During an appearance on a team podcast, Gase pointed to a high ankle sprain as part of the reason why it didn’t come together for Parker last year and to Parker’s experience as a reason for why it can come together this year. “This is his fourth season,” Gase said. “Sometimes it takes a second to be like ‘OK I know how to do this. And I’ve been doing it. And I don’t need someone to tell me I need to do this.’ He is doing things on his own. And trying to find ways to get better on the field. I think he has more of a purpose when he comes out on the practice field.” While Gase believes Parker doesn’t need anyone to tell him how to play receiver, he also said he thinks the presence of Danny Amendola will be a positive as they work together in the months to come. If that doesn’t lead to a leap in productivity, it will be harder to keep selling the idea that one is right around the corner.
Parker is legit. Some of the criticism directed his way has been warranted, most has not. Look forward to seeing him and Tannehill connect again this coming season.
Parker needs to be motivated. We’ve heard some negative things about his ability to fight through nagging injuries, let alone something that is extremely painful like a high ankle sprain. Parker’s got All Pro traits, I just need to see him be more engaged. But Gase as he likes to do, has blown a barrage of sunshine up his teams ***. Loves his roster, Parker just had a lot of bad luck, I love my back up QBs etc etc. Told myself I won’t fall into the off-season hype train not will I. However Id love to change my mind the first week in September. Until then? Gonna have to see it to believe it.
I think he can be legit....and I want him to be legit....but in my opinion he hasn't fully shown us that yet. A part of that though has been 17 trillion screen passes to Landry, which has overshadowed a lot of what Stills, Grant, Parker, Carroo and others have to offer.
I don't know if he is too legit to quit, however, I do think he is a good player who people have been way too hard on. Yes, he hasn't lived up to expectations, however, people treat him like he has been horrible.
Parker gets such a raw deal from the fanbase. They call him soft, and then when he tries to play through pain they call him a failure. You can't have it both ways. Most players can't be invincible. Just about everything went wrong from his perspective last season, between losing RT, having no chemistry with Cutler, and being mostly ignored by Moore (who zeroed in on Stills usually), and then the injury, along with the million worthless screen passes to Landry. If Parker and Tannehill are both healthy this season, I see no reason not to expect him to have one of the better seasons we've seen from a Miami WR in some time. Taking into account that the ball will be spread around a lot, no one should expect 100 catches or 1500 yards, but the production and efficiency should both go up. Until then, a few notes about Parker that I worked up recently. I was going to make my own post, but this is a good time to share. I tried to pick some very reasonable numbers as goals for the coming season: -DeVante Parker has 139 career receptions, putting him 33rd in team history, one behind Mike Wallace and Tony Paige. -With 61 receptions this season, he would become the 18th Dolphin to catch 200 passes in his career, and would move ahead of Irving Fryar who has 199. -He has 1908 career receiving yards, good for 24th in team history. -With 719 yards this season, he would move into 18th place in team history, just ahead of Marty Booker. -He has the 8th most receptions and rec yards for players in their first three years in the league after being drafted by Miami. -He would need 54 receptions this coming season to have more than OJ McDuffie through four seasons, which would put him 7th on that list. -Should he catch 70 passes this season, that would tie him with Mark Clayton for 5th most through four seasons, behind Landry, Bess, Chambers and McMichael. -Before playing a game in year four, he already has the 12th most rec yards through a player’s fist four years in the league with Miami. - He would need 549 yards this season to move into 8th place after four seasons, and with 793 yards he would move into 6th place on that list. 1069 yards would move him up to third on the list. I think that part of the poor perception for Parker is also his under use in nationally televised games. In the nine combined prime time and London games that he has played in, he has only 26 catches, for 304 yards and zero TDs. For fans who tune into those games and not the Sunday 1pm starts, that's what they see and it sticks with them. In 1pm and 4pm starts, he has 113 catches, for 1604 yards, 14.19 YPC and 8 TDs. In 16 games vs AFC East Opponents, Parker has 60 receptions, for 787 yards, 13.12 YPC and 4 TD. When targeted on first down, Parker has 55 catches, 850 yards, 15.50 YPC and 4 TD, while converting 33 first downs.
Parker and tunsil havent been completely terrible, but they definitely have not lived up to their draft status either. Parker had too many dropped passes last year and he had trouble getting opened when it mattered. He lost more than he won on contrsted catches and he is contantly dealing with some type of injury or the other. Tunsil last year gave up multiple sacks, he gets beat way too much and while his run blocking has been good his pass blocking has been quite dissapointing.
Prove it. I'm scouring through some final views on the late games in the season and have come across evidence that proves otherwise and also puts blame squarely on Cutler. I'll post it in a bit. Where's your evidence? Any specific instances you can recall? We messed up Tunsil's progression by kicking him inside to guard for his rookie year, and basically had his second season learning as a rookie again at LT. There were no red flags for Tunsil, simply a natural learning curve living life solo on the edge vs the league's best pass rushers.
Here's a glaring one. I've been watching wk 15 at Buffalo. 3&7. Parker takes the given inside leverage, the FS is also rotating hard to the boundary post snap and the CB turns his hips upfield which alerts Parker to sit and does so after the first down marker. Should have been an easy pitch & catch to the curl for a 1st but Cutler slings an errant overthrow.
They certainly had OFF years, however Tunsil's was to be kind of expected. He was a rookie LT by all accounts. We should expect a much better year out him in year 2 at the position. Parker had some nagging injuries, and we heard from a very reliable source that he doesn't play well with nagging injuries. Couple that with the meltdown he had after his GF was blowing another guy......and you get a disengaged, low effort, head is elsewhere kind of a player. I dont consider Parker to be a bust by any means. I consider him on probation. If that guy can stay healthy and focused? He has top 10 WR potential. When Cutler said a faster Alshon Jeffery....he was right.
After listening to Gase talk about Parker on the Audible, I feel much better about Parker and where he is at.
A starter is a starter, regardless of which round they were picked. Fans have this disillusion that 1st rd players should be all-pros, 2nd should be pro bowlers, 3rd . . ., 4th . . . 5th a backup, and so on. Some crap lie that, IDK. But that's not how it works, never has that been the case. One should view drafting players in the following manner. 1. starter 2. potential starter 3. backup 4. roster player 5. will not make team That's the correct breakdown for analyzing draft picks. Anything else, and other accolades, are just icing on the cake.
The criticism of Tunsil really confuses me. He was switched between positions often as a rookie and 2nd year player. He was surrounded by mostly crap. Pouncey, the guy supposed to be making the calls for the o-line, never practiced. Tunsil has basically been a lone barge floating around with no guidance. I think once he gets anchored into his natural LT spot, and the rest of the o-line gets some consistency and practices together, he'll be really good. As to Parker, I'm not ready to give up on him, but he needs to take a page out of Landry's playbook and play with some passion. I'm not saying get into fights or create stupid penalties, I'm saying be more physical. And Key is exactly right, we started to see those types of things before RT went down. Also, his label of injury prone has been way overblown. He hasn't really missed many more games than most other starting WR's in this league. I'm excited to see what he can finally do with a healthy RT.
I don't really get why so many people keep trying to peg Parker into this role where he has to be more physical and assertive with his play. Why does he need to be the next Michael Irvin or Brandon Marshall? It just doesn't seem like that's who he is. Instead of trying to force a square peg into a round hole, why not see him as the next Reggie Wayne, or Demaryius Thomas, or Greg Jennings?
That's the thing- in year one, he had Albert to mentor him and help with play calling at guard. He had a solid year but then you move him in year 2, his mentor is gone and Pouncey is not at practice......so there's a revolving door and nobody to really help the kid excel. Throw in the hurricane, the crazy travel and all the shortened/missed practices and I personally think Tunsil had a very good year. Now that he has another veteran at guard in the huddle for year three, I think Tunsil will have a dominant year. People think it's easy to learn an NFL playbook for guard and then just switch to any other position but it's not- everything changes in the responsibilities and protections. It like moving from RB to WR...guys can do it, but there's hundreds of little things they need to learn on the fly. And Tunsil just didn't have that leader in the huddle to guide him last year.
Except when you take players in the first round, you should be able to expect more than we've gotten from Tunsil and Parker. As for Parker being out of his mind because his GF cheated...dude, grow the hell up. Either get a good girl, get single, or deal with it. He has a chance this year to get a contract in high 7 figures...if you are going to let some **** "blow" that, then maybe he's not smart enough to be on this team.
Except he's not EVEN CLOSE to any of those guys. He's probably the fourth best WR on our team. I know the coaches are going to say "just wait, hes gonna do this and that"....blah, blah, blah. Hes been in the league now long enough to show something. I hope for the best with him, but I am not at all optimistic. I'll be thrilled to be wrong about him.
Yep. Cutler couldn’t throw it in the ocean to dvp. Make sure you get that gif of the quick slant hot I think it was but maybe not where dvp murdered the cover player off the los and cutler threw bailing out mind you for no damn reason off 3 step behind him. A walk in 50 yard td. When I saw that missed opportunity I about broke ****. There was another game we caught I think it was buffalo in a blitz and we called a tunnel screen with dvp I think it was that also would have walked in but cutlers throw took him in the air to have to high point it and as a result instead of leading him like it should have the trail db wrapped him up pretty much at the los. So damn frustrating. If cutler threw 5 proper shoulder or lead for rac screens or behind the los throws I’d be surprised. The most accurate deep/vertical ball thrown all year to dvp was a back shoulder from fales. Hell that was the best vertical throw period by a qb in 2017. Key for parker is opening hips. So the way he looks in his vertical stem is a big deal for him. He’s out of a cannon coming out of speed cuts.
D. Thomas's first three seasons in the NFL: 2010: 2 starts, 22 receptions, 283 yards, 2 TD 2011: 5 starts, 32 receptions, 551 yards, 4 TD ***Broncos sign Peyton Manning*** 2012: 16 starts, 94 receptions, 1434 yards, 10 TD Reggie Wayne's first three seasons in the NFL (All with Peyton Manning) 2001: 9 starts, 27 receptions, 345 yards, 0 TD 2002: 7 starts, 49 receptions, 716 yards, 4 TD 2003: 16 starts, 68 receptions, 838 yards, 7 TD Greg Jennings's first three seasons in the NFL (With either Bret Favre or Aaron Rodgers) 2006: 11 starts, 45 receptions, 632 yards, 3 TD 2007: 13 starts, 53 receptions, 920 yards, 12 TD 2008: 15 starts, 80 receptions, 1292 yards, 9 TD DeVante Parker's first three seasons int he NFL: 2015: 4 starts, 26 receptions, 494 yards, 3 TD 2016: 8 starts, 56 receptions, 744 yards, 4 TD 2017: 12 starts, 57 receptions, 670 yards, 1 TD So, as you can see, Parker's first and second seasons weren't all that different from the guys I mentioned before. In some ways better. Heck, his third season wasn't dramatically worse than Wayne's. His problem, along with the high ankle sprain he suffered when being demolished by a LB running full speed, is that instead of a HOFer throwing him the ball he had to deal with Cutler and Moore. Quite often, WRs take the big jump in year three, and everything around Parker went haywire last season. We'll see if he can adjust and take the next step in 2018, but to write him off at this point is just wrong.
Writing him off would be wrong. However these types of samples need context. Fact is the majority of guys who start off like some those guys did? Fail. Parker has a great chance to rebound, let’s hope he does so we don’t have to blame someone other than him next season.
I was researching something similar the other day and I found 7 or 8 of all first round picks aren't on the same team three years later. We like to think of 1st rounders as guaranteed locks but they just aren't- for every two or three Jake Longs, you get a Dion Jordan. I bring up Jordan because I still look at the guy and see someone who should DOMINATE in JT-like fashion....but he kept shooting himself in the foot. Tunsil was pretty good at guard in 2016 so it's kind of hard to fault him there (by the way, Sitton was 7th in 2016 and 6th in 2017, Incognito was 9th and 8th). And you're right, he was worse at tackle in 2017 but name one piece on the offense that actually stood out. Landry's 104 catches? That's 7 catches per game for 60 total yards and 0.6 TD's on average....whoop-tee-freaking-do. That's just not enough by itself to have a functional offense and you'd be really hard pressed to say Tunsil was a major part of that. I agree with you on Parker but at the same time, I almost put him in that Dion Jordan category all over again because it's been all off-field stuff slowing him down. A pro athlete shouldn't have to be told to eat well, stretch and get enough rest. Okay, maybe in year one...but four years in? I think he knows that this is his make or break year. Side note- the part that pisses me off the most about Jordan and Parker is that they'll both end up as 10-year NFL veterans whether they stay in Miami or not. They're both freak athletes though and worth a chance on with a low-dollar deal.
He fits my definition of "good", the problem is that he hasn't been great. I wouidn't be surprised he if upped his game significantly. just unfortunate that it's in his contract year.
Parker is a legit talent but putting his pesky injury history aside he has never shown it. I think he is lazy and a bit of a wuss. I so want this guy to live up to his talent and be the guy but at this point I'm just tired of hearing about him. He needs to show it on the field consistently or get gone.
Alshon Jeffery/AJ Green (he's been compared to AJ Green, but I don't see it, I saw more of an Alshon when drafted)
I would agree with this if we were a consistent contender. When we are consistently a bad team it means some/most of our starters are bad. Parker the way he has played would not be a #1 or even challenge being a #1 on most good teams. He needs to step it up, and if he doesn't then I suspect he will be playing for another team in the future, and all we will have is bad memories and a wasted draft pick.
