Agreed Jaj. Starks looked amazing a few years ago for us and it seems we haven't used him the same way since (smart coaching). Burnett and Dansby may be too similar, with neither being physical enough to dominate the LOS. More side to side run chasers, pass drop guys, or read and react and make the tackle a few yards upfield. Rarely see either explode into the hole to meet a running back.
It's not just that, but that Olshansky offers some pass rush and is a half decent replacement NT so it's a good move. At some point Miami has to get a little more creative with their personnel. Simply said Burnett is a good player and so is Dansby but clearly something is wrong and they can't play like it. My wild guess is that when Soliai is off the field Dansby and Burnett are getting exposed for not being truly stout run thumpers up the middle. Burnett is getting it every play behind Starks. I don't like how they're using these guys and it's the same thing Houston saw when they were getting blown up the middle by Donald Thomas. Miami is just getting too weak against the run when they try to put Starks-Odrick and players like that up the middle to get pressure on the quarterback from the spot Paul Soliai should be playing. I'll tell you what if Burnett were protected the same way Thomas was in 06 and Dansby were in Donnie Spragan's OLB role we'd be fine.
I read earlier that McD had a cast put on his hand, and it was uncertain if he would try to or be able to play with it. Looks like we have the answer.
How stupid. Keep Mastrud and Yeatman over Rosario. Dumb dumb dumb. Sorry for not being up on all the cool nicknames, but who is CC9?
Olshansky can bolster the run defense but he is not going to be much of a pass rusher. He only had 1.5 over the past two seasons in Dallas.
You also have to figure he's being game planned. Seven sacks by a defensive lineman is a big number; I'm not surprised at the drop off since. Guy is still fantastic, though.
WTF.. we didn't even try to use Rosario at all in the games. That sucks. Why wouldn't we at least give him a shot.
Could be Rosario is injured Mr C, we are the second team to pass on him in a month. CC9=Charles Clay #9 He figures to takeover some of the H-Back duties Mastrud had, possibly even play some running back as well. Hopefully he can add to the RZ offense.
I wouldn't ask Olshansky to be a pass rusher. If anything I'd ask to him to be the pinch NT and backup LE. He probably will still get more of a pass rush than Soliai on third downs but hold his own against the run. Why is Yeatman still on the roster? Starks isn't really being game-planned against. I think he's getting washed out against the run though. He should simply be asked to penetrate off the snap.
Holy cow this regime has a stiffy for DEs!!! I wish they displayed this type of desire for a #2 TE or FS. Well, that's my initial reaction at least upon reading the thread title.
I didn't read through everyone's posts yet (so I'm sorry if I'm duplicating here) but this either reeks of desperation or is a strategic attempt to light a fire under our Dline's arse at the expense of Rosario. We already know this Dline can play at a very high level against great teams, so IMO having to sacrificing Dante to bring in Oshansky for motivational purposes absolutely sucks. It could end up being a good move since we DESPERATELY need our Dline right now, but it still sucks nonetheless.
IMO, it isn't lighting any fires under DL asses. It is not wanting to use McD while his hand is injured, and wanting to upgrade over what we have for the running down snaps that McD gets. I thought they'd just move Ryan Baker up to take the McD snaps, but for some reason they chose to do more than that. We may still see Baker play and Igor inactive this week though.
Now hold up a second though VO, there has been a DefCord change since then Pasqualoni may have been asking the DE's to do very different things then Nolan's D requires.
Any thoughts on what a team that put 4 semi DTs on the field would look like? LE- Odrick DT- Starks NT- Soliai RE- Langford Could you downsize in the secondary and blitz from god knows where at that point? Can you really run on that formation (making you very one-dimensional).
Would not surprise me if we see something like that vs Cleveland, with JT/Misi/Burnett/Wake playing LB.
Well Dansby being out means you have to improvise. I would try playing Burnett in the role of a protected ILB covering the whole field with Wake roaming around pre-snap, Misi next to Burnett on the strong side of the play. You underman the LBers but I'll tell you what if you can force the other team to stop running the ball just because of your DL that's an advantage by itself. A lot of these NFL tackles haven't faced large defensive linemen in a long time. I'm wondering how a guy Joe Thomas would do against Randy Starks. The idea basically is if I can stop you just because my four linemen are that strong at the point (three two-gappers and a strong interior pass rusher), you're going to have a heck of a difficult day trying to run. Cleveland will fall apart completely if Hillis faced that kind of formation. It's not like DTs can be moved by adding a fullback or a tight end. These guys are mammoths. There won't be an outside run game, the inside run will be very difficult to force and you'll need a FB. You can go nickel formation all you like but I'm going to keep forcing you to play me the same way with my defensive linemen ready to collapse the pocket.
Only problem with that is you are going to get zero pass rush and ask Wake and Misi to drop into coverage. You are daring people to pass on you while making your pass defence suck. Not a very good idea imho. I'm at the stage where I don't give a crap about stopping the run, this is a passing league and QB's are having a field day against us right now. What's the point on loading up to stop the run when you can't stop the pass?
On this season's showing so far, Thomas will be just fine. These guys have also provided nothing rushing the QB this year, I don't care who the QB is but if you give him time in the NFL then you will get shredded. Personally I'd be horrified if we came out in that formation, McCoy would have a career day. I'd be inclined to play Misi in the old Crowder role, i.e. a thumper in the middle and let Burnett roam sideline to sideline. If we really want to stop the run then play Alama-Francis on the strong side and Wake on the weak side.
Not really... The Bears ran a similar 4-3 years ago and their SLB in Roosevelt Colvin wasn't in coverage very often and had 10.5 sacks. Regardless the better suggestion was the one where Misi plays Crowder's role, Dansby shifts outside to a traditional 4-3 SLB, Burnett plays a protected ILB behind Soliai and Wake roams as he pleases (with Taylor his backup) similar to 2006. We let Starks play one-gap and use these players to their strengths. That doesn't even mention the fact that Misi can disguise a blitz and as a former DE is very hard to stop on a blitz. I'm all for the Misi shift inside.
I recall he played end in their nickel package and he spells his first name Rosevelt, not like the ex presidents who spell it with two o's
It is moves like this that makes me believe Ireland has absolutely no idea how to build a winning organization. For some reason he continued to sign former Cowboys who were not good enough to make the Cowboys roster. If the Cowboys had been a playoff team the last few seasons, these moves might make sense. The fact is that the Cowboys have been just as bad as the Dolphins, if not worse over the last three seasons. Signing these players who couldn't even make the Cowboys roster, continues to show how inept Ireland is as an NFL GM.
Injured?? How'd he pass a physical before being signed then? How was he not on an injury report and played in the last game?
This is some type of record. Stop me if you heard this one before... "So the Dolphins signed two former Cowboys..."
After the first two games, PFF ranks Starks as our best DL, 6th overall 3-4 DE, and the best run defense 3-4 DE in the league, and ranks Langford as the worst 3-4 DE in the league.
Speculating on the release of players that didn't see any playing time is an exercise in futility IMO. Nobody has any idea what Rosario is about or what he did with the team. Too many factors at play that we aren't aware of.
I like Jones and Igor...I'm much more comfortable rolling out Smith/Allen on the boundary with Jones inside VS Smith/Caroll with Allen inside but who else is hurt on the DL that we sign Olshansky ?
Nate Jones' Cowboys connection is so far removed it's laughable for media to even bring it up. He spent 2 yrs in Miami and one in Denver since he was last with the Cowboys. Why not say former Dolphin or former Bronco instead? Olshanaky getting cut was a surprise. He was a full time starter the past two seasons and played pretty well, especially in 2009. I think the Cowboys thought there wasn't enough difference between him and guys like Coleman and Hatcher, and they were cheaper. The cut a lot of guys the last month or so, due to salary cap issues.
Not really...Nate Jones was a product of the first wave of Cowboy rejects. They just recycled it. Truth is that Nate Jones, as good as he was the first time around, would not have been here if he were not a Cowboy first. One of the sad little nuances of this regime.
MrClean mentioned the Colvin moving to DE thing, but it's also worth mentioning that the Bears had a 300 pound guy who could be a threat as an edge rusher in Phillip Daniels. Those are pretty rare. You've got guys like Kevin Carter, Trevor Pryce, etc., but then you've got guys like Richard Seymour who can't do it.
This is like the 9th time it's been said in the post, and it's not getting any more funny or truthful. Neither of these players played for any of our coaches in Dallas. Do you have any argument that they aren't operating under the good faith assumption that these aren't the best players on the market available at the position?
Sparano is incompetent, all the desperate moves in the book won't change his ability to screw up the team.
