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 
wow McCaffery!!!
Richardson having a nice debut. I should have played him in fantasy
T minus 1 hour, 15 minutes
I have relatives in Atmore.
——————-
I go to the Casino there about 4 times a year. Only about an hour drive.
Rhino, that sounds like a great time. Some very good OL to keep an eye on in ND vs Duke. Alt for ND and Barton for Duke among others.
I am leaving about 4 am driving to Jacksonville, NC. Meeting up with my son and going to fish the outer banks for a couple days and drive back Thursday night or early Friday morning. Hurricane Lee might screw our plans though. Not that it will be anywhere close but will make for some very difficult surf fishing.
I’m so nervous. Eeewwwww I hate this.
Tannehill with 3 INT’s and a QBR of 23.2 through the first 3 quarters.
And they’re only down 4 with the ball
Is it possible to burst from anticipation?
🐖 💨
There is a NFL Sunday Ticket commercial about it’s hard for dolphins to survive in the desert with the die hard guy with his gravel yard painted Dolphins colors…well anyway they show Waddle at the end in a dark throwback and that’s the exact jersey I want but with Ingold on the back. Someone needs to tell the Dolphins pro shop on line that he is on the team and just got an extension. He isn’t listed alphabetically on their site.
Clev goes for 2, now up 21 on Cin
Maybe my discomfort this afternoon was my empathic connection to Tanny’s melt down? LOL
Water under the bridge, let’s go Tua! See that Defense, dissect that Defense, tear that defense a new hole. Run the ball, tear a hole. repeat.
LET’S GO MIAMI!
I must admit, I started drinking at 11 so I am pretty homeraided up!
I want to see our Defense DOMINATE. I want to see our special teams be SPECIAL and I want to see us bang to rock, smacking them repeatedly to frustration and then stinging them with quick TD passes.
Lol
OMG OMG OMG I’M FREAKING OUT!! LOOK AT MY AVI!!!!!!!
OMG LAUNDRY!!
Here we go
Sigh
Thank goodness that was offsides, I was ready to lose my shit!
First play of the season – yuk
🐧
Love when Kevin Harlan gets excited, especially when it’s the Dolphins he’s excited about!
I like that play
Turrible
Chargers paying Williams salary today ?
They have to get that fixed.
Maybe we need a new center – that’s ridiculous
OMG OFFENSIVE OFFENSIVE LINE
Er they show THAT replay
Bet they
Those kind of mistakes need to stop quick or Eichenberg will be playing C
erp gurgle gurgle gurgle erp
Don’t upset my stomach
Yes Mike. Inexcusable
Why was Long covering Keenan Allen?
I thought that was holding by slater on Chubb
I thought so watching live, but on replay he kind of just threw him down
Once he went to the ground it wasn’t holding but early on the play it was
I tried resetting the game but it didn’t work…
Defense not looking like a championship defense
Man not a great start
Just what I was hoping for, to fumble at their 6 yard line and watch them go 94 yards for a TD. 😳
Reset
We might finish the season with a top 10 O and D in Florida, but not the NFL.
Still can’t stop the run and still can’t shooting ourselves in the foot when in possession.
Things must get better?
It’s only one drive, but this looks like the exact same defense
We’re going to run the football this year.
Once/game
Mostert looked strong!
Not a hold
Bullshit holding call
Yes!!!!!! Huge conversion!!!
BooYeah
Keep giving it to Mostert pleasd
Once again, Mostert looks strong!!!!
That was nice!
My iPad keeps correcting it to Monster and I think I should start keeping it
🐖 💨
Run the fecking ball more please. Thanks
That was great. Feel much better. 😁
Needed that
Thst holding call was bs – Not only did it not effect the play, Williams contact with The db was pretty minimal and he kept him in front the whole play
That slater on Chubb on the other hand, when Chubb had leverage and was getting pulled down by the side was much worse
So how is YouTube working??
Mine is working great. BuT when the game first came on I had to to restart n]bc it froze
Are ya watching more than one game ?
I was earlier today – the 4 game split is fun
Didn’t enjoy the elevator music before the game!
But it’s fine now
Thst was painful
Glad to hear it works well👍👍👍
Other than snapping the ball – our offense looks great early
Tied up after the first!
Get your shit together boys.
I like that EZ is getting touches. You can tell he loves to run the ball.
That’s why I put him as my surprise player!
Agreed Piggy
Still say the stadium looks like a huge sperm cell
High tech sperm cell. lol
Okay Defensive reset
Well done
Boy this announcer is bias for LA
OK let’s GO
I love that we are rushing 10 on 3rd down anymore….
Perfect throw there
We can do whatever we want on offense
Except snap the ball….
Another perfect throw
$17M man!!
Give it to Ingold
What if his foot hits the pylon before going out of bounds?
Is that a TD?
I think so
You’re in the end zone, get one one foot down and the other foot hits the pylon. I think that could be a TD, not sure
Guess not
Kick it
🤜🏻🤛🏻
Smythe never had a chance on that throw
Patriots losing 16-0
I’m happy to see us moving the ball…easily
But we could be up 21-7 right now instead of 10-7
Correct
Disappointing but ok
now
LET’S GO DEFENSE!!!
Defense on this next drive is a real key to whether this’ll be a shootout or we actually do have a top Defense in the league.
Shootout
FUCK
Yikes! Gashed!!!!
Shoot out it is
As I feared, haven’t seen Phillips do anything today. Hype-hype-hype
He’s made at east 1 tackle
or least which ever way your facing
so who’s supposed to plug up the middle of the D line on rushing plays straight up the gut?
Pretty sure Eichenberg is in this series
Too much float
Bad decision by Tua there
Stop throwing to smythe the on 3rd dow unless he’s wide open
Our TE’s are NOT pass catchers
Not sure, but I don’t recall seeing Pili yet. Anyone??
Starting to over cover the middle again .. can we adjust ? Or will we keep throwing into triple coverage?
Where’s Sonny?
I’ve had an idea. We’ve got 61 yards on 9 carries so let’s just chuck it as often as we can. Mystic Mac hasn’t learned his lesson then
Aggressive bump by #55
PAY
THE
MAN
Smythe is a bigger part of the passing game then I expected
Who is this Smythe guy?
What happened to the run game????
As UK said , it was working too well so we abandoned it
Can we please run the ball?
I think we can do it now
But I love the confidence in the passing game
I feel like we haven’t had a rushing play in the 2nd quarter.
What a drive
Nice drive
Craycraft putting a point to why he is on the team today
242 first half yards for Tua