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Breaking Down McKinnie's Debut

Discussion in 'Miami Dolphins Forum' started by ckparrothead, Oct 30, 2013.

  1. ckparrothead

    ckparrothead Draft Forum Moderator Luxury Box

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  2. jim1

    jim1 New Member

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    Excellent article. I'm really surprised that the Ravens got Monroe for a 4th and a 5th, also that the Jaguars didn't call around the league about McKinnie's availability. That being said, I'm also surprised that Ireland and the Dolphins FO didn't proactively call the Jags to get a feel for the situation. A 4th and a 5th for Monroe sounds like a steal to me, the ball was dropped.
     
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  3. Rocky Raccoon

    Rocky Raccoon Greasepaint Ghost Staff Member

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    Love articles with gifs. Good work ck.

    Just based on eye test I thought he did a good job most of the game. He wasn't perfect by any means but for only having 5 days to learn, I was happy.
     
  4. ckparrothead

    ckparrothead Draft Forum Moderator Luxury Box

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    I couldn't really work up all of the snaps but if I could I think you'd be impressed with McKinnie's work in pass pro.

    TO ME, it was night and day from Jonathan Martin's work at the same position. Just my opinion. He generally kept pass rushers thoroughly blocked for longer amounts of time. He maintained more pocket integrity (gave up less ground). He only had a few screwups.

    To me it was night and day.
     
  5. brandon27

    brandon27 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Love these types of breakdowns. I think it was easy for most of us to see that McKinnie was much better at LT than Martin had been at times this year. I was actually pretty surprised with his movement, balance and power out there and the fact that he was able to hold off Jones on almost every play. The sack/fumble play really bothers me though, but it does look like it was just some form of miscommunication, or confusion in the assignment for McKinnie than anything else on that play.

    As for the timing of the trade, it definitely was late, it should have happened in the bye week. Maybe the staff made some subtle changes they thought would help Martin & Clabo, and the Buffalo game just proved it didnt, and wasnt going to work. I really wish Jeff Ireland would have used some common sense though in at least calling Jacksonville at some point in the year to say "Hey, now that you drafted Joekel... if you need to move Monroe, please let us know, we'd have some interest." Especially after the sacks started piling up, it never would have hurt to at least make a phone call to show interest, just in case they did decide to move him. Maybe he did, and we'll never know, but all signs likely point to he didnt.

    Just out of curiosity, did you look at Martin's performance in his first game back at RT? At a quick glance watching the game on Sunday, it didn't seem he did too bad out there. It really sucks that I can't re-watch these damn games because the NFL wants to charge so much for NFL rewind here in Canada. I'd love to go back and look at these things myself, even have continued to track the personnel groupings/performance, but it's just not worth that kind of cash to me. Just curious though as to how Martin looked as well.

    Thanks for sharing this.
     
  6. ckparrothead

    ckparrothead Draft Forum Moderator Luxury Box

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    I thought Jonathan Martin was not very good against New England, to be honest...upon review. It looked to me like he was even a little bit worse than he had been at left tackle. That could be temporary. When he was forced to make a move from right to left during the 2012 season, he suffered similarly. People didn't think so, for whatever reason, but he did. It's tough to force a guy to switch in the middle of the season.
     
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  7. jim1

    jim1 New Member

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    I have tried to like Martin at LT and I just can't. I don't see it- power, fluidity, balance, take your pick. I said it in a different thread, I think that Anthony Collins was a better LT in college than Martin, and as a pro- a backup for the Bengals- he's probably better than Martin is now.
     
  8. Phoenician Fan

    Phoenician Fan Well-Known Member

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    Ya, I was way too negative about the McKinney acquisition. I think I called him fat, drunk, and stupid and got reprimanded by somebody for it.

    The guy was one of the best in the league at one time. I wanted Vollmer to come and move to LT, and Eric Winston signed to play on the right last off season, but when that wasn't happening I advocated for at least acquiring McKinnie.

    I hope he can maintain a high level of motivation.

    Do you see him on the roster next year?
     
  9. VManis

    VManis Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Nice article CK. The bolded statement is what really caught my eye against the Pats. With Martin and Clabo it seemed like the pockets was always getting pinched. Two questions for you

    1) What would you do to help mask McKinnie's lack of athleticism
    2) Your thoughts on how Martin did on the right side (he was an obvious upgrade to Clabo but that bar isn't very high).
     
  10. ckparrothead

    ckparrothead Draft Forum Moderator Luxury Box

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    Not much you can do about it in the running game but in the passing game it's just going to involve more tight end and running back help from the backfield to get out on blitzers.
     
  11. vt_dolfan

    vt_dolfan Season Ticket Holder Club Member

    Awsome stuff as usual....CK.

    One question for you. Because of McKinnie's ability to block efficiently man up, and as you pointed out, his possible weakness against the blitz, isnt it possible to use this to our advantage to some degree? I mean, by nature....the blitz opens up a hole in the defense, correct? If blitzing McKinnie creates confusion..or to his side, wouldnt this also mean, Tannehill have a better idea from where the blitz is coming?

    I guess I can just see Miami creating a wrinkle to take advantage of this...or I guess if I were an OC, I would.
     
  12. ckparrothead

    ckparrothead Draft Forum Moderator Luxury Box

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    I suppose it's possible. I wasn't making any judgments about what Miami can or can't do with him at left tackle.

    One thing I forgot to mention is you might see him have trouble with the speed demon rushers in the NFL. You might find him performing more poorly against unknowns that happen to be really fast.
     
  13. Finrunner

    Finrunner Season Ticket Holder

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    So I guess the question here for the short-term for Martin at RT is: is "not very good" better than the "tragically awful" that Clabo was putting out there, or are you seeing not much of an upgrade if any at all?

    Nice breakdown on McKinnie, also. It looked like he was doing a good job at the guys coming at him, stonewalling most of them. And then like you pointed out, his lack of athleticism hindered him against some of the outside rushes the Pats threw at us.
     
  14. ckparrothead

    ckparrothead Draft Forum Moderator Luxury Box

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    For that game, I'm not sure I saw an upgrade aside from the simple fact that Martin didn't let up what *I* would personally attribute as a sack (PFF disagrees) whereas Clabo had let up a sack in all but one game.
     
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  15. VManis

    VManis Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Would running screens to the left side also help in slowing down the blitz from that side?
     
  16. Mcduffie81

    Mcduffie81 Wildcat Club Member

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    Good job CK. Although its a short term plug I am happy they did something to try and keep Tannehill alive and breathing. Could be what we needed. He looks massive out there!
     
  17. ckparrothead

    ckparrothead Draft Forum Moderator Luxury Box

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    Definitely. Provided you feel McKinnie is athletic enough to get out and block well enough for those plays to be successful. There are also some things you can do from a horizontal stretch standpoint that take the edge off.

    The Dolphins ran a nice play like that with Lamar Miller. He lined up wide to the right then came into a pre-snap fly sweep motion. The play was timed so that the quarterback would be snapping the football just after Miller passed him, and then Tannehill lobbed the football to Miller on the flare.

    With the back getting up to speed during pre-snap motion, linebackers aren't going to be able to cover that play all that well. The defensive end to that side has to stay wide and either defend the fly sweep or be able to get out to perimeter to help contain the runner after he catches the flare.
     
  18. GMJohnson

    GMJohnson New Member

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    Great break down CK.

    What at did you think of McKinnie in the run game?
     
  19. ckparrothead

    ckparrothead Draft Forum Moderator Luxury Box

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    Less good, which I think was to be expected.

    Powerful, for sure. But the Dolphins ask their guys to get horizontal and make cut-off blocks and such that McKinnie just couldn't really get to. There were I think two run plays that were blown up specifically because of him.

    What I think we saw in McKinnie from a pass protection standpoint was what "average" really is at the NFL level for a left tackle in pass protection. That's what it really looks like. McKinnie still had lapses that got Tannehill pressured and even sack-stripped. Or at least we speculate that the sack-strip was on McKinnie for not fanning out to the blitzer.

    But on most of the other plays, he defended his space. He stood his ground. And he wasn't being tossed aside like a rag doll by the end of the play. These are the things that no numbers on a Pro Football Focus webpage were going to capture when it comes to explaining why the Dolphins are getting sacked so much, why Ryan Tannehill (who was known for escaping pressure in college) has been having a tough time working the pocket and escaping pressure.
     
  20. unifiedtheory

    unifiedtheory Sub Pending Luxury Box

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    I thought McKinnie was good and the line was good....until Sherman went crazy in the 2nd half.
     
  21. djphinfan

    djphinfan Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Good breakdown and deserved respect...I thought the difference would be evident, you could really see evidence of a decent pocket around Ryan, something that looked different, I wanted Mckinnie real bad this offseason after feeling pretty confident that Jake was gonna bolt, unfortunately we didn't aquire him when we should have, we had to give the 2nd round pick his chance to prove his worth, which I didn't think would work out...we got him now and all we can hope for is a total rededication to the craft at 34 years old.
     
  22. ckparrothead

    ckparrothead Draft Forum Moderator Luxury Box

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    I have to say I underestimated McKinnie.

    Even as down as I've been on Jonathan Martin...I think I was acclimating to him. What was bad on another team just came here and looked head and shoulders better than what we'd been dealing with. That says it all.
     
  23. cdz12250

    cdz12250 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Just my opinion, but to me he looked slow and like he couldn't get it done athletically on various plays. Maybe when he gets the system down he'll look better. He had what, three practices?
     
  24. padre31

    padre31 Premium Member Luxury Box

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    My take is a Vet LT who did not get pushed around the way Martin was at LT, do not think he is the "Future" think he was the guy we should have traded for 2 games ago.
     
  25. djphinfan

    djphinfan Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    For sure he looked slow and unathletic, it's not the point though, what he could do was a large upgrade in pass protection.
     
  26. LBsFinest

    LBsFinest Banned

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    He looked like Jonathan Ogden compared to what we've had lately.
     
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