JMO: How to Build This Team for Super Bowl Contention

Good to see you coming around.. Except I don't see Tannehill being a gunslinger with reckless disregard. How many throws did he make in to double coverage or triple coverage? I saw a QB who got hit twice on the fumble and INT, and his WR fall on a perfectly placed ball.

For a rookie, I'm amazed that he isn't forcing balls and making the correct read.

If his INT's were thrown in to triple coverage, I would agree with you. They weren't. They were flukes.

Other than that, isn't this a great time to be a fan of this team!! It's going to be a heck of a ride the next 5 years.

 

I said it in another thread. Start with the pass rusher with the first round pick. Then go nuts on the DB/WR/TE positions.

 

What about M Moore?

 

I don't really see him as a gunslinger. Tannehill comes off much more cerebral than Favre ever did to me.

 

Already a step ahead of you.

Keenan Allen
or
Jarvis Jones
or
Kenny Vaccaro

I'd also say we are in need of a CB opposite of Smith; either Jonathan Banks or Dee Millner.

 

You have to be strong up the middle in order to succeed.....strong QB, LB, and FS.....

 

1) Tannehill's development
2) Upgrade Chris Clemons
3) Upgrade the paperweight 3rd option WR
4) Upgrade RDE
5) Grab another solid CB
6) Keep the rest of the team intact

Do these things and I don't see why we can't be a consistent playoff team. And I don't see why other than #1, these things can't be done this upcoming offseason

 

I think you're a lot closer to the mark now for sure than when we were arguing about this before.

It's tough to argue, "we need better receivers" when you have the league's leading WR and the two combined for 376 yards in a single game. But it is absolutely true and it is absolutely the case. You need a dynamic presence that can punch the ball into the end zone more consistently.

It's also tough to argue, "we need another pass rusher" when you get 8 sacks in a game, coming one sack shy of tying a franchise record. But again, it is absolutely the case. We talked about the Bill Walsh method of building a franchise. One of his core requirements was to have a pass rush that can put away games. We did not have that yesterday despite the 8 sacks. When you have to rely on Koa Misi to be the other guy, you're going to be hit or miss. On the critical drive in the 4th quarter where the Cardinals needed a TD to put it in overtime, Koa Misi did a great job rushing the passer from right end on 1st & 10. But the rest of the drive? Not much pass rush coming from him. He lucked into a half sack on 2nd & 15 when Karlos Dansby flushed Kolb upward. But on the critical 4th & 10 when Kevin Kolb had no choice but to sit in the pocket and wait for something to come open, every one of our rushers including Cameron Wake were essentially doubled, with the exception of Koa Misi...who could not produce a rush. He gave Kolb all the time in the world to sit back, step out and hit his target on the perimeter. The sombrero was on Koa Misi, as Pasqualoni liked to say, and he let the defense down.

But I'll give them some credit...at least they were wise enough not to have Olivier Vernon on the field for that final drive.

 

Totally agree. We need to pass well and stop the pass. And those positions you mention are the most important components in regard to doing those things (assuming Tannehill is who he showed us yesterday, or close to it).

 

Also, IIRC, Odrick's sack came from the DT position.

 

I got the sense that those 400+ yards were not some out-of-his-mind performance. But I think I agree with the OP that Ryan will not be a game manager or super efficient type. He will need attempts. Given that, a play where a WR catches the ball in stride with only grass between him and the pylon and gets caught from behind is a disservice. I think if plays like that keep happening, the wins will continue to be tougher to come by. I have no problem with Hartline as an all around WR, but that ball needs to be housed

 

Yup, these are things we needed anyway

 

I don't believe we have a gunslinger.

 

I agree for the most part.....I dont quite think he is going to have the Brett Favre mentality...but....he definitely seems to have that gunslinger mentality. I also agree....about the WR situation, and would love to see us take Stedman Bailey out of WVU....great route runner...great hands....good speed.

 

I mostly agree.

and we BETTER fill that wishlist this coming offseason.

I don't want to waste this front seven and O-Line. Both are SUPER BOWL READY.

Go get a dynamic pass receiving threat, and a TE capable of replacing Fasano.

On defense, replace Clemons, spend a high pick on a CB.

My offseason would be:

Free Agency:

WR
FS
OL

Draft:

CB
DE
WR

 

i would not get too crazy about Hartline and Bess being real diference makers just because of one game . I would wait and see how they do against teams like San Fran , Atlanta , and the Pats before annointing them saviors..

Fasano, Egnew , Nannee and carpenter all must go .


I hope we et a real threat at tightend , and get a #1 and a #2 wr then we should go all defense then we should be better nextyear but we also need to use f/a at cb and de .

 

Disagree on those two. Fasano is great at what he does. Egnew hasn't seen the field yet. We need to at least see that first. Don't know what his deal is though

 

I'd really like to see us acquire a seam-busting TE. I'm still disappointed that Egnew can't get active. Aside from WR, this is the key missing piece on offense IMO.

 

I think its too early to say anything definitive about Tannehill. There isn't enough data to really support that he will have one bad game for every ten. We need to let things play out.

 

I think you become a Superbowl contending team by making sure you don't have a lot of weaknesses on your team and being solid everywhere. I think the most complete teams right now are the Niners and Texans. They can throw it, run it, and defend it. I think we can be there in a year or two through the draft and free agency. I just hope Ireland and his staff can make smarter picks and decisions...if not, than we need a new GM.

 

Don't plan on fielding a high quality defense while trying to train on a rookie CB or two. That was the issue in 2009. I'm not saying we don't need to draft a corner, but if you're looking for immediate help there you either better draft a special guy real, real high (and cross your fingers) or go get help via free agency. My preference would be the latter even though I don't know who will be available.

On that final drive I mentioned the 4th & 10 where we clearly didn't have a guy that could be counted on in one on one pass protection to make the QB nervous, but that entire drive up to that point was much, much more about the secondary's inability to cover people despite Kolb getting rid of the ball on short drops and quick throws.

Brent Grimes I believe is scheduled to be a free agent. That's an out-of-the-box, ready-to-play-right-now kind of guy that would give you at the very least solid play right away in Year 1 with the possibility of better than that in Year 2, as opposed to a rookie which you wouldn't expect that until Year 3 (if ever). Cary Williams is set to be a free agent and that would probably be a tremendous signing. Both guys would be "break the bank" signings, IMO.

Rashean Mathis would be a great veteran presence if you don't think he's done physically (he's playing well this year). He could play solid football for you right away. Chris Houston will be looking to cash in a little bit on his success in Detroit, although IMO he won't be a "break the bank" signing like the two guys above (he made $3 million this year). He's a great example of how sometimes you just need to be patient with corners in their development. But also perfect example of how even if you draft one destined to be good, that doesn't mean YOU will be the team reaping the rewards for that. You might take a look at Michael Jenkins if you think you can re-claim him and he's a guy that will be one of those guys long in the development but worth it. Tracy Porter is playing surprisingly well for Denver and should be available once again next off season. He struggled in the past, but see my overriding theme above about corner development and how it takes time.

At the very low end for impact guys, Brice McCain is available and he played with Sean Smith at Utah. Something about Utah's defenders seems to be favored by Miami, and he's good enough to actually play, not embarrass himself, and potentially play well. But I wouldn't necessarily be convinced we're getting better than Richard Marshall, with him. Guys like Sheldon Brown and Cedric Griffin won't look attractive because of their age and because you know at this point that they're not going to be shut down corners, but they could still be very solid players that hold their own on championship caliber defenses, and that's exactly what you CAN'T guaranteed from any rookie.

If we're talking slot corners (and that's been Richard Marshall's role) then we just played against a team that has a pretty good one coming up as a free agent. Michael Adams pretty much replaced Richard Marshall in the slot during the 2011 season, and I thought he played better. I thought this was the main thing that contributed to Marshall's move to safety. Adams has been hurt since the first game and that opened the door for hot shot rookie 3rd rounder Jamell Fleming to come out on the wing with I believe William Gay moving in to the slot. Fleming is playing well there, though Gay is not necessarily performing well as a combo player.

 

Rather than get down on a guy like Egnew, I'm more disappointed in Charles Clay.

Nobody seems to know what's going on with that guy. But after a pretty good rookie season, he should be flourishing in this offense. Instead he's been invisible.

In addition to a starting corner (Sean Smith leaving the field yesterday made me realize just how scary thin we are), we need linebacker depth. There are no Dwight Hollier's sitting on that bench.

 

Which makes it all the more frustrating that Egnew isn't active, doesn't it? It'd be one thing if Clay was thriving, but he's not. Egnew can't get a look despite that?

 

Given both Philbin's and Sherman's background I expected our TEs to be a strength. Makes no sense to me either.

 

yup. Complete WTF from me. Even if he can't block, throw him out there instead Legsadoodle

 

I wasn't saying one way or another. It could be one out of every 10, or one out of every 5, or one out of every 100. We only have four games to go off of right now.

 

Egnew's transition is a pretty big one. He's not just a receiving TE coming to the NFL, he is essentially a WR moving to TE.

 

One interesting thing we saw yesterday was Fasano lined up as a WR. Even caught a pass out there, too. My guess is this is what they'd like to do with Egnew at some point. But yeah, total head scratcher.

 

I hope Egnew comes alive soon. We would be in great shape. I wish there was a progress report on him. Would open up SO many more options with a 2 TE set with Clay being crap and all.....

 

so who could be that ball hawking FS is there one in the draft or is there a good one available in FA ?

 

It never ceases to amaze me, yet never surprises me, that people see exactly what they expect to see based on their preconceived opinions. People worried and complained all off-season about the WR position. He come off a game in which our starting receivers combined for 376 yards and we now have the league's leading receiver and another guy in the top 20 and who is on pace for 1200 or so for the season despite a rookie QB on a largely run-based offense and what do we need most? WRs. Huh? Hartkline and Bess are quality WRs. They are proving that. This team is not being held back at all by the receivers. Sure, it would be nice to have a 3rd quality guy and that can be found, but WR is not the major need. The inability to punch the ball into the end zone this year has not been due to deficiencies in the receiving corps. It is mostly a QB and playcalling thing. The rookie QB will get better at it. There's a lot of randomness to WR TD numbers. Last year, Calvin Johnson was a monster -- this year he has one. For a few years Welker couldn't get into the endzone, then he became almost a double digit TD guy, now he can't score TDs anymore. Brandon Marshall was a double digit TD guy in Denver, then couldn't seem to find the end zone here. He has 1 TD this season in Chicago.

Same with the pass rush. We just got 8 sacks in a game. We are in the Top 10 in the league in sacks once again, just as we have been most seasons. So somehow this game shows we must make pass rush our No. 1 or No. 2 priority? Sure, it would be great to have multiple dominant pass rushers. But very few teams have that. And no, the pass rush didn't lose the game yesterday. We got late sacks. Several of them. We got late pressure. No, not on every down. No team gets pressure on every down. Even the teams with the vaunted pass rushes, like the Giants, Eagles, Steelers (all of whom have more than 50% fewer sacks than the Dolphins) give up late passing TDs and late passing yards.

 

Actually depth is something that is an all-the-way-around problem and this is one reason I still can't be all rosey about the rest of the season's outlook even though if you look at points scored and allowed, all those different ways of looking at statistics that convince you the team should be better than 1-3, you'd want to say this team could win like 8 games or so.

You're right if Sean Smith goes down suddenly you're like "eeeesh" about that secondary. But similarly what happens if Cam Wake goes down? Pass rush would be down to near zero. And you're 100% right about the linebackers. Any single one of those guys goes down and you've got a liability now on the field where a strength used to be (each of the three linebackers is a strength, currently).

The OL has depth issues as well. I know Josh Samuda was good for a rookie UDFA but come on, he's a rookie UDFA, and in the preseason games I was watching he had plenty of moments where he looked like one. That's not good depth, IMO. I kind of like Yeatman, but do we really know what we can expect out of him if he's forced into action? He only converted to OT from TE what, halfway through the off season? Nate Garner is luckily solid all-around depth but if they need him to play left tackle again for the all-too-often-injured-nowadays Jake Long, that's going to be a big time liability. The only depth I'm comfortable with is the two Guard spots where Garner can probably fill in without too much of a hitch.

And what about the skill positions? Take tight end. Anthony Fasano goes down, what happens? They don't even seem to have any interest in seeing Michael Egnew active let alone forced to be an all-around blocker/pass-catcher like Fasano. And Clay is struggling like hell, would struggle even more if asked to play the real TE position which he only got his first taste of last year in the NE game (and said that his head was spinning the whole time). People don't realize how close we are there for Jeron Mastrud getting a heck of a lot of snaps and that would be bad. Then at WR, how obvious is it how top-heavy that unit is with Brian Hartline and Davone Bess? Remember how utterly depressing the unit was when Hartline was injured? That's exactly what it becomes again if either one of those two goes down with an injury...it suddenly becomes putrid again.

I like our Defensive Tackle depth obviously with Odrick, McDaniel and especially Randall. Like I said I think we have Guard depth. And our Quarterback depth is pretty good with Moore and Devlin.

But outside of those positions, this roster is THIN...and that's a big reason I don't see a turnaround happening this year to where we can end up winning 8 or 9 games.

 

Volume stats are great and all, but Bess and Hartline have combined for a grand total of ONE TD's this year. So, yeah.

 

Brian Hartline is averaging something like 9.4 yards per target. Thats pretty damn good. It isn't like he's racking up all these yards, but doing so in an inefficient manner. TDs aren't as predictive of future TDs as some measures of efficiency.

 

I'm not saying it isn't good. But your argument falls apart when you talk about efficiency and TD's.