on blogtalk radio. He covers the Phins draft, free agency, observations on the Phins D, OL, WR, CB ... KC Joyner is a contributing analyst for ESPN, an author of several football books and, as revealed on the show, he's had a long time soft spot for the Dolphins. Highly reccommend this show to you. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/finsradio/2009/04/30/Fins-Radio-Weekly-recap-with-*****in-Dave-1
It really is a great block of info. A full hour of Dolphins talk with The Football Scientist. Everything from current player metrics to the draft picks, Parcells, etc. OT: Joyner grew up a huge Dolfan. Though he has to remain neutral nowdays, his kids are still Dolfans.
that was certainly an hour well spent (even at 2 am )- certainly surprised to hear about jake grove's excellent numbers at winning run blocks 90% of the time. if this stays true, will def be an upgrade over what satele could do for us. i wasn't too surprised to hear the Ginn stat though. KC said he was top 20 in the league in YPC. When ginn got the ball last year he always seemed to impress with it. I was quite glad to see pennington get more comfortable with him as the year went on, and as KC said it really did seem like he was 'getting it' towards the end of the year, even with the Camarillo injury hurting our WR corps
Ginn was top 20 in yards per attempt, which takes into account incompletions. That's a more impressive stat. He also mentioned that Greg Camarillo had the second-best metrics of any 'possession' receiver last year.
my bad, it was late when I wrote that thanks for the correction there muck also interesting was how he said that metrically Randy Starks was one of our best Defensive linemen, winning I believe 27% of his blocks. Sure glad we picked him up. I do recall not hearing his name a lot last year but when I did it was always something nice
Indeed. I remember people here raving about how well Starks was playing. I really didn't see it until I started watching some of the games again after the season. He really did play well and was consistent. I remember the first Baltimore game in particular, when we were without Ferguson and Soliai. He had a pretty good game lining up at the nose against Jason Brown. Joyner says since 80% is basically the average for OL, the 20% mark applies to the defense. If the guy(s) opposite Starks graded out at 73%, he was pretty damn good. Joyner talked about wanting to see Starks play ahead of Langford, since he graded out twice as high as the rookie on POA blocks (13.6% I believe) and can also rush the passer. I think the reason we may not is because Starks is indeed a cog on third downs. He's really the only big guy we have that can generate pressure outside of maybe Phillip Merling. Gotta keep him fresh. Maybe Starks does start but Langford sees heavy rotation. You hope Langford can continue developing. Obviously he was a rookie and not a finished product. Our best player against the run last year was Randy Starks, followed closely by Matt Roth. Joey Porter was second-worst in the front seven. IIRC, Vonnie Holliday didn't do so well either despite only playing 54% of the defensive snaps. Finally, one other note I found interesting. Joyner said he didn't find the Steelers and Dolphins to be that much different. He feels that Miami is still a year or two away. And yes, they have Polamalu and Harrison and Big Ben. But beyond that, the difference isn't all that great. Time will tell this season, but I agree with him. I'm not convinced that Cameron Wake and another year under Merling's belt will sufficiently upgrade our passrush. And while I love Pennington, I think sometimes you need a guy who can throw the fastball, hit your burner up top and get the safety out of the box. Then again, Bob Griese certainly didn't have an arm. I've paralleled those guys personally. Jimmy Cefalo once demonstrated for me how they ran their pass routes two steps short to account for Griese's arm.
