Let's face it, with 5 games left, the health of our O-line is essential to any playoff berth. Please post all health updates on the Unicorns in this thread.
Tunsil should be back Vs Ravens. Albert....maybe. Pouncey doubtful. Arizona should be 4/5 back. Pouncey is the biggest/longest concern.
Yes. A certain local writer who shall not be named coined the nickname for our offensive line. All 5 playing together is beautiful and rare. Like a unicorn.
Not to criticise you, but as for the reference, unicorns aren't rare they're mythological. I think with a bit of effort the members of this forum can come up with a better reference. I mean, an offensive line... unicorns?
Here you go - if we want to get clever: Endangered or Vulnerable Dolphins: Ganges river dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica). Endangered species. Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris). Vulnerable species. Maui's Dolphin (Cephalorhynchus hectori maui). Critically endangered dolphin species. (Also world's smallest dolphin species). Even a Yeti/Abominable Snowman reference would be more serviceable. Unicorns....honestly. SMH
Offensive line is based on communication and working together. Just like friendship. As we know "friendship is magic." Unicorns work perfectly.
You must be a BLAST at parties. The nickname has been established for quite awhile. Just run with it.
It might have been a while but I hadn't seen it and I spend a decent amount of time on social media and reading articles. However long it's been around it doesn't mean it isn't a horrible reference. Surely a label that should either be very obvious or very clever. This one is neither. Ah, a quick Google search returned Mr. Kelly as the originator of the term. That's why I hadn't seen it. Whatever the case, I'll not be "running with it". It's rubbish.
I'm really embarassed but I didn't realize they were real until about two years ago, I took their "Unicorn of the Sea" nickname literally........
I like Kelly as well though I sure can understand why he turns a great many off. He is egotistical, arrogant and prone to bloviating. However, he gets a lot of good info and right or dead wrong he is usually in the thick of things. For the record, I like the Unicorn thing. It also really refers to Albert, Pouncey and James. The original stat he had was that when those 3 started and finished games the Dolphins were 7-1 and averaged something like 149 yards rushing per game. The rub was that stat went back 2+ seasons. Really pretty sickening when you think about it.
The thread title is perfect! Seems like all three guys are somewhere between 'questionable' to 'doubtful' to play this week. I'm going to be positive and assume we get two of the three back this week.
Miami is 10-1 when Albert, Pouncey and James start and finish a game. They average around 150 rushing And Tannehill has a 130 or so rating. Their only loss was to GB Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The unicorn line was originally a disparaging term. It was part of that debunked dialog claiming that Tannehill could never play well unless everything was perfect.
Ah yes, the infamous "Queasy Game". And yes they are 10-1 now with the Unicorns. Funny how when you have a a good line you get running lanes for your running backs and your QB actually has time to do his job and not be turned into a Pinata on the field. And all of a sudden everyone looks better. Just crazy how that works.
I understand the Vikings are down to 0/5 original starters on the OL...of course their offense has fallen apart too. I'm just wondering reasonable expectations are, both for how many OL starters are injured per line around the league and how well teams cope when O line do get hurt. Sometimes you read, "well, running back X had four turnstyles and his grandmother playing OL, and he still ran for 1500 yards." But I assume that doesn't happen too often. Does anyone know, for example in the rest of the AFC east, how many first string guys are playing OL on the other teams at this point in the season?
This is an excellent question. Are our o-line injuries normal or above-average? If we're experiencing the normal injury rate for an o-line, perhaps we've devoted too much salary to 5 guys and maybe we should have invested in quality backups with less high-priced starters.
I pulled this together from about 5 different sites because I was curious too- In our division alone, there are 9 linemen out hurt at the moment (including Albert and Tunsil). That's an average of 2.25 injured starters per team. Four of the linemen will definitely not return this season as well, meaning 5 of 9 aren't seriously injured. Here's the thing though- that stat does not show players who are injured and playing. As a former linemen, I would guess that almost every NFL lineman is banged up to some degree with sore joints, aching knees, etc. Linemen also seem to suffer more lost playing time due to minor injuries. A typical example is center Nick Martin of the Texans...he's missed most of the season over a high ankle sprain and is not expected to return this year. Because the position is so physical on every down, it does not make sense to play injured since the issue will keep lingering (or get worse). The average NFL lineman starts 14.2 games per season, which is on par with the skill positions (14.0 games per year for RB's and 14.5 games for QB's. WR's seem to play the least at 13.5 games.). Combine that across the entire starting line, and teams only have their starting five on the field 6.5 out of 16 games on average. So it's sort of like basketball....you really need that 6th man to complete a roster (which we seem to have in Steen). As we already know, Miami has not seen all five of our starters on the field six times per season in quite some time. So it looks like we are well above the league average in terms of linemen injuries.