After the playoff loss to the Ravens, an unhappy Tony Sparano bluntly said we needed to get bigger and stronger. Well, true to form, this regime has gone out and done what they promised this offseason. Have a look. Center Signed - Jake Grove C 6-4 300 Replaced - Samson Satele C 6-3 300 He's not bigger than Samson, but known to be more powerful. Cornerback Signed - Eric Green CB 5-11 196 Drafted - Vontae Davis CB 5'11" 203 Drafted - Sean Smith CB 6'4" 214 Replaced - Andre Goodman CB 5-10 190 Vontae's known as good tackler/hitter and is more powerful and physically intense than Goodman. Sean Smith is just a size/speed combination freak at corner at that height and weight. Even the less ballyhooed Eric Green has five pounds and an inch on Goodman. We got *much* bigger across the board here, in order to deal with the Randy Moss' and Terrell Owens of the AFC East, plus support the run. Safety Signed - Gibril Wilson 6-0 210 Drafted - Chris Clemons 6'0" 208 Replaced - Renaldo Hill 5-11 205 Much more of a hitter with more power than Renaldo Hill. Gibril also has an inch and five pounds on him. Clemons has similar size. We've gotten bigger and more physical at the back end. Offensive Tackle Signed - Joe Berger OT 6-5 310 Drafted - Andrew Gardner OT 6'7" 304 Not an upgrade on the size nor strength of either Jake Long (6-7, 310) or Vernon Carey (6-5 350). This is one area that did not need a size upgrade. Wide Receiver Drafted - Patrick Turner 6'5" 223 Drafted - Brian Hartline 6'2" 195 Upgrading- Undersized starting receivers Despite having Ernest Wilford (6-4 225) and Brandon London (6-4 210) on the roster, they combined for a total of 6 catches and 0 TDs last season. Fact is, the receivers who DID see the field were Greg Camarillo (6-1 190), Ted Ginn (5-11 180_, and Davone Bess (5-10 190) are all small guys. This team is trying to get bigger players on the field to produce. We need size for redzone touchdowns, and to run block in our power running game. Turner and Hartline )especially Turner) add two guys with size who have a chance to see the field. I'm sure the regime is hoping to see their investment in Ernest Wilford return something this year if he returns to form and can crack the starting line-up. Between Wilford, London and Turner, we should have one large receiver step up. hartline is a nice complement and his roster spot probably depends on competing with Brandon London for special teams contributions. Turner and Hartline may help push london or Wilford to produce. Either way, SOMEONE with some size should win a starting role out of these four. Tight End Drafted - John Nalbone 6'4" 251 This is the one position where we already have more size than we acquired. Fasano is 6'4" 255, David Martin is 6-4 265, and Joey Haynos is 6-7 265. Nalbone is a developmental guy, however, who will have a couple of offseasons to add bulk. He'll probably end up playing at 255-260lbs in 2010. Not an upgrade in size here. LB Signed - Cameron Wake 6'3' 267lbs (per Rotoworld) Drafted - JD Folsom 6-3 230lbs Wake is a good-sized, explosive OLB who adds some more size to the LB corps. Folsom is undersized, and will only make this team if he contributes well on kickoff and punt coverage units, in my opinion. I'm surprised by his signing, quite frankly, at his size. Summary Overall the trend is clear, we are getting bigger at most positions. We are also replacing less physical players with ones who are bigger hitters or more powerful blockers. Functional strength and power, plus a physically aggressive mentality is replacing the less physical players. Teams who play us next year are in for a long day indeed. [NOTE - We will still be signing several more free agents. I will try to update this as that happens.]
Thank you for this post -- you've really put things in plain "black and white" for everyone to see the pattern here. Great post!
Yeah we really beefed up. Our offense especially got really muscular. We just drafted a power passing game. Physically I can't wait to see how our offense plays against division rival defenses.
Good observation Bpk, definitely a plan there. Maybe Folsom is a physical player who they thought his play on the field made up for his size. I doubt they picked him just because he was there, he must have been on their board. You didn't mention Pat White but he was picked because of his skill set abilities and his intellegence. I honestly feel like he was specfically targeted because of what he offered the team, being out of the Michael Vick mold. Maybe he is not quite as big as Vick and doesn't have an arm as strong as Vicks but he is more accurate than Vick, more consistant than Vick and smarter than Vick. His arm is nothing to laugh at though because the report from the combine was that he was the best QB there and was throwing his passes further than the other QBs. He was also said to be the best QB at the Senior Bowl. I was pessamistic of the White pick until I did some research on him. Who cares if Ireland picked a QB in the second round two years in a row if he adds another weapon to the Dolphins?
The other thing with White is his coaach called him the greatest WINNER he has ever seen. White also won all four of his bowl games, which is apparently an NCAA first. Finally, Jeff Ireland said, a couple of years ago, that one of things he cares about most in a Quarterback is how much of a winner they are, and how many comebacks they've had when behind. He cited Henne being appealing because of how many times he had led his team from behind. That was a big factor in evaluating Chad Henne. Well, Pat White is the ultimate "Winner", which I am sure was a huge factor for Ireland in his decision to draft Pat.
Great post. I think we also got Faster at DB. Clemmons ran a 4.33 40, And CB's Davis and Smith are faster than Goodman.
Yeah, Clemons especially has an amazing size and speed combination!!! How did he slide that far? He must have no instincts whatsoever. lol. We'll teach him.
Coaches just need to work on better establishing Clemons's initial reads as he can get caught up inside, causing him to occasionally lose his safety help deep. This definitely isn't a frequent occurance, but it will be exploited more often at the next level. Once they can get him consistently taking a better first step, he should start to really shine. Outside of that, once the play has taken form.... his instincts and flow to the ball are tremendous and he capitalizes on virtually every opportunity to make a play. In optimistic comparison, I believe Louis Delmas was beat deep more often than Clemons over the past 3 years.
So he has slow recognition. That can be solved with a TON of hard film study and coaching. HOpe he likes learning.
For the kid who slept with a football tucked in his arms, he shouldn't have a problem with it after he gets beat a few times in practice.....especially if he can have fellow Tiger, Brian Dawkins, as a mentor. LOL.
