This is just insult to injury: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/11/22/dolphins-put-cory-procter-on-ir-sign-eric-ghiaciuc/ Hope we don't play Henne and let his knee get totally screwed.
yeah meanwhile we apparently let tony ugoh go. i really dont understand the offensive line moves this year. not so much the starters as the backups. our backups have been pretty poor this year
For goodness sake Sick, this is a third string Center, do you even know who the Jets third string center is?
Oh boy. Tony Sparano on the signing: "Uh yeah he's a guy that's kinda sucky on the blocking and stuff that way, but uh, we're going to get him some snaps and get him out dere, and uh see what he can do for us that way. Uh, believe in yourself, uh, hungry wolfs, uh set your mind to it, uh, take care of business, blah blah blah."
Pads, our 3rd string center is more like a 2nd string center. Incognito will be back at Lg before too long and with the health of the O-line being so poor Eric Ghiaciuc could show up anywhere on the line in the next game. And yes, this guy stinks!
Berger is supposed to return this week which makes Rotten Richie the #2 center, this guy will probably not even be active on Sunday. Recall they signed Al Johnson in 08? He was not very good either, in fact they let Satele play with a torn labrum rather than play him..same here.
Then why sign him? I don't think Incognito is long for the center position. Even a injury prone Grove is better than this. I just don't understand these decisions, but I am ignorant.
Alright, "what if" Berger is injured Sunday, you plug Rotten Richie, but then if you leave him there you need someone who knows the line calls who can step in "if" Richie is then injured, you can make do with say McQ moving to Center to finish the game, but the next game you have to have someone you can just plug in as you have just gone through 2 Centers and now you have made G weaker by moving McQ over from Guard, so why pick up some Center next week and then hope they can learn enough to play by the Browns game. With this guy, he has 40 starts so he is experienced, and he will have more than 2 weeks to learn at least the rudiments of the blocking scheme. That is why you sign him now, you may need him 2 weeks from now.
Which also means they missed with Andrew Hartline, the C/G from Central Michigan who really should be the guy for this situation, but I guess they just wanted the experience this cat offers. Keep in mind folks, I may understand why they signed him, the mechanics of it, but I personally think they should have went with the younger player. That and they do have an odd fascination with the 2005 draft class and FWIW, he also was in Patriots camp this Summer.
Some of these reactions are amazing. They need a backup Center, and it's probably not a good idea to continue to use a starting guard there. What the **** else do you think is out there at this point?
For an offensive line coach, Sparano has really turned this into a mess. Whether it's Ireland or Sparano...someone needs to stand up, take the heat and fix this debacle in the offseason quickly as the number one priority because it is down right shameful and unacceptable. We have no idea why they replaced smiley, grove and donald thomas and why they did it with the guys they have now. We need an explanation. Except for Long, the OL is a joke.
I don't really understand how it is really confusing . It's public knowledge Justin Smiley has permanent shoulder damage, and he's backing up the guy he was brought in to replace despite being as healthy as he is going to get. Given that Jake Grove got injured, played very poorly upon his return from injury, and cannot get a job despite high quality play, it's a safe assumption he's got similar issues. As for Donald Thomas, who cares? He's not really the answer to anything, and he's not as good as Incognito or McQuistan, for whatever warts they have.
considering he would probably play in front of henne i would think we could find a better pass prtoector. ghiuciac is basically the complete opposite of berger. ghiuciac is a good run blocker and absoolutely horrible pass blocker. not sure who is available so you have a point but i'm really surprised we couldnt find anyone better
And despite knowing all that they come up this current sorry excuse of a line. They traded Smiley, didn't want Thomas and knew Grove was injured but where's the explanation for what they got now? Where?
If I were to guess I think they wanted the line to be Long-Icognito-Berger-Gardner-Carey, which wouldn't have been a bad line. Other than the fact that Icognito has totally sucked this year. He needs to get angry again. One thing to consider is that the line isn't as good as run blocking as last year, however they are much better at pass blocking. It is almost night and day. Even when the line was at its best last season it was about where this line was against Chicago this season when it came to pass blocking.
Uhhh, as of right now? Injuries. Go look at the list of other free agents out there over the past couple years and tell me who they should have picked up? There aren't alot of clearly superior alternatives they missed on. It's difficult for me to suggest that they should have known Wade Smith is going to have the season he is having.
Wait what? The offensive line was as bad as pass blocking last year as it was in the Bears game? Where they gave up 6 sacks and the quarterback essentially couldn't do anything due to pressure? That's not even close to true.
That wasn't what went on the entire year, nor was it nearly as bad as the Bears game? It wasn't even the offensive line, for that matter. Of the 4 sacks Pro Football Focus has recorded, 2 came from Lex Hilliard and 1 Anthony Fasano.
With incog at c people dont realize how that affected the blitz read pickups that the center is responsible for. Recall that Jets game where we did a fairly decent job vs their blitz system with Berger making the presnap calls. And then the Pitt game was decent as well vs their blitz. Now that doesnt explain the problems we have had running the ball.
I'd say not, they just signed Guycheck rather than bringing him back...lol! What I've noticed is they tend to do really well with backups being prepared to step in and play at need, so if they wanted this Guycheck they are confident he can step in and play if needed, and McQuistan has been okay, not great, not bad, so if they didn't want Hartline back it is not a huge issue.
I wonder what is wrong with Grove? He was really good last year. I believe that PFF had him as the second best C on a per snap basis. At worst, after the injury, he was neck and neck with Berger for the starter position going into camp. My impression during camp was that he was splitting time primarily for financial and motivation reasons since he was so good the previous year. Then Grove, who was clearly not as strong as last year, loses his starting job. Then he's off the team. Then nobody picks him up or even gives him a workout. We're down to looking for bodies off the street and our starting C from last year who was among the best in the league isn't even a consideration. I'm not criticizing the team for cutting him. My guess is that he has some injury or some other issue that is scaring every team off. I just wonder it could have been.
I don't know either. I wish I did. But the evidence is pretty strong that nobody wants anything to do with the guy. I initially thought the "competition" was a little bit of a farse as well, motivation ploy. By the time we got to the preseason games and I could see for myself, it was anything but a motivation ploy. Joe Berger was strongly outplaying him, and not because Berger is any kind of star, but because Grove was playing absolutely terrible football...against 2nd and 3rd stringers. I don't know why people just can't let it go, though. The fact that he is still out there and nobody will even give the guy a workout speaks VOLUMES. It's not like the guy is 35 years old and you can blame it on mass youth movement. He's 30 years old. That's not "old", especially for a Center. Something has made this guy untouchable, whatever it is it might be the same thing responsible for his horrible play during preseason, but people want to pretend he's still the same player he was in 2009 or that the only danger in signing him is that he takes future injuries.
Hmm, Gucheck is supposed to be a better run blocker than passblocker, maybe they rotate him into games if they want to feature the run the way they did with Garner and Smiley last yr?
Whats wrong with Grove. Hmmm, lets start by him having the same signs of shoulder problems as Smiely, second that with a gimp and bad ankle, third that by the man made 11 million last year and is refusing to work for less then what he was supposed to be paid this year, add to that, the guy is a moaning Mary, ITS ALL JAKE GROVE AND EVERYONE ELSE BLOWS type of person. Beyond that, nah, nothing wrong with the guy. In his peanut size mind he is sitting out unless someone pays him the bucks he wants, why? See prior, he made 11 million last year. He is willing to take his chances in 2011 and see where the chips fall into place. There is no doubt he will sign with someone in 2011 and soon enough, they will learn exactly what they got, a moaning Mary me first player who claims its everybodys fault but his when things breakdown. You know, when the games are close or the team is winning all is well, when they lose and the injuries start, the crazies come out of the closets. Grove is playing no where in 2010, especially not here. This team is nowhere as bad as many claim it to be. Like I said, wins cure everything. Heck, Dansby was the FIND OF THE CENTURY prior to the last couple of losses, now the guy was a mistake to many ? LOL, that is funny.
Wade Smith is only having a good season because he fits the Texans' zone blocking scheme. Personally, i thought Ryan Lilja and Shawn Andrews would have been good pick ups.
I dunno, I don't think you penalize a guy because he fits a certain prototype. And it isn't like players of his type are limited to that scheme- He'd make a good pulling guard, or he'd be good in a man block scheme with alot of pulling/trapping and other mobility aspects. We used Justin Smiley, we could have used Wade Smith the same way.
Smith would likely fit here although they would probably like to put some lbs on him maybe up to 310. I still haven't figured out why all of a sudden they switched to Berger though who can't get much push in the run game and then decided to go with a LG who can't move. One of these days they'll have to decide do you go with an athletic C or a stronger stout C who can take on NTs with the guards instead the pulling guards. Until this season they went for the latter, then things changed somehow. I see this as the primary area they attack in free agency.
Why Do We Constantly Add Failures To Our Team? While We Could Pick Up Starting Centers like Jake Grove and Justin Hartwig who are still roaming The Free Agent Market. Sometimes I Think Our FO wants This team to fail.