Drew Rosenhaus: Tannehill encouraging Dolphins to sign Evan Mathis

I don't think the Dolphins will rush to sign Mathis, and likewise, Mathis won't rush to sign with anyone. The coaches seem to have faith in the guards on the roster.. it'll come down to whether the personnel people feel the same way.

Maybe they'll wait until training camp starts and pads come on to determine whether Thomas or anyone else on the roster can start for us... if in the first couple of weeks of camp LG is still a concern and/or Albert looks to be recovering slowly, then they'll sign Mathis (if he's still available by then).

As for Tannehill "lobbying" for Mathis, I think this might have been a tad overblown by his agent. Tannehill may have sat down with the FO and discussed something about how the OL was playing and asked how they felt about it, and Mathis' name may have come up, but I doubt he was actively trying to convince them of signing him.

 

I'm sure the Dolphins would sign Mathis if Tannehill gave up an offsetting amount of salary. Reality is that Miami has more than enough invested in the OL.

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This is my #1 issue with Philbin...career O line guy. We have plenty resources in the line, yet it remains the biggest weakness.

 

I see it differently. I think the coaches and personnel guys know they have a problem at OG.

The hold up with Mathis I think is really the cap issue in 2016 because Mathis wants a long term contract (if it was just paying him tons for 2015, I think we'd sign him now). So the Dolphins and other teams are playing a waiting game, waiting for Mathis to lower his demands because he needs to sign a contract and play this year. That's how I see it at least.. of course I have no insider info.

 

This was probably nothing more than Drew asking RT if he would like to have Mathis and he answered Yes.

 

Sure, the guard position is weak, but its up to the rest of the offense to cover for it. You can't expect to have a team full of quality players. At some point you need to accept your weaknesses, and make things work.

Spending big money on a guard at this point just trades this mess for a future mess.

 

That's a pretty big ask considering the situation with the O-line right now and how this staff has been the past three years.

 

I'm not sure how much of the blame goes to player development of Offensive Lineman, as opposed to other positions.

There were many instances where the struggles of players on the OL was seriously exasperated by poo protection calls by the QB or blown assignments by the RB.

Protection issues need to be looked at holistically, not necessarily at the obviously offending players in a vacuum.

 

You can't operate under the assumption that the coaches will screw things up, therefore you need to invest more. If anything, you save your money for after the coaches are terminated.

 

What about coaches scheming around deficiencies? Franklin chose to go to SD to reunite with McCoy, who I think helped scheme around a not so great OL during his stay in Denver. I mean yes, Peyton helps a ton, but when you see an OC changing formations and in general being creative in how you use the line, it masks deficiencies.

I would like to see coaches utilize Tannehill's decent level of mobility, and above average level of throwing while on the move, a lot more. You can definitely mask deficiencies in the OL with a smarter X's and O's coach (just imagine Belichick vs. Philbin with the same players).

 

Yes, coaches scheming around deficiencies is imperative as well.

 

I understand your point, but with respect to the current ownership and staff it's as if we've been operating under that the assumption that even though the coaching staff will screw things up, only parts may be terminated.

 

all the good done this offseason could go to **** if our line is bad which it probably will be because we are the dolphins.

get mathis!

 

Neither does Drew Rosenhaus

 

A good OL is so much more about a cohesive unit than about throwing high picks and money at it. The juggling the last couple of years has really hindered the development of that unit. Moving James from RT to LT last year just made us bad at both T spots. I think Thomas has more than enough talent to be a very good G in this league, but sometimes it takes time for things to click mentally. When you have a player like that the worst thing you can do is bounce him all over the line. And it was even worse when he was so obviously over-matched at T. Park him at G and leave him there all year. Don't rely on him though. Just let him get his reps in practice and put him in during some meaningless point in games (like late in the SD game last season). It may never click, but that way you give him a reasonable shot at it.

IMO they made a good decision this draft by going with Douglas as he seems a perfect fit schematically. I didn't like the fit with the higher rated OL in this draft. Going after one of them would have been a waste of higher resources and I don't see any of them as any more likely to solve our issues than Douglas. That being said, I'd still prefer Douglas be depth this year (rather than Thomas). So while we have used a ton of resources on the OL already and I want to give the unit time to meld, Mathis is another perfect fit. He's arguably the best G in the league and he's coming out of a very similar scheme. In a division where we face what may be the best DTs in the league and in a system where we key so much off of the interior run being strong up the middle is rather important.

We're solid at both Ts and C. (I don't agree that we should pretend that Albert doesn't exist b/c he may miss a couple of games at the beginning of the season although I don't expect he will). I don't mind Fox as a swing T. And I like our talent at G quite a bit with Turner and Douglas. (I even like Thomas' talent/potential, but I don't have reason to trust him yet). And we have a couple of vet Gs that should be able to fill in for short stretches. So I don't agree with the characterization that we have little on the OL. We just have greater uncertainty in the starting Gs. Personally, I'd rather eliminate much of that uncertainty by signing Mathis and risk having to let Miller go next year.

 

As CK always says, don't think of the cap as a "just this season" thing. We do not have the space to add Mathis' salary (on a multi-year deal which he'll want) if we don't want to be screwed next year when Tannehill and Suh's salaries balloon.

As you said, there wouldn't be rollover. And we need rollover. Ergo, we don't have the space.

 

I don't know why everyone thinks this is just about Dallas Thomas being bad, Billy Turner hasn't done **** either, hell he hasn't even locked down a starting job yet.

 

We have a lot more game tape on Thomas. Turner deserves the benefit of the doubt until he proves otherwise.

 

I liken this to a situation where you're buying a house and you have a pre-approval for a very high amount but you've worked out your monthly budget and so you've targeted a much lower mortgage because that's what fits into your ACTUAL budget whereas the pre-approval is just a technical possibility...but your real estate agent keeps showing you houses that are up toward the pre-approval price instead of the price you budgeted. The agent of course is just trying to inflate his fee by getting you a more expensive house.

In this case, Drew Rosenhaus is the real estate agent trying to convince the Dolphins they can give Evan Mathis what he and Evan are demanding because they have the cap room in 2015. The Dolphins on the other hand, know what their multi-year budget looks like and what they can and can't afford, and they're saying no way. So now Drew is coming back and trying to say but your star $100 million quarterback wants this to happen, you should pay attention to that.

 

(Who has been sacked a ton during his career and can point to the position my client plays as a key reason for that.) If I was Rosenhaus I'd just send the Fins front office a looped video (I would say gif but that'd be the longest gif ever) of a guard letting Tanny get sacked. I mean, the FO knows this. But doesn't hurt to remind them.

 

I agree with all that. I think Thomas can be a solid G and I think he was much better there last year than people here give him credit for (as compared to T where he was awful). But Mathis is a perfect fit and a proven Pro Bowl player, so I would love to see them get a deal done there and let Thomas, Turner and Douglas battle it out for the other G spot. If one of those 3 really emerges, an OL of Albert, Mathis, Pouncey, Turner/Douglas/Thomas and James might well be the most talented OL in the NFL. Whether it is the best or not will depend on health and chemistry, but everyone would be playing at their best position and just about everyone will have experience in the scheme (or a substantially similar one). IMO, we can have a Top 5-7 offense if the OL is that good.

 

And that was before Mathis really got into strength and fitness and transformed himself. Despite the age, he may well test better now than he did back then.

 

My understanding is that we have between $11 and $12 mill available under the cap. Assuming we keep the usual $5 mill to deal with injuries we could give Mathis $6 to $6.5 this year. The issue is the future years. We're over the projected cap for next year and we were hoping to rollover some from this year to offset that. But if projections for next year's cap change (I expect that if they change it is far more likely to go up than down) then maybe that isn't as much of an issue as we thought. There's also some unknown regarding what Jordan's number will actually count do to the suspension. It wouldn't surprise me if they allocated more upfront money in signing bonuses and crafted a lower salary for future years to make it work.

 

his skill set til this point by lazor and philbin have been totally underutilized so we agree a lot on this issue...The thing about ryan an I've said this a million times is he's equally deft at throwing on the run to the left or right..and an average of 1 rollout a game is simply stupid playcalling imo...now people can say thats BS about how it cuts the field in half and sh** and to them I say, while that may be true, it has nothing to do with timely playcalling for an entire game and for someone who is as good as ryan is at it.

 

I read a quote by thomas where he really sounded frustrated about what this staff made him do since entering the league..he was not happy.

 

Throwing on the run is something Tannehill is incredibly good at. That TD to Matthews last year when he was scrambling left was just a thing of beauty.

 

This very much looks like the Dolphins and/or Mathis have strong interest in each other. It sounds more like someone trying to close a gap than drive up a market or even specific interest.

Miami also might need to consider that their Guard play is THAT bad to a degree where a questionable financial decision might be entirely appropriate from a roster standpoint. The alternative is potentially disaster level play.

 

and just because it cuts the field in half do you think 1 full roll out a game is sufficient utilization of the qbs skill set relative to the specific skill he possesses?

 

Rolling out Tannehill is great because of how well he does it, but it is a slippery slope. It can be very predictable because of how well he is at it, and protection issues.

 

What would you think if you were an opposing DC?

 

I think it's opponent specific. In a division with so many good DTs, rolling Tannehill away from potential interior pressure might offset the downside of having fewer downfield options.

 

That

 

That is what I am saying DJ

 

its the classic case of designing the gameplan to fit with your players strengths, why?, because they do certain things better than the other guys even if the correct defense is called..

If I'm a defensive coordinator I realize how good tannehill is at rolling right and left, which sucks, because it would be a lot easier to practice against the scout team with a guy that can only run and throw to his dominant side, not in this case..

Big picture stance, If I'm the def coordinator and I did my homework on tannehill i know that not only can he do what were talking about, he also is very good in the read option game, so once the game is over and I realize that their deft qb who can run and throw just as efficiently going right or left, only rolled out 1 time, ran about 3 read options, and never once tucked it and ran on his own accord, I'm saying to myself, what a bunch of idiots..

 

Part of my premise on this has always been because of how bad we are at protecting the qb from the interior..i'm not just trowing stuff out there..

during the whole game there are many instances to roll this kid more than once a game, many reasons..its about misdirection, its about threatening a defense..when you do something once in a game it is not a threat, its not a staple, aint no defensive coordinator is going to know when your gonna roll him right or left during the entirety of a game.

 

I can totally understand that. In the end, you're married to this staff for at least one more year. Money has been WELL spent. Sometimes you just have to accept some things and hopefully scheme around it in a successful way if the interior of the line does not jell as well as hoped.

I like this Douglas kid. I think he can game. Was Thomas not a solid left guard and tackle in the SEC, arguably the toughest conference in the nation?

I think the staff was stuck playing musical chairs last year. This year may be different. The only good I can see from last year's musical chair scenario is that these guys now have meaningful reps at that odd position. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

We'll see. I am truly not opposed to signing Mathis, but I just do not think Miami has the dough.