Well, 0-4, it is what it is, however here are some positives: -Daniel Thomas is still the leading rusher among rookie running backs, he is 17 yds or so ahead of mark Ingram..and he has missed 2 games, his 20.5 carries per game is the most in the NFL. -Clyde Gates, leads the NFL in kick off return yardage at 332 yds, Ted Ginn is #2 in the NFL with 309 yds -YBell is 5th in the NFL in tackles -Pouncey is ranked in the top of PFF's Center rankings To me, the last missing piece from the 2011 draft class is Charles Clay, if he steps up then the class has to be viewed as a success as 3 rookies coming into the NFL and making an impact on the offense is something unheard of in recent Dolphins history./
Yep. And when we get Andrew Luck we may actually be able to make use of those guys. (You knew I had to do it Pad)
I can't imagine that this is a good thing. How much is he averaging per kick? Because it seems as if he just runs straight into the gut the majority of the time.
22 ypa on 15 attempts or so. Does seem weird because he generally does not make it out to the 20, but he tries to return everything. Hard to believe DTrain is doing THAT well among Rookies, I was a large Ingram fan but DT seems to be able to get it done.
I really want to see Steve Slaton play well, coupled with DT, that would give us a 1-2 punch that will take a lot of heat off of MMoore.
The yards dont matter, the average does for gates. Kickers arent afraid to kick to him. No shiftyness, just straight speed, and thats not getting him much yet as a kick returner. Hopefully he grows and gets better.
Well, to me Slaton has some Ced Benson in him, without being drunk or mauling his..err.. "roommate", change of scenery could do wonders for him. As for Clyde Gates, I do not mind him returning nearly every kickoff, he has the speed to make something happen, I do not mind aggressiveness in players who have the skill to make something happen, Pat Cobbs or Nolan Carroll...not so much.
Same thing was said of Ginn though, and it is still true today, Ginn has one move, start in the middle, veer right and outrun everyone...and it still works!
well, that 2nd kick return against the jets he made like 9 friggin moves, looked like neon deon.....just didnt see it again after that
Cam Wake missed his initial block on that second one and "the mouse" still managed to get out of the corner! A pity Gates does not handle punts, he has that 2k all purpose yard potential that I like in a role player.
Gates also has 3 PRs for 32 yard, including a 17 yarder. He has made some bad decisions on KOs but, it's hard to fault him for wanting to make a play. He will learn. I'm more impressed with him as a WR. I know he has only one catch for 8 yards but, he is getting open deep. The connections will come. And we cannot forget Little Jimmy Wilson.
Problem with Wilson is he is probably playing to much SB, keep in mind he missed a yr of football, then played safety his senior yr, he is 3 yrs removed from playing Cb at an All American level, but at a small college program. With Nolan Carroll not practicing supposedly due to injuries, chances are good he will play even more.
Imagine what it will do to Gates stats when he actually breaks one .Ginn is second because he did break a couple.
Daniel Thomas performance has been very encouraging. Mike Pouncey's performance has been very encouraging. Jimmy Wilson has shown some things. But I'd hold off on thinking you know where these guys' careers are going to go. Montario Hardesty looked promising in CLE but can't stay healthy (same as in college). Ryan Torain keeps looking promising in Washington but also keeps ending up playing second fiddle to guys like Hightower and maybe down the road, Helu. Durability is so important at that position and right now Daniel is not showing it. Who knows about down the road, we'll see. Nolan Carroll looked very promising as a rookie, I'd say as promising as Jimmy Wilson. Now, he's the goat of the secondary (aside from Reshad Jones maybe). Clyde Gates...the return yardage is irrelevant. Either we've played a run of kickers that don't have the leg to consistently boot it out the back of the end zone, or even worse, teams aren't afraid to directional kick it a little bit so they can try and get us down behind the 20 yard line. Either way his average is bad. We should have kept Phil Livas on the roster. That was a rookie worth keeping, but they botched it. Charles Clay had a nice catch over the middle in this last game. I look forward to seeing if he can do more.
I don't think Gates is going to break one unless the blocking is exceptional on the play and then he can just put on the afterburners...much like Ginn. Although at this stage of his career, Ginn appears to have improved as a returner to where he might be able to create some things on his own. Gates isn't as good.
I want to see Jimmy Wilson playing more. He seems like he's the only one on this team who can pick the ball off.
Et tu Boik? Climbing aboard the SFL bandwagon already huh? You know, when we ended up tied with the Colts for worst record and then lose the coin flip, there are sure gonna be a lot of guys around here who'll need some personal intervention, so they stay off high ledges, away from medicine cabinets and avoid sharp objects.
I'm thinking next year might be time to think about moving Sean Smith to safety. I was against it his rookie year, against it his second year, and against it this year...because he's just too new to the defensive side of the football. But, he's not new to this anymore, and they've been getting him experience playing dime safety and covering Tight Ends. He's improved as a tackler tremendously. He could be a baked-in answer at that Free Safety position. Teams are loving the idea nowadays of having a Free Safety with great hips that can drop down into single coverage. I refuse to believe that he doesn't have an inner ball hawk hiding somewhere inside him. He might just be playing the wrong position for it to come out. When he had all those dropped INTs in one game against the Jets, it seemed to me he had a bunch of them while he was playing his dime safety role. Jimmy Wilson MIGHT end up our slot corner. He's being trained there. By the end of the year I would start experimenting with Sean Smith at Free Safety and Jimmy Wilson in the slot, and you can put Will Allen on the outside along with Vontae Davis. Then again, that might make the secondary too good and ruin our chances of Andrew Luck, lol. Walking the tight rope.
Even if we do the things I suggest in the secondary, we need a new strong safety. I'd also consider moving the Dolphins to more of a 4-3 but with a Bandit End setup. They would need a new Bull (5-Technique). They would also need a new Mike. I'm sure between Langford, Starks, Soliai and McDaniel, they've got the DT positions covered. Dansby should be a Sam and Burnett should be a Will. It might be square pegs in round holes trying to get those two to man the middle of a 3-4 defense. You pick up a good Corner prospect (and keep Will Allen, consummate veteran, when healthy), a good Mike, a good 5-Technique, and a Strong Safety...you have the makings of potentially a good defense...with decent depth. But then you have to worry about the offense, which needs at least two new OLs, some backup TEs (though, I still don't believe overkill is necessary), a new RB to pair with Daniel Thomas, and of course...a QB.
The way Sean Smith tackles, I don't think moving him to safety is going to make the secondary any better. At this point I'd just like to see Clemons back as the starter. The SFL crowd should pray Reshad stays there though.
Surprisingly, to me, Carey is moving up the PFF guard rankings, due to his run blocking tying him for 9th overall in that area. He is 4th worst pass blocking guard though and leads the league for guards in QB hits allowed, with 5. He is 37th overall guard and Richie, btw, is 55th.
I've actually been thinking that Jimmy Wilson would make a great move to free safety. I really like his ball skills, and I'm not so high on Sean Smith's ball skills right now. I do think Smith is going to eventually have to move to safety because he's going to end up getting lost in the shuffle at cornerback. I like the idea of going to a 4-3 defense. Something is telling me that our front office and coaching staff has miscast Karlos Dansby as a 3-4 inside linebacker. Out in Arizona, he played in both the 4-3 and 3-4, but I think they moved him around more than what Miami has. The result is that he had something like 26 sacks, 10 interceptions, several passes defensed, forced fumbles, and was in general a play maker. This year, he has essentially done nothing, and I think in the 3-4, it forces him to have to take on blockers too often, which is a weakness of his. To me, Dansby would be the perfect SLB in a 4-3, and if you choose to bring Burnett back, he would be an ideal WLB.
Sean Smith's tackling is a favorite topic for people to complain about it but it's a hell of a lot better than people imply. As a free safety he's not necessarily charged with knocking a guy cold in his tracks for no yards after contact. He's just got to get the guy down. The guy has 2 missed tackles this year and 4 last year. PFF records 60 solo tackles over that time period. Of the 80 safeties that had 20+ solo tackles last year, that ratio is better than 57 of them. Only 21 of them have a better ratio. Was he a bad tackler as a rookie? Yes. Has he significantly improved in 2010 and 2011? Absolutely. The tackling with him is just one of those red herring things people like to talk about. He's not my favorite defender to have out on the perimeter against a bubble screen but he's not going to miss many tackles.
Actually Ginn has broken just 1 off as a kick returner his other touchdown/big play was as a punt returner Ginns average per kickoff return is 34.3 yards per return and Gates is at 22.1 yards per return Gates lead the NFL with 15 returns Ginn only has 9 returns ... If Ginn had the extra 6 returns he would be blowing Gates away in total yardage
More a funtion of teams scoring on us plenty and kicking off to us a lot rather than Gates being a stud return man. I'll take Ted Ginn and his 2 TDs.
The key is to have a guy who can break a couple of long returns, "if" Henne picked up 10 yds vs the Browns, Gates' return would have been huge. That is the problem with Carroll or even Cobbs, yeah they'd have a 24 ypa, but their long was 35 yds or something, you keep feeding the speedster and sooner or later, they will land a punch and take it to the house.
The question then becomes do they continue with the 3 Wr/40 attempts per game passing offense, or do they pivot and use DT and Slaton and Co more? Matt Moore is one of those Qb's who has a short memory, he will chuck the rock as often as he can, toss it up and let the Wr's make plays, but to me, the O's strength is more in the Rb corps, this is Dabolls' problem to fix.
I would like to see Jones get a shot at SS this year to see what he can do. I would also like to see Wilson get a look at FS. I still like Smith at CB. I've seen more communication problems this year than coverage problems.
Agreed, Smith was terrible in his rookie season at tackling but, when he put on ten pounds of muscle, before his second year, he became good at it. Some fans have not updated their opinions.
I thought it was a very good draft at the time and continue to believe that. There were a couple of QBs I liked in the draft, but the way it broke I wouldn't have taken any of them. The way it broke wasn't a big surprise either. I said before the draft that while there were some QBs I liked that I would not be surprised if they were over drafted. And I didn't think they were good enough to trade up for. I thought that the QB draft we wanted to be in was the coming one, so I wanted them to fill in the other priorities in this draft and not lose (waste) any of our future picks. I didn't expect to be in the race for Luck, but I thought we'd have a shot at one of the other potential franchise guys in that draft.
We still will have a shot at a Jones or Moore or whomever, I, like you, feel this team is to talented to go winless or have 1 or 2 wins. My hope is, if Sparano is fired, that at least he does a Mangini at the Jets type of job and has units sorted out before he is gone.
This might be true but I watched him on the goal line against san diego wuss out..Will the other skiils make up for this nature?, maybe at safety..
Ill only argue that , the above scenario can still take place with 3 or 4 other QBs as well. I mean...seriously...if we HAD to suck again....THIS was was the year to do it...no doubt!!!
My biggest reason for being on the Suck for Luck train is that we are going to be bad. Under any other circumstance I'd be perfectly fine with Barkley or Jones. But if we're going to be really bad, which it appears we are, let's get the big prize for once.
I think we have talent, but so does Minny and I think we're the top two teams in the Luck race at the moment. I'll never root for us to lose, but without Henne and how that defense is playing I can't say that there's no way we don't end up with the top pick. I've talked a lot about how winning in the NFL is all about passing and stopping the pass. Right now we're the opposite of that. We have a non-franchise quality QB that didn't take many snaps in the system, a one player pass rush and very poor FS safety play. I like the pieces we added in the draft and some of what we have in place. I think the core positions in the current NFL are QB, LT, C, #1 WR and TE on offense and Pass rusher, NT and S on defense. I feel we have 5 of the 8 (LT, C, #1 WR, Pass rusher and NT). I think we need the QB, TE and S. I also like some of the complementary pieces we have in Thomas, Bess, Hartline, Gates, Fasano, Dansby, Starks, Odrick, Smith, Davis and Wilson.
