So now that the draft is over and the team is furiously trying to get ready for the Tennessee Titans on 9/9/18. A few players that we need improvement from in order for the Fins to take the next step: Laremy Tunsil. He graded out as the 47th best OT in the NFL. That needs to be improved dramatically. He should be a top 10 tackle or we need to seriously consider moving him to OG. I will say its hard to evaluate any of the offensive players based on the way the whole offense sucked wind...but suffice to say Tunsil wasn't near good enough. If he's not better, and much better, we have a decision to make on him. Charles Harris. He has to make much more of an impact than he did last year. He looked great in shorts/shells, he works hard. That has to be manifested in production. He has a great (if not the best) example in C. Wake on how to be a professional. He will get improved coaching from last year. We need him to be difference maker at DE. Xavien Howard. Not near good enough last year. He needs to be a legit lock down corner, at least clearly the best CB on our team. He really wasn't. I think he can be. He should be. We have talent with him, Cordrea, Lippett, and McCain. IMO, Xavien should be the leader of that group. DeVante Parker. I have to admit, I am mostly over him--and by that I mean I'll be surprised if he is really good and I won't be shocked at all if he is hurt or sucks. (The standard caveat of the whole offense sucking applies.) But, it would be amazing and really a great thing for the Fins if this guy became a legit go-to WR that could be counted on to make big plays. Everyone of these players is first or second round picks. They should be producing. Adam Gase. This guy has to step up. Is he more Doug Pederson or Tony Sparano? Right now, its the latter. Stop making excuses, stop explaining what the hell went wrong, and be bold. If we are outside of our 35 yard line, and its 4th down and less than 5 yards, leave the offense on the field. Try to pull the Defense offsides and if you see the right matchup, go for it. If not, take the penalty. Maybe the defense uses a TO. Maybe you get a first down. I am just really sick of the Fins being an easy team to defeat and an easy team to prepare for. I guarantee you EVERY team that has us on the schedule (maybe not the Jets), is either counting it as a victory or a "trap" game. Expectations for Gase (not by Miami fans, but around the league) could not be any lower. Tremendous pressure on him and the Burke. We yielded 24 points per game last year and scored 17. If we discard the Baltimore game, we yielded 21 points per game and scored 19. That needs to be reversed. We need to yield not more than 20 and we need to be scoring 20. If we just do that, we'll see major improvements. I am a bit concerned about DT, but surely they know better than I do about what they need. I can't help them improve, I can just be one of the many voices in a chorus at the end of the season. Let's hope its a "happy tune" by all.
Nice thoughts! There is no doubt that the whole team and coaching staff needs to step up. Who will is another question. It all comes down to “ want to “. I am not surprised that our 2 highest underachievers ( Parker and Tunsil) are the ones with a lackadaisical attitude. They act like they’ve arrived, but in reality haven’t done ****!
Couldn't agree more on those two. I would be shocked if either of them is worth a damn, neither one of them seems to care...but all I can do is hope. And if not, next year we need to move on from both, or in LTs case, just move him to OG. He's a statue.
For the most part, I agree with everything you said- maybe with the exception of Parker. While your complaints are valid and he GROSSLY under-delivered the past few seasons, I think it's more a matter of "when" instead of "if". He has every possible trait to be a league-leading wide out and I'm fairly confident that even if we cut him after this season (or next season), someone would sign him quickly....and then someone else a few years later until he lives up to his potential. The other I disagree with you on is Harris- he played well for a rookie. In my opinion it's hard to judge the defense as a whole because we were missing so many pieces that it all looked like crap. With McDonald at LB though, McMillan returning to play in the middle and Misi on the other side (or possibly even one of our rookies), I think it changes the entire dynamic. Then you plug in Fitzpatrick and the potential starts to get exciting for big plays. In the secondary, we had Howard playing hurt so I think he halfway deserves a pass to redeem his 2016 form....him and Tank together are exciting though! We have so many fast, heavy hitters and there's so much potential for a great D. And Tunsil? As a former lineman myself, I know that everything I do is contingent on the play called. Only Cutler didn't know the plays so the guy was trying to learn the offense while the most important chess piece was clueless. That's super tough. I don't think he gets a pass but I do understand why he struggled.
Rubber hits the road on x, dvp, and Jordan Phillips this year. 2019 on laremy tunsil I don’t get why everyone is so down on tunsil anyways. Didn’t perform at a top 10 positional clip but wasn’t an eye sore either. Does need to find his left tackle feet.
I agree with your analysis Key...both sides of the ball were so discombobulated with the injuries, hurricanes, AWOL, etc, etc, it had to be hard for anyone to get their feet under them. I get it. And I am not one that hated the Harris pick, nor was I down on him last year. But everyone of these guys was a first or second round pick. They need to play like it.
He wasn't good last year. He was supposed to be a top LT prospect that "dropped" to us at 13...right now, it looks like a massive reach for us.
I think people are living in the first 6 weeks of the season when he was underperforming but to finish the season I thought he righted the ship. Top 15 worthy to close. What’s this stuff about cutler didn’t know the offense? Gase called what cutler knows and what at times would force him to stand in the pocket. Ie 3 step and shotgun. The hell if he was gonna stand in on 5 and 7 step.
Well, that comes from Gase saying in weeks 3, 4, 5 an 6, "When we're having to dumb down the playbook because people can't execute our plays or execute their assignments, it makes us a pretty one-dimensional team..." He said this DOZENS of times throughout the season.
Landry leaving will force Devante to step into the alpha role. If we get a healthy Tanehill, instead of a a bum in Cutler, the offense should be able to find a rhythm. I can't overstate how important consistency and rhythm is for an offense. And how equally important it is for the defense to catch a breather and not be playing from behind and on a short field. Don't forget how the Ajayi implosion stripped this offense of its identity. We've seen these folks show flashes, but the instability of the last 20 games has hamstrung everything that separates the thin nfl line between good and bad. Gase and the staff's job is to make the talent show up consistently and get in rhythm. The talent is there. Cutler is gone and Gase needs to synchronize the dance.
Cutler's biggest problem in 2017 is he simply refused to get hit. He wanted no part of if contact. This is why he was always backpedalling when throwing the ball. This is also why he was raved about in his first practices, he could step up in the pocket with no fear. Once the season stared? He rarely stepped up and stepped into a throw. In-short, Jay's biggest issue wasn't the offense, the surgery, the anything besides him being a pu--y.
theme of the 2017 season "limit the qb exposure". jay cutlers mindset the entire 2017 season "don't touch me"
I agree but he was also extremely inaccurate, which I guess could have been a product of this. I felt like there were easy plays left on the field. Even in the 2nd Patriots game where you could argue it was one of his bets games. With some routine execution we would have been discussing hanging a 40 burger on NE and not just beating them on Tuesday.
Actually made pretty good throws in that game. We had the running game going and Gase dialed up a brilliant game plan. Cutter wasn’t great but he certainly wasn’t bad when the running game was going.
I'd like to take this opportunity to remind the board to show Jay F.N. Cutler-Sucks III the respect he deserves by addressing him by his full name. I know it creates a lot more work to type Jay F.N. Cutler-Sucks III instead of ahole or slacker or whatever other nick name you would like to give Jay F.N. Cutler-Sucks III and then you have to click on the bold tab and use punctuation and stuff just to type Jay F.N. Cutler-Sucks III. But it's the least we can do. Really. I'm sure Jay F.N. Cutler-Sucks III will appreciate us doing the least we could do. If it makes it any easier you can just Ctrl C Jay F.N. Cutler-Sucks III after you've typed Jay F.N. Cutler-Sucks III the first time and then Ctrl V every time you want to use Jay F.N. Cutler-Sucks III name. But you still have to remember to turn off the Bold tab after you copy Jay F.N. Cutler-Sucks III . This has been a Puka-Head Public service announcement.
