I prefer Squidward at De over Odrick, hope he makes the most of his opportunities as his athleticism is outstanding.

Dude is running 4.6's and has all of the tools to be great imo.

This to me is the stark difference between a Parcellian and an Ireland/Philbin player, Odie v Vernon.

1 was a 3 yr starter at a big 10 school and won defensive player of the year, the other left a year early after a down year and a shoulder injury.

 

His ankle flexion Deej, is Wake like, good motor, he has to work on his first step quickness.

This is where Wake can help him out a lot, no one comes out of the blocks faster then the Kraken.

 

Odrick was a solid DT in college. He, Soliai and Starks make for a promising inside group. We all know Wake can bring heat both standing up or with a hand in the dirt. Whether or not OV, Jordan, Shelby and/or Kaddu can bring it from the other side is yet to be determined. Looks like a pretty solid DL.

It looks to me like Egnew is trimming down to Brandon Marshall size. From the pictures I've seen I'd be very surprised if he weighs much over 240 right now. I wonder how much faster he is minus the 15 lbs?

For me, Jonathan Martin and RB are the biggest question marks with Ellerbe and Wheeler coming in a close 3rd.

 

Wasn't the knock on Egnew that he wasn't physical enough? How does losing weight make him a better player if he was pushed around at a bigger size?
Sure less weight will make him faster but that won't make him more physical or smarter which I heard was another knock.

 

I think in the end it may end up being a schematic preference at DE that Kevin Coyle has. If you look at Cincinnati, they've always had a bigger DE opposite their pass-rusher; Antwan Odom, Robert Geathers, and Carlos Dunlap being the last three. I think they might prefer what Odrick brings there from a schematic standpoint as opposed to Vernon, at least right now. Odrick's a bigger guy and is more stout against the run.

Vernon strikes me as the player Cincinnati used when they had Jonathan Fanene and now with Wallace Gilberry. OV is a sub-package specialist who is good against the run and can do something things as a pass-rusher. He can occupy blockers to try and give Wake better matchups. And now, if you've got him opposite Wake and Dion Jordan coming off his outside shoulder, that presents a problem for the offense.

Just food for thought here, but if Randy Starks wasn't sitting out, does Olivier Vernon get those looks in OTAs with the 1st team in the base defense? Sure, why not? I think it would be telling if he was getting reps over Odrick if Randy Starks WAS there, and not just because they bumped Odrick inside because Starks wasn't there. He's clearly got a role in this defense this year, but I think if he's getting base defense snaps it would be on a limited basis unless someone was injured.

 

Just because he was a TE coming out of college doesn't mean that's his best position. Maybe he's a WR.

 

B/c size does not matter so much if one is a *****, may as well maximize what he does do well and hope he develops toughness as time moves along.

 

Eggnog better develop some toughness otherwise he is a human pinball. He is going to get knocked around.

 

I didn't think posting this was worthy of a new thread, but while we're on the OTA topics. I found this video of Rupert Bryan, who Miami signed as a FB. He played right tackle at Florida International. He's 6'1" and 248lbs (I read he played RT at around 270lbs). Just from these individual drills, I'm impressed with his feet. He moves pretty well for someone who was playing the O-line last fall.

Obviously, being a FB, it'll be interesting to see if he can move and block in space when the pads come on. While Jorvorskie Lane was a nice story last year, I think it's interesting to say the least that Miami's added 2 other fullbacks (plus Charles Clay) to the roster heading into camp. I'm interested how this guys does. If anything, he might be an interesting guy to keep on the practice squad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6YLtVztfOY

 

its on again...get your fix here

 

- dallas thomas is practicing

 

Chad Bumphis is rolling well, as he should w/o pads

 

The link that Al posted to OmarK's coverage in this thread Deej.

Not really to much happening, other then Thomas practicing and Yeatman being the #2 LT

 

It's nice to see you agree on this. I brought it up in this thread on 5/29 and was hoping to get your comment on it since you have a lot more expertise in this area. I thought the differences looked pretty stark, especially compared with his Combine pictures, but there was always a possibility it was just a strange camera angle.

This is a good turn of events for him, IMO. He has more potential as a blocker than people give him credit for but just adding more muscle isn't going to fix his problems on that front. His blocking issues are technique and focus related. He's explosive enough that if his mind were right he would be getting the job done nearly as well at 240 lbs as he would at 255 lbs. What he needs to do is be a compelling football player and first and foremost he's a pass catcher so he needs to be compelling at that. He didn't get to establish himself as a compelling pass catcher last year. That's the first step. That means getting more flexible and faster, rather than bulky. In retrospect, the MMA training was the best way for him to kill two birds with one stone. His two biggest problems were not being compelling enough in his core area of expertise, and not having the proper attitude/aggression/focus in his secondary duty. The MMA training may have helped address both problems, to some degree.

 

I think this is another interesting point to bring up. Between Paul Soliai looking more like the stout version of himself, the additions of Dannell Ellerbe and Phil Wheeler, the continued presence of Koa Misi and Chris Clemons in the starting ranks, and the potential reduction in defensive tackle snaps that would come with Jared Odrick rotating more actively into those spots, I will be damned if teams are going to have a lot of success running against the Miami Dolphins. Ellerbe, Wheeler and Misi all have a wrecking ball mentality about attacking the line of scrimmage. Soliai will at the very least remain stout against the run in the base defense. The range of guys like Ellerbe and Clemons will stem the extent of the damage ball carriers can do against the defense when they do manage to shake loose. I think teams that set their sights on establishing the ground game, especially from base packages, will find themselves beating their heads against a brick wall. The best an offense could do is to try and attack the edges...but I don't know that they'll have a ton of success.

But I continue to worry about the nickel, and the short passing game in base. Soliai being the stout version of himself won't do any favors for the defense there. I think it's pretty safe to say that going from Dansby and Burnett in coverage to Ellerbe and Wheeler is a clear downgrade. We should be able to admit that, objectively speaking. We're going to have to rely on at least one rookie corner, in nickel. How will he perform? A lot will depend on just how quickly we can get to the quarterback, and how aggressively our coverage players will play the short passing game.

 

We lost Dansby's man coverage ability, but the range the new guys cover in the zone is an improvement. That should limit the opposing teams passing game yardage considerably. IMO whether we lost anything on our overall pass coverage will depend on how much zone we play.

 

I read a deflection in one of the OTAs. I was hoping that Tannehill was over that problem because if the Dolphins D whose not great at getting deflections, deflected a Tanne pass, than my hope was in vain. I don't want to be overly negative, but in his second year, he needs to side step in the pocket to find the lane to throw the ball in and quit being robotic like he was last year.

 

According to PFF Tannehill needs to cut his batted passes down by 5 to be middle of the pack in that category. He had fewer than Luck and Dalton and the same as Roethlisberger and Stafford. Didn't he have 4 in his 1st pro start? I think you're overreacting.

 

Thanks for the info. It seemed like he was much higher than 5 more than average to me. Anyway, I expect him to improve this year especially since the Texans are not on the schedule. It's good to hear that he's ahead of Luck in that catagory. It sickens me that we didn't beat the Colts last year when we should have.

 

I thought the latest Barry Jackson tidbits particularly the quotes about Koa Misi were interesting:

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/sports-buzz/#storylink=cpy

This has interesting implications about their long term plans with Dion Jordan.

 

I'm thinking that a certain point it's just easier for this team to go back to a 3-4.

 

There's about $61 million allocated to Dannell Ellerbe and Phil Wheeler now. If they end up keeping Koa Misi long term (and these quotes seem to indicate they're at least thinking about it) that would leave 5 linebackers for your 3-4 defense.

 

Assuming you have those 3, plus Wake and Jordan to get 5, I think Josh Kaddu is a safe assumption having played it in college. Austin Spitler has been in the 3-4 in Miami, so that's 7. I think between Vernon, Jenkins, and maybe Derrick Shelby, that gives you a solid corp overall.

 

You're misunderstanding the argument. How do you get 5 linebackers on the field at the same time in a 3-4 defense?

 

I did misunderstand, sorry about that. I see what you're saying now; valid point. I would assume you'd have to bite the bullet one way or another letting Koa Misi walk after this season or keep Dion Jordan as strictly a passing down guy. That stings value-wise, but it does allow him time to bulk up and hopefully become closer to Aldon Smith than he is Manny Lawson.

 

I don't think a fifth "starting" linebacker in a 3-4 is all that wacky, especially when the fifth guy is pretty position flexible.

 

And without necessarily advocating the switch, if you look at the Patsies D when they were really rolling, they had Bruschi, Banta-Cain, Phifer, Vrabel, McGhinest and Izzo. Ted Johnson and a washed up Colvin overlapped there too at some point.