Dolphins must establish Brandon Marshall'

As I'm reading this I'm getting really upset and thinking to myself, "Who said this?"

And then I saw it was Alex Marvez.

And then I realized all is right with the world.

 

Do I even have to point out in detail how utterly stupid, contradictory, pointless and nonsensical that entire diatribe was?

Or should I just assume that every person who reads it can see that?

I think the latter.

 

I'm sorry to say this but wasn't that mention to be obvious? I mean with someone as dangerous as Marshall, wouldn't you want to involved in the offense as often as possible?

 

Some of the worst starting field position in the league is all I took out of that article...

 

Do I seriously have to point out Marvez' obvious contradiction saying that what he means by "getting Marshall going" is not just doing what the Broncos did by throwing the ball to him 21 times in a game, and then in one of the very next lines talking about doing whatever it takes to get him in the game be it end-arounds, screens, gimmick plays, etc?

Seriously? I have to point that out?

Don't throw him the ball (like Denver did). But don't not throw him the ball (like we did for like a quarter or two against NE).

Yeah, THAT makes a lot of effing sense, Alex.

Brandon Marshall was thrown the ball 7 freaking times against New England. Clearly that wasn't enough for Marvez. But throwing him 12 times against the Bills and 17 times against the Jets...no no no no no, you can't do THAT.

Marshall is on pace to outperform what he did in 2008 when he was targeted 177 times with 104 catches for 1265 yards. He's currently on pace for 172 targets, 108 catches and 1360 yards.

Clearly we have to get him the ball more. But less.

 

I'm thinking the magic number for Marshall is 7.333333 times per game. If we target him 7 times or less, or 8 times or more, we fail. It's that .3333 that we need to key in on.

In all seriousness though, I think what he was trying to say (albeit very poorly) is that the quality of the targets we give BMarsh is more important than the quantity. It seems like he wants him to get involved early, with good quality plays that take advantage of his YAC skills. Or at least that's the only thing I could get out of it after scratching my head for a few minutes.

 

Yea. What I think Marvez is saying is this. You can't let a team double covering Marshall to take him out of the game. You need to find different ways to get the ball into his hands.

 

Who is this Brandon Marshall character?

 

I know Marvez is a serial basher but, what am I missing? His points made perfect sense to me.

Marshall is a big, physical WR, who, like a big physical RB, can impose his will on a defense over the course of a game. Anytime there is a soft corner and/or 8 in the box the ball should be going outside. Let's see if the opposing DB's feel like tackling the Beast today. Let's see if they wanna tackle him 3-5-6 times in fact.

I know our OL isn't geared for the screen game, but we've thrown them to Bess this season and not Marshall, which is plain silly. Heck, we ran a toss sweep with Marshall vs the Jets, but no screens/smokes even though Cromartie, the Sean Smith of the North, was on him just about every snap. Dumb. After we throw a smoke route or two, let Jake and/or Fasano fly outside and pound on the DB a couple times, then more smoke routes and see if they still want to tackle the Beast. Force those big DL who are digging in for our run game to sprint to the sidelines a few times each drive. I guarantee you it'll pay dividends by the 3rd-4th qtr.

Lastly, throw deep. Often. There's ZERO excuse for not giving Marshall at least 2-3 jump balls/back shoulder throws per game. I can just about guarantee it'll have more success than the 1.6 we're averaging out of the WC. When DBs start hugging the LOS to prevent the screens/smoke routes, it's back shoulder fade time, 9 routes till they back up, then back to the smoke routes and screens.

Marshall is a special talent. He has the skill to get open, the hands to make tough catches and the size/toughness to take the punishment that comes with being a high volume WR. He's a threat to turn any 3-5 yd pass into a big play, and IMO its criminally negligent to line up and say "Oh the defense is doubling him so let's not throw his way this quarter, this HALF, etc..". Marshall is a WR who can be rammed down the throat of the opposing defense, and once we show teams that we can do it, then the running lanes will magically appear. Right now, we're wasting him, like a Ferrari in the car pool lane.

 

He's worse than Ginn.

 

wow, we need to actually use b-marsh instead of continually using him as a decoy? no ****, sherlock!

 

We need to get a true deep threat as the #2. Then Marshall will be frightening, very frightening. We'll pummel that damn Jets defense.

 

Going into our 4th game he was the most targeted receiver in the league. As of now, even with a bye week, he is the 9th most targeted receiver.

http://wp.advancednflstats.com/playerstats.php?pos=WR

Not much more we can do as far as trying to get him the ball.

 

Disagree. Stats shmats. Its not about how many passes he gets per game, its about forcing the opposing defense to account for him on every single snap, and punishing them they don't. It's about getting the ball to your best player as often as realistically possible, not getting him his 10 targets and calling it a day. Marshall doesnt get the ball enough, nor does Ronnie. We leave too many easy yards on the field and it makes putting a drive together harder than it needs to be. We aren't good enough to forgo the easy yards, and until we are, IMO we need to ride our play makers till the wheels fall off and stop fooling around with secondary and tertiary modes of offense.

 

Marshall has the ball thrown his way one every three times Henne throws a pass. That's the third highest % of targets in the league. He accounts for 35% of the teams' receiving yards. I'm not sure how its realistically possible to be more established than that as a WR.

I do agree that we need more yards from him and the entire offense. But that is a separate issue than him being established in the offense. Using him differently could be how the offense becomes more productive. But using him different wouldn't change the whether or not he is established.

 

Its not only about establishing Marshall, its about establishing Henne, and establishing rhythm in the offense. Easy completions are a great way to get the offense off to a good start, and Marshall is one of the easiest WRs to get the ball to. The screens, smoke routes etc should be a staple of our offense IMO. I'm not necessarily arguing that Marshall should get a higher % of the action, only that he should used more efficiently b/c I don't think we've even scratched the surface as far as utilizing him. Hopefully that's due to lack of familiarity and as the season goes on, it will improve.

 

Alex Marvez is possibly the writer version of the Dolphins preseason announcing team, Bob Moore and Dick Griese along with Nat Stockton.

If anything the room temp IQ moron should have said the #2 Wr has been invisible, and the way to make Beast more productive is to make the #2 Wr more productive..

Hartline has 133 yds..total...33 yds per game he had 89 vs the Jets so the other 3 games he has been a total non factor.

 

The article was about establishing Marshall. That's what I was responding to. I would agree that Marshall could be used a little differently. The short routes are ok every now and again. But I think we need to find him in that 10-20 yard area more often. And I wouldn't mind seeing Ronnie get more passes too.