Truth is, I wanted something flashy as well. QB or HB. The truth is though our interior line made the whole team worse last year. They hurt the running backs, which in turn hurt the QB and receivers. This isn't the sexy pick but it could help the whole offense. If this kid, by some miracle, turns into our next Stephenson than y'all won't be *****ing and moaning so much..... or he could be mediocre or worse but I feel I have to be somewhat optimistic here. I'm just glad we didn't get Cam Newton I expect a major *** flop out of him. Ryan Leaf & Jamarcus Russell you're going to have company soon.
Stephenson? The kid isnt even the best Center in his own family and you're comparing him to Stephenson? I dont care if its Steve Hutchinson, you dont take a ****ing Guard in the first.
Drafting a RB in the first would do no good if he has no offensive line. If our interior can do it's job we don't need to draft a RB high, especially considering the depth at that position in this years draft.
wait people are against this pick? I could understand not being thrilled but actually being against it is just plain wrong. Hes the best interior lineman in the draft and we need help there. I personally wanted Ingram but i fully understand why they took Pouncey. Also the two Qbs i believe this FO wants (Dalton or Kaepernick) are still out there...
People do realize we're two solid backs in this draft away from having a strong running game to rely on again right?
I don't have any issue with this pick, taking olinemen isn't sexy but I do think this was a major need area, maybe the biggest need area on the team and we got the best interior lineman in the draft so I can't fault the team. I do think however, that if we don't improve the talent at the Qb position the best this team can do is a first round playoff exit for years to come.
This pick settles the debate as to which was our bigger problem last year, offensive line or QB. Many of us said it was the oline and obviiously the front office agreed
I just thought of what it would look like to literally puke my guts out after Miami traded up for Jake Locker.
God knows this is the last draft ever and no future picks could be traded! I don't even like Locker or Ponder, but this just shows our FO was happy to settle. Yeah, Seattle won in part because of Jones/Hutch, but also because they had a star in Alexander, and a good QB in Hasselbeck. When we get either one of those, wake me up.
Alexander was nothing without Jones/Hutch God knows this is Miami ONLY pick in the draft and they cannot get any playmakers with any other of their picks. It is a fact that in the entire history of the draft NOT ONE playmaker has EVER been drafted in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th or 7th round. It has NEVER happened. Miami missed their chance because the first round is the ONLY round that exists.
Gabbert, Ponder or Locker maybe? The first of which was a near consensus top 10 pick that slipped, and the other 2 who were apparently our top 2 targets. When you don't have a second rounds, don't have a RB, don't have a TE and don't have a speed receiver, maybe taking a guard at 15 is a luxury. It's not that I don't like Pouncey, he looked genuinely excited to be picked by us. I think he will be at least a good pro. But at the same time, hes a guard, about the lower value position on a team that has major major needs. I would have liked to see us try and do more to address those needs before going for a guard. To this point though, we have shown not much ability at building a comprehensive offensive unit. If we pick more guys of the Hartline/Turner ilk ... I am just irritated right now, but I will be happier if we can land some good skill players in 3-4-5.
I would be happy if we could pick more players like Hartline. What is wrong with Hartline? If Miami had a great quarterback then maybe guard is a luxury pick. However Miami does not have a great quarterback. They have a quarterback that can only be good if Miami has a run game. There were no runningbacks that were sure fire picks at 15. The closest was Ingram. All of the tight ends, speed receivers and runningbacks available would have been HUGE reaches at 15. This draft is not the best draft for Miami as the best player available to fill their biggest needs was Pauncy. Maybe Ingram. No one called Miami wanting their pick, so they didn't have much leverage to trade down.
No, you can't say the front office has no balls when they traded 2 2nd round picks for Brandon Marshall. I also love how people can be pissed at teams for not moving up/down like it's a picnic. I'm sure they tried.
The lone bright spot of the lockout is being spared the yearly "Why can't the Dolphins sign free agents like the Redskins."
That's another thing. People act like this pick was the only player we're acquiring during the offseason. Based on our garbage running game last year, this is a great start to the offseason. Now we need to get some playmakers.
There were people thought Watkins was better than Pouncey. Taking a guard high imo is a luxury pick. If you disagree that's fine. I agree that we were in a bad spot this draft, though I would have taken Ingram in a heartbeat. However with Prince, Cam Jordan and Dalton at the backend of a QB rush, I find it hard to believe we couldn't have gotten SOMETHING. Hell a third even. It It It is more about QB than anything to me. We have failed, completely, utterly, miserably, to fill THE most important position on the team for over a decade, and it seems we sometimes TRY to avoid the position. Even Seattle needed a QB to help them - Hasselbeck isn't a world beater, but he is better than Henne by far, and better than anything we might end up with in round 3. What can I say, we need a QB, and we again failed to procure a quality QB prospect. I will say though, I like Pouncey, he is not a bad player. I am disappointed not with him as player or person, I am disappointed in our FO declaring guard to be our first round need with all the turmoil we have at the skill positions.
I can and am, though more as it relates to the QB position, where it seems we have gone out of our way to avoid the spot. As for moving the pick, we will never know.
You did see where I said "by some miracle" right? Did the cliffs notes version of my post just say "He's going to be the next Dwight Stephenson?", just curious I'll have to speak with my editor about that
Bottom line is we did get blown up a lot through center and right guard last season with a never ending revolving door of potato sacks that couldn't get any thrust in the run game and contributed to problems in the passing game because Henne, with whatever issues he has, wasn't equipped to deal with a leaky valve on the right interior of the offensive line. I hope this gives us some stability. Henne, Brown, Williams, Polite all get better with this pick. The Dolphins lost six games last year by one score or less. those guys get better, the defense isn't on the field as long and we may get more of those games. I've thought on it a while and I'm happy with this pick.
I like Pouncey, it's Henne I don't trust, and without a QB it won't help too much. Hope Henne can change my mind in third season as starter, but not setting those expectations high. And yes, it can improve the running game. But can a team still make it far with a running game and weak passing game? It's rare now. There really wasn't that great of a QB to pick anyway after Ponder and Newton were gone.
I've been saying for quite some time now that I do not believe any QB in this draft is better than Chad Henne. Some of them would compete with him, possibly beat him out in TC, but none of them were head and shoulders better than him. I think the FO agrees with that idea. Rebuild the running game, get better protection, and maybe Henne becomes the guy we need. If not, next year is simply a better draft for QBs. Andrew Luck, Matt Barkley, and Landry Jones are all better than any QB in this draft.
To be fair, most of the QBs in the league can only be good if they have a decent ground game to help them out. Besides that, I agree with most of what you said.
I'll venture to say that part of the reason they were terrible is that we had no inside presence on the run game. Teams could play us to the outside because we got our asses handed to us whenever they tried to run between the tackles.
I would put the running game woes just as much on our crappy RB's as I do the OL. Yeah the OL struggled hard, but it isn't like our passing game was keeping safties away from the LOS and making LBs think hard about crashing down. And then have slow to the hole and slow overall backs just made it worse. A small gap that a guy like Ingram could burst through for a 5 yard gain, we were seeing Ronnie and Ricky hit at the LoS and then fumbling the ball away (why we will not go Taiwan Jones or Daniel Thomas hopefully - fumbleitis). It was a complete and utter offensive failure at most positions. I have been somewhat warming up to the Pouncey pick since Goodell called the name. I do think if we choose the right guys, we can get some good skill position guys in the 3-5 range, but I still worry about QB. I have 0 faith in Henne to be anything but mediocre with possibly an occasional flash of decency - a worse version of Alex Smith. You absolutely need a QB in today's NFL. We don't have one.
I like this pick. We needed O line help desperately and a very, very good guard fell to us, so we took him. We can get Andrew Luck next draft...cause we ARE going to suck hard this season with no real RBs and a hesitant, twitchy QB, and whatever coach replaces Sparano will want his own QB to draft.