With less than a week left I thought it may be fun to post some season previews that I've written up and have some feedback on them: Less than a week until kick off and the 53 man roster is more or less set with no real surprises, Donald Thomas recovered from his pectoral injury and our starters made it through the preseason healthy, so to take a look at the 2009 version of the Dolphins unit by unit, beginning with Special Teams: Kicker Dan Carpenter set a rookie record for accuracy in 2008 with a one point 14 consecutive made field goals, that impressed Coach Sparano so much that he brought in Conner Barth to compete with Carpenter after an inconsistent training camp. Punter Brandon "Jamie" Fields, a average punter, Fields ranked 9th in the AFC last season in Avg, Fields has shown improvement every year, but in no sense can be considered a strength on the ST unit. Devone Bess is back on punt return duties, a solid, dependable return man, Bess is not likely to fumble but he also not likely to score a TD, he was in the top 8 in ypa last season. Ted Ginn or Patrick Cobbs are the kick returners, Ginn, a pro bowl alternate kick returner in 07, had an abysmal 2008 campaign returning kicks, Cobbs, lacking Ginn's flash, is solid return man in the mold of the Redskins Rock Cartwright, Long Snapper is John Denny, who is solid..mostly, but also is prone to mental errors on coverages, but does his core job well. Gunners Jason Allen and Nate Jones or Chris Clemons. Jason Allen was tied for first in Special Teams tackles, Allen also has a knack for downing the ball inside the 5 yd line with 3 such plays last season, Jones is average and Clemons is as fast as Allen but is a unknown as a Gunner. The Special Teams Unit was basically the worst in the NFL last season and has trended moving backwards in efficiency since 2007's 23rd ranking, on a whole the Dolphins Unit finished 30th last season and showed little signs of improving in the preseason. The Dolphins "lost" 150 yds per game on special teams last season in field position given up on returns, and in failure to create yardage in returns as well as in penalties, one of the keys to the Dolphins season is to be found in the improvement of this unit, "if" Jason Allen, Devone Bess and Patrick Cobbs show growth in their roles, improvement is sure to come, if they do not, the Dolphins will make the hill to winning that much steeper to climb. In my view, Special Teams Coach Bonamego is on the hot seat this year, he ran top 10 St units while in Jacksonville, so he does have a good track record, but in Miami under Sparano, that is not good enough, performance is demanded of the players and Coaches..
Couldn't agree more. The STs have underperformed for several years. While Bonomego hasn't been there the entire time they've been mediocre, he hasn't improved them either. Sparano is such a stickler on play counts, that using a starting guy for returns is something he dislikes doing immensely. But, we just don't have much of a choice except for using Bess and Ginn. Has Jason Allen ever been looked at as a returner ?? I can't recall one way or the other. He did some returns in college, but only as a backup to the regular guys they had... I don't know...we have issues with the return teams as the returners are just average to say the least and with the coverage teams as they tend to give up big returns as well... At least the K and P are at least better than average, neither great but adequate...
And that is one of the problems, the best ST guys could also be Starters and Sparano philosophically does not like using them on ST, in his view ST is more of a minor leagues were future starters play while learning our Systems. And JA has not been looked at as a returner simply because they probably do not trust his decision making with the ball in his hands.. Well, the possible good news is that our ''core" St players are young and have upside, Walden, Allen, Haynos, Fields and Carpenter can improve. Which brings up a sticking point for me, imho we should either put Ginn on Kick offs, or put Cobbs on kick offs, I don't like the idea of alternating them unless there is some sort of advantage in doing so. Cobbs has good potential on kick returns, for a guy who ran a 4.7 at his tryout he certainly does have explosion and good vision, but Ginn offers that home run threat and imho, Ginn can redeem some things if he excelled at returns...
He is also our backup OLB...Sparano leaves no stone unturned... For whatever reason, I've called Brandon Fields Jaime Fields for 3 yrs now.
