Martin was a pure left tackle. Matthews is a Jr, but played with Tannehill and is a pure right tackle.
I don't know, as lackluster as Long has been this year, I see plenty of atrocious LT play around the league to where I can't clearly say he isn't at least top 5.
I dunno, Jake has had some real WTF type games. I'm watching Tyron Smith right now and he looks like Anthony Munoz in comparison. I would love a hometown discount and an improved Jake Long in 2013.
Interesting article about the value of the left tackle position, and what a team should pay for a left tackle, depending on their other needs. http://www.footballperspective.com/...-tackle-is-a-luxury-bad-teams-can-not-afford/ I don't consider us a bad team. We are a mediocre, up-and-coming team.
Since you quoted PFF, did you know they have him ranked as the 19th best left tackle, before this game?
Yes, and that's largely off of run-blocking, and as much an issue with how they grade zone blocking as anything.
Franchising him means he gets the average for the top 5 at his position (offensive line) or a 120% of his salary from the previous year, whichever is higher. I was not sure if it was base salary or cap hit (e.g. amortized bonus included). If it's just the $11.2 million, he'd be in line for $14.44 million if franchised next year. I'd rather those funds be allocated towards players such as Greg Jennings, Cliff Avril and Randy Starks.
His mental lapse cost us a touchdown and I'm not sure a grade school player would make the same mistake. He also got beat on a number of occasions. He has way too many mental lapses and I'm tired of his arm tackling.
I know I will be slammed for this but oh well, I was bothered watching hard Knocks, when I saw our 50 million dollar 1st overall LT using tobacco products in a team meeting. I'm no expert but I don't know many "elite" athletes that use any kind of tobacco products. We can go on and on about this subject, and I won't. But something tells me this dude isn't the "elite" athlete like we all thought. Just another overpaid Lineman IMO. I think the dude got comfortable and its catching up to him.
We're probably not going after big money free agents, and they've got almost certainly enough money to resign all their own free agents they want.
Mando has a nice blog on this subject. Which brings me back to Long. It's going to be a hard negotiation if Long's agent, Tom Condon, is going to insist on having Long paid as the best left tackle in football -- which is exactly what Long was coming out of college as the No. 1 pick. Long was the highest paid offensive lineman in the NFL. Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolp...or-jake-and-what-that-mean.html#storylink=cpy
In that case, many will likely get their wish and Jeff Ireland will seal his fate. I don't believe it'd necessarily be wise to bank on more rookies and status quo. There's a salary floor and I just don't believe in overpaying for mediocrity (free agency, I know. lol) I'm looking at Vincent Jackson's 23 ypc in Tampa and wondering how great something like that would look in Miami this year.
But what worthwhile veterans would there be available to add (that are even close to or better than Jackson)? Bowe, Wallace, or? And even Wallace's ypc is closer to Bowe's this year than it is Jackson's.
I'd much rather have Wallace than Bowe, but I still think you have to add someone else on top of picking up someone in FA.
I don't think that's likely at all. The Dolphins are moving to the model of most successful teams in the NFL. Build through the draft, and use free agency primarily for hole filling or trying to find under-market guys or legitimately rare players. Jeff Ireland isn't getting fired likely anytime soon.
If you put a gun to my head right now, I'd franchise tag him and see how things play out. If you let him walk in free agency, you'd get at best a third round pick (as compensation) and we know he's worth more than that. Franchise tag him... maybe use him as trade bait after that.
It is indeed 5 yards higher than his usual YPC, but his usual YPC of 18 is still pretty damn good no matter what way you slice it.
One game is an anomaly. More than half a season isn't. We'll see if it goes down or stays up. But he's always been a big play WR
That's still, really, really good. Through 8 games hes only had 3 games under 20, and they're at 16. Which by itself is still pretty damn good.
Let's also not drastically overpay a position that Philbin doesn't deem worthy of 12 million per year or more for a player who clearly has struggled for a while and is struggling to former levels of play. He has half a season , how he plays matters imo. You can add a lot of you if subtract a contract such as that.
I don't like the idea of paying Jake Long a huge salary but I also don't agree that average LT's are easy to find. We can move Martin to LT but there's no way of knowing if he would be a successful left tackle or even an average left tackle. He was a left tackle in college but that doesn't mean he will be good in the NFL. We can let JL walk but we better be prepared to go through left tackle struggles like we did before Long arrived. Anybody remember Wade Smith? I admit long has been struggling and he is not playing at the level he did a couple of years ago but we can still do much worse. Are we ready to face that prospect and how will it effect our young quarterback?
Yet they have the same record as us .... plus it's only a matter of time before Jackson does something outrageous in a game and gets suspended. Recall his time at San Diego. I've never seen a player cost his team a playoff game the way this guy did.
If you guys had half a clue you'd have called out Vontae Davis a long time ago like this, instead of *****ing now that he's gone.
This thread seems to bother you quite a bit. First it was that this was all just post loss stuff, which was factually incorrect in the first place simply from a chronological stand point. Now, when no one in this thread has said a word about Vontae you ***** about people *****ing about Vontae.
It may be an outlier, but not an anomaly. He didn't go from 10 ypc to 23. He went from great to super awesome in ypc. Mike Furrey's 1000 yard season is an anomaly
By no means is it fair to say he's struggled. There really aren't any LTs in today's NFL that don't have bad games. I think another factor that needs to be considered regarding Long is his leadership. Its hard for fans to quantify the effect he has on other players, but it certainly is something that the team needs to take into account.
Jake Long is still a good LT. If he's willing to re-sign for what he's currently worth then there's no reason to not retain him.
