But back to Charles Grant, the more I watch, the more I don't really like him. I watched the Patriots game and that game was just dreadful. You can see his pass rush snaps in that game here: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67EdsifB5E4"]YouTube- Miami Dolphins Newcomers - DE Charles Grant[/ame] But now I'm watching the Jets game and from a statistical perspective, this game is supposed to be his shining moment of the 2009 season, from a pass rush standpoint anyway. But I can tell I'm not going to like this guy any better because I'm looking closely at some of the plays where he supposedly does something good, and I'm picking them apart. He knifes into the backfield on an off-tackle direct snap to Brad Smith, helps keep Smith to nothing on the play...but if you look, even though he bounced off Damien Woody and then Tony Richardson before breaking down to try and make the play on Smith, neither Woody nor Richardson had any intention of blocking Grant on the play. So he's basically got a free shot at Smith and he ends up breaking down, going for his ankles, and if the rest of the Saints hadn't plugged the hole then Smith is running up the field because all Grant got was a swipe at his ankles. Another play, he pressures the QB...but why? Unblocked, that's why. Nobody takes him at all. Does he get the QB down when he's unblocked? No. No better than he got a runner down when nobody engaged him. He gets a sack on Sanchez. Great! Why? He's engaging Damien Woody in a decent bull rush but Brandon Moore is pass protecting and gets behind Woody's legs and basically Woody backs up over Moore's legs and trips, leaving Grant free to the QB. And even so, he barely gets his ankles and knocks him down. I mean when you line up and play some football you're going to end up making some plays because the other side is going to make a mistake, or the ball is just going to go your way or something like that. You're going to make plays just by being there. I don't like so see that half or the bulk of the plays you make are because of this. That's how I sort of view Charlie Anderson's video and that's how I view Charles Grant's work in 2009. I look at Marques Douglas and I look at Charles Grant and I see two different players and I just think Douglas is going to be way more helpful to have on the field than Grant.
well i doubt that they had only odrick targeted. the only draft i'm 100% certain we got who we wanted was three years ago when we got jake long. my understanding of their draft day strategy was to trade down but only with a team that had a high 2nd round draft choice. we were able to get that and the plan was to get a OLB in the 2nd. Apparently they had a few choices and weren't concerned too much with which one though I do believe Misi was their first choice. the startegy for the first round was to get dan williams first and odrick second if williams went. i'm sure they had other players too if both those were gone. i dont think they thought highly enough of dan williams that they were going to get him at any cost. he was a one year wonder basically so i think they were more than happy to take odrick. i think parcells being upset with the cards grabbing him had as much to do with how close he came to them. basically if he slips past arizona we get him. it was almost a perfect trade for miami. i think them telling starks he's going to play NT had as much to do with thinking williams wouldnt be ready his rookie year as it was odrick being the pick instead. drafting isnt an exact science. you often draft second, third, fourth options, etc. the interesting rumor i read was that the jets wanted odrick though i find that hard to believe since they went with another position entirely. still would love it if that was the case lol
Taking Dan Williams makes no sense if you've told Randy Starks that you're moving him to Nose Tackle already. None whatsoever. I've yet to see this report that Parcells blew up when Dan Williams went to Arizona. I think some guy on the internet might have said it, based on nothing, and before you know it, it's regarded as a matter of history even though it has no basis. And yet it's really the only evidence that they wanted Dan Williams, whereas both logic and other evidence defies that hypothesis.
I think a couple guys tweeted it right after the pick, but yah just cause a couple reporters state it doesn't mean it's true. I don't see Williams as the type of NT they would like anyways.
how many rookie nose tackles start? usually you ease them into the position. since ferguson was going to be gone the first 8 weeks are you going to count on soliai and a rookie? it makes sense for one year or until ferguson gets back (before he officially retired)
I disagree Sect, this does say alot about Odrick, mainly that they are not taking any chances that he CANNOT generate pressure as a NFL Rookie, Grant then becomes the defacto Nickel Rush line DE, or DT, see even "if" Odrick shows he can generate pressure it simply makes more sense to have Grant/Odrick on Right of the 4 man nickel rush line. Grant is a the hedge, and maybe more, he instantly becomes the Sack leader on the Defense, the entire defense, you need players such as Grant for on the field leadership as well as his passrushing ability. I really like this pickup, he played 800 snaps in NOLA last yr, in Miami he'll have maybe 200+, hopefully he is Trace Armstrong Jr across from Cam Wake. I will say his weight, 280ish, is to heavy for his projected role, he should be closer to 270, maybe even the mid 260's.
Yes, that is exactly what you do. You don't move Randy Starks to NT if you're drafting Dan Williams. You rob the DE position of a body, while using a 1st round pick on a guy that's going to play maybe 200 snaps? Makes no sense. There's really no evidence they wanted Dan Williams, and there is some evidence to the contrary.
And if it was tweeted then it is a matter of public record. Just go look on the twitter pages of Mike Berardino, Armando Salguero, Omar Kelly and Jeff Darlington, go back far enough to find their tweets on draft day, and see if one of them said it.
Well, the story from Draft Day is that Parcell's was pissed when the Cards took Williams ahead of our pick, and if one recalls Irish said Odrick could play NT right after drafting him, the next day he backpedaled. FWIW, I'm not buying that simply because they do not mind paying for identified needs, Ferg's suspension was known on March 7, if they had wanted Williams they could have made a lesser trade back and still landed him.
If they told Randy Starks prior to draft day that he would be playing nose tackle, why would it make sense to draft Dan Williams? Especially when we basically have a Dan Williams on our roster, just with the surname of Soliai. Maybe I'm wrong but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Just my 2 cents.
He didn't back pedal the next day, he fessed up that he was holding back Jared Odrick's specific role because he didn't want to give anything away. They had already told Randy Starks before the draft that he was switching to Nose Tackle, but they didn't want anyone to know because they wanted teams to think they passed on a Nose Tackle at #28 because they figured they could get Linval Joseph or Terrence Cody at #40, as both figured to be taken around that area. They practically ran up to the desk to turn in their card for Koa Misi when their pick was up.
Well, He kinda did, on Day 1 he was asked if Odrick could play NT, he said he could, Day 2 he said he couldn't really specify what role he would play but that Starks was the best NT available and on "our own" roster. KLV has the Day 2 presser still archived, not that it matters, Starks is the NT, Odrick is the pick, it is finis. Now that I look at your post, it is your view that Misi being available at #40 moved Starks to NT? And if so, why go John Jerry in Rd #3? there were still good NT prospects on the board, heck there were good NT prospects on the board through Rd #7.
It took me all of like 5 minutes to do that with Armando's. You don't have to actually read the tweets just scan the date and keep hitting "More" until you get to April 22nd. BTW, closest I could find to confirming Dan Williams interest from Armando was the following: Of course, when everyone plays the telephone game, that could turn into a historical fact that Bill Parcells went off like a nuclear bomb when the Cardinals drafted Dan Williams.
They knew Odrick would play DE when they took him. Ireland was coy about it, saying that he could play "inside or outside, we'll let how he does in camp decide where we use him", which he later admitted in his Day 2 presser was, in fact, him being coy because they didn't want to give anything away.
BTW Armando implied pretty straight forward that he was in the warroom in his tweets. He described their positioning as they watch things unfold, he talked about how they ordered four more pizzas to get the warroom through to pick #28 after they traded down. He didn't say a word about Bill Parcells going Chernobyl when Dan Williams went off the board. In fact, if Armando had witnessed that, he wouldn't have suggested that the Dolphins MIGHT have liked Dan Williams more than Jared Odrick.
it's taking longer than 5 minutes i am getting caught reading some of the tweets. Interesting that Parcells seemed to be concerned most with the secondary in their mini camps. found this article about starks's move http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sport...ins-randy-starks-is-up-for-the-challenge.html Is the move permanent? Will we ever see Starks back on the end? “I have no idea,” he said. “I don’t tknow if it’s this year, next year, for eight games. ” Dolphins General Manager Jeff Ireland said last Friday after Day 2 of the NFL Draft that moving Starks inside had been kicked around internally for some time but was only publicly revealed once the Dolphins made it through the first three rounds without selecting a long-term successor to Ferguson. Starks would not specify exactly when the team first mentioned moving him inside, but it’s a safe assumption it came sometime after Ferguson’s eight-game suspension for violating the league’s ban on performance-enhancing substances was announced in early March. “They mentioned it,” Starks said, “but nothing was etched in stone until after the draft. seems that this was a situation where they floated the idea with Starks but it wasnt set in stone as Starks says. Doesnt seem to preclude the idea that Dan Williams was the guy they wanted but as a precaution that they wouldnt be able to land him they wanted to make sure they could rely on Starks
according to mike berardino, when jeff ireland was asked if odrick was the guy they were targeting "We stay with our board." Wouldn't say whether Odrick was player they were targeting all along Thursday, April 22, 2010 11:50:15 PM via web http://twitter.com/MikeBerardino nice non answer
If he wanted to lie he could just say "Yes Odrick was our guy from the start, we felt we could trade back and still aquire him with our pick while improving other areas of our team" He just likes to leave some mystery in his answers. ALL of them. You could ask him if he likes to date men and he'd probably say "I stick with my preferences."
so dez bryant's character was a concern according to omar kelly. imagine that Dolphins were seriously considering drafting Dez Bryant but felt it was a lesser risk to trade for Brandon Marshall, a guy with anger issues http://twitter.com/OmarKelly
On if Odrick was who they were targeting all along) - "Well you have your board set. He was the guy that - we stay with our board I'll just say that. We stay with our board. When we moved down to 28 one of the things we wanted to do obviously was get our second round pick back. That was important to us. That was something we were looking to do, but if the player that we were targeting was there at 12 we were potentially going to take that player too. So it kind of worked out that we were able to move down and get another player that we also liked." http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/20...hins-gm-jeff-ireland-san-diego-jared-odrick/2 (On if knowing there was good depth in the draft made it easier to trade down) - "I think there is still good depth. We still have good players on the board, obviously. Like I said in my previous press conference, I do feel like there is good depth in this draft. I think we felt if we moved from [the 12th pick] we would still have good players. We looked at our board, there wasn't a whole lot of difference from the players that we were considering at [number] 12 and the players we would considered at [number] 28. There wasn't a huge jump in caliber of players. That is one of the reasons you drop down as far we dropped down.
That constant insistance that they stay with their board seems to corroborate what I heard immediately after the draft through a source of Boomer's that they didn't necessarily think Jared Odrick would still be on the board at #28, and that his being there is the reason they didn't target an OLB.
Actually they are short at that position and will likely add somebody, is my guess. When Merling went down, I expected them to double up to try to replace him and use competition to find the best guy. it seems they used the injury to push McDaniels. I never thought Odrick was a lock to start. I do think that of Starks and Langford. we play 5 guys upfront on gameday anyway, maybe Nolan has some 4-3 sets he is going to employ?. This signing was necessary. A strongside OLB should be brought in as well IMO. main point being...we will not know anything till the practices leading up to Preseason game #1.
"Staying with our board" might be the dumbest thing ever uttered by a GM. I hope it is just general Ireland misdirection and BS. sometimes, your mock is just WRONG and a player that screams of ridiculous value drops to you.
They just had three opportunities to add someone before camp started. They chose to add three DLs instead. The Dolphins won't know anything even after training camp starts. There's constant evaluation going on. If Odrick knocked their socks off the way Misi has thus far, then he wouldn't have two new veteran DEs with walls full of skins standing between him and more playing time, in addition to the guys that were already there like Langford, Starks and McDaniel.
I could be completely wrong, and probably am . But I thought by sticking to their board isn't in reference something like their mock draft. I thought it meant we rank the players we are interested in and we pick, in general, the highest rated player that is still available. So if a player of ridiculous value drops to them they pick him. But I could be way off.
That is what it is in a general sense. I was referring to the BS nature of what Ireland said. If he was really staying with his board, he would not have traded out of his pick and back to #28. or seriously...Who the HELL was on that board? LOL. They passed on everybody. he traded down and based it on value. That is NOT staying with your board. Staying with your board, does not mean fluidity. That Dolphin draft was the very definition of a fluid draft.
