https://www.lockedondolphins.com/dolphins/kenyan-drake-is-a-five-course-meal/
Fun write up, excellent detail, and accurate imo.
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He's the guy the national media is completely sleeping on, he's going to be the 2nd main reason why this team shuts their pieholes.
Ryan hasn't even really played with this guy full time, Ryan is going to love him.
there are very few backs that you can legitimately flex out wide and have them run a good route and cleanly catch the football, there are few backs you can have run a quick slant, catch the ball with his hands chest high and still be in a full stride, its not just his hands that are good when catching the ball, he has a unique ability to have a smooth gait when the ball is in the air, Ive seen him catch a 60 yard bomb in full stride with his hands on a perfect pass, meaning he could of easily cradled it, but he didn't, he had the confidence to catch it with his hands in stride..That may not sound like much, but it is when looking at how naturally a back can catch the ball far away from the LOS..legit flexed weapon.
I see a Marshall Faulk comparison in his future, I really do.
Let's talk about the spin move this kid can execute at a high level, its really one of the most talented things a player can do on a field.He does it with great ease, just like Faulk did, and with his confidence continuing to grow, look for again and again..
Outside zone stuff He's got a bead on, he sees it and he explodes, inside stuff he's got great footwork and a jumpcut to continue to master that part of the game..
He's been taking his body seriously since entering the league and is now probably around 215, he got his man body, and with that speed that he possesses, shoot.
easily a 1500 yard total back with an outside chance at 2,000 total.
and once again, wait til Ryan gets a hold of this kid behind him..talk about a QB's best friend, Drake has excellent timing in his option routes, he knows when to release and be available.
of yeah, stats....here's two....his yards after contact is the best in football, and his CAREER ypc is better than Todd Gurley..
Give him a better oline which we def have, and a consistent Ryan Tannehill who won't allow defenses to stack the box and he makes that 2,000 total yards pretty attainable.
I think your looking at a household name after the season.danmarino, Surfs Up 99, resnor and 1 other person like this. -
I love Drake, he has become my favorite player on this team on offense. My only concern is his durability. Can he handle a full 16 game season and possibly playoffs? Is he going to get injured? Obviously it can happen to any player on the field at any moment so in all reality that one concern is really out of his hands. That IS basically, the only concern I have. Otherwise I see him as a dual threat that can easily attain 2,000 yards as a runner/receiver. We absolutely need him to stay healthy so I do expect Gore to get his fair share of touches when necessary.
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Some shoes to fill cause Marshall Faulk was the best player in football for a couple years there with the rams. One year he was absolutely rediculous.
And scheme/tempo of play wasn’t doing a lot of the driving.Last edited: Jul 10, 2018Irishman and GARDENHEAD like this. -
He’s got that posture when he runs that reminds me of Faulk, hands are there, speed is there, Drake has a hell of jump cut in his reportoir, they say Faulk was the smartest guy in the field at all times..I heard drake talk about understanding concepts so that was a positive thing. -
I think the Faulk comparison is there for two reasons. One is style in that they're both versatile backs who can hurt you on the ground or as a receiver. I personally believe that Drake is as good as Faulk was as a runner. But Faulk was arguably the goat as a receiver. Drake shows talent as a receiver but has a long way to go to have that nuanced understanding of the passing game that Faulk had. The second reason for their comparison is the system. Gase has a ton of Martz concepts in his system. They will probably want to use Drake very similarly to how Faulk was used.
I'm not as confident as Travis that Gase wants to use Drake as a bell cow though. I think he wants to split the carries among all three backs eventually. I think he hasn't in the past b\c he hasn't had a #2 he trusted. But I think he trusts Gore.Surfs Up 99 and djphinfan like this. -
I really like Drake, and it was so perplexing to me why Gase seemingly refused to give him the ball and let him show what he could do until he was absolutely forced to. Is that on Drake for practicing poorly? He seems to be a smart guy with a good head on his shoulders, so that seems unlikely. Is it on Gase, for being pig headed about something? Either way, hopefully that's in the past.
But if you look at the numbers he put up once he was given an opprotunity last season, they look really good. If you start with the game vs Oakland and go from there, he averaged 68.8 yards rushing and 25.8 yards receiving in the final nine games - four of which were a time share with Damien Williams. That would average out to 1101 yards rushing and 413 yards receiving, for a total of 1514 yards from scrimmage over an entire season. And he did that while averaging over 5 yards per carry. To me, that should serve as the baseline of expectations for the coming year, should he stay healthy. Those are numbers very similar to what Lesean McCoy and Melvin Gordon put up last season, but with a much better YPC.
Now, if you start from the Denver game, when he became the primary RB, and go from there, he averaged 88.8 yards rushing and 30 yards receiving the final five games. That would average out to 1421 yards rushing and 480 yards receiving, for a total of 1901 yards from scrimmage over an entire season. That would have led the league in rushing last season, and been in the top three for yards from scrimmage. They're very similar to what Zeke Elliot put up in 2016.
Now, Drake will be splitting carries to a degree with Gore and Ballage of course. But on the pace that he was on, he would have less than 250 carries over a full season, and the league average last season was 430 per team.resnor likes this. -
But then in his final season with the Colts, once Peyton Manning was the QB, and his first three with St Louis, he was amazing. He put up 8992 yards over four seasons. Let that sink in. And he missed five games to injury in that span! He averaged 152 yards from scrimmage over four seasons. One game like that is cause for celebration, and he kept that up over 59 of them. And scored 69 touchdowns to boot.
Thats a really high standard to live up to! -
It’s too high a standard frankly.
That level durability and that level production.
Faulk needed someone to take full advantage of his skill set. He found it in St. Louis.
And I think ballage is gonna play more than many anticipate. I’m expecting line change like usage of the skill players just by possession.
Heavy rotation. And that’s fine by me cause I’ve never bought into drake being able to physically handle a heavy load.
Split it up. Ideal world assuming ballage can earn it 60/40 drake and ballage with gore getting scraps at this stage.
I think we are in for a ton of package and situational play usage and rotation in 2018 on both sides of the ball.
Tempo will require it assuming we can stick with it.KeyFin likes this. -
If I had to guess, I'd say that Drake gets around 40-60% of the carries, Gore gets 25-30% and everyone else gets whatever is left. You have to remember though that Landry is gone and Gase is not going to give up on those short screens, so that should benefit Drake to some degree as well. I'd be pretty shocked if he doesn't accumulate 1,500 all-purpose yards this season.
However, I haven't kept up with Gore and I have no idea how much gas he has left in the tank- he might surprise us and end up as the RB1. Even if that's the case though I still think Drake gets his # called more just due to age, hands, and home run ability.Surfs Up 99 likes this. -
Big decision making year for Parker and Drake IMHO. I feel Drake will be more the everdown back and Gore goaline situational running back unless he’s super healthy. Also depend on opponents but Gore will see more playtime against AFC East opposition
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Going to be a lot of disappointed Dolphins fans if they expect stardom out of Drake. He's good, but he's not an all-around back, nor can he carry the load (and he won't need to).
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I reserve film clips for X&O chatter, everything else is just pointless forum banter. -
Personally, I think Drake did well behind crappy run blocking. I believe that the run blocking this year will be better and Drake will benefit from it. Ideally, I think he should get 55-60% of the RB touches. Gore (35%) and Ballage (10%) will get the remainder, depending on the situation of course. -
Needs more experience/knowledge reading defenses, and being more decisive and setting up defenders in zone runs.
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Drake can improv well when a play breaks down or is beginning to, but quick decision making is an area that he needs to improve to be a more consistent back.Last edited: Jul 18, 2018 -
I wouldn't say that he can't handle more carries though, and honestly I'd use him EXACTLY how we did last season. He's a very good blocker anyway so I'd give him a dozen or so hand-offs a game and be happy with what he digs out. Because even if he matches those last 7-8 games last year with limited carries, Drake is going to be in the conversation to lead the league in rushing.
Don't mess with a good thing- that's my opinion. -
I expect the norm, which is a regression to his mean, and not the peak level which he finished the '17 season with.KeyFin likes this. -
Don't forget, he was LAYING PEOPLE OUT of passing downs last year! Basically, he was run blocking like a tackle would handle a LB...just firing off and knocking the crap out of whoever penetrated. I swear that was my absolute favorite part of the entire season. -
Carmen Cygni likes this.
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He's got a chance to learn off one of the best though - if Gore can't teach him, no-one can.
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I absolutely love Drake. I too think he is a rising star, but reading the tea leaves, I think we may be in store for more Frank Gore than we may realize. I already get the sense that Gore is a Gase guy and a huge culture guy. I have a strange feeling that those two "skillsets" could result in playing time.
I also get flashbacks to Lamar Miller and how the coaches didn't want to overwork him. I always hear the "knock" as to how he was never a full time back, but in fairness to Drake, he played at Alabama behind a Heisman winner. My guess is that he could have won a Heisman there too had he been the lead back.
I certainly advocate using Gore, and I think there should be more thought into what situations/playcalling we have Drake on the field for. Sometimes, I just don't think Gase knows what his players can/cannot do. I cringed every time Gase put Drake in for short yardage plays. Simply put, he is not a move the pile/break a lot of tackles in close space type of guy. I always thought that Williams was way better than him at that. I am hoping that Ballege can cut his teeth in that role.
I have always thought of Drake like a lottery ticket. If you keep buying the ticket or handing him the ball, it is eventually going to pay off with a jackpot 40 yard run. Moreover, I would continually try to give Drake the ball in space - this is where he is at his best. In my mind, he should be catching more screen passes in order to try to hit more of those jackpots.resnor likes this. -
IMO, assuming health, Drake's season goes one of two ways. He is either the bell cow and has a monster season. Or Gase splits his carries with Gore and eventually Ballard. The arguments for scenario one are that Gase has usually had a bell cow back and Drake is far more talented than Gore (and Ballard is a rookie). The arguments for the second scenario are that Gase soured on having one back after Ajayi and he's never had a #2 he could trust as much as Gore.
My guess is that Drake's floor this season (assuming health) is about 1000 yds rushing and 400 rec. His ceiling is north of 2000 yds from scrimmage.Last edited: Jul 22, 2018 -
Watching Lamar Miller try to beat a guy one-on-one in open space is like watching Devante Parker trying to make a tackle or Jarvis Landry on a go route. Freaking frustrating.rafael likes this. -
Hard to argue what's being said about Miller concerning running into contact or not shaking the 2nd level defender.
I will somewhat reiterate, in that, he had a consistent knack of being able to find the correct lane, and get vertical quickly into the 2nd level. Miller always ran with a very respectable y/c, though often not being able to break intermediate to longer runs as it appeared he should. Almost as though he would get tunnel vision after breaking the LOS.Last edited: Jul 23, 2018Hoops likes this. -
Lamar Miller didn’t change, what changed is that Houston used him a lot more than the Phins did, so he faced many more Ds stacked against ten run in Houston, while here Lazor used him as an afterthought so opposing Ds didn’t focus on him.Carmen Cygni and djphinfan like this.