Quick late Sunday note: Agent Drew Rosenhaus, on his weekly segment on Channel 7's Sports Xtra, said there is "mutual interest and desire" between the Dolphins and free agent guard Evan Mathis. Rosenhaus said "we still have a long way to go" and "we'll see if it can work out." He said there are a lot of other interested teams. Mathis wants $5.5 million this season and the Dolphins are more inclined to pay less than half of that. http://miamiherald.typepad.com/spor...itching-manager-dolphins-canes-heat-buzz.html -- My question: why such a lowball offer for one of the best Guards in the game? His age doesn't bother me, 33 and he seems in excellent health. LG, RG, any G, let's get it done and sign him. That being said, Mathis and Rosenhaus are smart, they'll let this situation percolate for a while.
I'm not sure that time is on Mathis' and Rosenhaus' side here. Early on everybody was concerned about Douglas or Thomas filling that LG position. Now the general perception seems to be shifting to Douglas being okay there and RG being the main issue. Mathis doesn't solve RG for us and I don't think it's wise to try and shift Douglas around at this point. Sure there's a benefit to knowing that LG is locked down, but if Douglas is doing well then the amount of that benefit decreases. That would seem to make the team's willingness to pay go down rather than up.
At some point, for Mathis to be a starter, he's gonna have to be here sooner than later. I am not sure how much percolating and jockeying can happen. Maybe a different defensive front will go a long way. However, just how much first team reps will occur? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
How much does that have to do with the RG having to face Suh... and the LG not having to face Suh? Also, is Douglas looking "okay" at LG due to how he looks in comparison to how bad the RG position looks? Douglas seemed to get overwhelmed at times by rookie Jordan Phillips when I was at practice... and seemed to have trouble with his strength. To be fair... it was the first practice in pads, but I didn't leave confident in the LG position.
Evan Mathis can only play LG. Maybe it's because he isn't constantly going up against Suh, but Jamil Douglas seems to be doing fairly well there. He should only get better. It seems like the issue is RG and Mathis doesn't solve that. I'm interested to see how we do Thursday. The Bears DL isn't mammoth and we should be able to handle them (for a series or two).
I haven't been to practice so I'm going off of reports. But I'm hearing that Douglas is fine in the run game and only struggles in pass pro when he's slow to react. Philbin mentioned that Douglas needs to learn to ID things faster. That tracks with what you'd expect. Douglas is actually ridiculously strong, but can get bull rushed if he's off balance (like anyone). That usually happens when he's caught off guard and has to reach or has bad technique.
I still think Miami would be wise to see how Billy Turner looks against the Bears D-line before they make a move on Mathis. While no one on that front is as good, or ever will be as good, as Ndamkong Suh I don't think there's many slouches on paper. Eddie Goldman, Will Sutton, Jarvis Jenkins, Ego Ferguson, and Jay Ratliff. While they figure to be a 3-4 front, that's still a list of pretty decent competition they'll be going against. Same could be said for Jason Fox and gauging how he'll look. Their edge players are Pernell McPhee, Lamarr Houston, Jared Allen, and Willie Young. Young had several sacks against Miami in the regular season game last year. I think Pernell McPhee is pretty darn good as well.
lol I have a baby due in less than a week so I've been pretty busy to put together a full write up, lol. I keep trying to get it together, but have had trouble finding the time. It was from last Saturday...
I don't think it's too late to move Douglas to RG if we sign Mathis and need the help at RG. Our preseason schedule hasn't even started yet and, as I understand it, he has played some RG before and has gotten work there in camp. I see no reason to assume he can only play LG.
LOL! I have 2 pages of notes. I'll see if I can get some time in the next day or 2 to put it together...
He only played on the left side in college from my understanding. I do NOT want to move a rookie around. We made our choice for LG as his position... and IMO we need to stick with our decision and let it ride out. Moving a rookie around and not letting him focus and get comfortable at 1 position is a mistake IMO, and only derails his development. Plus... I honestly don't believe a rookie would look any better than Turner against Suh.
Nasty...since when is having a kid on the way an excuse...this is a team sport Bro...their is no I in team. Ok dont tell your wife I said that!...lol Congratz Brother! Enjoy every damn bit of it!
Also...might he look even better when the defense does not know exactly what play is being run, i.e. run or pass? During live game settings, our play calling can go a long ways to keeping a defense from pinning back their ears.
Douglas started all games last season(13) at Left tackle and left guard,Started started 13 games at left tackle in 2013,started 14 games at left guard in 2012 in 2011, Played in all 13 games as a reserve Not sure if he has ever played right guard and if he did it was quite some time ago I don't think it's a great idea moving people around from their natural playing position
I have been pushing for a Mathis signing for a long time, but now I'm not sure that signing solves our issue anymore, at least not our primary issue.
I disagree. If the LG spot can hold itself down with great reliability... then Pouncey can focus on just helping the RG. Turner can play with outside leverage on the DT, forcing him inside to where he has help from Pouncey. Covering up 1 guard spot via double teams, backs in protection, etc can be done. Having to try to offer help to both sides is impossible. And I don't think it is reasonable or realistic to expect Douglas to play on a Pro Bowl level as a rookie. Completely locking down that position allows us to design our blocking schemes around supplying help to the RG.
Possibly, but the benefit may be less than our original perception. I expect Douglas to be fine in the run game as he's strong and mobile and there's less of an adjustment there for rooks. They don't have to decide/think as much. It's more about physical ability. In that area the difference between Douglas and Mathis may be negligible. The pass game is the area of concern. The issue is mostly about experience as Douglas learns to react and adapt to things he hasn't seen much yet. Now the passing game is huge so I don't mean to minimize that. But that can be mitigated to a degree by play calling, help from backs, etc. And if vet McClendon can be adequate on the right then even Pouncey. Obviously there would be some benefit to having Mathis on the team, I'm just not sure how much that is. And there's an argument that there's a long-term detriment from adding Mathis as well. He could be a progress stopper for Douglas and he may reduce salary cap flexibility next year. That potential detriment is also an unknown. Last year and early on this year I saw the equation as easily favoring the signing of Mathis. Now? I think it's a much closer call.
It isn't that any other team hasn't matched or beat it...it's that no team has hit their "prime" number, which is probably something like $6.25M+ per year...and they know they hold all the cards to get at LEAST what he got last year. They've said from the jump they're in no hurry to sign, so that leads me to believe they think they're 100% in the driver's seat, and are holding out for the big payday.
We'll agree to disagree on this one. The issue of pass protection is a massive issue IMO... and more important than run blocking. If we are mitigating issues with Douglas in pass pro with play calling, help from backs, etc... then we can't do that with RG. That's the point. Sign Mathis so we don't have to dedicate those "help resources" to LG, and can instead use them towards the RG position since you can't do both. The idea that McClendon would be the answer to be adequate at RG to the point that he doesn't need help is a pipe dream IMO... as this guy wasn't even second string a week ago. And the idea of moving Pouncey to RG? Shoot me, lol. He wasn't very good last year at RG... and now we'd have to figure out how to fill the hole at Center again. No thanks. We have issues at both Guard positions. RG may be more of an issue than LG... but both have issues and both need help. While ideally... plugging in a great RG would be more impactful than plugging in a great LG... that isn't an option. So, plug up the LG spot and then focus all of your help to RG via the methods you described such as play calling, help from backs, etc.
How do you know this for sure? The OL is going up against possibly the best DL in the NFL and Douglas by all accounts looks okay.. Turner is still up in the air but, as stated before, signing Mathis wouldn't solve that. I'd rather play the waiting game, just like Mathis is, and hold on until at least after the first preseason game to get a bigger idea of how the guards will play against a different opponent. Ideally we'd want to wait until the Panthers game to make a better decision, but by then it may be too late. I think with two weeks of practice, a scrimmage, and a game against another team, the coaches have enough to correctly evaluate the OG position.
Time may not be on their side, but the circumstances aren't on our side either. That is a gaping hole we have inside. Gaping. And if you believe Mathis is the missing piece to make this offense special, don't you pay him 5 mil or close to it?
Know this for sure? I don't. However, I'm going of a pretty comfortable assumption (at least in my mind) that a rookie 4th round pick isn't going to light the world on fire in his rookie year... especially when we aren't able to provide him any help. Personally, I'd rather not gamble... bring in the surefire pro bowler... and be done with it. Bring Douglas along a little slower learning behind one of the better LG's in the league... and be set. We have a chance to do something special in a small window... so lets do it.
It's odd that people aren't cool with moving Jamil Douglas around from left to right but we lament how poorly Billy Turner is faring against Ndamukong Suh without batting an eyelash. Drew Rosenhaus is not an incompetent agent. He and Evan Mathis forced Philadelphia's hand when it came to releasing Evan. He was going to make $5.5 million in Philly this year. They wouldn't have done that if the market for Evan were really "less than half that". So yes, Miami is indeed giving them a lowball offer relative to where the market is on Evan. However, he hasn't signed with anyone yet because A) other teams' offers may be higher than Miami's but that doesn't mean they meet the $5.5 million demand, B) Evan and Drew may have Miami pegged as their destination and want to stare them down until they increase their offer, C) similar staredowns could be happening with a number of teams but we have tunnel vision thinking it's only Miami and Evan simply because Drew is Miami-based and so he is more visible down here. If Miami doesn't significantly increase their offer, don't expect Evan Mathis to be a Dolphin, IMO. And it's completely valid to bring up that while Evan would be an asset at left guard, right now the problem seems to be that the Dolphins have no natural right guards to man that position. Billy Turner was a college left tackle. Jamil Douglas was a college left tackle and left guard. Dallas Thomas was awful at right guard and also was a college left tackle and left guard. Jeff Linkenbach and Jacques McClendon are break in case of emergency options. This is an issue of poor planning in some ways.
To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if the real answer for getting the best out of everyone were to move Ja'Wuan James inside to right guard and have Billy Turner play right tackle. We've seen Turner play right tackle several times now, from Senior Bowl to preseason to regular season, and it wasn't half-bad. And I've always believed going back to college that Ja'Wuan could play right tackle or right guard, one as well as the other. The big problem right now is if you had Billy Turner playing left guard along with Jamil Douglas, suddenly you'd have Turner looking as good as Douglas if not better. But then you've got nobody to play right guard.
That's the point. They probably don't believe this. They probably think handcuffing ther team next season and possibly losing another key piece of the offense in the future wouldn't be worth it. Let's quantify this so that it's easier to understand. Let's say our team's overall rating is a 90 (out of 100) right now. Their line of thinking might be that with Mathis it's a 91 this season. That one point increment maybe isn't enough to justify paying a guard high-end money and losing someone like Miller or OV next season.
Do we know that Miami made a "low ball" offer? Mathis was due $5.5 M this year in Philly and $13.5M over the next 2 years. He pushed for his release because he feels he is worth closer to top 5 money which is north of $8M (his own words). Isn't it possible that Miami has offered $5.5 or even $6.0 M and he is sitting tight looking for more or did I miss something?
I will admit that I have less sympathy for Turner at RG than I would for moving Douglas right now b/c A) Turner has been there all offseason, and has prepared himself to play that position... and wouldn't be changing positions mid-stream, where as Douglas would be...... and B) Turner isn't a rookie. He's had a year of NFL conditioning/weight training, etc... as well as had a year in this offense. So, he isn't trying to learn the terminology, blocking schemes, playbook, etc in addition to learning a new position... where as all of that would be on Douglas' plate to switch to RG at this point. That said... I get that its still going to be extremely tough for Turner in his first full offseason at RG going against Suh and am not "not batting an eyelash" at that... and have openly wondered whether his performance against the best 3Tech in the league is skewing our perception. But, IMO if we get Mathis to solidify the LG... we can give Turner all the help he needs to make this transition.
I find it interesting that if Douglas is set as the LG that McClendon would be getting snaps with the 1st team yesterday at LG. http://www.miamidolphins.com/news/a...ortunity/569acb52-3722-467c-8333-b45aad686253
I don't even know if I want Mathis on this team... get the feeling this will end up being Clabo 2.0..
No one is going to sell me that this Oline is acceptable. It is ****. And if we get one injury to pouncey or albert, we are going to be ****ed.
Douglas hasn't locked down anything, Dallas Thomas was still getting some 1st team reps just this morning....ideally we sign Mathis to play LG, pray that some team out there lets go of a talented guard caught in a numbers game after cutdowns...and we scoop him up and roll the dice with him at RG...that should be enough to stabilize the line once Albert gets back. Right now Dallas T, Turner and Douglas should realistically be considered depth.
He has said that he has played right guard. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/...h-round-address-ol-issues-20150502-story.html Maybe that was in 2011. Not sure. He has also worked there this year in camp, sharing reps with the first team at both left and right guard.. http://espn.go.com/blog/miami-dolph...phins-guard-jamil-douglas-starting-a-big-goal That he has played more on the left doesn't mean it is his "natural" position or that he even has a "natural" position. For some guys the side matters and for others it doesn't seem to. I think the difference in the sides is less pronounced at guard than at tackle. Guys may be more comfortable on one side or another but I don't think I've ever heard of a guard who was good on one side but couldn't play on the other. He'd have a month to get ready on the right side and to compete with Turner and Thomas. Since he's gotten some work there already, he wouldn't be starting from scratch. If Mathis can solidify LG (which he should), we really just need one of those 3 guys to be not much worse than average at RG to have a potentially very good, if not great, OL. Worst case Douglas is a solid backup LG who can take over in 2-3 years when Mathis is 35-36. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
