Not even a little concerned with the guard spots. And to call our o-line "**** on paper" is just more ridiculousness being spewed. If you want to have some genuine, legit concerns... Look no farther than LT and Alberts recovery. All this stressing over a battle at a guard spot in OTAs is pathetic.
"There's definitely concern about the situation at guard, where nobody has seized a position (though rookie Jamil Douglas has had some good moments);" For what it's worth.... the above quote was exactly what Jackson wrote. All the rest LB quoted is froth and foam from the wonderful rent-a-mouths at Profootballtalk. With some cute editing and misleading verbiage, Florio or his minions managed to blow up a short powderpuff quote into a smokescreened pontification which becomes agitated hysteria as each person person piles on.
Being that we conceded among the most interior pressure on pass plays in the league the past two years......I'd say it's definitely cause for concern. Couple that with the fact that our answer to the position is to hope players improve and/or get healthy (Thomas and Turner) or a 4th round pick......yup, even more reason for concern. I'll be shocked if we stick with what we have and we're not singing the same tune come October/November.
After watching the 2013 and 2014 season, how in the world could you not be concerned? No one is stressing because of an isolated camp battle. They're stressing because it's the same ol' camp battle that no one has seem to take hold of for the past 3 years. And this has manifested itself in the regular season on Sundays causing us to be a below average offense. We're stressing because history is repeating itself right in front of our eyes.
IMO, our season now boils down to Tannebaum pulling out his crack pipe and pulling the trigger on overpaying for Mathis. Without an upgrade at guard, we're 9-7 at best.
Our problem last year wasn't guard. It was Albert going down and having to move James over LT because Fox wasn't ready and Thomas went at RT. Thomas was serviceable at guard he just sucked at RT.
People are scared of the unknown is what it is. The OL was actually pretty solid before Albert went down. Let Turner and Douglas play with some pads on. If someone isn't panning out in pads...then make a move. Not like Mathis is signing anytime soon and signing him would put significant problems on our 2016 cap. Signing Mathis means someone else isn't getting signed next year that would have otherwise. That's money that would have been rolled over into next year. So just be aware of that when your pimping for Mathis. If the guys aren't panning out in training camp........well our new president isn't shy about training camp trades. I'd be all over a trade if we could get a cheaper guy who could be solid for us for years...and not an aging diminishing player like Mathis. I think you need to go back and actually watch those games with Thomas at guard again. While not as abysmal as he was at tackle..he was still pretty miserable and it was his guy that beat the crap out of him that rolled up on Albert causing his injury.
all of our guards sucked last year, from Thomas to Colledge, Shelley Smith to Pouncey. Billy Turner sucked too, he was healthy for the second half of the season and still couldn't beat out the bums in front of him.
Turner wasn't ready to go until early December and the injury had him behind the 8-ball practice wise. In the snaps he did play he looked pretty solid and scored alright. Don't lump Turner into the woes of the OL. He was a raw prospect to start with when drafted. This kid is going to maul people at RG. You wait and see.
No, he really wasn't. He wasn't all world or anything but he was completely serviceable. Which is all we need at guard.
What are the odds that Albert, James, and Pouncey don't miss any time? What's the plan if/when one of them goes down? Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk
What team has playoff caliber back ups at both tackle positions and center? This is why I think this fanbase has a real problem.
All I asked was the probability and plan for their absence? Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk
We play our back ups who are back up quality, like every other team. Some of the back ups may surprise some may flop, like every other team. Nothing is unique here.
Exactly. So given the nature of the sport, we can expect injury to have an impact on the team. Last season, Miami was not able to adequately handle that impact. Will they this year? Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk
Also I'm not sure I agree that all back-ups are of equal quality. One would have to look at the resources devoted. If team A is investing more in backup han Team B, we can expect Team A to be more successful. I have no idea if this is the case or not, but anecdotally it appears Miami has been top-heavy in their investment on the OL. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk
We don't have a lack of information. We know many of the players at Guard are bad starters. We know factually that 3rd/4th round picks typically don't pan out and even more rarely pan out in their rookie or second year. We also know that this coaching staff is unlikely to put the best performing players on the field when put in a position to identify them.
Cincinnati. Their backup OTs are Eric Winston, Jake Fisher and they'll have Cedric Ogbuhei back at some point this year. They also have T.J. Johnson as a backup C - he's got starting experience, as well as Chris Jasperse going into camp. As far as Miami goes, while I'm encouraged with Albert's rehab (sounds like he'll be ready week 1 or shortly thereafter) I think the risk Miami runs is being able to identify and put players into correct positions. Like it or not, that's a real thing, and as we saw last year, it backfired constantly throughout the season.
No offense bro, but you're way carried away. "We" don't know any of that. Its all opinion, and frankly it's laughably uneducated opinion. Unless you're at practice and in the meeting rooms there's now way to credibly gauge any of what "we" supposedly know.
Which is why many of us are concerned when some Miami Dolphins players are reported by a credible source to be concerned about the Guard position.
We are better off than we were last year, on paper. Fox is ready to step in on either tackle spot, which obviously wasn't the case last year. None of that is true. So we should emulate.....the Bengals???!?!??!?! I don't think turner was ready last year. His injury set him back. I don't think Fox was ready last year. Other than that, I'm not real sure where people keep saying we don't play our best players.
The staff has been clear it wants the five best guys playing on the OL, that's led to some questionable position changes, Pouncey at guard/James at LT, but it's in keeping with the overall philosophy. It's a fairly simple thing to understand and yet the questions and second guessing remain.
In terms of roster building, the Benglas have a better recent track record than Miami does. What exactly was the reason Fox wasn't ready? He played well in the Denver game when James was hurt. He didn't overtake Dallas Thomas until later when Thomas got hurt. That's a coaching decision.
That's great, but still....the Bengals? Why not emulate half a dozen other teams? I don't know why Fox wasn't ready, none of us do, but I find it hard to believe that the entire staff just refused to play him. I'm not sure why we ALWAYS jump to "X is just stupid" when we don't have the info.
Its pretty good to have OG as the primary concern on offense, no? Not QB, OT, C, WR or OC, we're talking OG. A position that's about as important as kicker or punter in terms of winning games. I think this is a case of the tail wagging the dog.
I think what matters isn't what the primary concern is, but the severity of the concern. It doesn't matter if WR is your primary concern if we're talking about a backup WR (let's say in this hypothetical case you're set with your starters everywhere). The only serious concern most of us have about the starters is at OG, and at this stage the only way to remove it as a concern is Mathis, or we get lucky with the guys we have. I'd (and many of us would) just prefer to remove the uncertainty in all this.
As RoninFin4 pointed out, the big difference is they have (gulp) Dalton while we look like we got our franchise QB (as in.. we don't need to look for a replacement). So, in terms of the rest of the roster (outside QB), Bengals aren't a bad model. Either way, I like the direction Tannenbaum/Hickey are going, so I think we'll be fine.
Yes, the shuffling of the online last year was the worse job that I have ever seen in 49 years of Dolphins Football...all we had to do was put Fox at LT(yes,he was ready), put Pounce back at center, and Shelly Smith at RG and we would have had a much better online imho.
The players that made these comments are at practice and meeting rooms. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk
No, I'm not really. There's a long institutional tradition of this team putting itself in a bad position to rely on a mid-round linemen with bad or no track record to solve a starter position for more than a decade now. You can pretty much draw a straight line from what, Seth McKinney straight to Dallas Thomas. Those picks do not typically pan out. They do not typically pan out league-wide. It's the nature of talent acquisition in this business.People treat offensive line like it's some sort of metaphorical magic bean that has the potential unlike any other position else to sprout returns beyond your wildest dreams if you're patient and ignore the dubious nature of the whole endevour. I'll bet you a Club Level renewal that at the end of 2015 that our Guard play for averages out to a net -10.00 or worse at the end of the year on PFF. We're literally talking about a thread where people who are in both of those things are expressing their doubt.
I agree. Which is why I go looking for reasons as to why they didn't stick Fox at LT and keep James on the right side. The five best guys is something they've talked consistently. Maybe they wanted to see James at LT to see if he could handle it. I dunno. What I disagree w is the idea that the staff passed on the obvious solution out of incompetence. They most certainly had their reasons, even if they're not apparent to outsiders like us.
