Defense? Check! Offense? Check! Now it’s time to take a look at our special teams unit. Returning for his 15th NFL season is long snapper John Denney. As any good Dolphins fan knows, this guy isn’t just hiking the ball, this guy hustles downfield on every punt and makes his shares of tackles too. The Dolphins as per usghe brought in “competition” for Denney, or more like insurance in the form of one LS Lucas Gravelle out of TCU. Gravelle was a 2018 UDFA.
Matt Haack will return as the punter, and just so Stanger knows, Haack will be wearing #2 this season, showing no respect to future ring of honor punter Brandon Fields. Or maybe he wears it out of respect and love for Fields, not sure. In the 7th RD, Miami most likely landed their starting place kicker in Jason Sanders out of New Mexico. Sanders has a very strong leg, and his kickoffs are always deep. His longest college FG was a 53 yarder, but in practice, he’s hit FG’s beyond 60 and close to 70. The Dolphins also brought in UDFA K Greg Joseph from FAU to provide some competition for Sanders. There are however also always a few veteran kickers waiting for a team to lose a K to injury, or just an outright cut due to poor performance. Matt Haack will continue to be the holder on FG’s.
With Jarvis Landry out of the picture, Jakeem Grant will take over the primary return duties on both punts and kickoffs. With all the changes, it’s hard to know whether the new return rules will be advantageous or not for the ultra fast Grant, but it seems to indicate that it might. With the kickoff team unable to get a running start, that should give the receiving team just a little more time to get up some speed after the catch. On the other hand, the new rule is that if the ball touches the end zone on a kickoff it will be ruled as a touchback, so if the ball bounces past the goal line on a kickoff, it is dead, and declared a touchback. Kenyan Drake will join Grant as the other returner on kickoffs, and at least at the moment, Senorise Perry is behind the aforementioned 2 on the return depth chart.
As far as players who will be counted on to be special teams aces is returning veteran CB/S Walt Aikens, LB Chase Allen, LB Mike Hull, veteran LB Terence Garvin who came over from Seattle, rookie LB Quentin Poling, CB Torry McTyer and possibly rookie CB’s Cornell Armstrong and Jalen Davis. I say possible, because we don’t know yet whether they will all be on the roster come final cuts.
Last year, the Dolphins had one of their best kicking performances in a while from veteran K Cody Parkey. The Dolphins chose not to allocate money towards a K and let Parker walk, so we all have to hope that move doesn’t come back to bite us in the ass. Young Jason Sanders has a tough act to follow after the excellence of Parkey. Last year, P Matt Haack had an OK year, he wasn’t great, he wasn’t poor either. Haack averaged 44.5 yards per punt, with a 40.7 net average
The big questions on special teams are as follows. Is Jakeem Grant ready for prime time, without Jarvis Landry to lean on in big spots? Is Jason Sanders going to get the job done well enough to keep his job through the preseason? Will Jason Sanders adequately replace the excellence of Cody Parkey? Will the new kickoff rules help us or hurt us? Stay tuned Dolphins fans, OTA’s are going on as you read this, so keep your eyes on the reports to see what’s happening.
2018 HulkFest Hotels – Hollywood Beach
The Neptune – Doggy, Toba, Son and their crews
Margaritaville – Mike E and Brian in NY and their crews
The Sheldon – Piggy
Finsmob Unleashed 
Don’t worry about who plays what, where or when, this guy is gonna play. 🙂
Totally Agree, three downs, “”wherever””!!!
See him at times rotating with Tank who was/is good,
But & Fitz makes for quite the shutdown tandem for those critical instances …
See a lot of 3 S sets too, and/or TMI/Fitz at cover LB..
GOFINS!!!
Huhh, 4:12 mark of that last Knight offering of Fitz
Saw him clap his hands upon pull-up
Can’t recall ever seeing that done,
Clapping upon a push-up was beastly Na K in my day, LOL!!!
GREAT PLAYER, RING OF HONOR TO COME!!!
GO 29,
GOFINS!!!
CRAP!!! “”” X & FITZ “”” !!!
TMI = TMc .. Schiishhkv
GoodStuff Knight !!!
That a new one??
13kv, it’s weird, I’m sure I will get called a homer for thinking Minkah Fitzpatrick is on par with former great prospects like Ronnie Lott, Ed Reed, Troy Polamalu and even the recent Jalen Ramsey. That’s the kind of player I think Fitzpatrick is. I thought he’d be gone by #8 minimum.
Yea, every bit as good if not better than the steal of Tunsil, STOKED TOO!!!
Liked Edmunds a lot more cuz of the need,
though I loved his size, length, speed even though somewhat raw…
Fitz is well done, fersure!!!
Maybe even more of a need,
especially since we were able to land Jerome, & McMillan is studly!!!
GOFINS!!!
Guess we’ll see how Edmunds works out via buff,
They got a DT I liked too in Harrison Phillips Stanford
After we took BAKER who I liked in the third from the off season get go!!
Fricken Pats got Braxton Barrios/Walker2 till 12 goes awayyyy!!!
Tim Knight says:
May 26, 2018 at 6:09 pm
You know who might be a surprise this year, Isiah Ford. He’s kind of forgotten because he got hurt early on last year in camp and never got going. But he’s a tall, lean WR who can get down field with sneaky speed. He’s another guy who could push Carroo for a spot. The competition at WR should be good.
Reply
I said earlier this off season that at this year what’s going to be the year of Isaiah Ford
JUST BELOW 13kv’s 9:25 PM post, I listed some of the reasons WHY the 1972 Dolphins were, and ARE, the GREATEST TEAM OF ALL TIME!!! – – If you missed it, go back and take a look at what I said and let us know what you think.
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AFTER the NFL Network’s presentation on the ’72 Dolphins (from 10 PM to 11 PM last night), they tuned to the highlights of the ’73 Dolphins. During the 11 PM to midnight hour, commentator Dick Anderson made the statement that “ONLY 1 MEMBER OF THE NO-NAME DEFENSE HAS BEEN ELECTED TO THE NFL HALL OF FAME (NICK BUONICONTI). Should any others from that defense been elected??
HELL YES!!!!!!!! I absolutely would have put Manny Fernandez in the HOF, along with Dick Anderson and, maybe, Jake Scott, too! It is my fondest hope that the NFL veterans committee eventually rectifies this oversight and puts these highly deserving individuals where they belong—in the hallowed halls of Canton, Ohio! EVERY DOLFAN needs to go to Canton and see the special section of memorabilia and photos from THE PERFECT SEASON!!!
ONE MORE of Anderson’s comments caught my ear. He commented that, by the end of the season, “the ’73 Dolphins would have beaten the ’72 Dolphins.” To THAT, I say “probably so.” The ’73 Dolphins BLEW OUT 3 very good teams during those playoffs. Conversely, the ’72 Fins struggled to narrowly defeat the Browns, the Steelers and the Redskins in the playoffs. But, for overall consistency, YOU CAN’T BEAT PERFECTION OVER A 5-MONTH LONG SEASON!! —The fact that the boys of ’72 DID NOT have their starting QB (Griese) for most of the season makes their achievement of perfection all the more amazing. But, that said, I’ll go along with Anderson and admit that by the END of the two seasons, the ’73 Dolphins likely were the stronger team.
So much for the summer
That was short lived
😟
MF, man doesn’t think he controls everything. You have politicians that make scientists say we control the warming of the earth or risk losing funding.
The politicians then take the fake reports and con the people into believing it’s real, and of course they and their friends get rich and powerful from it.
The points you made above about cycles are the logical conclusions I came to years ago, but it wasn’t until 2016 that I got a sort of proof about this.
A coworkers brother in law is one of these scientists, so if you believe, like I do (follow the money) what he said, there’s the proof.
Celts v Cavs game 7 tonight. I’m a Celts fan (went to college in Mass) but don’t feel like invested enough to shout to the world……still gonna be an awesome game. King James 6 year streak to the finals is either gonna end or he is gonna go all superhero to keep it going.
I have never seen weather patterns like this before. It was 95 yesterday and right now it’s 62. This has been happening all spring. One or two days it’s in the 80’s next day 49.
Yep. We had crazy weather like that in April. Upper 80s one day and 2 days later it snowed. I like all the seasons, just not all in one weekend.
LOL, I know it’s crazy.
It’s stupid hot!
Yep, and like 6 weeks ago we had the worst snow storm in years!!
Strange right? These 30+ degree temp swings are odd.
13kv, I can see Jones, McDonald and Fitzpatrick on the field together at times. Lots of versatility there.
What about a D of those 3 plus Lippett, Howard, Tank, McCain, Wake, Quinn, Hayes, and Phillips? Switch in Raekwon for Phillips too.
Burke has a lot of options. Harris is a 2nd year player I think makes a big jump this year. His sack total doesn’t represent his impact. He was creating quite a bit of pressure as the season went on.
Did everybody die? LOL
^^^
the last post never read by anyone at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse
LOL
Prayers o the residents of Ellicott City MD, that flooding looks defistating.
I thought he’d be gone by #8 minimum.
Reply
But dumb ass teams were feeling pressure to reach for one of the “top 4” future busts.
Yep!
Game 7 game in NBA tonight. These series are really not that exciting in that every game seems to be a blow out…but..ohhhh… a game 7!….lol
Oh..and Tim, no to me knowledge I did not die
Good to know. LOL
Ref’s worked in a game 7 for the West last night too! 😦
This guy was beating out Sam Young last year before he got hurt. Mostly a RT in his college career. Maybe a RG candidate as well.
http://www.miamidolphins.com/team/roster/Eric-Smith/b01766f2-e056-47ec-8a0d-2690c8e48df6
Tim Knight says:
May 26, 2018 at 10:48 pm
Hmmm… what about the floating man who just appeared and created everything? LOL
————–
I’m going to get you to believe in a CREATOR, yet! 🙂
steveccnv says:
May 27, 2018 at 10:08 am
MF, man doesn’t think he controls everything. You have politicians that make scientists say we control the warming of the earth or risk losing funding.
The politicians then take the fake reports and con the people into believing it’s real, and of course they and their friends get rich and powerful from it.
The points you made above about cycles are the logical conclusions I came to years ago, but it wasn’t until 2016 that I got a sort of proof about this.
A coworkers brother in law is one of these scientists, so if you believe, like I do (follow the money) what he said, there’s the proof.
—————
YES!!! I hear ya, man!!!
s having an extremely scientific and logical mind, I understand that something cannot come from nothing… it’s absolutely impossible. Some body/thing/entity created the elements, life, and the properties by which it’s sustained, recycled, and propagated.
SOMETHING created us… we didn’t just fall off the old ‘NT tree’, LOL. 😉
And while I TRULY understand that man-made and/or organized religion isn’t for everybody… I think even agnostics and atheists can agree that we have NO idea the concepts of unlimited time and space… yet, they BS their way through it.
The way I see it, we’re STILL in our infancy as human beings. We still have racism, sexism, violence, war-mongering tendencies, HATE, contempt, the desire to kill innocent non-human life (AND human life), systematic slavery, hunger, disease that can’t be cured (or WON’T be cured for profiteering)… and the list goes ON and ON and ON as I’m just scratching the surface.
To err is to be human: ‘EXISTENCE’ was here well before us (see dinosaurs, WILLIAM HAYES!!!), and it will be here long after us. Humans didn’t begin time, nor can they end time… but they sure as hell invent a lot of BS, so as to think that they are the END-ALL, BE-ALL. SMH
We can’t even get off the mere 3rd rock from our little sun, yet there are BILLIONS of stars out there with countless more planets orbiting them… we’re NOT ALONE in this universe.
And to Steve’s 10:08 AM response to me this morning? He’s RIGHT… but yes, man DOES believe he controls everything (at least in this little neck of our known world)… through the power-hungry and the politicians. I HEAR ya, man. +1000000000000
BEWARE the power-hungry… and that certainly includes some sects of man-made religion (ALL religions). But just because there are power-hungry, man-made religions out there doesn’t mean that there ISN’T a CREATOR.
Once we — as mere humans — can reconcile our religious differences (LIVE and LET LIVE!), we’ll have taken a HUGE step forward.
Now go gaze deeply into the stars tonight… then TELL ME there isn’t a creator. Some of that starlight that ya see is coming from millions of years ago, just finally reaching us now… and that star ya see may be, in fact, dead today.
Light travels at 186,282 miles per second. Until we can achieve that (light speed travel), we don’t know $#!T about this universe!!! And ALL the while, we’re still $#!tting in/on our proverbial ‘kindergarten sand pit’ as we ‘play bad with one another’.
CAN’T dismiss a CREATOR! But I DO dismiss this man-made, ethno-centristic BS that causes people to DISMISS a creator.
To each their own, praise to those who (peacefully) BELIEVE in a higher power, and hope to ALL who don’t. I don’t judge any longer (huge tenant of Christianity), and I’m with the very peaceful Jesus Christ.
Thus: science LEADS ME to a creator… not the other way around. Humans SUCK!
How does a creator be something that cannot come from nothing? It’s the chicken or the egg theory. Something always comes from something. Elements and a perfect storm of events can create life. The pct. is small, probably 1 in trillions.
I believe that science proves there is a creator. Life cannot come from nothing therefore something must have created life. And look at it this way if I believe in God and I’m right I go to heaven if I’m wrong I die and go to dirt. If I don’t believe, and there is a God I may go to hell . I don’t understand the negative in believing there is a God.
a measure taken to safeguard against loss, If there is a higher being out there won’t he see through your strategy?
Yes, if that was my personal strategy, however, I actually do believe, I was only saying that to illustrate a point.
in reference to size where is the beginning and where is the end? where does the smallest thing become nothing? where does the biggest thing stop?
if you look at an atom there are 500,000 in the width of a piece of paper, they look to have a nucleus; protons and neutrons orbiting them, suspiciously like a solar system or Galaxy.
what are these atoms made of? is there a civilization on a proton? on the other hand are we living inside an atom of another living entity? are we a civilization on the proton named earth?
one of countless atoms/galaxys in this living entity we call the universe?
makes you wonder??
Exactly, our universe is amazing enough all on its own. Relating to this are the recent studies being done on dark matter the universe/universes is/are full of surprises!
None of this is actually “real”.
Albert Wilson claims to be the fastest player on the team, faster than Drake and Grant. he caught a bomb from Osweiler the other day. can’t wait to see this guy in action, he was under used in KC due to the stars they have. Miami will likely use him a lot due to the money he’s getting.
TODAY IS THE DAY we reflect on and honor those who gave so much so that we may freely discuss things like our beloved Miami Dolphins. While many of us revel in our freedoms, others recall the ultimate sacrifice made by so many families. Memorial Day is a day of mixed emotions. As you go about your daily chores and events, spend a few moments thinking about exactly HOW this country got to be where it is. The land of the free and the home of the brave. I’ll be focusing on those who, by their sacrifices, made this all possible.
OD — thank you for your service and — even more so — those who can’t say that too cause they aren’t here. And know you cared for many of them.
Ditto
I wonder if Gesicki will start, with his lack of blocking skills and a need to run the ball on 1 st down i certainly hope not.
I hope Gase doesn’t turn this offense into a run and shoot. it doesn’t work in the NFL.
Smythe should see more snaps on first down, but Gesicki is the starter.
Steve, Good luck to your Golden Knights tonight!
Thanks OD, we’re going down to the stadium tonight to watch it on the big screen outside. It’s going to be a mob out there, but I know how to maneuver the area.
I personally have never been exposed to war nor have I experienced/been affected by a war.
I give great thanks to the 1% of this nation that have this calling and offer my sincerest condolences and respect to those that have lost family and friends on this Memorial Day.
Well said Krishna. And aren’t we both so lucky never to have had to deal with our lives on the line?
Was sorry to see you won’t be making the Fest……you’ll be missed.
Very lucky indeed.
I was very disappointed to find out, too, and will promise to be more informed when I vote next time.
steveccnv says:
May 28, 2018 at 10:26 am
Smythe should see more snaps on first down, but Gesicki is the starter.
Well, that would make you Smythe the starter now wouldn’t it? You know the guy starts the game?
You got what he meant though. If you go in for a vascetomy who is the more important player…..the doc or the dude who does the pre-snip shave?
Great analogy
No, and starter at TE means nothing anyways. Gesicki can’t just be used on passing downs or it will be a tell, and he’s going to have to learn to block better.
This guy says Minkah is going to be an All Pro FS, if the team that drafts him plays him there, and Clev should take him at 4. Sucks to be Clev😉
Good video, Steve. Thanks for posting. Along the same train of thought, the team that converts David Amerson to FS is going to get an All-Pro.
I still don’t know what we’re going to do with TJ McDonald if Minkah gets the call to be our full-time FS. And in case y’all didn’t hear, Gase has already announced that TJ is not going to be converted into a LB.
But only that TJ would not be a LB rather than a S. I thought what he said left open was the nickle LB slot or maybe some formation when he is not called LB….even if that is just how we line up all the time. No doubt we have three stud safeties.
I still can’t believe we got Minkah. They used to talk about Ray Lewis as the heart and soul of the Ravens D, but it was Ed Reed that made that team great. Minkah is the ballhawk Reed was and the preparer that Lewis was. Raekwon is also a great film studier, so our D should be well prepared this year. Suh who?
I’d like to think he’s a Sean Taylor type
He might be Taylor, Reed, palamalu type
I think we got a leader in D
Stills, Parker, Grant ,Amendola, Wilson, Gesicki, Smythe, Drake, Gore, Ballage — that’s ten guys for five spots the ball can go too.
Thinking we are gonna be throwing out a bunch of different formations next season…… also thinking that Gase is gonna love mixing and matching them and who lines up to opponents.
My Mom always feared that i’d be drafted, i was lucky to have chose my own course in life, i just missed the Vietnam draft due to age, A lot of young people were drafted and killed in that war!
Very Sad!
The draft ended the year before I was supposed to register.
The all hands team….the all block team. Lots of options/mismatches
3 safeties…call them what you want. 3 ballers and we them all.
need
Teams will go heavy with 3 safety’s on the field and run on us, not sure how effective playing 3 safety’s will be??
Like both players……but how difference against the run is there btwn Alonso and TJ?
alonso is about 10 lbs heavier and let’s face it we had the worst LBing crew in the league last year, i hope Mcmillan and Baker step up, Alonso needs a better cast around him
Really? All 3 can play in the box and more.
Minkah is really the one who offers more (make that everything), but that is why we drafted him. We had two SS before, even if one good and one great one. Reshad close to the line is spectacular….get farther away he is OK but nothing special.
Obviously we drafted him due to the lack of faith in the coverage skills in Jones/TJ
a game of match-ups, 1st and 10 will you have 2 SS’s in the game and a FS? i doubt that, more than likely the team will run the ball or at least have the personnel in there to look like a run, on 3rd and long obvious passing down will you haveMink- jones and TJ covering or would you bring in an extra CB. not sure how much we will see 3 safety’s on the field, it’s almost as if giving TJ all that money was a mistake. will be interesting to see how they use these guys
I finished the Murphy workout in under an hour which was my goal but barely
My time was 57:28
I was really tough
But excellent weather in nyc for it
Awesome job pig. Wish could say did anything like that today or in like the last five years.
Memorial Day! Thanks to all the vets who served and made the ultimate sacrifice. Thanks to the men and women who continue to serve.
^ Well said Tim!
Ditto 🇺🇸
There’s nothing wrong with having a bunch of quality cover guys for matchups and depth. We drafted Minkah because he was easily BPA.
Congrats to Stanger who managed to use a vasectomy in a football analogy – Pretty sure that’s a FU first, bu wouldn’t be hesitant to bet it would have been an SS, Topix, FME first as well. Well done young man! 🙂
You just go up with what is on the top of your mind……and Chef Warren and I have had many birth control discussions. 🙂
Now we have a true FS, depth, and more options….having too many quality players, especially db’s is a good problem to have I would think.
ocalarob says:
May 28, 2018 at 12:47 pm
a game of match-ups, 1st and 10 will you have 2 SS’s in the game and a FS? i doubt that, more than likely the team will run the ball or at least have the personnel in there to look like a run, on 3rd and long obvious passing down will you haveMink- jones and TJ covering or would you bring in an extra CB. not sure how much we will see 3 safety’s on the field, it’s almost as if giving TJ all that money was a mistake. will be interesting to see how they use these guys
—————-
Agreed, ORob. I don’t understand it either. What’s more, TJ was absolutely NICE for us last year coming back from an 8-game suspension while getting acquainted to a brand new team.
I really like all of the sub-packages that our Defense can deploy, but ya want the best 11 players on the field at the same time and most of the time… and THAT is why drafting by PURE BPA is absolute foolishness.
We’ve now got 3 starting NFL Safeties — with loads of $$$ locked up — and the 3 won’t be able to see the field all at the same time for most of the time.
So while we’re barely still able to breathe under the cap (remember, most of Suh’s post-June 1st $$$ will go to signing our Draft class and possibly finding another decent FA cut), our interior D-Line is suspect, we’re marching rookie LBs as starters (beyond Kiko), and we have an interior O-Line comprised of 30-somethings.
And God help us if Tannehill goes down, having to rely upon Brock Osweiler (who is worse than both Matt Moore and Jay Cutler).
While I’m truly THRILLED(!!!) with Minkah as our 1st round selection, I still see many issues that were NOT adequately addressed, due to selecting the strict BPA on the board in Minkah.
I’m willing to let it all work out, and with POSITIVITY! But I still wonder WTF some of these moves are made for. If TJ is going to ride the pines for roughly $6M/year, we done messed up… and that’s nothing against Minkah, at ALL.
5 and 6 DBs will be on the field more often than 3 LBs.
!DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!
If that’s the case, we’d better hope that Jordan Phillips becomes next to elite, and that Godchaux becomes a household name. Just sayin’!
I’m seriously not trying to diss this team before it even gets started, I’m just stating that I DO see some weaknesses. This is one of them.
We might be KILLER on the back end, but we all know that it all starts up front in the trenches.
49ers DE Cassius Marsh about……guess which team.
——————-
“They don’t have fun there. There’s nothing fun about it. There’s nothing happy about it. I didn’t enjoy any of my time there, you know what I’m saying? It made me for the first time in my life think about not playing football because I hated it that much.”
“I confronted coach about all the things that were going on. I won’t get into detail, but it was B.S. things they were doing. I just wasn’t a fan. And so I, basically, without asking to get cut, I kind of asked to get cut.”
I liked one of the replies by a patriot fan saying, ” Did he want Bill to place a swing set on the practice field for him”.
Isn’t this a passing era? Running keeps the defense honest. Then what?
I’m not smart enough to know the complexities of designing defenses to defend TE’s and RB’s and slot receivers all coming at you once, especially, against NE, but I don’t see the downside of having 3 quality safeties. Sorry.
Maybe we trade one, but TJ would bring what?
The thing about Minkah is he can also play corner. The more matchup players you have the better you’re going to be.
M13, I’m still wondering why you’re so confused that most teams play nickel and dime more than base. Most teams use 3 WR, a TE and RB a majority of the time. Not sure what any of this has to do with the DL? We’ll likely see different sub packages like 4-2-5, 3-2-6, 4-1-6. Remember we’ll likely blitz LBs and DBs at times as well. The thing about our safeties is that they can all cover, hit, tackle and blitz. The more personnel you can utilize in a game, the fresher these players will be and not worn down as the game goes on. When have to roll with a limited amount of guys on defense, you see it in the 4th quarter with guys dragging.
That said, our offense is key to helping this defense be the best they can be. Can’t keep having short drives, 3 and outs and limited points. That’s the key to this team this year in my view.
To illustrate your point:
Percentage of plays the defense has at least 5 DBs on the field. Don’t know what ’16 or ’17 are.
2008: 43.4%
2009: 45.1%
2010: 48.8%
2011: 52.5%
2012: 54.4%
2013: 58.3%
2014: 60.3%
2015: 63.4%
2015 teams played nearly 2/3s of defensive snaps in nickel and dime packages. Numbers were certainly similar for ’16 and ’17.
If we can’t find a use for all 3 of our stud safeties, that’s on the defensive coaches.
It keeps going up. Matt Patricia at his presser as new HC of the Lions said his defenses were in sub packages 90% of the time. Now that was because the Pats scored a lot and teams had to pass and play catchup but that’s what Gase’s plan is. It remains to be seen but Gase really wasn’t happy with the offense the last two years so that’s why we saw so many changes. The philosophy is to score on offense and attack on defense. Let’s hope that’s the case.
Tim,
Yes, it’s certainly a predominantly passing league. And that’s why if a team can run, they go FAR. Look no further than JAX last year. Teams can’t just say, “hey, it’s a passing league… screw our run-Defense!”.
This sport we love is a CHESS battle, and weaknesses WILL be exploited, man.
Do you want a defense built to beat JAX or one built to beat NE? Personally, I’ll take the extra DBs.
Plus remember, according to Rob, if you have a power run game, that can’t be beaten. So we need to forget about JAX, because they are unbeatable, and focus on something attainable. lol
JBB Rob. 🙂
Nobody is debating that, but that’s why we bolstered our LB and DB groups this year. We need to be able to play both the run and pass. You need depth in this league as we all know, guys get hurt. I admit DT will be a position to watch with the departure of Suh, but we’re deeper at DE than we have been in years.
Think about our three safeties like this. In any given game will you care if the snap breakdown went down this?
Jones 46
McDonald 38
Fitzpatrick 36 (some might be at corner)
The DL is going to see more 8 man 30+ snap counts. I think we’ll use our LBs differently from game to game due to the opponent. Against more physical run teams we go bigger more often. Against more speedy pass teams, we go faster more often. It’s nice to able to have that flexibility.
JUST FOUND OUT my alma mater, Florida Atlantic, was awarded a wild card spot in the NCAA Division 1 baseball playoffs for the 13th time in their history and the 4th in the last 6 years. They will be in the Gainesville, Florida, regionals hosted by the #1 ranked Florida Gators. FAU (the #3 seed in this 4-team regional, will play #2 seed Jacksonville, while host Florida plays Columbia, the Ivy League tournament champs. Unfortunately, I’ll be away at a convention this weekend and won’t be able to attend. –GO OWLS!!
I think this defense will only be as good as the LBs are anyway. We sunk a bunch of money in the line a few years ago, but our LB corps was awful, and it showed. Now we’ve invested in our DBs, and out LBs. Hopefully the LBs improve drastically over what we’ve seen in the last few years or this defense will get beat up again IMO. If our LB play improves that will go a long way to helping out a possibly average line (against the run).
Think about this, the only LB on the team who was here in 2015 is Mike Hull. The group has totally been revamped. It started with the trade for Alonso in 16, drafting McMillan, finding UDFA Allen and trading for Anthony in 17, and adding Baker and Poling in 18. McMillan didn’t play last year so he’s like a new addition this year. We also added a few UDFA LBs this year. We’ll see how the depth chart pans out. But it’s a new group and a good amount of them have at least a year in the system now.
Communication is key and that’s where I think the coaches are looking to McMillan for. He seems to get it as the Mike LB. Gase has said he wants to see Alonso play fast and not react as much. McMillan getting everyone set might allow that to happen. Alonso is a better attack player than read and react. So is Anthony. We’ve got some different pieces in the LB room now. Young group too.
When your LBs suck as much as ours have, your only option is to hit the reset button and try again. We’ve done that. If McMillan is as advertised, there is a lot to be optimistic about.
Only about 2 months till we get to see the team we’ve put together. I can’t wait. I am excited to see who we are. It feels different this year.
Of course as my wife told me just the other day “you say this every year in May”. LMAO
CavalierKong says:
May 28, 2018 at 3:30 pm
Do you want a defense built to beat JAX or one built to beat NE? Personally, I’ll take the extra DBs.
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My answer is simple… I want a Defense built to beat EVERYBODY! LOL 🙂
You can’t stop JAX. You can only hope to contain them. lol 😉
Good old Dan Patrick on Sports Center, back in the day! 😀
Agreed, I just discussed that. 🙂
It was mentioned earlier that it seems like it may have been a mistake to give McDonald the money we did. It is a valid point. If the team knew Mikah would fall to them, they may not have given McDonald that money. But Mikah is a rare talent that couldn’t be passed up. We were lucky he fell to us. SO now our cup runs over in the defensive backfield. It’s up to the coaches to get the best use out of the guys we have. They will have different packages and sub-packages that get use out of our talent, and if they don’t we have a problem.
Tim,
You’re talking about the D-Line as a WHOLE… not about the DT position as I am. Like you, I LOVE what we have at the DE position!!! I have reservations about our DT position, that’s all.
I said that and agree.
Squeal….My trotters
Kong, if you think about the entire defense, the only players remaining from Philbin’s last season in 2015 are:
DL Wake and Phillips
LB Hull
DB Jones, McCain and Lippett
We haven’t really seen this defense as it is right now play together. Last year there was still some others here and we tried some patchwork stuff due to injury and different situations. This year’s defense seems more constructed with a purpose.
Howard will have another year under his belt. Harris will be a year in. McMillan is like an additional 2nd rd pick we got this year, except with a year of knowledge in his head. Fingers crossed it all comes together!
Yeah but it won’t be from a lack of trying to get better. There’s a lot of good young prospects on this team. We have mostly built through the draft which is what everyone is always saying we should do. Now it’s time for the young bucks to start paying off.
my biggest concern about hearing that we really want to run the uptempo offense again is that when it fails to pick up a 1st down, or even another first down in a drive it puts the defense out there too fast. Even when we didn’t go 3 and out at times we were 3 or 5 and out but just as quickly as a 3 and out.
The uptempo offense is when you start rolling. You hear people say what if we play this defense and the opposing offense catches us in a bad matchup and keeps them on the field? That only happens when the offense is getting yardage and 1st downs. If they’re in 2nd and 10 or 3rd and long they’re not playing uptempo because they’re not executing. Same with our approach with uptempo. If we’re not executing on 1st down, we’re not running uptempo.
we have very high hopes for our very young defense. our oldest line backer is Kiko or Hull at 27.
All of our corners are 25 or younger. MacDonald and Jones at 27 & 30 are our old men at DB.
They could show progress and be very good.
They could suck really bad. We really don’t know what they are still.
I HOPE the buckeye boys pan out at LB. Am I willing to bet they will? No.
Here is a trivia question for you guys, honor system, not looking it up, as the roster stands today which college has the highest representation on the team?
I am going to say Penn State
Ken got there first but with him on the Nittany Lions.
Ohio State?
TE, DE, CB & LB are the four positions represented by said college’s players
It’s a tie. 😉
Sorry I looked it up, but I thought it was the two that it is.
Out of our 90 players currently on our team, only 10 are 30 years old or more. A few more will turn 30 during the season. 48 are 24 or less. So that leaves 32 between 25-29. The 2018 team is going to look very different from the 2017 team.
Frank Gore will definitely be gone after this season, and I have no problem with John Denney returning if he wants to. Wake should be back, Ted Larsen is up in the air depending on how he does this season. Reshad Jones will be back, William Hayes and Sam Young are also up in the air depending on how he does this season. Amendola should be back, Tannehill should be back. Who are the other 2 over 30?
My bad, only Tannehill will turn 30 this year in July so 11. Click on age.
http://www.miamidolphins.com/team/player-roster.html
Right, silly me, Sitton should definitely be back, and so should Kilgore. I must be losing it, I count 10.
CavalierKong says:
May 28, 2018 at 3:33 pm
Plus remember, according to Rob, if you have a power run game, that can’t be beaten. So we need to forget about JAX, because they are unbeatable, and focus on something attainable. lol
JBB Rob. 🙂
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Do i think we are going to run all the way to the superbowl?…NO, but to win in the NFL you have to be unpredictable, if the other team knows you’re going to pass you will get killed.
we don’t need to bust big runs for 80 yards what we need to do is have a consistent RB that can gain 4 to 6 yards, even 2 yards on 1st down,
we can’t have a rb that gets stuffed for zero or minus yardage. then we become predictable.
it’s situational football,
we are faced with 2nd and long and teams know we have to pass. this is a team killer, the 3 and outs will kill the Defense,
on the other hand if we have a RB that puts our Offense in desirable 2nd situations,2nd and 6…. this keeps opposing D’s guessing and keeps our D on the sideline.
we have to impose our will running the ball in the early downs, otherwise the DE’s will get after Tanny and the DBs will be all over our rec’s.
running the ball effectively helps the entire team
as for Jax they have seemed to improve a lot from the year before, I wonder why??? HMMM???
weren’t they in the AFC champ game last year?
Oooooh, I get it now.
Thanks 🙂
Yes they were, but up 28-7 late 1st half with Fournette rolling and a good defense why did they have to survive a 45-42 win against PIT to get there?
The game wasn’t as close as the score suggest
it was 45-35 with 1:45 to go when Pitt had the ball, it was also at Pitt, great win for the Jags, they ran the ball 30 times!
Oh okay… 28-7 is now 45-42 okay with the power running game? It’s not about one thing. What happened to the close it out running game? It doesn’t always work that way. The game is set up to score passing.
Now that we know Tannehill is the starter, lol, now it’s a battle between 3 guys for the backup spot. Was Moore so great that we couldn’t move on? Being that we didn’t draft a QB who had to be a keeper, I think we might go back to just keeping two. Maybe three? What say you?
Not drafting a backup QB means everything we’ve done in the off season was for naught.
VGK, go Knights Go. At stadium now, what a zoo.
Mike, Sitton is the most accomplished OL guy on the team. 4 time pro bowler, 1 time all-pro and SB champion with the Packers. The crazy thing is he was drafted in 08 and became the top player he is in 2012. We write players off way too soon.
The biggest UFA Guard this year was Andrew Norwell undrafted in 2014.
Am completely buying into how the reaction to the way Ds are being configured (including ours) in the passing era would be a Power Run O. Funny how what was out before comes back, especially in this case when teams have a lot of fast but smaller guys out there.
Don’t think the 2018 Phins will be that team though (sorry ORob) . We change up though in the future and Ballage will be sitting there to be used.
we run or we lose, history doesn’t lie
We have good backs. Gore the seasoned vet, Drake coming on, Ballage is talented.
Getting ready to go here, go Knights go!!
A CLASSIC FIRST PERIOD OF HOCKEY in LAS VEGAS!!! –THIS is just what the NHL wanted—it was truly SHOWTIME!!! –Many media pundits predicted low ratings for this series. Well, if the rest of THE FINALS are as good as this first period, the big bosses of the NHL will be ecstatic!!! —And so will NBC.
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WHERE ARE all those guys who thought hockey had no chance in Las Vegas??? —Steve, I’m flat-out jealous!! T-Mobil Arena sounded like the Orange Bowl tonight!!! –GO KNIGHTS, GO!!
I’m FN exhausted, got here 2 hours before the game.
There is no bad thing I can think of about having Minkah as a Phin….nothing.
Jax got where they were by defense. Easy to keep pounding the run when defense keeps making stops and short fields.
If another team landed Minkah we’d be saying what a pick they got. We’re just guarded as a franchise. LOL
Rob, when you can only run for 3 or 4 yards the D isn’t worries about the run, so no need to stack the box. When this happens the offense doesn’t get opened up, so you can’t just say a few yards running on first down is all we need.
1st and 10, 4 yards rushing. 2nd and 6, incomplete. 3rd and 6? That’s why we made the changes on offense that we did. More options to pick up 1st downs and score in the red zone.
THIRD PERIOD getting ready to start in Las Vegas, tied at 3-3. Just a terrifically entertaining game! Steve must be on pins & needles!
CONGRATS to Steve’s Vegas Golden Knight’s for defeating Washington in game one! Trailing 5-4 with about 12 seconds left, a Caps player WHIFFED on a shot at a wide-open net that would have sent this classic into O.T.!! Vegas immediately moved the puck down ice and scored the clincher into an open net with 2 seconds remaining!! I repeat, this crowd was like a smaller version of the old Orange Bowl. They made it almost impossible to hear Mike Emrick’s play-by-play during the last frantic minute of the game.
CAN’T WAIT to see game 2!
Amazing that an expansion team has had this kind of success this quickly.
The expansion rules was a big reason for it, each team could only protect 1 goalie and Pitt had 2 great ones. With only 1 team doing the expansion picking they didn’t have to fight another team for players.
And of course a lot of luck with a guy like Karlsson scoring 40+ goals, after not having more than 15 previously, a very good coach, and ownership that wanted to be competitive right away.
I don’t expect to see this type of expansion friendly draft in the future.
The Knights players are also very confident, and it’s taken them a long way.
When I started watching them early in the year, it was great save Flurry, after great save, to keep them in the game, then a couple of quick goals. No question who the team MVP has been.
The only thing we’ll be seeing Wyo post is a picture of a brick.
Houston shot horribly in the second half.
Here’s the audio recap of their 2nd half:
Thud, bonk, doink, clack
picture of the winning team!
Wow, it’s not like you guys were playing LeBron, otherwise Harden and that stupid head jerk of his gets more calls, proven by the number of free throws he takes, than anyone.
CP3 not playing was the difference.
I don’t want to work today
😣
Been here for an hour and a half already. Me either! Especially since it’s going to be a beautiful day today
Right now it’s really humid and gross
get to work! both of you!!
I keep hearing we lost our stars, that’s why the Fuxspertts have us falling. Well, this isn’t the NBA where it takes stars to win, because of all the calls they get. You can win in the NFL without a lot of stars, but its not like we don’t have any, we just lost a couple of them.
we lost a lot of bumbs
Not bums, arrogant, self centered SOBs.
i thought the zebras let them play last night, they didn’t call anything, a couple of rockets were mugged at the rim without a call, harden was fouled on 3 point shots without a call, seen some moving screens. did the nba decide it would be better to let the gsw go to the finals?
When you Sponge Bob it (flop on the deck like a fish) like Harden does, a game where they let em play doesn’t favor him.
they all flop and play hurt, it was very obvious last night did you see that moving screen? the gsw player looked like a pulling guard, no call, did you see gordon get mugged by 2 gsw players going to the rim? no call. i’m not a rocket fan but they got hosed last night!
I didn’t see the game, my comments were generalized statements. I was At TMobile watching the hockey game on the big screen.
It’s not a surprise the league would want the GSW vs Clev 3match.
The series was decided in the 2nd quarter of game #6
I can’t believe the NBA suckered me in again?????????????????????
Yep, that’s what sports has become these days, show me the money. Houston just wasn’t going to garner enough interest. Harden isn’t a very likable player.
I cant play the video now, what are they saying?
shows the gsw muggings last night
Hope everyone had a good weekend. Pigs – great job on the the Murph! Amerson is to M13 what Ajayi is to ORob.
ajayi means nothing to me except for the fact that we went 2-7 after his departure
Do you really believe it was because of Ajayi leaving? What did he do for us last year, his stats were bad? Our opponents weren’t loading the box, like they did in 2016.
The reason was the D gave up on the team, once they realized the O was so bad.
14-8 with him 2-7 without, do the math
Here we go. Again.
Steve – Don’t you know that Ajayi was the entire team over that 22 (14-8) game stretch? I still can’t understand how two team managed to lose to Miami after he left, given there was no one on the field to oppose them.
it would really open your eyes if only you understood football strategy. I got a good idea>>>let’s skip this loop!
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/A/AjayJa00.htm
It’s funny, when you look at the stats, they have no wins and losses. Why is that?
when you control the LOS with a tough RB teams have to stop that adding more resources leaving other areas vulnerable, the end results are W’s.
he certainly was elusive, I hope we found a RB that isn’t elusive and wants to run over people because that’s what we need.
Mike, It’s like pool, i would pass on the shots that left you set up and concentrate on the shots that if i missed you had nothing. otherwise known as Strategy
It’s all about the amount of carries our bread and butter RB get in a game. just running the ball doesn’t count, you have to be effective running the ball,
that means you are picking up more than 2 yards per carry every time, never do you have negative running plays.
it doesn’t matter if you’re able to break off big runs, just be consistent.
this all starts with the OL and RB coaches and bleeds down to the OL and RB.
if we can’t run we give up and get less than 20 carries a game, when we can run we get more than 20 carries a game. with everything else being equal; this is the difference between winning and losing.
last 2 years more than 20 rushing attempts 16-0 less than 20 rushing attempts 0-16.
what a coincidence!
Who is debating you about establishing a running game?
I wonder if that’s because some other young tackles impressed in OTAs?
Might be making room?
You can really call conspiracy if the Cavs beat the GSW. There is no way in hell that should happen, but hell there is also no way the Cavs should still be in this damn thing either. Boston was killing them, then it was like the switch got flipped so they could get back in it and win in a dramatic fashion. The Pacers had them in round one, though that was a back and forth the whole way. They are the Cinderella overcoming adversity, blah blah blah headline team.
It’s all about one guy.
Ask Indiana how they feel about that, they had Clev beat until LeScam started getting all the calls. I wanted Clev to win each of its series, but come on man…
LeBron is the best player in the game. Any given day he can take over a game
The Celtics aren’t a very good team
Lebron is Lebron
If you put bunch of average teams in a pile, the one with lebron will win
I think the cavs would have lost to either Houston or GS
But the east – the east sucks
The NBA is a joke. Refs have way too much control over the flow and outcome.
Its officially 9 months of meaningless 🏀 that ends with lebron playing the best team in the west
Totally agree with Piggy. The regular season is almost unwatchable and I am a Knicks fan so the post season is also unwatchable
I don’t know why but I think O Rob wants to see us commit to the running game
Oh right the 2nd OTAs are today through Thursday.
Usually this early int he process if guys get cut its because they showed up for OTA’s in bad shape, and usually only if you were a fringe guy to start with.
Asiata has his hands full cracking the starting lineup now with an all pro in front of him at his natural position and a young guy who has won the coaching staff over in the other likely spot for him. His best bet is to show position flexibility at OC and backup at OC/OG until he can find a way to beat out one of the other two guy, and most likely that will be Davis, because Sitton is most likely locked in at LG until his contract expires and way it wont be after that is if he winds up costing us too much to extend. He was a 5th round pick so its OK if he never really does anything but give us goodbackup at a couple of interior spots but id really like to see him push for a starting spot.
You really think Sitton at his age would cost us too much to keep after his current contract expires?
So it’s davis at RG
I like that. I thought he showed promise at the end of the season. Especially so in run blocking. I think he still needs some improvement in pass protection. He is pretty athletic
He’s a big dude too.
🐖🍻
I think the team likes Larsen as the backup C/G on game day.
He gives them flexibility
Yeah being that most team dress 7 OL for the game, you need two swing guys if a starter goes down. Young will probably be the backup tackle.
Maybe even Isiata steps it up
D says:
May 29, 2018 at 1:45 pm
Asiata has his hands full cracking the starting lineup now with an all pro in front of him at his natural position and a young guy who has won the coaching staff over in the other likely spot for him. His best bet is to show position flexibility at OC and backup at OC/OG until he can find a way to beat out one of the other two guy, and most likely that will be Davis, because Sitton is most likely locked in at LG until his contract expires and way it wont be after that is if he winds up costing us too much to extend. He was a 5th round pick so its OK if he never really does anything but give us goodbackup at a couple of interior spots but id really like to see him push for a starting spot.
Reply
Beer for you!
Give it to the pig!
I owe him one! 😉
🐖 🍻
I also wouldnt put Steinmetz out of the running at swing OT, because he is a guy the coaches put in a lot of time with pre-draft evaluating him. He at least has the characteristics they were looking for. Whether he can put it together to be as quality as Young was or better, i dunno.
I really dont think Young offers us much other than knowing what we have with him, i dont see anything better out of him, which again, isnt a bad thing but you should always be looking to improve your weakest links and i think there could be a lot of improvement from Steinmentz over Young.
Let’s see who steps up.
I didn’t undervalued him. I had him as top 3 pick. Seeing where he was in mocks I thought we wouldn’t have a shot at him, but he was who I wanted.
If davis starts who is the backup OT?
I’d say Young at this time unless some young buck beats him out.
If i had to choose the OL we keep, right now it would be:
Starters
Tunsil
Sitton
Kilgore
Davis
James
Depth/Backups
Young OT’s
Larsen OC/OG’s
Asiata OC/OG’s
Steinmentz OT’s
Its probably going to be close among a few of those guys, but i think Steinmentz and Hilland have the most likely change and i believe that Steinmentz rounds the group out better. There is a possibility we take 10 OL too, but im not sure. Brendel also has a good shot of making the team, but with Larsen to backup at OG and OC his spot i think is in more jeopardy
Has Asiata played center?
I don’t think so
They had him practice there some last year.
Go Stabby!
No playoffs for the Seahawks. LOL
ocalarob says:
May 29, 2018 at 10:34 am
14-8 with him 2-7 without, do the math
I see your math and I raise your arithmetic! That had NOTHING to do with Ajayi. that was because we lost Tannehill!