I'd say the effect he had on other players yesterday was decidedly negative. When you're a team trying to turn a corner by winning a tough game on the road, watching your Pro-Bowl left tackle have a very poor day is hardly inspirational. Now that's not to say his effect on the team is negative all the time, but in the biggest game this franchise has had in some time now, you'd like to think Jake Long would go out there and have a better game than average for him, not a far worse one. That's what leadership is all about.
Right, which is why you don't just look at one game. You look at his total body of work. The guy has had very few bad games in his career.
He's having his worst season for whatever reason, ofcourse there have become many gripes coming out of Cleveland about Joe Thomas and his off year as well. Really not sure what's going on these days with BOTH those guys.
How many of the guys who are named to answer this question (I assume mostly HoFers will be mentioned) are only able to be mentioned because they played so long that you forget a bad year here or there when it is all said and done?
Just hard to surmise how those guys can look so pedestrian all of a sudden. Joe T got his extension...if Jake expects to make top $ he needs to get it together and fast.
My point is that tackle play in general has degraded. When teams are passing as much as they are these days, the tackles are going to look worse. Going no huddle certainly doesn't help either.
He'll essentially get paid no more than what his highest offer is, and any team that offers him will have already tone their thorough research first. So the offers he receives will be for roughly what his current play says he's worth.
And the higher level talent of all these young pass rushers coming into the league doesn't hurt either.
If teams did "their thorough research" on every player there would never be FA bust contracts like Haynesworth or Asomugha
Maybe we should look through the teams in bad need of a LT and then determine from those who have the cap space to sign him.
Have u sent your résumé to Davie yet?? Your a GENUIS kid! And you've already made a career out of kissing your potential bosses (Ireland's) ***.
Jake "The Giant" Long will get paid a buttload of $$$ on the open market as a FA. IMO, he can be some other team's "Franchise" LT. He looks like damaged goods out there now to me...
Truth is, they crowned him king too quickly and he seems to have believed it. Hasn't been working his butt off to get better; got complacent instead. I know he's been dinged up, but I fail to see why a guy that size, who looks to be in good shape, has regressed the way he has.
I don't think he's damaged goods; he's still good enough to re-sign at fair market value, but if another team is desperate enough to pay him well above his current value then I'd say, "C'est la vie.Thank you for your time and dedication here, Jake. We wish you nothing but the best.", and take his compensatory 3rd rounder, use his cap space for either Mike Wallace or perhaps bringing Kenny Phillips & Sam Shields back to Miami. Or Aqib Talib & Jared Cook. And then use our 1st or 2nd to replace Long.
Thats certainly an argument worthy of debate. I'm not sure I'd sign any non-QB or pass-rusher to a contract that big, but I also see some things that make Long very tempting to give a contract like that to. He regularly plays hurt. When you get that type of leadership from your best players, it affects the whole team. Guys playing through injuries is a big part of success in the NFL IMO. This could make him worth the premium. Its hard to say without actually being in the lockerroom, which is why I won't be upset if we re-sign Long or if we let him walk.
That's a huge load of speculative crap. Long has a very good rep for his offseason work and was instrumental in leading offseason team workouts during the strike. What is happening with Long is clearly the Boselli effect of constant nagging injuries affecting him. This is why Ireland has let things sit as far as contracts go. They want to see him 100% healthy before a contract. I am sure Ireland will be patient even if Long has to sit on the tag for a year.
Well he can't pick the games this franchise needs to win to turn the corner as the ones in which he's going to play poorly. That's not someone who is leading a team.
Could it be that Jake Long made his high and mighty name and established his All-Pro status via these 2 ways: 1) Being the 1st overall pick 2) Playing in Dan Henning's systems that used a lot of extra blockers (more than any other team in the league) as research has proven on this very message board. My opinion: Jake Long is a good NFL LT. Probably top 7, maybe top 5. But I don't think anywhere near worth dumping 75-80 million into.
Jake’s play has declined since the former head coach allowed him to try to play through an injury two years back. He should have been sat down and allowed to fully heal. Jake is a warrior who should have been told that winning a weekly battle while injured is not good long term thinking! Unfortunately for him, and for the Dolphins, the former head coach lacked the necessary wisdom, fortitude, and gonads to tell him that – and then follow through on it. And he was supposed to be an offensive line guru. One more leftover benefit of the Sparano era.
I don't think it's his hard work. I never question JL's work ethic. Did you see the armor on his knee on Hard Knocks ... before his injury? I said it then. That concerns me.
Your last paragraph makes the most sense to me, it does seem a bit strange if your sure about the player,to allow your #1 overall pick reach free agency no? It's either that, or he's not 100 percent about continuing his career in Maimi..
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...r-losing-battle-with-dwight-freeney/#comments Jakes taking responsibility for the loss..I just don't understand why he would play like that if he knows he can play better.
It could be injuries - esp. to his legs. If they are hurting, if they make him a quarter step slow or change his footwork - that will make him vulnerable to the best past rushers in the world. And, while others have tried to note that Jake may not have ever been a great LT, two realities are quite apparent: 1) the first reality is he has been much better than this in the past regardless of scheme; and 2) the second reality is that in his fifth season at age 27 - this should be the very prime of his career. This should be the heyday where he is at his zenith of performance from now over the next 3-4 seasons for an O-lineman. Yet, he is arguably playing his worst. Either its injuries (present or cumulative) or he needs better technique. But, this franchise is going nowhere without solid play from the LT; and a former #1 overall player. Noticed two articles on NFL.Com about his poor play so far: The first - back in early October: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000069340/article/jake-long-struggling-for-miami-dolphins-this-season The second - this week (may have been posted here already): http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000091161/article/jake-long-isnt-helping-ryan-tannehill-miami-dolphins?icampaign=GC_news Worst game of his career - when he should be at his peak. #smh
I agree with this 100%. A bit funny if we let Jake walk via FA the same year Matt Ryan takes his team to a Superbowl.
Jake Long was straight out of the gate blocking pretty consistently on an island. Dan Henning liked to use extra blockers, but that wasn't making Jake Long look better than he is- They didn't have a lot to do with him. Jake Long for most of his professional career has been legitimately only in competition with Joe Thomas for best LT in the league. He's having a down year, but trying to diminish the rest of what he's done is a little silly.
I'd be interested to see your list of FA cornerbacks that hit the market that are (1) significantly better than S Smith and (2) are not old as hell which sets them up for mediocrity due to injuries. I'm not willing to break the bank on a CB. it's not worth it with all the 4 WR sets we see.
It's easy to say this in defense of Jake. But there's a possiblity that if Jake gets beat by a move to the inside in Dan Henning's system, there's a good chance that Ronnie Brown or Ricky Williams may have been there to pick up that man. That doesn't mean that Jake wasn't one on one with his blocker. But it does mean that if he's beat to the inside he has a safety net there to pick him up. The only real way to prove it is to go back and re-watch 2008 and 2009 and compare them to this year, 2012. But IMO, it's kind of silly to cast off this argument as silly when you have Jake Long seemingly playing at an All-pro level in his rookie year and 2nd year. And now, all of the sudden he can't even play near a pro-bowl level in his 5th year when he should be at the top of his game. Casting off the common denominator in all of this (the offense in general and additionally it's use of extra blockers) as if it doesn't mean anything doesn't seem right.
For the heck of it, I went back and put on the 2009 week 9 Patriots game. Some things I noticed: For 1 thing Dan Henning's offense is like night and day compared to Sherman's offense and this, IMO, had a lot to do with Jake Long looking good. 1) on many pass plays, it seems we use a TE and RB to double-team the opposing team's RDE, which essentially means Jake Long is blocking on the inside and NOT on an island by himself. Here are two examples of Long taking the inside while a RB or RB+TE are taking on the RDE.: [video=youtube;9IRgpU_teYY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IRgpU_teYY&feature=plcp[/video] [video=youtube;XoniTXGVqME]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoniTXGVqME&feature=plcp[/video] 2) Extra blockers were left in to help Long out. Here is an example of Ronnie Brown left to help Jake if he gets beat to the outside [video=youtube;IE3n6ZqQU1Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE3n6ZqQU1Q&feature=plcp[/video] 3) We did a lot of unbalanced lines those years. Here's a play where Carey is lined up as a TE on Jake's side, making him a an inside blocker and NOT on an island. He's actually blocking the NT (wilfork). See next post for video 4) Here are two plays where Jake IS left on an island and does not perform/execute his task well. The first play much worse than the second. [video=youtube;oTr1OZd5VyI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTr1OZd5VyI&feature=plcp[/video] [video=youtube;jciAkQwqHRQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jciAkQwqHRQ&feature=plcp[/video] 5) and Finally, we ran the ball A LOT more in those years. In conclusion: A lot was done to take pressure off of Jake Long in Dan Henning's offense. This coupled with being the #1 pick inflated his perceived value. I didn't cherry pick these plays either. As you can see from my last post. This took about 10-15 minutes to do. Went back and rewatched the Dolphins offense on a few random drives in a game and recorded a few clips as evidence. I'm not saying Jake Long is a mediocre LT. On the contrary. He's very good. Top 7, probably top 5. But not worth the 75-80 million he may ask.
This video corresponds to #3 on my list in my previous post [video=youtube;0e0RZMY9ww8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e0RZMY9ww8&feature=plcp[/video]
I like backing up your thoughts with video proof, but I just got sad watching henne. Then I got happy again knowing he is gone and we have Tanny.
Because this offense calls for a significant amount more man to man against a DE from the LT position. In addition to the increased number of pass plays to run plays, in addition to the increased number of plays run due to the no huddle high tempo offense. I don't agree with the notion that Jake Long is having a bad year. This is about what you're going to get out of him in this offense. And again, don't get me wrong, there's only about a handful of guys I'd rather have doing that job in this offense. Question is: Will he be worth it?
Jake Long, despite a down year, absolutely is playing near a Pro Bowl level. Generally speaking, I think people vastly overrate tackle play around the NFL.
