http://www.miamidolphins.com/media/...e_Report/04674559-8f1d-416b-9b1c-20c4e372633d All the guys in the discussion were pointing out Matthews as standing out the most, his strong hands and ability to catch being the most prominent compliments from all of them..They said he was going up against grimes and holding his own, looked like he belonged.. We know he has very good lower body strength, we can see an ability to break tackles and plow for yardage, we know he has pretty good speed, showing the ability to catch the football cleanly is a component that these coaches are stressing..I'm sure the thinking is we're set at 1 thru 4 after these recent OTA's.
I've been banging the drums on him since I saw him play in preseason, he's exactly the type of receiver Philbin loves.
To me, it's b/t Matthews and Binns for the #4 Wr, and imo Binns showed more consistently then Matthews has as of yet.
Hasn't played a lot of football, missed his first two years of high school, also was recruited by oregon but didnt meet the academic requirements, a few eighths shy of 6'1 couple lbs short of 220 this dude is a very well built athlete, posted a 4.4 at his proday but I believe he's more of a 4.5 guy, I'm hoping once he learns coverages better he can be our underneath Hines ward type of guy that gives us an attitude on the inside, and if you play your little slot corner on him he's gonna break that tackle a lot with his strength.
I loved it when we picked him and I think now that he really has a chance to step up he will. Matthews can be a big contributor on offense and I see him having a break out year.
I've been saying since we drafted him that Matthews had #1 WR potential. I watched a lot of him at UNR and the kid had a knack for making the play when the team needed one. He seems to have a nose for the endzone too. IMO he's easily the #4 WR at this point (behind Wallace, Hartline and Gibson). Everybody else is battling for 5th. I'm excited to see Matthews develop and find out if he reaches the potential I see in him.
What's that based on? Binns had catches for us in only two games while Matthews basically grabbed at least one ball for 6 games coming down to the end of the season.
Based on Binns coming in midseason, with no knowledge of the offense and still contributed, Matthews were here all year and only made it in when injuries forced him into the lineup. Put it this way, if we did have the weakest corp of Wr's in the league, then why did it take so long for Matthews to play, and Binns was playing within the week he was signed.
Binns came in on Dec. 10, missed one game, then caught 5 passes in the last two games. How does this show consistency?
Did I say consistency? What I said was he came in midseason and contributed quickly, Matthews was here all yr and was rarely on the field until injuries struck.
I remember you saying that he was gonna be a very good player and I kinda rolled my eyes when I read #1 WR. Starting to think you may be on to something there though and I hope you were correct. I wouldnt be surprised if he challenged Gibson for the #3 job as the season progressed. Hes one of the more under the radar guys right now as far as potential break out players in the AFC.
I figured he'd develop slowly for a few reasons. One, he came from an offense that doesn't ask the WR to make reads and adjustments and second, my read on Philbin is that he wants his receivers to know the offense really well before he risks putting them in. Obviously, he may never develop. You're banking on him having the right personality to put the work in. But I saw refinement in his routes at UNR that implied to me that he was putting the work in there. Either that or he was just a natural receiver. So I saw him as a guy I was willing to go out on limb on.
Thought he had come in w/6 games to go tbh, do know he played really quickly, surprisingly so after he really did not know the offensive calls etc Binns was targeted 11 times in 2 games Matthews was targeted 20 times all year
Wait....you thought Binns was better based on nothing other than the fact he picked up the offense faster....than a rookie? Pristine logic. Exquisite really.
In those 2 games Binns had 6 catches for 67 yards and Matthews had 5 catches for 73 yards. I'm not seeing the separation.
B/c even though he was new to the offense he was targeted more often then Matthews. A Rook Wr is supposed to get better as the season rolls along, Binns just showed up and was treated as an equal in the offense by Tannehill. What does that tell you.
Binns was a 2nd year player and Matthews got more playing time as his rookie season progressed. It tells me that both have a good chance to make the team if they continue to improve their craft.
Exactly! I stopped being impressed with anything before the pads are on a long time ago. Robert Baker anyone?
I believe he is in all likelihood the third best receiver on the roster, and eventually he could be second. And by eventually I mean it's conceivable within a year. Now that I've said something good about him I will say that probably my biggest concern with him out of college was his ability to go up and make tough, physically challenged catches with defensive backs also challenging for the football. If he adds that to his game, he is probably a starter.
Matthews was one of the reasons I didn't like the Gibson signing, I wanted us to draft someone like Bailey and for him and Matthews to then fight over 3rd receiver duties. I may be proved wrong with Gibson, and he'll be a star when the going gets real, but in the long run I would rather have had Matthews and a draftee or two developing behind Wallace/Hartline. Matthews showed enough in his rookie season to deserve a lot longer look out there.
That may be the case, but it's hard to tell. We don't know that it is the case and there is some evidence that runs starkly contrary to that conclusion. He had Anthony Armstrong playing 35 out of 73 snaps right in Week 1 against the Houston Texans, only 8 days after Miami had claimed him off waivers. Armon Binns was activated and playing for the Dolphins only 6 days after being claimed off waivers from the Bengals. The Dolphins had Jabbar Gaffney activated and playing 25 days after picking him up, which is a little longer than Armstrong and Binns but as I recall that may have had to do with physical issues. You could argue that all three are veterans and I'm sure that did factor into the decision to play them so soon, WELL before it could be argued that they "know the offense really well", but that factor is in my opinion more than outweighed by the sheer extremeness of the time frame difference. Rishard Matthews had been a Miami Dolphin with access to the Miami Dolphins' playbook for 208 days before he got activated and played 22 snaps. Again yes there's a distinction between rookie and veteran, but that is a very extreme difference if we're talking about just knowing a playbook. You look at Philbin's history with rookie receivers in Green Bay and Randall Cobb was playing in Week 1, Jordy Nelson was playing in Week 1 and James Jones was playing in Week 1. If you extend that to looking at tight ends, Andrew Quarless was playing by Week 3 and Jermichael Finley was also playing by Week 3. Joe Philbin has talked before about how his system is easy, how he tells his players if they can count to three they can play in the system. When he has Anthony Armstrong and Armon Binns playing significant snaps within 6 to 8 days of having just been on some other team in some other city, I think he shows that he means what he says about that. Combine that with having rookies like Jordy Nelson, James Jones and Randall Cobb active and playing in games by Week 1 in Green Bay, I think you could easily argue that he's shown the opposite of what you're talking about...that he's willing to toss in fairly new initiates pretty quickly, if he feels they're ready. He just didn't feel Rishard Matthews was ready. Obviously I don't think that means terrible things for Matthews' career, as I feel he's probably the third best receiver on the roster right now.
I like GIbson in that he has a good ability to place his body between the DB and the ball quickly. I think that will be useful in this system and probably more effective than Bess was for us (and I really liked Bess). But having said that I also would have preferred drafting Bailey over signing Gibson. I think that in the long term it would have upgraded our WR corp more. I see Bailey and Matthews as guys with very good starter potential while I see Gibson as a guy you can start in a pinch or even for a stretch, but would always be hoping to upgrade. Gibson should eventually (next year) be a great weapon as the third or fourth guy and will probably become a fan favorite b/c he makes clutch catches. I don't actually dislike the Gibson signing in and of itself except that there was an opportunity to add a guy like Bailey that we missed. I guess I see some security in signing Gibson. It does give us three WRs whom we should be confident can start immediately. There would certainly be more uncertainty in relying on Matthews and Bailey as your #3 this year. Matthews went later, but I had a 4th round grade on him and I had 2nd round grade on Bailey (but thought he'd be available in the 3rd). They were available later b/c they're far from sure things. I tend to believe in my evaluations so I probably would have drafted Bailey, not signed Gibson and held on to Bess for a year as a security blanket for RT. I would have lost what we got for Bess in the trade and let him go in FA if Matthews and Bailey developed as I hoped. I may have netted a comp pick for Bess though. It could be worse. IMO Wallace, Hartline, Gibson, Matthews is a nice WR corp (and Keller). And there are several developmental/longshot guys in camp to round out the group.
Not only that, Tannehill trusted him enough to target him fairly often, compare that to Matthews or Egnew, this was the second prong of my argument Not saying Matthews won't develop, am saying his first year he did not show enough of what Philbin or Tannehill wanted to see which puts him behind Binns at this point. Matthews is larger and faster and should beat out Binns, atm though have to Binns ahead of him.
I believe the counting quote was referring to OL play. Regardless, I think the vet/rookie distinction is big, particularly in Matthews case since he didn't have to make route adjustments on the fly in UNR's offense. I see that as a huge transition for most WRs who aren't really smart guys. I also don't think Matthews is brilliant. That's only a guess since he was a JC guy who went there after having committed to Oregon. But it was one of the reasons I didn't have a third round grade on him coming out. He looked like a guy who would take time to acclimate despite seeming very natural/nuanced in his route running.
Yeah, I think any one of us can name 6 guys that have flashed in OTAs and then died when the pads came on....Matthews last year included...that doesn't mean that he won't or can't improve and that this is the beginning of the light coming on for him, but I want to see it when the pads are on as to whether he can get open... What he did last year can be tempered (on the positive side) as he was coming thru when asked to and was a rookie so his struggles should be accounted for or on the negative side with he was here all year and couldn't make an impact with arguably the worst WR corps in the league...just depends on how you want to spin it... The same can be said for Binns... Bottom line, when the pads come on and they start playing games (even preseason), lets see what the kid has then...
I have liked RM since the day we drafted him. Reminds me of a poor mans CAR Steve Smith.....cant wait to see him get a chance!
