Okay, I have always believed the most important position on the football team is the one that receives the least press. I hear people say that the Oline was the most improved position on the team and I laugh. If it is the most improved it was only because it has been he worst line in the league for years. While it is adept at run blocking we can't protect our QB for more than 2 seconds and that is an issue. The dolphins only converted 81 out of 218 3rd downs and had 283 1st downs last year. Compare that to the patriots and you see a team who makes 92 of 191 3rd down conversions and had 393 1st downs. How good can our aging defense play if we can't keep them of the field. Combine the 3 and outs with 42 sacks against us in 2007 and you can see that a big blaring problem is our OLINE. As improved as people say it was, it was only improved for the running game. Think about this, in 2006 we had 41 sacks against us but 21 of those came against the immobile Dunte Culpepper. Go back 1 year further to 2005 and we only allowed 26 sacks. Our Oline has to protect the qb better or we will go no where. If our Oline does not improve dramatically then our defense will continue to do poorly regardless of who you give them because they will constantly be on the field. It also does not matter if we pick up C. Johnson, because WE CANT PROTECT THE MAN THROWING HIM THE BALL. If the ball never reaches him then there is no point having him. OLINE is the biggest need on this team. Improve the oline and the offense will improve dramatically. Give our QBs more than 2 seconds and we will be a better team. Improve the OLINE and our defense will improve as well.
Our offensive line was the best part of our team last year. They wore down in the second half. How you can compare us to the Pats is beyond me. They have more talent at every position than we do, it isn't only their offensive line. Fact is our defense was terrible starting with run defense. We need all the help we can get on defensive line and secondary, not even addressing what happens if Zach isn't with us. Our line can't stop the run and our secondary can't stop the pass.
we were deal last against the run...If you cant stop the run, you WILL NOT win games!!! DL is by far the biggest need this team has
i agree our o line needs help but so does our d line. and there is no o line that could be taken at number 1. Jake long isnt a #1 overall guy. glenn dorsey and chris long is. that is why we should take best OT available in the 32/33 overall pick... Jeff otah maybe (OT pitt)
our receivers sucked our QB's sucked our D-line was the worst in the NFL our healthy LB's are so slow that Culpepper beat them to the pylon TWICE now this is the post of the day
I'd have to strongly disagree. The way our defense was ran over this season was incredibly painful to watch. Our Oline has improved significantly. We have a few keepers in Carey and Satele. And hopefully we can hang on to Hadnot. Sure we could use an upgrade at LG or RT but it is nowhere near as big an issue as the Dline.
DMaino110, you can post all the topics about offensive line and how we need Jake Long. I just don't see it that way. Our offensive line was the one good thing last season and Jake Long is nowhere near worth the money of the first overall pick.
our OL slumped for 3 reasons: - lost our franchise RB - Satale hit the rookie wall - Beck came in and teams dared us to pass
THe desfense wore down as the offense had zero..., momentum... zilch..., nothing..., no insurmountable leads were ever built..., the D couldn't relax for a second everything pinned on them to be the Saviour...
I agree with your post, but the dline is horrid. Dorsey is worthy of the #1 pick so I believe they go that route unless we can trade down a few spots. If that's the case, I'm all for improving that side of the ball. Problem is, is that you can close your eyes and point at any position on this team and chances are that position is in dire need of improvement. Since this team is in such need you go best player available.
Main reason QB sucked....our O line sucked (browns good oline even made anderson lok good cuz he had time) LB's the whole year werent healthy, therefore it was the backups who stunk it up. not saying oline is more of a need but they both are equally as big of a need but if you improve your oline it will keep your dline off the field and rest them, therefore...they would look better. #1 pick will be D-line and #2 should be (and Better be) O-Line (OT)
I never said that our dline wasnt horrible but you cant win if you cant put up points. How many games did we go without scoring an offensive TD? Defense wins championships is the old saying, but we had defense for a long time, and how many championships did it win us? I do like jake long but we dont have to draft him #1 overall. We can draft a defensive player BUT OUT OLINE MUST IMPROVE DRAMATICALLY this year. If we have to shell out money for URFAs then do it. If our offense doesnt improve this year then once again it will not matter how much our defense improves since they will be worn down by the middle of the season.
Where did I say the offense was good??? This team has plenty of holes but if we're setting priorities to rebuild, the Dline will come before the Oline. Not only talent but age is a concern on the Dline. We don't even have a legit 3-4 NT on the team. I'm all for taking an Olineman in the draft in the later rounds but Dline should be addressed first.
both sides will be addressed this year through draft and FA. Their not going to draft all defense. At least they better not....
noone saidour OL doesnt need improvement... But we were 32nd in the league against the run.. thats what needs to be fixed first. If you cant stop the run, it doesnt really matter how many point your offense can put up, because theyll hold the ball and score and well be playing catch-up
Our O-Line only needs tweeking. Move Carey back to RT if we get good LT and get a Guard thru FA. Then we are set. D-Line? Where do you start? DT is a MUST! We cant stop the run. Depending on what system we use we need major or MAJOR overhaul of D-Line. Dorsey is fave to be drafted or Long and rightly so IMO.
Upgrades to both sides of the line are needed, but the chances of us getting a decent OL in a later round are far greater than us getting a superstar DL. The argument is made easy by Dorsey and Chris Long being the guys at the top and being DL.
I would say that the two lines are equally as important shag. I would also say that IMO LT is probably the most important position on either line. But on what we have at the moment, unless things change through FA, i think we would pick defense with our first pick. Our O Line was adequate last year, whist our D line was terrible. It is a matter of where needs most I am afraid chap.
The line is young, not bad. I feel 100% better about the O line going into the offseason this year as compared to last. Some of those sacks were on Beck, and to a lesser extent Lemon, not picking up the blitzes the way they should of. Which is why very few rookie QBs do well in the NFL. Also, when Brown and Chatman went down teams sold out against the pass knowing that the run wasn't going to kill them.
Our O-line isn't nearly in as bad a shape as our D-line.. or our entire secondary, or our LBs even. And please don't act like it's solely the O-line's fault for our lack of offensive success. I'm sure lack of an explosive QB, WR(s) had nothing to do with that, not to mention our star RB who was on his way to a career year getting hurt. By the way, our RBs(Brown, Chatman, Booker, Gado, Cobbs) still managed to produce 1,399 yards total this year. That's nothing to sneeze at.
Jason Taylor let Eli Manning beat him to the O-line as well. He also let Tony Romo juke the **** out of him when he had a wide open shot at him. I just think overall as a defense the Dolphins got old.
Actually, read something funny today..."...The Titans won more games (10) than they threw touchdown passes (nine) and scored one offensive touchdown or fewer in nine of their 17 games..." http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/titans/home.htm
I dont think one side wins out in this argument over another all the time, but for my money I enjoy knowing my O can control the LoS and the clock. I want a dominating OL. I want to control the clock and dictate to the defense opposite of me. With the top OL you control both the running and the passing and that equals time of possession and points. Now for this to be successful your defense just has to stop the opposition 1 time for you to secure victory (in theory). Opposite argument for having a great DL. Yes, you can prevent points, but we have all seen from bad calls, to Special Team points, to a fluke play where a less then stellar O gets lucky and beats a solid D and puts points on the board. Now with that, the D needs help and needs its O (or granted its own Special Teams - or needs to be back on the field to try to create its own points from turnover) to respond. Yes, a great DL helps control things, but its a much more orchastrated unit where the LB and DBs have to work in concert to help not only control the LoS but also the flats, the ends, and the deep part of the field. I love great D's, but I want a great OL to help give my D breathers. A great D actually gives your O less breathers (since they take the field more often and yes it gives the opposing D less breathers so its perhaps a trade off) but as we know often its the D that needs it more.
Ask Marino if the D line isn't important. He might of had some rings if we could eer have stopped other teams from scoring everytime we did.
That is the absolute goal.....but the thread is more about extremes. If you were to choose, would you rather: 1) have a Great OL and avg/below avg D (and therefore avg/below avg DL) 2) have a Great DL and avg/below avg O (and therefore avg/below avg OL) No one wants to have both avg/below avg, and we all want to have both Great, but the concept is what would you want to control the O side LoS or the D side LoS.
I have to say, historically speaking, it seems to me a Great OL makes a great (ie. productive points on the board) offensive units (9 out of 10 times), but I cant say that a Great DL makes a great (ie. productive points off the board) defensive unit (maybe 6 out of 10). To me since the offense knows what it wants to do on a given play, and more importantly where its going. It can scheme to avoid, negate, or minimize the effectiveness of a great DL. But if you have a great OL, its very hard for a defense to scheme, avoid, negate and minimize the effect of a great OL.
Meeee tooooo. But I didn't see where DM said ANYTHING about J Long. OL might just hold the ball on long time consuming drives that definatly help the D. Cause and effect.