New Marshall in Town!

Jcouch1021 · Mar 15, 2012

ckparrothead said:

I've just been watching a bunch of Richard Marshall's 2011 tape.

At this point I'm comfortable saying that he is the Miami Dolphins' new starting Free Safety. I think that's more than a guess but less than a certainty, if that makes sense. The position strongly fits not only his skill set but what he did in Arizona. I watched the Baltimore and Seattle games. He spent more time at Safety opposite Adrian Wilson than any other position, and more importantly that's where he made plays from. When they put him at corner, he ran into trouble.

As a corner, he can play there but he's clearly very limited. I don't know that hips are a problem, but closing speed certainly is. He's physical at line and can jam the hell out of a receiver but he's a little reckless and off balance, so if the receiver comes out of it then Marshall is in trouble. You can take him deep all day and win more than you lose. He needs to be covered with a safety. In the Baltimore game Anquan Boldin was killing A.J. Jefferson and Patrick Peterson so they decide to have Richard Marshall come down from his nickel safety position and play him man to man on the outside. Mistake. Right away they take him deep and Boldin was so physical with him Marshall got reckless and drew a bad pass interference near the end zone which let Baltimore have a touchdown, helped them come back. Later he had to run one-on-one with the rookie Torrey Smith and he couldn't do it. Torrey got several steps on him and the ball was poorly placed. Then on the final drive with less than a minute left and the Ravens needing 10 or 15 yards to get a field goal, Torrey Smith took Marshall to the woodshed deep again and ran a simple fade, Marshall just couldn't keep up.

I saw more of that when I watched him try and match up on the outsides against Seattle but by then the Cardinals had wisened up and recognized that playing him in an off cover look was the only real way to go if you're going to play him on the perimeter...unless you're playing cover two like the Dolphins used to back in the day.

To me, he is a safety and not a strong safety because he's not big or physical enough. He tackles by getting his hands around a bigger player's hips, using his strong hands to pull the player down solidly, or at worst getting him by the feet. But at times when he needs more force, he can bounce off the action like Earl Thomas used to do back in college at times.

I disagree with Softli on the hips, I think he's got quick hips and some really cool stop-start ability. He showed that at the Combine with his 6.66 second cone drill, 10'9" broad jump, 38.5 inch vertical and 4.42 second result in the 40 yard dash. He shows it on film too. He's got quick hips but he's not a smooth player, doesn't have enough balance to really be a man to man corner. I would also say he lacks closing burst, that 3rd to 4th gear that you see in some of the better corners. The 4.42 shows that he can run, but I don't think he really shows that kind of speed often enough on the field.

I can't really vouch TOO MUCH for the instincts. What I saw was good, pretty aware of threats to his areas of responsibility and he marries that with the quick hips and stop-start ability to drill down threats until he's got a lock on the ball. I saw him get one really keen interception against the Seahawks by getting a nice read on the quarterback.

I think the key is someone probably either knows him or knows his coaches. If you did some digging I would bet that's the case. The reason this guy is our Free Safety and not Reggie Nelson would be, in my opinion, mental. I believe that for whatever reason, whatever inside knowledge the Dolphins staff has come across, this is the guy they've decided can be Kevin Coyle's trusted voice in the secondary, making calls and studying film, and leading a unit. He's certainly got a history of being a ball hawk. He had 300+ return yards off interceptions at Fresno State, with 3 touchdowns. He intercepted 9 passes, forced 2 fumbles and recovered 3 other fumbles.

I think he's somewhat like an Oshiomogho Atogwe.

I would also like to disclose that before I watched any of the tape I came into it thinking that I would find that Marshall is more of a corner than a safety. If you look at all his PFF stuff that's the picture they paint. In the first 8 games where he was listed as primarily a SCB, he had negative grades in 7 of the 8 games. Then the final 8 games he was listed as a starter at RCB/LCB and he had positive grades in like 6 of the 8 games. I was watching the Baltimore game and he's mostly playing nickel/dime safety, not doing a whole lot, then A.J. Jefferson and Patrick Peterson started getting abused by Anquan Boldin and they put Marshall on the outside against Boldin one on one and I thought this was going to be a revelation, they start using Marshall on the side, he puts people on lockdown, then spends most of the rest of the season as a starter at RCB/LCB.

That's what I expected but that's not what I found. I saw a pretty limited corner getting abused in single coverage on the perimeter, but then a guy that showed more ability when patrolling the middle as a safety.

The other thing about Richard Marshall which is a given, is that he gives you flexibility in what you do in your nickel packages because he can play center field, left/right safety, or come down into man coverage in SELECT situations (I'd personally be careful with that based on what I've seen, but he can do it).
Click to expand...

Great job on the homework ck, I was going to dedicate 2 hours of work tomorrow to watching tape but you have already done that for me... My construction company and boss owe you..

ckparrothead · Mar 15, 2012

LOL. To better encapsulate how he was used this year, for half the year he only came on the field during pass downs to play nickel safety. The other half the year he started at perimeter corner in place of A.J. Jefferson, and then resumed his role as nickel safety on passing downs.

Killer Bees · Mar 15, 2012

nice write up, greatly appreciated.

CANEPHINS · Mar 15, 2012

According to Omar, take it for what it is worth...

@OmarKelly
I've been told Richard Marshall will play cornerback for the Dolphins.
Click to expand...

BlameItOnTheHenne · Mar 15, 2012

CANEPHINS said:

According to Omar, take it for what it is worth...
Click to expand...

So he'll be our FS.

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