Why is this player so liked??? Why is this pick often called a good one??? Why is he getting a pass?? I read one of the local beat writers who actually called the James pick....wonderful. I was checking his stats on PFF to make sure what I thought was correct. He ranked 80th out of 84 tackles in the league last year who had over 300 snaps. He led the league in QB hurries with 40 and his run blocking was atrocious. Only 4 guys out of 84 had worse run blocking scores. I really hated this pick and especially the fact that we offered 3rd to trade down and didn't take it. Now I really really hate this pick. Can any explain why this player and the pick in general are widely accepted as being good or decent, or in case of the delusional...wonderful???
as a rookie, i thought he did great playing RT, it was when albert went down and james had to play LT that he was mediocre.
After Albert went down he was out of position. Go please try and write with your opposite hand and see how that feels. Now imagine for 5 years straight you always played on the right side and then get switched to the Left. They should have left him at right and let Fox play LT like he had in the past. The entire line and offense struggled because of that move. He played really well when he was a RT. I can't wait to see him and Albert out there once again. Bookends are nice
Check James ranking after 8 games at RT at PFF then get back to us (that's week 9 in the boxes). Unlike what folks thought at first.......James is no LT. He's a RT all the way.
See what I mean?? One guy has him being good at RT and mediocre after moved to the left side and the other is saying things like,"he played really well when he was a RT,". Guys, there was nothing good or even mediocre about what James did last year. It was just plain bad.
Not sure that PFF stats are valid in grading the OL. They seem to get Guard, Tackle and Center assignments messed up and it messes up the rankings. I think the weak guard play from Pouncey, Billy Turner and Dallas Thomas must have carried into James' statistics because those don't look right, even for his time at LT.
And yet without PFF you didn't even know (FYI he was the 26th tackle while he was at RT). The guy was doing well at RT. He was just getting into his groove and bam the move to LT and the rest of the line going to crap affected him. Was too much to ask of the rookie.
1. He's definitely getting a pass from people based on a combination of fan optimism and good initial impressions. The latter is important to recognize as people tend to make flash judgments about a player based on early information and then they just never update their view of the guy despite a lot of new information coming in that contradicts. It's human nature. 2. That said he was +1.6 on PFF through 8 full games at right tackle, having allowed only 2 sacks, 6 hits and 11 hurries on 308 pass protection snaps. That was good for placement right in the middle of the NFL's starting offensive tackles in terms of pressure rate, which I would say is pretty good for a rookie right tackle. It's pretty clear that his downslide began the MOMENT they shifted him to a position he hasn't played since high school. Why they kept him there even after it became clear he wasn't handling it, I'll never know. But they chose to massively downgrade BOTH tackle spots rather than just suffering a downgrade at Branden Albert's spot post-injury.
This is just plain incorrect. He played well for the 8 games he played right tackle. Especially for a rookie. In fact he was the best of all the starting rookies in pressure rate. Better than Seantrel Henderson, Justin Britt and far better than Jake Matthews. Taylor Lewan was better (which doesn't surprise me at all) but he had only 119 snaps under his belt to that point.
Yes, he was worse on the left side but that doesn't translate into him playing really well, or that the pick was wonderful; far far from it.
I don't know what his career is going to bring. I don't know if he was destined to hit the famed "rookie wall" and see his play degrade in the 2nd half of the season regardless of whether he moved from right tackle to left tackle. What I do know is that he was very arguably the best rookie tackle in the NFL through Week 9 as a right tackle, and that his terrible play began almost on a snap for snap basis the moment the Dolphins shifted him to left tackle in place of Branden Albert. I also know he had not played left tackle since high school.
And how would you know? You needed PFF to tell you in the first place that he struggled somewhere. Your being told and basically sticking your head someplace uncomfortable and going "lalalalalala" as a response. Simply watching the games could tell you he was a nice upgrade at RT and then played poorly at left and couldn't handle it after 4 1/2 years at RT.
Hopefully they find a solid backup at LT to spot Albert when need be. No more mass shuffling guys along the line. Leave James at RT.
That is why I brought this issue up. I will be ticked off if they again presume that Albert will stay healthy. The Dolphins need to acquire their Starters in FA and use a high draft pick on a OT. Not a first but a 2nd or 3rd. Last year was catastrophic. I hated the Albert contract as well. We will be lucky if plays half the games the next few years.
Drafted RT steps in and performs well at RT. Sounds like he's good at what you drafted him to be good at. I disregard his performance at LT, because that's not what he was drafted to do.
Maybe you're right. But I'm not sure I agree. Maybe I'm just being disagreeable. But I see what happened along the Dolphins offensive line as a combination of bad circumstances and bad reactions to those circumstances. Bad circumstances are going to happen. In a limited resource environment, I think it's impossible to inocculate yourself completely against bad circumstances. The Dolphins made an acquisition last year during free agency of a free agent tackle Jason Fox who had played both left tackle and right tackle at the pro level, and arguably even played right tackle pretty well toward the end of 2013. You can argue the front office did the best they could that way with the limited resources at their disposal. The thing that CAN change and that SHOULD change is how you react to the bad circumstances. Miami reacted poorly. They moved Ja'Wuan James to a position he hasn't played since high school, kept him there even after it was obvious he struggled with it, and had Dallas Thomas play nearly the rest of the time at right tackle. This made the problem SO much worse than it really was. If you have a weakness at left tackle because your top-caliber player got hurt, you can deal with that. Put in the backup, scheme some help, and you can play around this issue. It's tough to play around the problem when you massively downgrade both tackle spots instead of just one. So let's not use a cannon to kill a mosquito, and overreact in the total other direction just because Joe Philbin made awful decisions. Fixing the awful decision-making should be easier than fixing a roster weakness that was dictated by the limited resource environment. So fix the awful decision-making first!
What canon? Albert isn't young anymore and he has serious durability issues. The Dolphins could even get lucky with a draft pick at the LT position and move Albert inside to LG which may have been his optimal position all along. There are far more reasons to doubt Albert's longevity than to believe in it. Moving inside may actually somehow prolong his career.
Albert has had injuries, but I've never been a fan of the injury prone label. He didn't get hurt last year because he's prone to it, any player would have had the same injury on the same play. It was a bad break. He's always had small nagging injuries that cost him a couple games, and honestly I'm fine with that.
Honestly.... Any Dolphin fan should not even have to look at PFF to know the James pick was a good one....unless you completely forgot the 2013 season. When Miami had Albert at LT and James at RT...Tannehill was able to have some semblance of a pocket, and when he didnt, it was most of the time due to pressure up the middle. You almost cant even judge how good they could have been....because it will only be this season we hopefully get to see Pouncey back at center, and our bookends back out where they belong. Just use your eyeballs....
PFF says the raiders are the best team in the redzone, why didn't the raiders win the superbowl, they are really good at scoring......
Love this post VT, It's like people think football now a days is all PFF. Don't get me wrong it's a great tool and site and very useful. But, basing your preference on James off his ratings is terrible. The guy was All-NFL Rookie Team at the midway point and then Albert went down. Agree with CK, after Fox proved he could play LT we should've transitioned James back as it was a struggle. But no rookie OT was asked to do more and to me he is a good player, not a liability. He will add strength which he will and it will improve his play especially in the run game. The comments on Albert are laughable as our offense was infinetly better with him and once he was out it limited our playbook capabilities. Part of that can be atrributed to the mess Dallas Thomas was at RT. His status for opening week may be in doubt but he will be back and very welcomed. In event he is out Week 1 or first couple weeks I'd like to see Fox resigned and at LT and leave Ju'Wan James at RT.
Well they probably should have just re-signed Bryant McKinnie to play left tackle and let James stay right where he was. Give Fox the first crack at the job because that's what you signed him for. But if he's not working out, call up McKinnie who definitely, definitely wanted to sign with Miami.
I agree the decision to move James from his natural spot was a terrible idea, not only could it have hurt his confidence but it took away 50% of his time developing where he will ultimately play. Factor I playing Pouncey at G where he struggled aswell?? What does this tell you about the guy making decisions who also is a former OL coach?? Keeping Tony Sparano that extra year made more sense than this.
Yes we need to draft an OT without durability issues who can sustain having a 300 lb man fall on his extended leg. Do they test for 300 lb men falling on your leg at the combine? We need the OT that did the best at that drill.
I guess I can understand the decision initially. But there was definitely a point where it had to be clear this was not going to work and at that point you've got to pull the plug. To what end would you keep pushing something that isn't working, hoping that James eventually "figures it out"? He's just going to move back to right tackle the following year. Same with Dallas Thomas. Why push him to keep starting at right tackle when A) it's not working, and B) next year he's just going back to guard when everyone's healthy? Their decision-making this way was atrocious. As someone who already wanted to see them fired based on past mistakes, it was actually kind of comical to watch.
My first thought last year as well. Hell why wasn't he a reserve OL all year? Probably spoke up a little too much the previous year.
I literally laughed out loud. James did really well for a rookie RT last season. Much, much better than anyone in 2013, and the line as a whole was really playing well (aside from when College played with a concussion) right up until the moment Albert was in the wrong place at the wrong time. All signs point to Albert working hard to get back to 100%, and he seems like a good guy and s stand up player who I trust to do that. The team essentially has no choice but to cross their fingers that he'll be back. Signing a vet backup would be smart, but we cannot waste reasources on a new starter.
I would think that some stats might be skewed because of the garbage that played next to him inside all year in terms of pass protection.
CK, sometimes I wonder what our staff's thought process and where their decision making comes from? No issues with giving James a try but once he is struggling give other options a shot. The Dallas Thomas situation is terrible one for the player and two for our QB, lol. D. Thomas was an All-SEC guard and two years ago when we drafted him looked like a smart pick to play the position. But, we tried him year one at OT didn't work. Well, let's play him at OG in preseason then injury comes and we force him back to OT where he still stinks. He is still cost effective and I'd like to see him get a legit shot to be an NFL OG regardless of starter level. It's not like OL is the only area they mess with. I would bet that if Ellerbe never got injured even with a poor performance would've never gotten replaced by Jenkins. Same with Wheeler after McCain lit up preseason and experts believe Jordan could exceed at SLB we don't make a change just to see no no no not the Philbin way. Please get these clowns our of South Beach, I'd gladly take Mangini if it has to come to that against this staff.
Yes and I'm sure if I had a handy little GIF maker I could come up with approximately 74 pass plays (at the least) that make either Ja'Wuan James, Dallas Thomas or Jason Fox look bad as well. That's the point though. Instead of downgrading one position from Branden Albert to Bryant McKinnie, they downgraded two positions. They went from Branden Albert to Ja'Wuan James (who was much worse in 2014 at left tackle than Bryant McKinnie was at left tackle in 2013) and they downgraded from Ja'Wuan James at right tackle to Dallas Thomas at right tackle. So post four individual GIFs if you think that's a significant point to make in this discussion, but I really don't consider it such.
Just use your eyeballs is right, James was just fine at RT last year, his natural position. He struggled at LT, that shouldn't come as all that big of a surprise. Jason Fox should have been at LT, James left alone at RT and Dallas Thomas should have been playing arena ball.
