So....forgetting the draft, are we a better team than that one exiting the playoffs?

Yes.

"Fin D wrote:

Yes.

Explain. I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with you

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"dirtylandry wrote:

Explain. I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with you

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We haven't gotten worse at any position other than FS & LG. Yet, we've improved TE x 2, LT, LB, DE and safety depth. Plus, there's more FA time left and the draft.

And of course, Thill and Jones are back from injuries.

In my opinion we're the same team. We lost a few players but replaced them with players who were injured before and hoping they regain their mojo. We may be a little better on defense but we did nothing to stop the run which was horrible up the middle.

In other words we're counting on injured players from last year to vastly improve this team.

Just by being healthy, we're better. Starting QB, CB, both safeties. All missing from that Steelers game. We improved at LB with Timmons. William Hayes is an improvement as well.

Last year I wouldn't have pegged Ajayi to do what he did, when Foster went down it wasn't looking good.
Last year I would have expected that OL to actually hold up as well as they did.
Last year I didn't expect the team to make the playoffs.

Clearly, I don't know squat.
I'm okay with that.

So right now, on the question of if we're better now, my answer is - I have no idea. This is a new outfit, new approach, and thus, I have no opinion. Instead, I'm waiting to see how things play out.

I can say I like the fact the Dolphins haven't splurged again. I've not seen anything this FA that scares me. I'm hopeful for how things turn out, but I've no idea what that might prove to be. So really none of this matters.*

*See above - I don't know beans.

IMO we're better at DE, LB and possibly TE. We're worse in the secondary (That IAQ injury hurts us at a critical position) and on the OL (although adding the best run blocking TE in the league helps mitigate that). And we're worse at DT b/c we haven't signed a third DT. I felt we needed to upgrade from Mitchell anyways so I can't criticize that move. But I also don't see the wisdom in forgetting the draft and the rest of FA b/c a wise FO should consider where to stock new players from rather than try and fix everything in one phase.

Getting our best player in Reshad back is huge. THill, Maxwell missed the last 4 games obviously.

We lost IAQ but Nate Allen is a better FS than Michael Thomas/Walt Aikens.

Timmons is a clear upgrade over Paysinger.

Julius Thomas and Fasano are def upgrade over Sims/Jones.

Tunsil will upgrade over Albert at LT, and Larsen will hopefully upgrade at G simply because he actually is a Guard.

I think people forget just how devastating injuries have been for us last year and in the past. I mean, we went 10-6 with essentially an entire second string defense on the field...Suh was the only projected starter on the field for all 17 games. The way Moore, Ajayi and the O line closed out the year was the real difference maker and a huge building block for 2017.

So are we better for this season? Absolutely.

I don't think we are better. I know we have a lot of people back, we have replacements, shedded salary and are in year two under Gase. But I believe we need the draft and June 1 cuts to be better. More specifically, I don't think they have done enough now, but will, for the run game. I need to see more commitment to stop the run. We could be a better personnel team on offense, but they can't play if the defense is on the field forever because they can't stop the run. There is nothing wrong with not being better - yet. I am confident they have a plan in place to stop the run. They need to get younger though the draft and cheap and veteran-saavy like with June 1 cuts

"dirtylandry wrote:

I don't think we are better. I know we have a lot of people back, we have replacements, shedded salary and are in year two under Gase. But I believe we need the draft and June 1 cuts to be better. More specifically, I don't think they have done enough now, but will, for the run game. I need to see more commitment to stop the run. We could be a better personnel team on offense, but they can't play if the defense is on the field forever because they can't stop the run. There is nothing wrong with not being better - yet. I am confident they have a plan in place to stop the run. They need to get younger though the draft and cheap and veteran-saavy like with June 1 cuts

Agree on a lot of your points and the defensive struggles last year were directly related to not being able to stop the run and having inexperienced / less talents corners and safeties exposed way to much. Outside of Suh the interior line and linebacker play wasn't good enough. This year they get back some key players but like any year more will get hurt. They will also face what I consider tougher opponents this year so they better not think they can coach without talent. How much of this is on Gase I dunno but I feel front office is controlling off-season acquisitions with Gase having little say.

"dirtylandry wrote:

I don't think we are better. I know we have a lot of people back, we have replacements, shedded salary and are in year two under Gase. But I believe we need the draft and June 1 cuts to be better. More specifically, I don't think they have done enough now, but will, for the run game. I need to see more commitment to stop the run. We could be a better personnel team on offense, but they can't play if the defense is on the field forever because they can't stop the run. There is nothing wrong with not being better - yet. I am confident they have a plan in place to stop the run. They need to get younger though the draft and cheap and veteran-saavy like with June 1 cuts

You didn't really explain why you think we aren't better right now.

I guess I'd like to see an explanation as to how you think with all the recoveries and new players, how you think we either broke even or got worse.

"Dorfdad wrote:

Agree on a lot of your points and the defensive struggles last year were directly related to not being able to stop the run and having inexperienced / less talents corners and safeties exposed way to much. Outside of Suh the interior line and linebacker play wasn't good enough

I love the offense, not worried about the guards. But between coaching and personnel, I would be stunned if they enter a 4th season not being able to stop the run. It is more of a snowball effect on us on offense because we want to run the ball. I think Miami is working towards stopping the run, with Timmons and entertaining free agents. They obviously are showing their cards for the draft. miami has been solid on the first two picks the last few drafts:
James
Landry
Parker and Phillips (potential)
Tunsil
Howard

So we can expect Miami to have play makers early in the draft to have an impact

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"Fin D wrote:

You didn't really explain why you think we aren't better right now.

I guess I'd like to see an explanation as to how you think with all the recoveries and new players, how you think we either broke even or got worse.

I did explain. I don't care what we do on offense, and we are better offensively. But those guys don't sniff the field because the run defense has not improved. At least for now. So as of right now, we are not better. Right now, teams would control the ball and that would be doom for us on offense, because we want to run the ball. But let it be clear, I think we will work on this with the draft and June 1 cuts.

"dirtylandry wrote:

I did explain. I don't care what we do on offense, and we are better offensively. But those guys don't sniff the field because the run defense has not improved. At least for now. So as of right now, we are not better. Right now, teams would control the ball and that would be doom for us on offense, because we want to run the ball. But let it be clear, I think we will work on this with the draft and June 1 cuts.

How can you say we haven't improved our run defense with Timmons, Hayes and Reshad back from injury?

"Fin D wrote:

How can you say we haven't improved our run defense with Timmons, Hayes and Reshad back from injury?

Because there is no Robin to the Batman in Suh. There still is a huge deficiency at LB. And I don't think our ends can set the edge

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"dirtylandry wrote:

Because there is no Robin to the Batman in Suh. There still is a huge deficiency at LB. And I don't think our ends can set the edge

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WADR, this isn't making sense. You asked if we're better than the team that lost to Pitt in the playoffs.

The defense of your stance is more about why we aren't GREAT against the run. But how can you say Reshad, Hayes and Timmons aren't better against the run than what we had in the playoffs?

I'd rather evaluate this team vs the totality of the one that played 17 games last year. Injuries will happen every year and the roster/ depth that grinded through the season is more relevant than the one that played game 17, imo.

I'd say we're a wash on D. Lose Mitchell and IAQ. Lost our D.C. More mileage on Wake. Add Timmons, Hayes for depth and hopefully get back a healthy Jones. Still have lots of question marks.

Slightly worse on O. Added competition on OL, but lost Albert and Stills got paid. Added Thomas, but imo skill position was never a weakness. Only so may balls to go around. My concern is that the team established its winning identity with the spark from a strong Oline and running game. Thus far we're moderately worse off in that regard. At least on paper.

Draft and adding cheap vets that are released could definitely push it the other way into the better camp. They did what they needed to do though, sign your own key pieces and build through the draft rather than breaking the bank on FAs.

"Fin D wrote:

WADR, this isn't making sense. You asked if we're better than the team that lost to Pitt in the playoffs.

The defense of your stance is more about why we aren't GREAT against the run. But how can you say Reshad, Hayes and Timmons isn't better against the run than what we had in the playoffs?

It is a start. Ok so instead of 140 a game, they would allow 130

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"dirtylandry wrote:

It is a start. Ok so instead of 140 a game, they would allow 130

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I'm not trying to be difficult.

I'm going by the premise you set up. And those three are significantly better vs. the run than what we had at the end of our season.

Does Miami have a defense that could enable the offense to go to new levels? They were in the bottom 4 in both run and pass. Were Miami's moves on defense going to move that needle. We forget how bad the defense was and the domino effect it had.

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I know you arent trying to be

So Miami's defense is top 15 on run and pass now?

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"dirtylandry wrote:

I know you arent trying to be

So Miami's defense is top 15 on run and pass now?

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"dirtylandry wrote:

Does Miami have a defense that could enable the offense to go to new levels? They were in the bottom 4 in both run and pass. Were Miami's moves on defense going to move that needle. We forget how bad the defense was and the domino effect it had.

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Again, I'm confused.

In one post you ask if we'll be top 15 on run and then say we were bottom 4. You asked about improvement. Are we improved? Yes. maybe the moves we've made make us #16 from 28. That's a huge improvement.

And yes I think it's possible with these changes we could be a Top 15 unit.

"dirtylandry wrote:

I know you arent trying to be

So Miami's defense is top 15 on run and pass now?

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I am confused. Are you asking if the Dolphins will have a top offense and/or defense? Or are you asking if the Dolphins who played the last game against the Steelers are better than the current roster?

IMO, the current roster is better.
IMO, hopefully there will be more improvements at Guard and defense.