https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2015/06/17/secret-superstars-miami-dolphins/ I enjoyed reading this article. Hopefully Miller can improve on last season.
Lamar Miller best 3rd & 1 conversion back in the NFL & still Bill Lazor will continue to call pass plays in those situations. Remember the Chiefs game? Chip Kelly wannabe
At some point the OL is gonna get a little credit for the success of the run game. Miller gets his, Lazor gets a ton of kudos. For some reason, bad narrative perhaps, the OL doesn't get a mention unless it's to point out how bad they suck. PFF rated them 30th or worse in run blocking IIRC. That would make Lamar Miller 2014 perhaps the best RB in NFL history. Doesn't quite add up, hopefully that changes this season.
Interesting to see the Dolphins, and former Dolphins for that matter on their Top 101 players list: Suh - 25 Wake - 28 Albert - 91 Miller - 96 Vontae Davis and Karlos Dansby were also on the list. Davis was in the top 10.
Lazor's system IMO is also a big part of the reason for Miller's success, so I'm not going to give the OLine all of that credit.
I agree. Lazor's alignments and motion played a significant role, Miller ran very well, but no team can run effectively on a consistent basis the way the Dolphins did last year w/o decent blocking. I'm not asking for Dallas Cowboy OL type praise, just an atta boy here and there.
In 2013 they had a balanced offense. 500 runs vs 508 pass attempts. Essentially even. 2014 - 474 runs, 621 passes. 43/57% ratio. Not far off from ours.
https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/passing-play-pct According to this page in 2013 Miami was 3rd in pass percentage while Philadelphia was 27th. In 2014 Miami was 9th in pass percentage and Philadelphia at 21st. From the look of that data Lazor seems to be a person who decreases the pass percentage. Dolphins went from 65.2% to 61.63%, while Philly went from 52.97 to 57.82%
Also credit Lazor. When players struggle, you hear coaches say it's up to the coach to put the player in a position to succeed. Lazor is doing that very well with Lamar Miller.
Miller gained at least 5 yards on 42% of his carries last year. I don't know how that compares to historical averages. But that was 11% better than average last year. He was incredibly consistent last year.
Miller was great last year but the problem is the staff for whatever reason, doesn't trust Miller to shoulder a 25 carry load.
He's not that kind of back. I think he was used correctly the problem is that there was no one behind him who could pick up the slack. Moreno's injury was an absolute killer.
That's why he's not discussed in the same breath as Lynch, McCoy, Murray etc. Miller might be built more heavily than Jamaal Charles and look at how many touches he gets.
The Jamaal Charles comparison is, meh. Charles has had superstar, MVP-caliber years in the past. Several of them, in fact. Miller never has, though hopefully he will in the future. Comparing the two with a small sample of one season is fine as long as people realize that, imo, and not go calling out 'See, Miller is as good as Charles.' JC carries that entire offense, lol. The funny part about this article is how, if you asked all the phans what the best rushing performance of 2014 was, I'm guessing nearly all would say Knowshon Moreno against New England. Miller hasn't had that kind of take-over moment where he dictates a game on his own like Moreno did week 1. Signs pointing in that direction for LM, hopefully.
Agreed. Jamaal Charles is quietly having a hall of fame career. He is leading all runningbacks with his yards per carry and is the only runningback other than Jim Brown and Barry Sanders to have 5 1,000 yard seasons with over 5.0 yards per carry.
I brought him up to show how a thinner rb not built like a mack truck gets a ton of touches. But Miller doesn't. Not that they're the same type of player. Charles is one of my favorites. They are wasting his years in KC.
Miller's lack of a ton of carries could be just as much about the coaching staff's perceived lack of depth as much as Miller's ability to physically do it. Miller was so productive with his carries that there isn't much of an argument for the 'he needs a bunch of carries to get going' theory. Possibly knowing that, it could be that they just didn't want to further risk injury. Or they just/also thought that fatigue would make him less productive.
I love Miller! Been a big fan since he has been here. To say he can't carry the ball 25 times is not fair since it has never been tried.
I posted a thread about Miller last week with these stars. They were quietly very impressive. I was surprised how good they were. Hopefully that continues onward and upward. I also hope JA can be a nice compliment to Miller.