Finsmob Unleashed

As many of you here know, I deeply lament the loss of DT/DE Christian Wilkins. At least for this season, the Dolphins front office has found a suitable replacement for Wilkins. At 38 years old, Calais Campbell is not Christian Wilkins. On the other hand, the Dolphins defense as constructed by DC Anthony Weaver and Chris Grier is going to me much more of a rotational situation on the defensive line, which suits Calais Campbell perfectly. Don’t take me the wrong way, Calais Campbell played more defensive snaps last season than any other lineman not named Zach Sieler, and in some cases more than a few them combined. The rotation that we will be employing will allow us to get the best of Campbell though, especially at age 38. He will likely be asked to play not much more than half of the 712 snaps he played last season. We want him fresh, and everyone else really, down the stretch for the big push towards the playoffs. As any Dolphins fan knows, we limped, dragged and crawled into the playoffs with a M*A*S*H squad of injured and replacement players. We need to change that, and come in hot, and ready to do battle.

So after all the moves on defense, I have to say that we look good enough to be competitive. I don’t think we upgraded the entire defense, but I think the secondary, as long as everyone is healthy, will be much better than the start of last year, with a gimpy Xavien Howard, no Jalen Ramsey, and Eli Apple as the starter opposite Howard. Jalen Ramsey and Kendall Fuller are a formidable CB tandem, and I expect them to play at a high level together. I think the trio of safeties, Jevon Holland, and newly acquired Jordan Poyer and Marcus Maye could be an upgrade over Holland and Jones, and DeShon Elliott. Training camp will be very important for these guys to get on the same page with each other and as we know, a few of these players will playing multiple positions and have a lot of different responsibilities. As they are all veterans, I don’t expect it to be an issue, and hopefully, Jordan Poyer has a lot left in the tank for us in ’24.

At linebacker, some think we’ve upgraded, but I’m cautious about that. Some people think Tua gets no respect, well I believe ILB Jerome Baker might be the most under appreciated and disrespected LB we’ve had here in MIA. As Randy correctly assessed, Baker is really a weakside LB, but we’ve been playing him inside for a few years. So now, Jordyn Brooks, who we picked up as a free agent from Seattle, will be Baker’s replacement. Some say his coverage skills are better than Baker’s, we’ll see. The stats, by the way don’t support this, Bakers comp % and yards per reception allowed are lower than Brooks. Baker, who has also played longer (2 more seasons), has 5 INT’s while Brooks has 1. Baker also has 22.5 sacks while Brooks has only 6.5. Baker showed a lot of heart coming back from injury and making that goal line stop, I’ll never forget that play. Like I said, unduly disrespected.

The defensive line no question got a huge boost with the addition of Calais Campbell. Zach Sieler is probably thrilled! The rotation of a bunch of part time players will be tested. Anthony Weaver will be tested. As much as Fangio was hated by our players, this team played strong defense until the injuries didn’t allow it to. We were a top 10 defense with Fangio. Weaver will have to be impressive early on to match that, and with 2 of our best pass rushers rehabbing from injutres, Phillips (achilles), and Chubb (ACL), we’ll have veteran Shaq Barrett and rookie 1st RD selection Chop Robinson. It could be a while before we see Phillips and/or Chubb on the field, and most likely a while longer before we see them getting a big workload. Add in Mo Kamara, it’s possible that Chubb and Phillips don’t play a huge role until the end of the season, and in a reverse from last season where the defense was decimated, this season we come in at full strength and rested and raring to go.

I don’t look at our roster, team, and say this team is good enough to win a Super Bowl. I think there are too many questions, is the O-line good enough, and are we done adding players? Recently, news from Connor Williams agent was out that he will be ready to start the season and play immediately, which conflicts with earlier reports. I’d sign Connor Williams in a second, even if he can’t play until mid season or later because if/when he’s ready to play, he’s likely our best interior O-lineman. We’ll find out soon enough whether C Aaron Brewer is good enough, but hopefully our fallback option is Connor Williams and not Liam Eichenberg, who is serviceable at best. I think Eichenberg could potentially be a plus starter at OG, I haven’t given up on him yet. I’m interested to see how the competition shakes out between Isaiah Wynn, Robert Jones and Liam Eichenberg. I think the depth on the O-line is solid, but I’d love an upgrade, and I believe Connor Williams would be an upgrade when healthy at LG, C, or RG. You can’t forget just how excellent he was here, he’s so powerful and wins his matchups.

To many of you here, I apologize for not including QB Tua Tagovailoa in this article, I’m sure you’re all crushed!

GO DOLPHINS!!!