The Dolphins will give their starters a little more game action before the preseason is over. Head coach Mike McDaniel said at a Thursday press conference that the team plans to play their first-stringers in Saturday night’s game against the Jaguars. The duration of their time on the field has not been determined at this point. The two teams are going to have a joint practice on Thursday and McDaniel said that he will meet with the team’s coaches to come up with a plan for playing time after that session. Once the Dolphins wrap up their game with Jacksonville, they’ll turn their attention to making their final cuts and then move on to preparing for Daniel Jones and the Colts in Week, 1.
With all of the guys who are dinged, I would imagine that a lot of them aren't in there regardless. Tyreek, Achane, Wright, and Jackson on offense, for sure. I'm really most interested to see how Ewers looks passing the ball to guys who will actually be on the 53 man roster as the backup.
Wright vs. Gordon for me. Just feels like Wright hasn't seized a clear second RB role and Gordon may get a big chunk of carries, especially if Achane misses time in the first week or two.
With the reduction in the number of preseason games from 6 to 4 and now to 3, it does pose a dilemma in determining who should and who should and shouldn’t play. During the days of 6 preseason games, as the preseason progressed, the starters played longer with each progressive game, typically with the starts playing close to 3 quarters in the final preseason game. The final fine tuning before the start of the 14 game season. Now with there only being 3 preseason games…and that are no longer progressive roster cuts during the preseason, what strategy should a team use? My opinion is the starters need more playing time to hone their skills, schemes, timing, etc. The general philosophy of “resting” starters may have merit, I can’t see the need for “rest” when they haven’t really played to begin with, barring those with injuries of course. The Dolphins are plagued as a hot weather team; that we can’t win in the cold and while that is historically accurate, it’s in the Dolphins best interest to come out strong and win as many games as possible from the very start and if the starters haven’t worked out all of their kinks by opening day, we’re going to have losses when we should have wins. This is why I feel the starters should play.
Big game for Jonah S. So far he doesn’t look ready to start. Which is not the end of the world. it’s not what people want to hear. But he is a rookie and sometimes patience can go a long way with young players. Paul was basically red shirted his rookie year and that appears to be paying dividends! Austin Jackson was a young player who struggled his rookie year (maybe should have been red shirted), but figured it out in the longterm. Hopefully this is the Ollie Gordon game.
Not thrilled with the offense. I know Borom is terrible but that was an ugly performance despite the one touchdown. Ollie Gordon could be getting the majority of the carries Week 1 if Achane is on some sort of pitch count. I Like the way he runs. The Dolphins front seven has the potential to be the best in the whole damn league. BUT, they still can't tackle in the open field. So many missed tackles.
The few guys that they were missing on D make a huge difference. Its a very different vibe and energy without Seiler, Grant and Brooks. From what I've read, Achane is fine and would have played if it were the regular season. We really have to cross our fingers for Jackson though.
The calf itself isn't a huge concern, but lately it seems to be a potential precursor to achilles issues. Hopefully not. I don't think McDaniel has a set 1-2-3 etc rank at RB, but I think Gordon is earning himself a strong role between his play and the injury to Mattison and the injury and mediocre play of Wright. The OL is worrisome. Shocking, I know. The OL depth and overall secondary woes will hold this team back. I know some folks are saying we can still compete for playoff wins ... not sure I see it. But I still maintain we should not be a bottom tier team like some media narratives portray. Interested to see what the cuts and late additions look like.
Everyone complains about Wright, but he's been almost continuously put into bad situations, both when he was rarely given a shot last regular season and so far this Preseason. The defense is stacked and keyed against him, stopping the play usually before he has any chance to do anything about it. I've theorized if that's because there's some tell just by him being in the game that they believe its a run and act accordingly. Either way, he needs a lot more opprotunity for entire drives with the starting offense before I think its fair to say anything negative.
