[video=twitter;628570085289000960]https://twitter.com/chrisperk/status/628570085289000960[/video] I hope the next couple practices are better, I would've been disappointed if I was there today.
Wow, reading todays reports doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence in the offense. Especially the OL. Albert better be ready week 1 or we're in trouble. Really sounds like we need to be going all out for Mathis. I get that our DL is all world, but the other DL's in our division are pretty stout as well. We need to do something. It's early in camp still, but it's not looking good so far for the OL. Fox... I get his struggles, and Albert's return should fix that, but the guards aren't exactly sounding like they can be counted on at this point.
It's early, but doesn't this seem like an obvious and glaring hole that we all knew was staring us in the face? It basically went unaddressed by the front office which makes zero sense to me. Evan Mathis makes himself richer every day, at this point.
Disgustipate has mentioned this name several times, and I agree he might be a nice veteran fit, but Rob Sims is still out there I believe. You're probably not going to get more than a year out of him, but he'd be cheaper than Mathis. I think at this point you have to hope Douglas ends up starting.
This could work both ways.... Imo we have an exceptional DL, so they will either make other teams DL seem much easier, or their confidence will be completely destroyed. Hmm
every bad showing by the Oline has to at least minimally increase the Evan Mathis discussion, so maybe early on this is a good thing
Plus there are no leg pads. We arent cut blocking, the defense has advantage in these types of practices.
It's difficult to say without being there but I imagine that much of the work thus far is individual blocking (even during team drills) as that's usually the norm early in camp. In real games you would double team Suh rather than rely on a single blocker. So the struggles now may not be indicative of what we'll see later. Having said that, I've long been a proponent of bringing in Mathis. He wouldn't be facing Suh, but he hopefully would block the other DT one on one allowing Pouncey and whomever (Turner?) to double team Suh.
I expect that we'll only face one decent defensive line during preseason (other than our own), Carolina. Fortunately, we'll also have some practices against them so we'll get an extended look.
I think the fact that he is facing Suh is more reason for us to be concerned. I get it, Suh is in a league of his own. But some of the guys on the Jets and Bills' DL's aren't far behind guys like Suh, Wake, Vernon and Mitchel. That's 4 games of our 16 game schedule right there alone, being division games makes them that much more important to us. Suh is a great test for these guys, these guys on the OL are failing. Like I said, we all know Suh is best at his position, but 4 of our games alone this year will be against teams with DL's just as good as ours in whole. That's not even looking at the rest of our schedule yet for other matchups. That's a concern. It should be a big concern for the coaches, and the FO to be honest. It's showing they can't handle the upper DL talent in the league. You expect them to struggle, yes, but not this much. We have to play other very strong DL's this year, if it's a problem against our own, it's going to be a problem against those other top DL's too, those 4 games I've singled out are extremely important. Trying to keep in perspective, it's early. It's practice etc. etc. We all know that. I think there's a big cause for concern here though. We all knew it coming in, but it's really starting to show.
He wants close to 5.5mil, what he was due to make with philly. If it cost a few more mil to help plug our biggest hole I think it's worth it. We prob want to play him much less, rather sign him sooner than later.
Thats a complete shot in the dark. For all we know we could've overed 7mm and an immediate starter role, and hes waiting to use for leverage or doesn't want to go to Training Camp.
http://miami.cbslocal.com/audio/joe-rose-show/ Sorry if this has already been posted, and credit to Linus in Club, but if you scroll down, there's a good interview with Tannenbaum on the Joe Rose Show. Some interesting points in the whole bit.
IMO the top DTs in the league shouldn't be handled one on one by any G. That's why you pay them all that money. They cause a problem regardless of who you have. Even if we sign Mathis, I wouldn't expect him to handle Suh on his own. Obviously he plays on the other side, so he wouldn't be. The hope with Mathis is that he'd handle the lesser DT on his own and we'd be able to double team Suh.
THose 4 games vs dominant lines from Jets and Bills, if we win, it's likely to be 16-13 type of scores with the two defenses going off on the opposing offenses. I'm more worried about games vs teams like Baltimore - dominating defensive front to slow down our offense and much better offenses to outscore us.
The problem w/Evan Mathis really comes down to money. Miami has cap room to sign him obviously, but rolling the available cap space over into 2016 is critical when Tannehill's cap number is $11 million and Suh at $28 million. Signing Mathis is going "all in." Given that Miami has roughly a two year window ('15 and '16) to make something happen (as the roster and cap situation stands right now), it's probably worth it.
A few of my favorite pictures from today's training camp practice. That's what I'm talking about right there, staying after practice to work with the kid.
Notes about the Dolphins offensive line: 1. Jason Fox playing left tackle instead of Branden Albert 2. A rookie Day 3 pick starting at left guard 3. Dallas Thomas rotating with the 1's in his place at times 4. A second year player that played like 20 snaps a year ago starting at right guard Notes about the Dolphins defensive line: 1. One of the very best pass rushers the NFL has seen over the last ten years playing at left defensive end 2. One of the very best defensive tackles the NFL has seen over the last ten years playing left defensive tackle On what planet do we not expect the offensive line to look ugly, at this point? You know what would concern the hell out of me? Headlines that would scare me a F-CKLOAD more than the ones above: 1. "Second year neophyte Billy Turner consistently stoning the Dolphins new $100 million defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh." 2. "33 year old Cameron Wake having a difficult time generating pass rush in training camp, claims it will be different in real games." 3. "Earl Mitchell is not a pass rush threat. That's not his game." 4. "Olivier Vernon's agent is speaking with Mike Tannenbaum about potential eight-digit per year contract extension as veteran's minimum left tackle Jason Fox consistently gets the better of him in practice."
But, to me if it's a matter of sacrificing future (post 2016) years, I'm not for it. I would be, if we were an annual visitor to the playoffs, but I'd rather have long-term efficiency and stability over shooting for the moon in one or two seasons. They've been slowly building a solid, deep roster over the past few years...I'd hate to see it derailed by taking a 1-year shot. Then again, they could just make the moves necessary to maintain the nucleus of the team by trimming salaries and replacing "good" players with much cheaper options, and there wouldn't be any cap issues to worry about...so meh... I just don't want to see Tannehill get killed...that's Brady's job this year...if it takes Evan Mathis to prevent that from happening, you gotta pull the trigger.
[video=twitter;628681889868587008]https://twitter.com/MiamiDolphins/status/628681889868587008[/video]
OT but see it is possible to reply with quote even with a embedded tweet.. just saying. And yep, another body since Byrd went down I'm guessing.
He actually had a few nice plays last preseason, heck, maybe he can be even better without Lobato throwing it to him this time.
[video=twitter;628685824649867264]https://twitter.com/OmarKelly/status/628685824649867264[/video] Even though everyone has mixed feelings about the guy, myself included, when I lived in North Carolina I relied on the beat writers along with this forum to stay up to date with everything Dolphins. He's actually a pretty nice guy in person.
That's pretty much the point though , another week and this is still the same then we've got MULTIPLE issues ( again ) to deal with on the O Line . There is a substantial cost but there also is a plug and play solution to one of those concerns . If anyone thinks we can go into the season and play the season with those three significant question marks and feel we will be a playoff team and win in the playoffs , then we would disagree on that . 8 and 8 isn't 10 and 6 , and the former is what we've become and isn't what's needed nor expected this year imo . No true and bankable answers from within , we find a way to address the biggest area of concern imo . We should see in a week as I said , maybe 2 at the most.
were not scheming against them and they pretty much know what whether its run or pass...let them get their *** kicked for 6 weeks, it can only help them get ready.
without sheldon richardson they're not nearly as dominant, he was their best lineman..they have all tackles and no d-ends.
I talked a lot about jordan phillips body predraft, said that there was some misconceptions about it and that his gut was not indicative of his ratio and more just a hereditary thing..this pic tells me a lot, this is a very large man, look at the way he is built, he's bigger than Suh, and he really doesn't have a lot of fat on his frame.. this right here and what it represents is one of the best pics all years , Suh mentoring a young expensive asset..this is how he makes the salary worth it..very exciting if we get Phillips to play up to his potential.
i thought billy turner shed some light what is happening right now in his latest short interview after practice, the defense is putting in the blitz packages and bring a different one every play