"There’s a spirited debate within the organization about who should do what at this position, according to a source familiar with the situation. The coaching staff — namely Philbin and defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle — wants Koa Misi to remain the middle linebacker.Philbin said at the NFL owners meetings last week that “as of right now” Misi will play on the inside.
However, Tannenbaum’s personnel department is said to view Misi as a better fit on the outside, and wants Kelvin Sheppard — who re-signed with the team in recent weeks — to get a shot at the middle.
That conversation might continue through the spring and influence whom the team targets in the early rounds of next month’s draft."
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No real source or quotes there, might be just stirring, but if there is division in the Dolphins leadership that's never a good thing. It's the sort of thing that can seriously undermine any and all other work.
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Hey Tannenbaum, if you're so right all the time, then why don't you skip your happy *** down to the sidelines and coach this team huh?
Seriously though. Please. Pretty please?SICK, PhinFan1968, CashInFist and 3 others like this. -
"As of now" ....hmmm. That's solid. Like they're going to publicly announce their plans.
Piston Honda likes this. -
Sheppard is an interesting option, both for what he can do at MLB, and how that fits into the team's draft strategy. Add him to the list of young/unproven guys who may be asked to step into larger roles this season.
Then again, this is smoke screen season in the NFL.Sceeto likes this. -
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Sounds like once again we have a unified leadership crew running the team! These guys can't even agree on who should play where.
Based on how Philbin's crew have handled Jordan I'd say they may want to listen to Tannenbaum a little.CashInFist likes this. -
Seriously? Kevin Sheppard?
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Not sure this matters much, since Misi won't last the season anyway .... Need to draft a MLB day 2 ....
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If there's debate on these boards, I'm sure there's debate in the Dolphins building as well.
We all know that Koa Misi seemed to have been a more solid player during his initial years as an OLB but how much of last year's disappointing attempt at MLB was the result of (1) poor defensive line play, (2) having to take on more responsibility for the first time in awhile and (3) unexpected and long-lasting injuries. All of those things create uncertainty in the evaluation process. We're not able to rule out the possibility that a healthy Koa Misi (behind a revamped D-line) with some experience under his belt might be able to man the ILB spot quite nicely.
Again...there's plenty of room for debate.
What the coaches are doing with Misi is the same thing they tried with Pouncey. While Pouncey is more of a Center, it might be a net gain to play him slightly out of position if it allows for substantially better talent to get on the field. I think the OC-OG duo of Satele-Pouncey looked a lot better on paper than Pouncey-Thomas going into last year and thus the coaches gave it a shot.
I credit them for being flexible and trying to get the best guys on the field. Injuries to Pouncey also got the better of that experiment. At the same time, I blame them for comprising a position of strength by allowing another so near to it to become notably weak.
Moving Misi to the inside seems like a way for the Dolphins get McCain, Jordan and other young players more snaps. In that sense, it's a good thing and I can totally understand why the coaches are trying it out. Misi is a solid player, a high-character guy and certainly someone who deserves the chance to step up based on what he's done with the team.
However, there's really no doubt that in an ideal world Misi would remain outside and the Dolphins would draft the next Ray Lewis to play ILB.
How soon is that going to happen? I don't know. I'm not that excited about any of the ILB prospects in this draft to be honest. So assuming we don't land the next Luke Kuechly, it comes down to whether you want to see an OLB-ILB combo of McCain-Misi or Misi-Tripp/Sheppard. I kind of like the first to be honest because we don't know much about either Tripp or Sheppard and neither is likely to excel. Keeping Misi inside would allow McCain (and possibly Jordan) to play outside--both players I think we'd all like to see get more opportunities.
But like I said initially, there's a lot of room for debate here.VManis likes this. -
This is really striking me as a kind of situation where the front office(Tannenbaum) is trying to manipulate the coaching staff into doing something, and is presenting them with a false dilemma to try and get them to acquiesce to something else. They've done it with a lot of free agents and trades, I wouldn't surprise if they did it with Philbin and Coyle too.
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MrClean Inglourious Basterd Club Member
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http://www.nfl.com/player/kelvinsheppard/2495229/profile
Clearly, a player who has started in only 50% of his games in 4 years is something of a question mark. Those are not the numbers of a veteran starter, let alone a star ILB. He is not a proven success in the league and thus while he is a warm body and I'm sure the team has a scouting report on him, he is far from being an answer to the problem thus he remains a question mark.
Kelvin Sheppard is at most someone who can be preliminarily penciled in as a starter in the same way that Dallas Thomas can be. They might be answers and they might be JAGs...time will tell. -