I hadn't heard of Jason Jenkins but he seems to have been a HUGE behind the scenes guy and much loved by almost everyone.
This made me think back on Omar's "I talked to a defensive player who told me he was wasting his career playing for this guy" tweet.
Very interesting and very promising. If McDaniel does as well on Sundays as he’s done to this point, then the optimism is real this time. And we’ll start to find out in only nine days!!!
I would have none of them returning kicks. Not that special teams field position aren’t important, and a ST touchdown is electrifying, but I can’t help but think of Jason Sehorn as an example of why you don’t let your best players return kicks.
I cannot disparage anyone who thinks this way. Miami Dolphins have been over 20 years of disappointment. Almost every year has been getting nice socks for Christmas.
I'm seeing a lot of predictions of us finished 9-8 and would we be the first team ever to have 3 back to back (to back) seasons where we had winning records for all 3 years and no play-off appearances? I think if that was to be our record it would be a bitter pill because on the one hand, it means that despite us having a rookie head coach and massively changing our system, we still hadn't dropped off in terms of results but once again to be so close to breaking into the post season and yet still falling short would be a killer.
The predictions from the mainstream media are based on logic and tendencies, which doesn't always tell the full picture. For instance, our defense rated like 17th last year? But during those final months we were by far one of the best defenses in the league in most of vital statistics. We see how we ended where everyone else looks at the full year...and they're right to do so. It's just not common to see a defense that night and day in the same season. Likewise, the offense has been fully overhauled and on paper, we're one of the best in the league. But an observer is still going to look at last year and see we had one of the worst offenses in the NFL. Sure, we had that huge win streak with that sputtering offense...but why wasn't our #'s better? We know it's no line, WR's on IR, no run game, etc etc. The outside world can't consider that though and 9-8 seems pretty darn fair for an outsider looking in. However, we know A LOT that others don't know, and this team will have double digit wins. The way our defense swarms, the talent of our corners....this D is going to be incredible. And on offense, I think all the best teams can do is slow us down some and force Tua to beat them deep. This is going to be a FANTASTIC squad this year and I can't wait to see it all fall into place.
I think a lot of the national perception is based on media parroting things they read or heard, without necessarily checking it out themselves. Once something hits on a national level, it's hard to change how it's perceived by debunking it or even showing evidence to the contrary. For example: Every national network had a field day reacting to the duck that fell into Hill's hands early in training camp, but very few of them had as much excitement after tape of his bomb to Hill came out a few weeks later. Or the two other completed bombs in the same practice. There's less interest in him playing well than they are in laughing at his shortcomings. They've made up their minds about us. They take some of the skeptical stuff they read from Mando and Omar and run with it. The only thing that will change our perception is actually winning and controlling the narrative.