Alright Dolphins fans, relaxed, reserved, nonchalant Mike E. is gone! It’s 2023, and our time is NOW!! This is undeniably the most talented roster we have had here in Miami since the mid 90’s. and our last playoff victory was 23 years ago against the Indianapolis Colts when RB Lamar Smith put the team on his back and ran his heart out for 209 yards on 40 carries and 2 TD’s, one of them in OT for the win, a 17 yard power run carrying defenders in the end zone. It’s time to reclaim that kind of glory. We have drafted, traded for, and signed the type of roster that should take us into the playoffs and beyond. Don’t discount the fact that RB Raheem Mostert is now rippling with 215 lbs of speed and muscle. Don’t discount the fact that we actually gave a pretty big contract to a FB, one Alec Ingold. Also, don’t discount that the Miami TE room is filled with guys who block, and make space for RB’s. Sure, no Dolphins TE jumps off the page as a pass catcher, but all of them block, and block well. I know we have Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, one of the most formidable WR duos in the NFL, but this team was built for the long haul, and if you want to be a playoff contender, you have to be able to run the football, and that’s why we have all those blocking TE’s, one expensive FB, a speedy RB (Mostert) that put on 10 pounds of muscle, and a guy who I believe has a bigger impact than some believe, RB Chris Brooks, undrafted from BYU, a big bodied RB at 6’1 223. We wanted Jonathan Taylor because he’s a big back, different than anyone else on our roster, a finisher. That’s what Chris Brooks will be for us in time.
If you’ve realized, I spent an entire dialogue on the offense and now, in the 2nd paragraph, I’m going to finally talk about our defense. This is a defense just ready to climb to the top of the NFL. It would have been wonderful if we had signed DT Christian Wilkins, but both he, and the team remain committed to getting a deal done, and I don’t think for a minute that a person of Wilkin’s character needed a reason to play hard and have a great season, but the fact that he wants a huge contract doesn’t hurt any in incentivizing him to have a great season. We brought in DC Vic Fangio to finally unleash what this defense is capable of. OK, it wasn’t ideal that one of the key guys we traded for is out till most likely November at the earliest, Jalen Ramsey, but we have so much talent on this defense, including the secondary, that Ramsey will end up being a pleasant boost when he’s healthy. CB Xavien seems healthy, and 2nd year rising star Kader Kohou looks like may start opposite Howard, just going by the depth chart on the Dolphins home page. I won’t be surprised, because most of the time when I imagine Eli Apple, I see WR’s running by him and see the back of his jersey. If that’s the case, either rookie Cam Smith could be the nickel, or maybe if he’s not healthy enough, Apple or newly acquired CB Kelvin Joseph will play nickel back. At safety, Brandon Jones returns from injury, and he was having a great season before his injury in Game 7. Jevon Holland is poised to have an All Pro type season at the other safety spot.
Third paragraph in and I still haven’t yet mentioned the defensive line and linebackers, the creme de al creme. Christian Wilkins at LE, Raekwon Davis in the middle and Zach Sieler at the other end spot, who just got a nice contract extension. At LB, definitely our best unit in quite some time, with Jalen Phillips at LOLB, the unheralded LILB Jerome Baker, David Long who came over from Tennesee and will be big player in our defense, and then Bradley Chubb at ROLB. DE/OLB Emmanuel Ogbah will be getting a fair amount of reps both hand in the ground and standing up. We have nice depth at LB with familiar faces Andrew Van Ginkel, Duke Riley, 2nd year LB Channing Tindall and the aforementioned Emmanuel Ogbah who will play both DE/DT and OLB. The area of biggest concern for me is the spot opposite X. Can either Kader Kohou, Cam Smith or Eli Apple, or possibly even Kelvin Joseph hold down that spot and do at least an average job? Big question, and one that will be tested immediately against QB Justin Herbert, who loves to throw the ball down the field. I would imagine we’re not going to leave whoever plays that spot on an island and they will likely get safety help, which then would put a lot of pressure on X in one-on-one coverage. Mike Williams, one of the bigger WR’s in the NFL is a physical player who will give most DB’s a tough assignment, and Herbert has the arm to get him the ball almost anywhere on the field.
Our offense clearly will be a different animal this season. No question Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle will get lots of touches, but I do believe we will be a more balanced offense this season. I have yet to mention RB De’Von Achane, who at some point will show the NFL his speed and smooth running style. This will truly be a RB by committee situation, with Mostert at least for now the lead back, but I think plenty of touches for Achane, Ahmed and the rookie Chris Brooks. Don’t be surprised if like in the preseason, Chris Brooks gets lots of carries deep in the red zone. QB Tua Tagovailoa has done all he can in the offseason to help himself stay healthy, and help lead this team an entire season of games. He added weight, learned through martial arts proper falling techniques to keep his head from crashing to the ground and as we saw in the preseason, he employed those techniques, and most importantly, they worked.
I think all of us here at FMU have looked at our defense and expected better. I think Vic Fangio looked at this opportunity through the same lens we do, this a defense just waiting to flourish with proper guidance. Fangio is exactly 5 years my senior, born August 22nd 1958. He’s been a defensive coordinator since 1995, no need to count, that’s 23 years (Fangio took a break from the NFL from 2006-2010). It’s hard for me not to believe that Fangio is the missing piece. Flores had some strong points on defense, learning from Bill Belichick in NE. Then Flores’ dismissal led the Dolphins to hand over the reins to Josh Boyer, who in my opinion, was too one dimensional and far too reliant on the zero blitz coverage scheme. I would expect less sacks from the safeties and more from the LB’s and DL. I think David Long is going to be great in this defense, both as a run stopper and helping in pass coverage. It’s not crazy to think we could have a top 10 offense and defense simultaneously.
We have a tough opening game, no doubt. The Chargers were the 2nd team last season to stymie both Tua Tagovailoa and our offense. It was the second leg of a dreadful west coast trip that began with a loss to the Brock Purdy led SF 49ers. Tua was sacked 3 times, and threw 2 INT’s against the vaunted SF defense. The offense was totally one dimensional, we ran 8 times against the Niners. Against the Chargers, it was no better. The Chargers hit Tua, but mostly took away his passing lanes which led to an awful 10 of 28 performance for only 145 yards. We made a slightly better attempt to run, but still had less than 20 carries (19). Despite having one of the best RB’s in the NFL in Austin Ekeler, Herbert was throwing everywhere, attempting 51 passes in all and completing most of them, 39 completions for 367 yards. We’re going to need to do a whole lot better on both sides of the ball to win this one. I expect more running from us, and hopefully that will open up the passing game for a few shots here and there. This would be a huge opening day win, and a big shot fired in the AFC towards the playoff race. I don’t have him in FF, but if I had Chris Brooks, I’d be inclined to insert him in the lineup because I think the kid may get a couple of TD’s in this one. In any case, we must have a better showing than we did on December 11th, 2022 against the Chargers last season.
GO DOLPHINS!!!!
Finsmob Unleashed 
I am listening to a podcast from Boston about which QB is better Tua or Mac. ROFLMAO!! HOT TAKES!
One of these morons says Mac is TWICE the QB that Tua will ever be….
The other panel member starts going beep beep beep the guys says “what” the buy beeping says man you gotta back that up! LOL
I saw that on Twitter
Lol
I can’t believe that’s even an argument
OHHHHH YEAY! page turn
So as it turns out Mostert did not have a vet rest day yesterday. He has a “minor” knee issue. I’m glad I reserved my right to freak out yesterday! FFS! Can’t we get through one game without injuries throwing off our plans!?
7mvp says:
September 14, 2023 at 9:07 am (Edit)
I know it’s old news, but I still can’t get over how much of a POS Flores was. You’ve got this high character, coachable kid in Tua and you go out of your way to sabotage his career. Then sue the league when you lose your job because of it, blaming racism.
*****
I don’t think it’s old news
I think seeing Tua being successful raises all these issues again. Flores almost ruined Tua for the Dolphins
IMO the opinion Tua’s performance demonstrates that Flores was fired for merit. There was a no discriminatory dispute on the direction of the team.
Get behind Tua or don’t. That’s a major decision for a football team that has crushed many relationships. So even if Flores was right about Tua, that’s a nondiscrimnatory basis to terminate some one. But now we are seeing that Flores was wrong about Tua! So it’s not crazy to rehash this stuff
Technically speaking his suit is not exactly that he was fired based on racism, it’s a class action based on the history of racism in the nfl. It’s been a while since I read his complaint but as I recall the amount of time spent suggesting that he was wrongfully terminated based on race was very minimal and the case is really about the NFL’s failure to address racial disparities – which is a loaded issue
Flores thought he was the most important person in the building and everyone else got tired of it. The end.
It’s being reported that Baker Mayfield figured out the Vikings defensive signals, so that’s why the Bucs were able to come back and win.
The DC?
Flores.
Week 2
🐬@ 🇺🇸(if anyone has a better emoji, change it)
🦬 33-17 🐬
Howie’s List
Week 2
🐬@ 🐍snakes🦞lobsters🪱worms🦹♀️cheaters👎losers🤡clowns
🚷running forbidden
🦬 33-17 🐬
🌴 20-13🐬
I’ll go bold again. Phins 41-17
🙂and Lamm held up well. So we have good depth too. But Armstead is one of the best LTs in the game. Great news!
Howie’s List
Week 2
🐬@ 🐍snakes🦞lobsters🪱worms🦹♀️cheaters👎losers🤡clowns
🚷running forbidden
🦬 33-17 🐬
🌴 20-13🐬
TK 40-17 🐬
Howie’s List
Week 2
🐬@ 🐍snakes🦞lobsters🪱worms🦹♀️cheaters👎losers🤡clowns
🚷running forbidden
🦬 33-17 🐬
🌴 20-13🐬
TK 41-17 🐬
Ok, I was wrong. I still reserve the right to freak out!
Rock freak out? No, never says the guy with a Hulk avatar
Good news all around on our injury front.
The patsies injury report still shows 5 OL are hurt with 2 in concussion protocol.
Also 2 WRs (Devante, of course) AND a CB.
He’s not wrong. 😂
People are starting to get it.🙂
Testing
positive
Notice I didn’t say passed
suck on my salty chocolate balls! Put em in your mouth and suck em!
two table spoons of cinnamon…..
I like Salty Tua…lol
I loved that running throw he practiced and made in the game to Hill. Awesome!
Good news on Armstead
Howie’s List
Week 2
🐬@ 🐍snakes🦞lobsters🪱worms🦹♀️cheaters👎losers🤡clowns
🚷running forbidden
🦬 33-17 🐬
🌴 20-13🐬
TK 41-17 🐬
🐟🐠🦈 36-10 🐬
This is the funniest Star Wars meme I think I have ever seen. I snorted and now the bar tender is calling me piggy. I’m not piggy! Piggy is Piggy!
That is hilarious
Oh my, lol…
Howie’s List
Week 2
🐬@ 🐍snakes🦞lobsters🪱worms🦹♀️cheaters👎losers🤡clowns
🚷running forbidden
🦬 33-17 🐬
🌴 20-13🐬
TK 41-17 🐬
🐟🐠🦈 36-10 🐬
🇨🇦 35–17 🐬
Thanks for fixing that Toba.
Come on man to Herd
Haha it got fixed a while back never mind me
Bite me.
It was Naples who fixed it. And I did ask…I was doing about 5 things at the time and couldn’t think what to use.
Lol
Sorry
I was a dick
careful, when you are standing at Dave and Busters relaxed and having a good time, someone may come up and bite you, at your invitation.
Howie’s List
Week 2
🐬@ 🐍snakes🦞lobsters🪱worms🦹♀️cheaters👎losers🤡clowns
🚷running forbidden
🦬 33-17 🐬
🌴 20-13🐬
🗡 41-17 🐬
🐟🐠🦈 36-10 🐬
🇨🇦 35–17 🐬
🏈 31-16 🐬
Look at the scores, y’all are fired up. Love it.
There’s no free lunch
It don’t come easy
Howie’s List
Week 2
🐬@ 🐍snakes🦞lobsters🪱worms🦹♀️cheaters👎losers🤡clowns
🚷running forbidden
🦬 33-17 🐬
🌴 20-13🐬
🗡 41-17 🐬
🐟🐠🦈 36-10 🐬
🇨🇦 35–17 🐬
🏈 31-16 🐬
🐷45 – 14 🐬
Weeeee
Enabled the avatar
Weeeeeeeeeee
I really hope we can create some turnovers against the cheats
It’s time, they’ve been hard to come by.
Fumble!
Pic!
Hurts his offense
I’m really not liking the games being on 25 different channels, apps, WTF ever’s
Fumble (yes that’s a duplicate)
Viking D is tough!
Offense / Special Teams is toast!
Wyoming85 says:
September 14, 2023 at 8:43 pm (Edit)
I’m really not liking the games being on 25 different channels, apps, WTF ever’s
******
We have to have some sort of decoder ring to figure out where the games are being broadcast
Is it off to anyone else that when Amazon profiles a player they have a graphic that has his age, his college, the year he was drafted, the round he was drafted
But they are omitting the players name?
HEY the pig is back
You are oinking right!
I’m such a dork! LOL I am laughing my ass off at myself. I left the bar and am at home so I can’t watch the game anymore and I looked at the feed on NFL. com to see what was happening and saw that Philly had almost double the passing yards as Minn and then saw the int and said to myself out lout “Ooooh at pick That hurts…….and then lost it. I am alone and had to share one of the most unbridled lose my breath laughs I have had in decades. even though it is stupid
Wyoming85 says:
September 14, 2023 at 8:43 pm
I’m really not liking the games being on 25 different channels, apps, WTF ever’s
—————-
It’s ridiculous. I just noticed there are two games this Monday. One is on ABC/ESPN+. the other is on ESPN/ESPN2.
You also need to have Prime for Thursdays, Sunday ticket for the majority of Sunday games, NBC for Sunday night, and finally, if your game is local, you need local CBS or FOX.
If I’m not mistaken, the Dolphins/ Chiefs in Germany is on NFL Network.
Oh, and if you want access to all replays, you need NFL+
Or you get a firestick which even has replays😉🤫
The eagles OL opens up so much space
8-10 for 73 1 Int
8-10 for 71 1 TD
small ball, under 8 yards per attempt. LOL
both QBs running with an 80% completion percentage
I dislike Philly, but I want them to shred Flores’ defense
😃
You don’t see the fumble out of the end zone touchback every day
That is usually our specialty
Ugh. I forgot there was a game tonight. Didn’t look at my FF to see if I have anyone playing. 🤦🏼♀️
How many TO’s can the Vike’s stand???????
Not this many
I opted to play our D instead of Philadelphia’s in my other FF league. Ugh
I just realized I do in ours.
Also an ugh
And now I realize I’m against you this week. 🤣
Put a fork in this one
Yep
Vic Fangio explains why Brandon Jones and David Long Jr. saw limited playing time against the Chargers
Safety Brandon Jones and linebacker David Long Jr. combined to play 19 snaps last Sunday.
By Jacob Mendel@JMendel94 Sep 14, 2023, 6:33pm EDT
The Miami Dolphins signed free agent linebacker David Long Jr. as the team’s starting middle linebacker, but it didn’t exactly go as planned in Week 1 against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.
Long played just 17 snaps as Austin Eckler gashed Miami’s run defense for 117 yards on just 16 attempts. Speaking of players with limited playing time, safety Brandon Jones, recovering from an ACL injury he suffered last season, only played two snaps for the Dolphins.
Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio took to the podium Thursday afternoon and shared the reasoning behind the moves.
“[Jones has] been way behind in practice reps,” Fangio said. “Just didn’t feel he was quite ready to be out there yet, but he’s closing that gap and hopefully we’ll get to see him more here soon.
“And as far as [Long] goes, he was the starter in the base package, [Andrew] Van Ginkel was the starter in the nickel package and we ended up playing more nickel in that game.”
Van Ginkel played 51 snaps, logged four tackles, and earned a 70.9 coverage grade, according to PFF.
“We moved [Van Ginkel] there, tried him out there as you guys know starting in OTAs and in training camp, and felt that throughout that whole process, he kind of won the job on merit,” Fangio explained. “So he’s been doing a good job in there and we expect him to continue to get better.
“Doesn’t mean that the other guys – [Long] and Duke [Riley] can’t get in there some also, but it was just a job earned over time.”
The regular season features 17 games and every matchup is different. Looking ahead, the Dolphins have a Sunday Night Football showdown with the New England Patriots.
Miami struggled to contain Eckler, but considering a divisional bout featuring running backs Rhamondre Stevenson and Ezekiel Elliot, Miami’s base defense — including Long — may see considerably more time on the field this weekend.
I’m reading the USA Today’s NFL Week 2 Preview and it shows 2 (TWO) Monday night games starting an hour apart. WTF?! Is that right?
Yes. Two different channels
I guess I’ve been living under a rock for too long…lol.
When did they start having 2 MNF games? And on 2 networks? WTF.
I tried to turn on last nights game and it wasn’t on any of the Sports channels I purchased with Direct TV. It was on Prime I think.
I am not going to buy every fucking streaming platform out there to watch football. That’s fucking ridiculous. The NFL is ridiculous….lol.
I’ll just watch the Dolphins….
…last night’s game…
Armstrong ruled out again this weekend. FFS we need a reliable left tackle. He can be the greatest of all time, but he still sucks ass because he misses 1/4 the season every year. PRIORITY next draft is TWO tackles. Shed his ridiculous contract for riding the bench. He needs to GO.
I’m sick of the guy. He lasted about 1/4 of one practice before getting injured…again. But I think his contract means he’s ours for at least two more years.
Where the hell is everyone today!?
Here, just got back from NC 30 minutes ago.
I have this thing I do called work…..
LOL I pretend to do that thing called “work” too.
I haven’t seen anything confirming Armstead is out. All I have seen is he has returned to practice and was full contact
Same here.
Howie’s List
Week 2
🐬@ 🐍snakes🦞lobsters🪱worms🦹♀️cheaters👎losers🤡clowns
🚷running forbidden
🦬 33-17 🐬
🌴 20-13🐬
🗡 41-17 🐬
🐟🐠🦈 36-10 🐬
🇨🇦 35–17 🐬
🏈 31-16 🐬
🐷45 – 14 🐬
boulder 31 – 24 🐬
Howie’s List
Week 2
🐬@ 🐍snakes🦞lobsters🪱worms🦹♀️cheaters👎losers🤡clowns
🚷running forbidden
🦬 33-17 🐬
🌴 20-13🐬
🗡 41-17 🐬
🐟🐠🦈 36-10 🐬
🇨🇦 35–17 🐬
🏈 31-16 🐬
🐷45 – 14 🐬
boulder 31 – 24 🐬
🦍 24-20 🐬
Howie’s List
Week 2
🐬@ 🐍snakes🦞lobsters🪱worms🦹♀️cheaters👎losers🤡clowns
🚷running forbidden
🦬 33-17 🐬
🌴 20-13🐬
🗡 41-17 🐬
🐟🐠🦈 36-10 🐬
🇨🇦 35–17 🐬
🏈 31-16 🐬
🐷45 – 14 🐬
🪨 31-24 🐬
🦍 24-20 🐬
NEW BLOG UP!!!
There are 4 games involving important AFC teams, not including ours, where the teams are 1-0 vs. 0-1, so if all of them reversed, that is 8 teams at 1-1.
If the Cowboys beat the jests (praying for Dak to go off with 300 passing),
and assuming the Titans lose to the Bolts, that’s 2 more 1-1 teams.
If we win, then we’re a game ahead of all 10 of our main rivals and even more considering tie-breakers to come.
In a year with so much AFC balance, this would be a very nice start to the season.
But we MUST beat the Cheats.