Finsmob Unleashed

Disappointment heaped upon disappointment. That’s what the 2021 Miami Dolphins season has become. This author is having a difficult time finding a bright spot to focus on to assist him in getting past this current 1-7 record, and the organizational dysfunction from the the top (Owner Stephen Ross) all the way down from the GM (Chris Grier), Head Coach (Brian Flores), the OCoCo’s (George Godsey & Eric Studesville), the DCo (Josh Boyer), the STCo (Danny Crossman), the rest of the assistant coaches and of course our players. It has been a failure at every avenue, not one good unit to look at and say “Well, at least the ____ is playing well. 29th in points scored and the same 29th in points allowed. 1 year ago, we were SIXTH in points allowed, SIXTH!!!! We were 15th in points scored, midpack.

In addition to the poor play of our football team, we have the team owner calling a QB on a different team on the phone to talk, a QB who is embroiled in a legal mess as he faces 22 civil lawsuits for sexual misconduct.

Mathematically, this team can still salvage a better than .500 season, which seems more ridiculous at this point than our current record of 1-7. If Xavien Howard doesn’t force that fumble, and recover it Game 1 in Foxborough we’re 0-8 folks!!! How have we fallen so far, so fast? Coach Flo looked he had this team on the upswing. Yes, lots of moves were made, but think about the players besides Kyle Van Noy that were traded or cut. Shaq Lawson was not good last season, he had a very subpar season for our Dolphins last year. Benardrick McKinney hasn’t seen the field and he’s healthy in 2021. Ryan Fitzpatrick is on IR for the season. I’d say one guy who may have helped this season may be C Ted Karras but even has only started 4 games this season, played in all 8. What’s basically happened is we have just regressed in every facet of the game. At this juncture, it’s hard to think anyone who is part of this team or organization is safe, all ripe to be fired, traded, or cut, sans the owner who unfortunately can’t be replaced until he decides to sell.

The vaunted secondary, second to none. X has 2 INT’s, and Elandon Roberts who appeared to be the target has one INT, and the rest ZERO. Yes, ZERO! The LB’s we thought were going to wreak havoc on NFL QB’s this season. Andrew Van Ginkel or (AVG at best) has 1/2 a sack. Rookie pass rush terror Jaelan Phillips has 1.5 sacks. Jerome Baker who has been injured most of the season has 1 sack. Emmanuel Ogbah leads the team with 2.5 sacks. Team can still focus and double team Ogbah while tight ends or RB’s can keep Phillips at bay. Shaq Lawson didn’t get it done in 2020 and the combo of AVG and Jaelan Phillips aren’t getting it done in 2021. Christian Wilkins has played OK, and Raekwon Davis was injured and gets a pass. Rookie safety Jevon Holland has been somewhat of a bright spot showing above average athletic ability but I’ve seen him toasted quite a few times. He hasn’t done anything extraordinary yet but he seems to have a good trajectory.

I think we have talent on this team, I really do. I think the coaches have dropped the ball this season, and I believe most of them, if not all of them will pay for that with their jobs. The CoCo’s will be gone. Josh Boyer has a bit of time to fix this defense but more than likely he’s gone too. Whether Head Coach Brian Flores can survive depends on the next 9 games and how the team does in them. He has a chance to come back. If he somehow survives, does GM Chris Grier keep his job? At the moment we have the #12 pick via SF. The Philadelphia Eagles own our 1st RD pick currently at #3. Truth is, while I’d love to have the better pick, we’d find some way to fuck it all up, as it appears we have been doing the last few years. in 2020 we had THREE 1st Round picks. We have an average young QB (Tua Tagovailoa) with our #5 pick. We have a struggling LT (Austin Jackson) who is now playing LG with our #18 pick and we have a defensive back (Noah Igbinoghene) who has only played and been active in 2 games thus far in 2021 after playing sparingly in 2020. Does it matter how low or high picks are for that matter how many when you continue to strike out? Out of the three first rounders, none of them are excelling to the point where they are considered a blue chip player. With our 2 second round picks in 2020 we have 2 starters, RG Robert Hunt and NT Raekwon Davis. Neither has been excellent, Hunt has struggled quite a bit lately at RG while Raekwon Davis showed lots of promise last season and was injured early this season and is slowly regaining his form. 2020 3rd RD pick Brandon Jones is slowly becoming part of the defense and has potential to steal the job from veteran Eric Rowe which could potentially give the Dolphins a nice young safety tandem of Holland and Jones.

The 2021 draft doesn’t seem as bad as the 2020 draft class. Jaylen Waddle is getting lots of targets, but far too many of them are within 10 yards of the LOS. It’s not a Tua, or a Waddle problem folks, it’s an O-line failure. Jaelan Phillips came to the Dolphins as a very athletic, diversified pass rusher. So far, he’s been stifled. He supposedly has a nice pass rush repertoire but it hasn’t been effective as of yet. S Jevon Holland seems to be the darling of this draft so far. OT Liam Eichenberg has played a lot but hasn’t shown he belongs at any particular O-line spot, whether it’s LT, LG, or RT. We’ll see if he develops. Honestly, it’s hard to gauge a player when a unit is playing so poorly, and our O-line has been the worst offender. TE Hunter Long who was hailed as the Gesicki replacement hasn’t quite hit the field running, and has been mostly inactive. You better hope he’s not the guy that replaces Mike Gesicki!!! The other 2 picks, OT Larnel Coleman and RB Gerrid Doaks haven’t seen the field and their fortunes or misfortunes remain to be seen.

All in all, 2 very disappointing drafts, probably much more with the 2020 draft class, considering we had a treasure trove of picks to improve our team and it’s yet to materialize. Chris Grier has to take the hit on that. If somehow he manages to keep his GM post, I’d expect our record at the end of the season will have to be much closer to .500 than it currently is. Same goes for Coach Flo, who built this coaching staff and elected to have Co Offensive Coordinators. That contemporary style most likely won’t be seen again in the NFL. This week we play the even more inept Houston Texans, whose QB our wonderful owner has outwardly courted. Oh, he doesn’t actually play for the Texans, but maybe he will eventually now that we didn’t actually trade for him. He’s been inactive all season so the Texans can, you know, trade him. Well, now, maybe their supposed top 10 QB will hit the field for his team. It won’t happen this week which means our putrid team will probably find it’s only week in which we will be the favorites this season. I’m so excited!!!

GO DOLPHINS!!!!