not sure about this move either. The DB's improved it was the DC's coaching schemes that sucked.

 

The DBs were nothing great until Tankersley was put in the lineup, and Howard went on a tear the last third of the season. Why couldn't it have been like that all season?

 

Nothing from this franchise surprises me anymore, especially from coach adam "it's not my fault" gase. It is very clear that he will throw you under the bus in a heart beat. Continue to bury your head in your great playbook on the bench while your defense is trying to make a goal line stand.

 

I'm not sure where this notion has come from that Gase takes no blame. I guess people don't like it when Gase honestly calls out underperforming players and units. But, Gase has taken blame for things.

 

Scapegoat for the defense. Does nothing to move the needle.

 

Saying it won't move the needle is premature. Who will be his replacement? After we get the answer to that question we can start making proclamations.

 

Or, even better, we can wait until we actually see what the results on the field are next year. :D

 

Will the DB coach change the defensive scheme? Of ****ing course not. Therefore the needle does not move.

 

lol....Wasn't it you who hated the wide-9? Hows that scheme working out in Philly?

Coaching is THEE deciding factor in the NFL. I've stated this many times, but the physical differences between the best and worst players isn't that great. The difference is coaching. (And in the Pats case, cheating)

 

Absolutely no arguments there as I agree completely.

Even though it was Schwartz that attempted to make the wide 9 a defense, even he doesn't utilize the wide set front as much as we do. Schwartz at least uses variance and can scheme Cox into 1v1 situations.

 

Not upset hes gone. Supoosedly he was still upset over being passed over for the DC gig after the failed Dan Campbell era.

 

Making a speculative prediction here...and we'll never really know but if Vance Joseph hadn't been hired to be the Bronco's HC, I have a strong feeling he would have been fired anyhow. Our defense in 2016 was horrendous. Our defense this past season was horrendous and if these changes at the position coach level doesn't fix the issue, Matt Burke will be gone next year.

 

Sometimes you can see the results from miles away before it plays out on the field. Cutler was an example of that. You could see that train wreck from the get go.

 

You mean all those reports from training camp that Cutler was much better than the other oprions on our roster at QB?
With more help from the D and without Ajaiyi freelancing in the forst 5 games it’s more than possible that the difference between a somewhat respectable 8-8 or 9-7 and 6-10 has less to do with the QB and more to do with the rest of the team underperforming.
BTW I’m not defending Cutler, but he was chosen as the least bad option not a saviour for the team.

 

I don't buy that narrative. Ajayi "freelancing" was also the reason for his success in '16. We're also not a power run team, so there is no specific gap for him to run to. In a ZBS the RB has mutliple options on where to go on just about every call, so this "freelancing" is a bit of a stretch. It is also why Drake is able to bounce so many runs outside, so I don't see how that sticks.

I also think the entire team under-performed, and that is a reflection of poor coaching, rather than just the ****ty QB.

 

Lou has been one of the few consistently good coaches on this team along with Rizzi our special teams coach. They have survived multiple administration and HC changes. I don't agree with this at all, I think he has done an admirable job of developing howard and tankersely. And he developed Lipper pretty well last year for us as well. I don't see where he is a problem at all other than gase just deciding he has has to clean house.

 

His "success" in 2016 was hype more than anything substantial. He had 3 great games, 1 good game, and the rest was crap. he averaged 84 ypg last year. The Dolphins ranked 30th in rushing yards.

(Edit*: The Dolphins offense was ranked 9th in rushing yards. Their defense was 30th)

Not counting the first 3 games of the season here are his rushing yards per game:

 

Ajayi was very inconsistent, but then again so was our personnel along the o-line and the run blocking in general. Ajayi was able to create yardage in our ZBS despite this and was pretty staunch in yards after contact, which was frequent due to the line issues. 84 y/g was also good for 4th best in the league.

 

I made a correction to my previous post.

However, his inconsistencies had more to do with his inability to follow the play. He free-lanced too much or he'd have had more than 4 good games last season. Yes, the o-line wasn't great, but they were able to do enough. Just like this year when we saw how bad Ajayi looked compared to Drake.

 

Describe this freelancing to me. Personally, I think you're taking a local media narrative and running with it. Ajayi has also gone on to Philly and is at 5.8 y/c. I don't think he trusted the blocking here in Miami and I can't blame him. We'll see how Drake plays out in the long run, he's still an unknown.

 

Here's a great post about Ajayi from one of this boards very knowledgeable posters, Disgustipate:

"The blocking wasn't the problem with Ajayi. He had the blocking at the point of attack on the runs he excelled at. They bullied the **** out of Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram in the opener on an even playing field.

You can't block your way out of teams overloading the gaps they know runs are going to come in, not having to play disciplined on cutback lanes, etc. and so on. They ran out of wrinkles and tricks.

Switching teams bought Ajayi some time, but I'm not sure it's a lot of it. Teams are going to adjust to the window dressing the Eagles use to try and keep defenses honest, and they might have some other factors in their factor but I'm very doubtful Ajayi is going to be very good past mid-season."

 

That doesn't make much sense to me. A team generally only has 6-8 runs that they rely on and call in their repertoire anyway; sometimes it's as simple as 4. Wrinkles and "tricks" are only flash calls in a game. And when you use a ZBS, like we do, a RB has multiple reads (one of which is a cutback) so defenses would have to stay true regardless. We're not a man/gap running team so defenses also can't necessarily overload gaps. Vs a ZBS those lanes move with the line and they create additional reads up the middle, and along the front and backside with their movement.

 

I guess you'd have to read the entire conversation. The part I wanted to push was the fact that blocking wasn't the big issue with Ajayi. Hell, I think Drake proved that. Ajayi is a downhill runner. He excels at outside ZB. However, you obviously can't call OZB every run play. That's what Ajayi wanted, however. And even when something else was called he took it upon him self to try to run around the end. lol...

Ajayi is a one dimensional RB who runs hard and is aggressive He's also on borrowed time. He's been pretty gimpy most of the time this season. The Dolphins did the correct thing getting what they could when they could.

Saying that, and even though it sounds like Ajayi was a prima donna while here, I like the guy and wish him well.

 

That solves everything yes, 16-0 here we come. :up:

 

Let's see who his replacement is. There sure seemed like a lot of plays where the secondary personnel were not all on the same page. How much of that falls on Anarumo?

 

good question, but when they pressed in that one game they were lights out. They were kinda horrible in zone

 

why is half this thread about a player that hasn't been useful to this team for a year? when the thread is about a former coach and the vacancy in coaching.