Finsmob Unleashed

Here we go, the season is finally upon us! The final injury repot will be out later today and I’m sure someone here will give us that update. The good news is it appears as if starting RT Austin Jackson will be starting, giving us our absolute best O-line possible. LT Patrick Paul – LG Jonah Savaiinaea – C Aaron Brewer – RG James Daniels – RT Austin Jackson. The one thing I can say is I feel at the very least, if everyone on this line can stay healthy, is that the O-line won’t be the biggest problem on the team, and that means a lot. I think Patrick Paul is ready to be a better than average left tackle. I think rookie LG Jonah Savaiinaea will be competent enough, making mistakes at times, but should be average. C Aaron Brewer is a good move center and while he might struggle some against much larger powerful interior defensive linemen, he’s a good player. James Daniels is a solid run blocker throughout his career but I do worry about him coming back from a torn achilles. Being in the trenches is a bad place for that kind of injury. RT Austin Jackson has become a competent right tackle, but he has had trouble staying healthy and the depth, as we all know is less than stellar. Bears FA RT Larry Borom would be next up there, or possibly Kendall Lamm or Kion Smith if Borom struggled. We need Jackson healthy.

The defense is what could be extremely interesting. That front seven and the different iterations could be exciting. It looks like they’re going to try to get as many of our pass rushers on the field as possible in certain formations, so instead of the usual 3-4 alignment, we might see some more 4-3, featuring a defensive line of the following,

LDE Chop Robinson

LDT Zach Sieler

RDT Benito Jones

RDE Bradley Chubb

and then have a linebacker unit of this,

WLB Jordyn Brooks

MLB Tyrel Dodson

SLB Jaelan Phillips

That’s a lot of pass rush talent on the field in that base defense featuring Chop and Chubb on the D-line, and then Jaelan Phillips at strong linebacker. Of course there’s Zach Sieler too, who has been a double digit sack man the last 2 seasons. This doesn’t mean we won’t be playing the 3-4 alignment as well, we will for sure, because the glaring omission here is our #1 draft pick DT Kenneth Grant, who will be playing 3-4 END opposite Sieler and next to NT Benito Jones. Grant wasn’t forgotten or skipped by any means, but the allure of having Chop, Chubb and Phillips all on the field is understandable.

The secondary is one place I honestly have no idea what to expect at all, I mean literally zero expectations for better or for worse. Will FS Minkah Fitzpatrick resemble the Pittsburgh Steelers safety from the last 2 seasons which was underwhelming and no resemblance to his former All Pro career, or will the change back to FS bring him back to where he was in 2023? It appears as if Ify Melfinonwu has taken a seat and now former Jet safety Ashtyn Davis will be given the nod at SS. Davis hasn’t been healthy and not sure how he could be ready at this point, but it’s happening regardless. At CB, Jack Jones will play LCB with Storm Duck at RCB and rookie Jason Marshall will be the nickel back. Rasul Douglas will be available if either of these guys struggle. To be fair though, Rasul Douglas had admitted that he doesn’t quite understand where and what he’s supposed to be doing yet, so Jones gets the nod for now.

On offense, we have to hope De’Von Achane is truly healthy and able to stay that way. He’s going to get a lot of touches if we go by last season, but rookie RB Ollie Gordon is just rearing to go and I like what I’ve seen him from him. I like the physicality of his game and welcome it. He’s more suited to getting a lot of carries. Then there’s RB Jaylen Wright who will not play this week due to injury. I won’t be surprised if Jaylen Wright takes a back seat on the depth chart behind Ollie Gordon, and stays there. If Ollie runs like I expect, there’s no reason for Wright who showed little last season to jump ahead. WR’s Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle seem healthy and slot WR Malik Washington looks great, so looking forward to his game this season. At TE, who the hell knows, and it’s the one thing that still has me wondering if these guys actually know what they’re doing. Apparently, TE Darren Waller will be starting, despite logging 3 minutes of practice, followed by Julian Hill and Tanner Conner. There’s also the wild card at wide receiver, WR Nick Westbrook-Ikhine who really failed to turn heads so far, but he’s a bigger bodied receiver coming off a nice season last year, so hopefully we can work him in for some big plays.

Special Teams has looked better than ever, with the exception of the K Jason Sanders injury which will keep him OUT for weeks. That sucks, because Sanders can bang them in from the high 50’s, and that aspect of our game went out the window. Mike McDaniel loves to gamble though, so I would imagine he’ll be doing just that and more often than you would expect. I love the return game which will be handled by WR Malik Washington. He looks as good or better in the return game as he does running routes, and that’s great. Our defensive special teams seems significantly better on kick return and punt return coverage, and that’s also a huge improvement from last season.

I expect QB Tua to feast on Sunday, he loves Game 1, the season opener. We look like Super Bowl contenders in Week 1, and I expect that trend to continue. WR Jaylen Waddle failed to reach 1000 yards for the first time last season and I hope the Dolphins look to remedy this. Waddle is the team’s heir apparent to #1 WR after this season, so they better find a way to get him more involved and keep him happy. I think the offense will be very good this week, with contributions of course from De’Von Achane and WR’s Hill, Waddle and Washington, and I think RB Ollie Gordon may get a decent workload, although MM and his trust issues with rookies concerns me. I’d love to see up a couple of TD’s and feeding Ollie Gordon in a RB Lamar Smith type game to close it out and maybe break off a big run here and there. We can only hope, right?

GO DOLPHINS!!!