignoring the point. the fins had in my mind the absolute best passing qb ever in football and they never won a damn thing with him. was he fun to watch yes he was but they still never won a damn thing with him. so the what if game solves nothing to prove anything about tanny. what if marino had a defense. the fins would have won 8 sb’s with him but it never happend
lou,
here is what the ‘what if’ game is worth. if i had hit the 1.5 billion dollar power ball every one of you fucks would have a plane flight to every game in my NLC booth for every game. i mean nothing more fun to be in a game with all of you, hell i would of even put some trees in the booth for tim to chop down. but it just doesnt work that way
Let me put that record again shall we. LOL
Tim Knight says:
April 5, 2016 at 9:05 pm
‘It’s not a perfect science.’
that is where you are wrong. the draft is an absolute perfect science. all you have to do is wait 3 or 4 years after the draft is over. then look back on it and pick all the players that are successful and say….we could of had that player or that player or even that player. see a perfect science
ok i am out, i am going to go watch another team i follow lose another game.
i keep telling you guys you want the fins to win, make me stop wanting them too. go rays get to 0-3
Okay. Here’s a different game. You’ve got 1 pick in the draft and it can’t be a first round pick. Who is it? Any player, just not someone who should go first rd.
lol wow had to come back just to say. i read earlier some of you talking about the new mlb rule of sliding into second to break up a double play. the rays just pulled one out with that rule. i think it was a bad call of the rule but i think they may be the first team with the rule call to have one called about it. but i think even if wrong called in the rays favor tonight it is a good rule. you should have to slide into the base not just reach slide a yard off the base to break up a double play. but hell the rays won all is good even if a bad call in their favor
Ajayi Ajayi Ajayi Ajayi Ajayi Ajayi Ajayi Ajayi Ajayi Ajayi Ajayi Ajayi Ajayi
Can you guess how many times the name Ajayi appears in the article? Mike, is the word he in your vocabulary 😉
Lou I think we just have different definitions of finesse back and different feelings about avoidance runners vs those who take it to a guy. I think you can have successful backs of either kind but to me a finesse back is someone like Barry Sanders, where he will change direction completely to seek out running lanes. Miller most the time ran like a finesse back, possibly out of desperation.
To me Henry is a North South runner who only changes direction to follow the seams in the defense, which is my definition of slash back, unlike a finesse back he doesn’t go east west to fishing for a opening, he sees a seam, commits to it and the slahes crease to crease but always moving forward. When Miller was at his best he ran like this.
To me power back just says they can move the pile if they need to. Straight up the gut with driving power. When Henry was asked to do that he was able to.
One thing is for certain and I do 100% agree with you on, the guys really don’t exist anymore it’s a breed of back very rarely seen in college offenses mostly because college offenses have moved to spread formats and running games aren’t the same as they use to be.
Steve I didn’t say Dixon would be out of the league in 4 years, I said Jordan Howard would be.
Daughter #2 chooses Dartmouth over Princeton. I knew I had some fins-friends in Jersey… but who the hell can I talk to in New Hampshire? (excuse me sir, would you mind handing me that apple?)
D said…There is also the fact that next years RB draft class is STACKED, so miss out on a stud this year, next year get an even better one. I wouldnt go big at RB this year, id go for value.
My thoughts exactly, wait until the 3rd day onwards and grab someone or another team’s cuts. I still think DT3 will stick and be the tandem bloke.
son of a son of a shula says:
April 5, 2016 at 7:22 pm
Passers by of Gases’ closed office door almost unanimously hear coach shouting things like ” are you kidding me”
“You didn’t just… Holy crap”
” what in the hell was that”
Substitute the name Mangini for Gase and you’re on the money. Except emotions overcame Mangini on the sidelines when he clearly said, ” why would you do that?”
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-dolphins/dolphins-blog/soflanews-proof-ryan-tannehill-perfo-20160405-story.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sports%2FMiamiDolphinsweblog+%28Miami+Dolphins+%7C+Sun-Sentinel+Blogs%29
Wow Omar comes out with an almost positive article about Ryan Tannehill
I would think most QBs perform better in a cleaner pocket. Leave it to Omar to come up with something so unique. LOL
Of course Omar doesn’t show any evidence that Ryan Tannehill actually had a cleaner pocket with the three first round offensive lineman in the game together only that we won and Ryan had a better passer rating in those games
I have been reading the last couple blogs on here and
I have noticed that many of the opinions expressed on here are wrong.
good one.
LMAO…..This post is now considered fact😂
I noticed that most the opinions that were wrong were wrong on an equal interval with those those that were right…..*yes i know a few of you are pondering the meaning here really hard*
I also noticed that in all cases wrong or right the opinions were actually just opinions.
Bryan Adams
“yeah, that cuts like a knife….”👍
22 days!
Congrats….I didn’t know you were pregnant!
Quiet here today. I guess everyone is all drafted out.
Michael Thomas said during a webcast with 120 Sports that the 2015 coaching staff “handcuffed” players, and that new defensive coordinator Vance Joseph as promised they’ll be “not so vanilla.”
Via Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald, Thomas said Dolphins defenders “were limited to how many plays we could call, what type of plays we could call.”
Of course, that might make it a little awkward for Thomas, since last year’s interim defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo is back as secondary coach this year. But the Dolphins were really bad at defense last year, finishing 25th in yards allowed.
They also didn’t get much impact from expensive free agent Ndamukong Suh.
“He wasn’t put in position to make plays, like a lot of us,” Thomas said. “I wasn’t put in position to make plays because of injuries, I had to play out of position. We were very vanilla last year. It wasn’t all our defensive coaches. We had to work with what we had. It was very vanilla. Other teams knew it was very vanilla. . . .
“This is going to be an entirely different product you see on the field this year.”
Yeah I read that yesterday and it really pisses me off. I feel like the fans were sold a bill of BS last year and now we’re finding out how fucked up the internal of this team was. Now I know why Grier made the statement the dysfunction is over. He was well aware that there was dysfunction.
So we when we geared up to watch the games we weren’t aware Philbin wasn’t high on Tannehill, Lazor was a liar and a douche about audibles, and our defense was as vanilla as it could be. Great, thanks! I didn’t realize I was watching a team every Sunday that was being run by a soap opera.
I hope Ross got it right this time.
LOL @ dbolt. piggy gives birth on draft day every year.
That vanilla comment is contradictory with the comment about it not being the defensive coaches faults, unless of course he is separating the coordinators out from the coaches. The D being vanilla was because the design was vanilla, i was saying that every game before Coyle got fired and there were still a lot of instances of it after he was fired. It was almost as if they were trying to lose, i just dont understand what they felt they had to gain from it. They all knew they were on thin ice so being vanilla and deliberately sucking was asking to be fired. I just dont understand why they did that and why they didnt abandon it really quickly once they learned it wasnt working.
Something was really wrong within the team and they BSed everyone.
Tim, this was saying the defense was vanilla & thus the players were handcuffed, much like we heard with the offensive side of the ball.
Now there is always some amount of discord of outgoing coaching staffs, as this article stated, but I think this time it wasn’t ‘solely’ just empty rhetoric.
The players have to take some ownership in their play too, but as fans that watched closely, you could see the dysfunction most sundays.
We as fans have to hope that this new HC & staff can install a new culture & a new aggressive system on both sides of the ball that can compete with the rest of the NFL.
Yeah I got it. I’m just annoyed by it. Sure the players are responsible, I’ve always said that. I saw poor play as well. Not making a tackle or beating your man has nothing to do with scheme. But between what Suh was bitching about, what Greg Jennings has said and now Thomas, our team was a soap opera and Philbin was the HC so fuck him. LOL
Its really wied for me because Philbin didnt seem to be a drama queen. His low key personality seems like he would act much as a business man come in and do his best job every day. Lazor too seemed pretty straight forward. Then there was the bullshit support for Tanny when it seemed no one on the offensive coaching staff really had any belief in him. Lazor wont let him audible, tries to dumb down plays for him, Philbin secretly wants him gone and to replace him with Carr, but FO is still selling Tanny as face of the franchise and going against the coaches desires.
I mean if you have two important people in how the offense works, the QB and the coach, and they are at odds, pick a side and get rid of the other. I mean if you really want to keep Philbin you should have drafted Carr, period. If you really like Tanny then fucking move on from the coach that doesnt want him. We wound up witnessing a team with players who didnt want to play for the coaches and a set of coaches who didnt want the players they had, and a FO who was getting guys apparently without consideration for the coach or the player matching up. Thats a chaotic cluster fuck of a team, and what you apprently get is 6-10 and really looking like a 3-13 team.
The fact Philbin didn’t want Marino advising and working with Tannehill is damning also in regards to JP.
True, any person int heir right mind would encourage a hall of fame QB working with his guy.
Exactly. Marino has supposedly been in all the QB meetings giving advice to Ryan & the rest of the guys, but I guess JP & BL didn’t like it, but had no say in the matter😂
Seriously, we looked as bad as a team that i have seen in a LOT of year. There was very little all year that actually looked good outside of that Houston beat down, and i honestly was extremely shocked by it. We had some incredible individual efforts that game.
Right from the get go against Washington It was like what the fuck is this?
Philbin said last off season that they decided to simplify the D to make it easier for young guys to learn so they could play fast and aggressive. I think that might speak to the IQ of some of the young players.
LOL, true. As I said, some of the players like Michael Thomas need to take ownership for their play. But you could tell there was a discord from way back when Suh comes out on the practice field in sneakers during training camp.
Then on offense, we see silly play calls & treating Millertime like he was a leper.
Tim Knight says:
April 6, 2016 at 9:31 am
I would think most QBs perform better in a cleaner pocket. Leave it to Omar to come up with something so unique. LOL
Reply
Well, All QB’s other than Ryan Tannehill who just sucks regardless of the O-line woes. If he was worth a shit at all he would excel even behind the O-line we had where our starters only played 7 games together in two years. It is well known. Certain people on here have repeated it ad nauseam as FACT so it must be true right?
Don’t be an ASS…wooo, nice ass!
Thanks for understanding. LOL
Tim, true we saw players missing tackles, not executing, but I think much of that can also be attributed to the poor schemes that I kept bitching about very early, probably before anyone else. 🙂
If the scheme is ‘vanilla’, poorly ran, putting players into unfavorable situations, then most likely you’ll see a drop off in effort and execution. It’s human nature if you’re not totally bought into something. You just go thru the motions & come to work just to get your paycheck.
That MUST change!
Poor tacking has nothing to do with schemes. You either wrap a guy up or you don’t. Now if you want to blame the coaches for not teaching fundamentals by all means.
Being unhappy lends to lack of effort, which leads to poor outcomes.
I think it’s all connected. But by all means, I’m not totally absolving the players either. You get paid to do more than just show up!
But Philbin & Co. ruined the team psyche.
Dan Campbell got the team’s HUNGER back for a few games, but in midseason, it was very hard to totally reinstall a new defensive & offensive system. So he was left with just trying to tweak what was there so the terminology was still the same, and get them fired up.
Like I said, it showed how good the talent was on this team for a few games, but that couldn’t last with the poor offseason installs.
Okay I’m done talking about last season. It sucked on a lot of levels and all it does is piss me off. Go Adam Gase and staff!!!
Go Gase!
It’s always been said that the disparity in this league between player’s skills is minimal, hence the great amount of parity in the leagues where winning & losing games is a fine line, a play here, a play there, the bounce of the ball many times.
So I think that coaching, systems, schemes, & play calling to fit personnel has a substantial effect on the outcome of how a team of 53 plays together.
Get it right & you see a good record, a possible playoff run.
Get it wrong, an you are mediocre at best,no matter the stars at some positions.
Go Gase!
Just had my first win in my new Practice
Got a case dismissed
Woop woop🐷
Did you tell the prosecutor to kiss your squiggly ass?
Yes with my snout up high
Fuck him!
Wish nothing but the best for Lawson!
@HimmelrichNFL: An event that would break most people instead made Shaq want to improve. Immense respect for him on & off the field. https://t.co/YlEVF3g6iD
Yeah I’d read that in the past. He’s a good kid and a good player. I wouldn’t have a problem with him in Phins uni either.
Same for Shon Coleman who fought leukemia.
I’m really looking forward to seeing Davonte Parker play this year. I think he’s a stud in the making, Gase should have a lot of fun coming up with ways to get him the ball.
Turns out he could be the right pick in the 1st, as guys like Kevin White & Breshad Perriman still haven’t seen the field and are struggling with recovering from injury.
Yeah and Parker had an injury setback as well. Dorsett was also banged up. Agholor didn’t have a great rookie year either. Cooper was the best of the group as expected and then Parker.
Parker will have the Oinks in 2016
I know it🐗
His threat will open things up for the other receivers & the running game too.
You got yourself some long awaited Samurai’s after all in Landry and Parker. 🙂
(Lightening strikes behind Piggy as he bows)
Hah hah
Awesome! LOL