Finsmob Unleashed

As we discussed last week, one of huge offseason acquisitions will be missing lots of playing time, and now it’s relatively official that CB Jalen Ramsey should be out at least until December. The Dolphins immediately picked up veteran CB, former NY Giant, NO Saint, Carolina Panther and Cincinnati Bengal CB Eli Apple. Self proclaimed as “The Silent Assassin”, it’s not clear who the victims are, opposing WR’s or his own team. Over his 7 year career with 4 different teams as a former 1st RD pick in 2016 (#10) to the NY Giants, he’s done a lot of both.

Even more recently, The Dolphins waived FB John Lovett and signed former Detroit Lion and also former Pittsburgh Mauler of USFL. In 2021, Gilbert played in 8 games for the Detroit Lions and then spent 2022 on the Pittsburgh Steelers practice squad. In 2023, in the USFL, Gilbert logged 33 tackles, and the led the USFL with 4 INT’s. After all, he is the cousin of former NY Jet Darrelle Revis. “Gilbert Island” anyone? So what does our depth chart look like at CB? Who starts opposite LCB Xavien Howard is up for grabs. Veteran Eli Apple has played most of his career at LCB, and rookie 2nd RD pick CB Cam Smith, who by the way, at least as far as early returns go, looks fantastic, is listed as 2nd on the depth chart at LCB. Keion Crossen, Justin Bethel and new pickup Mark Gilbert are all RCB’s. Noah Igbinoghene is also listed as depth on the left side. Someone is going to have to change or someone else is going to have to step up and take it.

Just an observation, I was looking at training camp pics, which are available on the official Miami Dolphins website, and I think blocking TE Durham Smythe looks quite a bit on the slender side. To be fair, no one would mistake SF 49ers TE George Kittle with a LB either, so probably much ado about nothing. Maybe TE’s Eric Saubert and Tyler Kroft will do more of the blocking chores in the run game. Also, it’s not the size of the dog in a fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

It will be interesting to see how things develop at CB. I love Kader Kohou, does he make the jump to starting outside CB? Do they run with the veteran Apple? Does Gilbert leapfrog everyone after a nice season in the USFL? There are often times when you need at least 3 CB’s on the field, and sometimes more. Kohou, Needham and Trill Williams are all mostly on the inside, but one of them may just have to make the move to the outside. Last year our secondary was in a shambles. Byron Jones never played a snap, and Xavien Howard was bothered by groin injuries most of the first half of the season. Iggy didn’t show up, but Kader Kohou made a nice splash. We could have been special with Jalen Ramsey, now I think most of us would just be happy with adequate if or until Ramsey is healthy.

GO DOLPHINS!!!!