He watched the Browns, Dolphins game tape from last year and saw that Daboll's offense was the one that went forward, so he took a wild guess.

 

Have to wonder if a different blocking scheme is why Murtha will challenge Vern Carey?

They may need more mobile Olineman then Carey is at this point in his career.

Now here is a comforting thought, what if Daboll is our own little Josh McDaniels replete with chest bumps and all the rest of it?

 

This can only be a good thing.

But yeah, Frum; Murtha may have stepped in it a bit here. He's gonna have some 'splainin to do.

 

There is talk of the Dolphins not giving out playbooks, but there are also reports pouncy got wildcat formations to study. Im sure our guys are a on a need to know basis for Dabolls schemes. I do believe that Carey has a few more years left but he does seem to dog it last yr.

 

Murtha forgot the 1st rule of Fight Club.

 

Carey's reached the point of no return to where he's likely more effective ballooning up to 600 pounds so that it takes defenders longer to run around him.

 

As for who has what, and who has seen what, I'm guessing there is a lot of misinformation being spread relative to this.

 

Thing with Carey is they may look at it as it is better to cut bait with a player a yr to early rather than a yr to late.

Murtha's draft information mentioned he lumbers and is stiff when he tries to cut block , if they system has changed to more of a cut blocking one it will be interesting to see if he has improved his play since his days at Nebraska.

 

Or the Browns Patriots game.

 

Murtha isn't challenging Carey in any meaningful way. If anything, Murtha needs to worry about where Nate Garner ends up. He's probably not going to have a roster spot unless Nate Garner gets a guard spot, because if he ends up as a swing tackle again Murtha is going to be looking for another team.

The blocking scheme hasn't changed to where it doesn't fit Carey. It includes zone blocking, but that doesn't mean the line is turning into the Broncos line or anything like that. If anything, Carey being bigger and powerful might be advantageous. I think zone blocking means there is more situations for the Tackle to tee off on an outside defender he has a weight and power advantage on rather than being in a position where movement is nice but it's more important to turn the defender and maintain control unless the gap the run is supposed to go to is behind the Tackle in a man scheme.

Also, I don't think Daboll seems to use a lot of cut blocks.

 

Zone blocking is the way to go and Ricky Williams would excel in such a scheme. Bringing him back would be a good idea to split carries with the rook.
The downside of us bringing in zone blocking is that it will take some time to learn and perfect. With the lock out, it's fair to say our o-line will be slow to respond to the new scheme and may be learning a lot on game days.

 

Well, we shall see, Sparano has no problem cutting veteran Olinemen or trading them, if Carey is not up to snuff they would have no problem moving him out of Miami.

I'm also somewhat surprised that Oline coach Gugs has not taken more heat then he has, Maser got us to the playoffs in 08 with street free agent types and taught them the WildCat blocking scheme as well, Gugs has dealt with high picks and has had few successes with them.

 

I don't know that there is that much to learn. It shouldn't take that long to learn the rules and calls, and the technique stuff probably isn't going to go untaught even during the lockout given that the "coach" is Jake Long, a guy who was in a zone blocking scheme in college.

 

Kind of makes the whole playbook ***** fest meaningless now......

 

I As long as he is Josh McDaniels as an O coordinator and not a head coach, I am pro that.

 

Ugghh, if that happens, I know where we're going with the 13th overall pick in next year's draft.

:)

 

13!? Dude, you gotta have hope. I'm shooting for top 7!

 

Actually when is a ***** fest here at the site ever meaningful?

 

Nonsense, Dolfans have raised *****ing to a high art form.

 

We made Top 15 with Murtha at RT for 4 games, we can do better!!!!

 

Guys, prepare for the worst and if expectations are exceeded, you feel much better. We are Dolphin fans after all, aren't we tired of expecting playoffs only to consider jumping off the nearest bridge? :lol:

Damn it's hard being a Dolphin fan....

 

Well, I typically do not expect playoffs, at least not yet, we have been either to old of a team (Jason Taylor Era) or to young of a team (right now) it takes time for young guys to learn how to win in the NFL unless they just have overwhelming talent like the Chargers had in the mid to later 00's.

 

like both Murtha & Carey, wouldn't underestimate either one.
never know, maybe Daboll can bring to the offense what Nolan brought to the defense.

 

This.

Also, I think the more relevant line of questioning regarding Murtha would be "Have you finally figured out how to block?" "Can you guarantee Henne doesn't die this year?"

 

I don't know that I generally feel better when I spend a year expecting the worst. Personally, I tend to be pretty reasonable in my assessments, meaning that it's rare for me to have expectations that end up being really out of whack with what actually happens (at least in terms of football). So I prefer to have reasonable expectations rather than artificially pessimistic (or optimistic) expectations. Looking at this team, I see no reason to expect them to be worse than last year (7-9) and several reasons to expect them to improve on that. Chief among them is a young, developing defense that was already a top 10 unit and an offense that had among the worst game plans and play calling I've ever seen in the NFL. IMO if Daboll does nothing more than not abandon the run that Miami's offense will improve. History has shown that a good defense and a consistent running game are frequently enough to make the playoffs. Thats even if Henne doesn't develop a lick or the passing game doesn't become any more efficient. And that's if the defense doesn't get any better either. So I don't see competing for a playoff spot as an unreasonable expectation. I do think that the team will need to have either improve the passing efficiency or have the defense develop to have any reasonable expectation of competing for a SB though. The Jets have been able to do that the last to years despite having a passing game that's no better than ours, but I think that's an anomaly. I think they had an inordinate amount of luck. In contrast I thought the Dolphins had an inordinate amount of bad luck last year. I do believe those things tend to balance out over time. Regardless of how the bounces go, I do think that both the defense and the offense should improve some. I think that if we are just a little better on first down that Henne will be a more effective QB just b/c he'll be in a position to succeed more often. I also think that the defense has talent that we can reasonably expect to develop. That doesn't mean I'm making SB reservations but it does mean that I expect to compete for a playoff spot and that I wouldn't be surprised if we made the playoffs. I don't think it's likely that we'll compete for a SB, but I also don't think it's impossible. I just don't think that we have a good enough QB to reasonably expect to compete for a SB spot. But I do think we have a good enough QB and enough talent all around to compete for a playoff spot.

 

Or frogs. Chasing him out of town. Large ones.

 

I have never seen a team that plays in that style, run the ball, play good defense, win without a solid St unit Rafi.

It is just so tough to win 13-10 games when the ST is allowing 40+ yd kick off returns late in games, or when they do not cover punts well, or when the ST does not occasional generate good field position for the offense when it has to drive 35 yds for a FG, to try and win like that just is not realistic imho.

 

Agreed wholeheartedly, that is why my worst case scenario involved the 13th pick overall. I too think there is a lot to build on with a great young core and see ourselves on the verge of yet another playoff spot, or middle of the pack. We've come to expect that much at least.

 

Someone needs to slap Burtha and bring him back to reality and shut him the hell up.

 

Considering how our STs performed last year, and with kick off coverage being as big a problem as any, the new rules moving the kickoffs 5 yards closer, back up to the 35 like they used to be 15 or so years ago, will help us. The number of touchbacks is going to go way up especially early in the season. This is also the reason I don't care whether or not we use Gates on KO returns. IMO, keep Carroll there, and let Gates focus on just honing his WR skills. Maybe add in punt returns after a few games if his receiving skills, i.e. defeating the jam, running precise routes, etc, are up to snuff.

EDIT: I was wondering too, do you think the 35 yd line kickoffs may make teams more likely to have a kickoff specialist? Take Carp for example, I'm not so sure he can get 5 yds deep or better on 75% of his kickoffs even doing it from the 35. There are a few kickers around who, from the 35, could put 90% of kicks out of the end zone, though not good enough on FGs to be an all around kicker. Would it be worth a roster spot for a guy to just boom nearly every kickoff out of the end zone? The Colts did it a few years ago when Mike Vanderjagt was the PK. Danny Kight was their kickoff specialist. Just a thought. Maybe Carp can do better from the 35 than I think.

 

Depends on what you mean by solid. That style isn't sufficient to overcome STs blunders, but it works just fine with a middle of the road STs unit. All that requires is decent coaching and familiarity. You don't need a ton of dedicated STs aces. You just need a group that works well enough to be average.

 

Daboll had better running backs in Cleveland than the Dolphins had. The offensive line of the Browns was equal if not superior to the offensive line of the Dolphins in 2010. Neither team had a QB who was a very productive QB in 2010. Of course part of this had to do with McCoy playing as a rookie. Given the choice of Henne or McCoy for the future, I would take McCoy over Henne,any day of the week. I will give the Dolphins receivers a huge edge over the receivers on the Browns last year. Unfortunately these receivers were not as productive as they could have been because they had Henne throwing the ball to them.

So basically Daboll had an offensive unit last year which compares to what he will be dealing with this season. His offense with the Browns was one of the few teams in the NFL which was actually worst than the 2010 Dolphins offense. Yet we are now suppose to believe that Daboll is some offensive genius who is going to transform these offensive players into a juggernaut.

What this sounds like to me is the Dolphins are trying to once again fool the season ticket holders into buying tickets by making promises they have no way of keeping. Season tickets sales are down considerably at this time and all the Dolphins really have to offer are promises that things will be better than last year. I happen to know quite a few long time season ticket holders, including myself, who have not renewed their season tickets for 2011. We have finally realized that this ownership is more concerned with dance clubs and other forms of entertainment at the stadium, than it is about the
product on the field. Right now it would not surprise me in the least if the majority of the Dolphins home games are blacked out this season. The only home games which have a chance of selling out right now are the Patriots, Jets, and Eagles. These games will sell out only because the fans of these teams will probably purchase enough tickets to lift the blackout.

After this season, Ross needs to get rid of Ireland and Sparano and finally hire a GM and head coach who can actually start building a championship caliber football team in Miami. I don't see Sparano or Ireland being back next year and therefore I suspect that Daboll will once again be looking for a job after the 2011 season is over.

 

Agree, a team really should not have more than 3 or so ST mostly position players, but keep in mind the AFCE is home to 3 Top 10 ST units, which means we give the opponent an advantage in every AFCE game, to me that must be changed as that little edge is enough to win games.

 

Or Returners are more willing to return balls out of the EZ as coverage units are no longer as good.

As for Gates, let the best man win, I would pull Carroll off of returns before not putting Gates into the mix as his running style will lead to injuries and concussions.

For a more veteran team it would make sense, for us I'd doubt they would use a gameday roster spot for one.