Dolphins camp countdown: Sparano faces next big challenge

Great article, thanks ))

 

I agree with most of the piece.

- Sparano gets the credit he deserves, as does Penington
- The D line DOES have to step up this year

The most interesting point, imo, was that it's hard to become a chamionship team without an elite receiver.

I think Tony's staff works very hard to make upo for roster holes, though. If we can establish a strong enough inside running game, the PLayaction will help receivers get much more open and help our passing attack. I think that's our best chance. That and Wildcat passing plays.

To make in deeper into the playoffs though we will also need Special Teams to score some TDs.

 

for those who are throwing Brandon London out due to the arrival of the rookie WRers at least one guy has the opinion that London might not be a starter but at least he'll make the team

WR: Ted Ginn, Brandon London
WR: Davone Bess, Patrick Turner

 

sorry bro.. multitasking.

This was prety much how I feel about things defensively;

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We have upgraded our secondary, but they will require some time to grow. If we can apply some consistent pressure without needing to blitz, our secondary might have a chance to learn without getting eaten up by the big play. We are going to see lots of spread offense until we learn to put some pressure on the qb.

Another thing we will need is to control time of possession. If our conventional running game can better itself maybe we can keep some of these high powered offenses on the sideline and keep our defense fresh and take some of the options away from them.

I am convinced that our offense will be fun to watch and be pretty effective. If our defense can hold the enemy to something under say 17 points, we have a chance to make a serious run on our division.

 

/\ what cnc66 said.

I know it's early but no sean smith on the depth chart. I fully expect Smith to be ahead of J.Alle, Culver, Bryan and possibly Green and maybe even Vontae in the secondary. Whether he be placed at CB or one of the safety positions.

No cammarillio? I found that odd too.

But our backfield on d is young with only Bell and Allen returning. With the other positions filled with either FA or draftee's. THat means the pass rush needs to help them out in weeks 1-4 to get them early confidence while they grow together and develop.

Langford and Merling are the key's imo. Good on the writer pointing that out. I expect a lot from each of them this year.

 

Great article except the depth chart was a joke. The DL does need to step it up big time this season, at least for the first 6-8 games while our youngsters learn at CB.

And Marty is right (as usual) that our offense must keep time of possession high so our D is rested and the opposition Offense is kept off the field.

 

A decent enough write up, to me the "keys" to our season are the same that they were last season, injury free, disciplined and efficiency, that is how we will win games this season....again.

Anyone else recall the dark years with a Olineman virtually guaranteed to jump offsides once a qtr? That used to kill us by slaying drives.

 

decent being the key word..

Brandon being our 4th....really?

Chris brown makes the team as a backup fullback..okaaaaay

Al Johnson is our backup center over The Berg..its gonna be hard for him to play for two teams at once, dont ya think.

William Kershaw..hmmmm, wonder what kind of analysis he did on Mr. Kershaw.

Our guys on this board, Alen, Travis, CK, Boomer, Con write circles around these chumps, about other nfl teams then the one they love...I think there is a lot of cheating going on in the sports magazine business.

 

I also think we'll finally see more aggressive press coverage against the spread. When your secondary talent is not deep you end up in soft zones and the spread kills you 5-12 yards at a time. Guys like Sean Smith are great at press. Bell and Wilson can get very physical as well over the middle. Vontae would be a good slot guy, imo. We have the depth and talent to play more physical coverage now and that was done by design to help stop the spread (i.e. Pats) imo.

I agree we'll need some time for the secondary to gel. The rooks need playing time. Wilson and the Dbacks need to get on the same page (he replaces Hill, who made the coverage calls for the Dbacks last year). It's great that we don;t play the Pats until November.

Great point about the estimated number of points our D will need to average. I think the over/under for success would be 19 points. If our D can hold opponents to an average of under 19 points, we'll have a decent season. If over... we're looking at a .500 season at best.

 

Well then let's remmber that we have a new center.

That means an increased chance of:

1) Less co-ordination along the line at the snap (i.e. false starts) until they all get used to Jake Grove

2) Potential problems with the Center - QB/Wildcatter exchange. Samson even snapped to Ronnie Brown with little problem. Will Jake Grove continue this consistency?

3) Blitz pick-ups and line calls. Yes, Jake Grove wins one-on-one leverage battles, but the center must also communicate the line calls and blitz pick-up adjustments. We will have to see how Grove performs in this regard too.

We have improved one aspect of our line play at center, but let's not overlook the new variables that open up as a result. Hopefully all of these turn out fine by the end of camp.

 

Totally agreed on T.O.P. ESPECIALLY with some older guys on defense.

I also think it will be key to infuse younger talent into the front seven next offseason. Primarily we need to get younger at starting NT (maybe Soliai proves himself this year though), and replace Akin with a young stud who can blitz from ILB.

Of course, you can ALWAYS use new OLBs. Especially a strongside one who can also rush the QB, unlike Roth.

 

Walden over Kershaw because of special teams prowess, perhaps?


No WAY Courtney Bryan gets the nod over Chris Clemons. This guy is smoking crack.

No Sean Smith??? So, let me get this straight... we plan to cut our second round rookie pick and let another team scoop him off the waiver wire? Um... wow.

The best part of this is that they actually got an opposing coach's quotes on our team.

 

Like others have said, I don't know exactly where he derived his depth chart from, but the article was pretty spot on as to what we need to happen this season. Even tho he (the author) points out in the title that "Sparano" is the key to the season, he does very little in back up to the title of the article. The team buying into Sparano's way of doing things, given the success last season, is a given but can the influx of youngsters (both FAs and draft picks as well as youngsters that now will be in a starting role that weren't last season) is really key. Green has a checkered past as a starter although being passed over for Rogers-Cromartie isn't in itself too much of a negative. Davis and Smith might not be starters, but they certainly will contribute if the secondary can allow Porter and the front seven to do their jobs better. The lack of pass rush (save for Joey) is kind of overlooked somewhat by the media, particularly later in the season last year. While in general, the secondary recouped well after a horrendous start, there's a lot of room for improvement. The Dline is going to really be key for any success this season. Merling, as a starter and Starks, McDaniels, Soliai and Dotson as rotational guys are very key. IMO, that may be the number one question about this team. Not the secondary, not the RBs, not the WRs or the secondary, but can the Dline provide both decent pressure on the passer while still controling the run this season.

 

Al Johnson isn't on our roster anymore, he plays in New England unless I missed something since the time he signed with them.

 

Disagree Bpk, keep in mind we had a rookie LT and a jumble at Guard last season, during the season, and we still rarely jumped offsides even late in the year when the games "counted" more.

Alleman and Dukwe had some false starts, but a handful, maybe less then 6.

This season we head into the year with a new Center (who is a Vet) and maybe a new RG, nothing insurmountable.

Sparano the old Oline coach will be on top of the situation of that I have confidence.