I understand the need for him to be a leader and play in our system, however I'm worried about Dansby now.. We brought him in for his excellent play in Arizona. Now were asking him to change his game and sometimes this works against players and defenses..

Not freaking out but I do have some concerns with this "change" will Dansby be the Dansby of Arizona or The Joey Porter of 2 years ago?

 

too early for these declarations

 

Different doesn't necessarily mean bad. Lets face it, who would you rather playing the different position knowing it requires more responsibility, Crowder or Dansby?

 

Gibril Wilson says: What, no! That's silly!

 

No telling what the lineup will look like come September, but I think Dansby fits better as a Moe (weakside) ILB given his skill set, and the skillset of the other ILBs on the team. Mike ILBs are doing alot of filling, taking on pulling guards etc, while Moe does more scraping and chasing plays down. Either guy can make the calls, though I assume it'll be Dansby, but you'd like to see him go on the field and earn it, to make sure there's no bad blood in the locker room.

Having said that, Id like to see Dansby strong side in passing situations, the guy is better at covering TE's than most safeties. Even when he's fooled by playfakes, he has an uncanny ability to find the TE crossing or running down the seam. Man him up on TEs on 3rd down and our safeties will be free to help the corners or blitz with no worry that the TE is going to burn them. Dansby is a huge upgrade, not only in talent, but in flexibility. With him on board, we will get a much better idea of how good our CBs are. Last year, teams could go after our LBs and safeties and rack up big plays almost at will without the risk of attacking our CBs. This year that wont be the case so we'll see what theyre made of.

 

All Miami's defensive is learning under a new defensive coordinator (Nolan).

Miami is coaching up Dansby to be the LB playcaller since he will be the anchor with a lot of young LB's coming up.

This makes Crowder's future with the dolphins even more uncertain imo.

 

Karlos, read the bottom line numbers on your contract. They are paying you to be THE leader on D, period. For that amount you're damn skippy they want you to be the 'leader'....

Seriously, I still think that even tho we acquired Marshall and he'll get all the press because that's what offensive playmakers do, Dansby is the key to our success in getting to the next level this coming season. Dansby and the development of the young LBers we've drafted and acquired. With a 'role model' superstar LBer like Dansby on the roster, guys like Misi, Edds, Dobbins, McCoy and such have someone to learn from and look to. That is as much his role as actually making the plays...

 

Or, it could make Crowder's future more bright here. We all have seen that Crowder is weak when he is the focal point of the D. That is no longer the case. Crowder had his best years here when he was second fiddle to ZT, even tho he was aging. Crowder just isn't that go-to guy. You need guys like that on your team. However, his uncertainty here is well founded. At the salary he's getting, he'd needs to be better or he will be gone, as you said...

 

I think you've got that switched there. Weakside, whatever it's called, is typically the 2-down run stuffer and the Strongside guy is usually doing the chasing.

There's something to be said for keeping Dansby on the weak side on passing downs if they've got a solid coverage linebacker. The guy has big upside as pass rusher, and if you've got someone else to set him loose you've got a nice option.