There is Zero reason why Fox should not be starting at tackle ovet Dallas Thomas..Put Fox in at LT..THOMAS at LG....POUNCE at C, SMITH or TURNER at RG, and JAMES at RT. This I feel would be our best OL option available for the rest of the year...Turner, Thomas, and Smith could compete for the guard positions to finish the year. I do wonder though why when Albert went down they did'nt Try Billy Turner at his natural LT position...makes no sense.
I think it's more of an indictment on the coaches. For me, at some point you say "This guy has been so poor, let's just see what we have." They have actual game film of Fox at least showing some level of competency as a LT. I think it's pure ignorance from Philbin and/or Benton. I hope it gets him fired. There is zero reason to not be giving reps to someone else at that spot after that game.
what message does it send to the team? it's like going into a gun fight with a knife. not even giving ourselves a chance smh/
Either the coach knows something we don't and Thomas will play better, our rhe guy really does just hate Tannehill enough to cut his career short.
now now,.... the coaches are always right! I think there is some part of them that just can't admit they might be wrong about a player. Why are Fox and Garner on the team?
Might be what it says about this coaching staff and their inexplicable attachment to certain players (See. Nanee, Legedu)
Smh. The coaches are at practice every day, they have a much better idea of who can do what than me or you. If Fox was a better option he'd be playing. How about giving some credit to Dumervil, Miller and Williams? They're oustanding pass rushers and I'm pretty sure they'd have made anyone we have available look bad.
I don't think any option at RT is viable at the moment, but Thomas is still young and he might grow. Fox and Garner have hit their ceilings already.
It was this way with Jeff Ireland. I remember that every time the Dolphins won it had a bittersweet quality. You get to celebrate on gameday but then the next day you remember that the win prolongs Ireland's existence as the General Manager, and unless the team really is on the path of championships and/or contention then the win is going to feel useless at some future point and you're just going to wish he would be fired. But with Ireland you could always step back and say listen, things are going to play out how they're going to play out, he's a bad General Manager and he WILL shoot himself in the foot...because he's a bad General Manager. It's what he does. Even if he blunders into favorable circumstances temporarily and/or a favorable public rating, if you're correct that he's a bad GM then he's going to screw it up and you know that. I was quite confident that Ireland would screw up whatever positive sentiment he'd gained for himself in the 2013 offseason when everyone was hailing him. Similar with Joe Philbin. You know he's going to find a way to screw up, because he's a bad coach and that's what bad coaches do. So enjoy the wins even if they delay the inevitable, because losses will be forthcoming. Sure enough, Joe always finds a way to screw it all up. I mean, we came off the Denver loss and I was genuinely enthused about where this team is and could be if they made the right moves. I said it was straight up URGENT that they address the OL because what they're doing is not good enough and they have an opportunity to make it right, get into the playoffs, and maybe even go on a run. I don't like Mike Pouncey at right guard. I was a vocal critic of that move back when everyone was talking about how smart it was. I don't like Daryn Colledge at left guard. And Dallas Thomas shouldn't even be on the roster let alone on the field on Sundays. Get Pouncey back to center, get Shelley Smith in full time at LG, then figure out the LT-RT and RG positions in the way that makes the most sense. That could have meant signing Bryant McKinnie to man the LT position and bringing JaWuan James back to play his best position at RT, then having Billy Turner man the RG spot. It could have meant keeping James at LT and having Billy Turner play RT, then having Garner, Satele or Colledge try their hand at RG. It could have meant having Jason Fox play RT and then having Billy Turner play RG. My faith in the coaches to make those decisions is running low, but it's not empty...so I would allow them some discretion on how to attack this. But what I knew then and know now is that Shelley Smith should be in over Daryn Colledge, that Dallas Thomas should be off the field, and that Mike Pouncey should be playing center. If they'd made the right moves and shaken up the OL then they could be gelling right about now in time to make a run. And it wouldn't matter because even before they gel, they'd be playing better than the James-Colledge-Satele-Pouncey-Thomas line. But...you can always count on Philbin to sabotage the team. And he did.
Speaking of which, what the hell ever happened to Turner? And I for one would have thought bringing back McKinnie once Albert went down would've been a smart move. At least bring him in for a workout. Or somebody.
@JamesWalkerNFL #Dolphins HC Joe Philbin on RT Dallas Thomas: "I thought he did some good things." Philbin also acknowledged Thomas had bad plays. @AbramsonPBP Philbin on Dallas Thomas: Theres 50 some odd plays in the game. People focus on the bad ones. He's done some good things and against the run Hey Joe, we focus on the ones that cost us the game. You should probably focus on them too since they're going to cost you your job.
The problem is not Thomas in vacuum. Lazor left that offense out there on an island, pass after pass after pass, and the D teed off. Thomas is serviceable considering GM has not done better, and Thomas has played well when the game is more balanced.
if I'm to believe this to be true, then you should have a problem with hickey for not having anyone on the roster that can challenge this level of poor play.. check this out though, coaches coach, they don't always make the best personal decisions..see jon martin..see tyson Clabo..see signing eric steinbach.
Crazy. I mean this guy is not even a backup quality player, he shouldn't even be on an NFL roster. There has to be a guy on a couch somewhere that could come in here on Sunday and give us more than Thomas.
He has no idea how many good plays there should be in relation to bad plays for a professional football players. It's true that you can't just pull up one bad play for an OL and make it a referendum on his ability. But it's even MORE true that you can't just pull up one good play and do the same. The good plays should outnumber the bad plays 12-to-1, at a minimum. More like 20-to-1. Dallas Thomas has the worst pass blocking efficiency in football. And it's not even close. It really isn't close. He allows pressure at literally twice the rate that Jonathan Martin does. Think about that. Really wrap your mind around that. Joe Philbin sticking with him though.
McKinnie probably could... Nobody cares about development at this point. The only goal is to win next weak. .... not develop a 'piss poor' player into something that MAY one day be a 'substandard' player. If Fox is even a hair better then Thomas (he must be!) then you start him.
Recall that we did put up 36 on the road against Denver with Dallas Thomas starting at RT. I think it might be time for the fans to scale it back on the hate speech. The guy clearly had a horrible game against Baltimore. Move on with your life. He will be a non-issue when Albert gets healthy and will probably be replaced as a back-up this off-season.
Thomas looks like he can be an excellent guard, unsure why they want him to be a tackle? Maybe so they can resign him cheaply?
He was not excellent at guard. He wasn't even mediocre. I'd challenge anyone to show me the tape of him at guard that makes him look excellent at that position.
That's all well and good for next year, but I thought we were trying to win and make the playoffs NOW?
When you look at the scenarios in which we still have a shot at the Play-offs, you'll see that those things are hypotheticals. I appreciate the sort of optimism you have, but reaching the Play-offs is a very far fetched notion. That is after all why the Ravens game was so important to us.
The alternative is barely an upgrade... Only one worth a damn in James, everyone else sucks at football with the except of Pouncey being mediocre at it.
As I am processing what is going on here...I am wondering if Joe Philbin is unknowingly betting his career on Dallas Thomas this week. That may actually be the case. This strikes me similarly to the flap with not naming Tannehill a starter. His decision to stick with Dallas Thomas at right tackle is probably going to create untold ripples above Philbin (Ross, Garfinkel, Aponte, Marino, etc). This is something they will be taking note of. So what happens if Dallas Thomas goes out there and pulls a Tyson Clabo? We're in a situation late in the game where we're either protecting a lead, trying to tie the game, or trying to win the game, and Thomas completely whiffs on his guy and Tannehill gets sack-stripped, and it ends up being a key play in the game. That happened to Tyson Clabo against Buffalo last year if you recall. If that happens and Miami is mathematically eliminated from the playoffs (which I think would happen if Miami loses and the Ravens beat the Jaguars, the Chiefs beat the Raiders and the Bengals beat the Browns)...I think Philbin is fired on Monday after the game.
Yeah, I don't think your offensive lineman should be doing 'good things against the run' - freudian slip perhaps?
I think you're understating just how bad Dallas Thomas is. It's like saying that going from J.J. Watt to Justin Smith isn't a big deal because "they're both good players". The fact of the matter is Dallas Thomas is twice as bad in pass protection as JONATHAN MARTIN. And we know Jonathan Martin is awful. Dallas Thomas has allowed 6 sacks, 4 hits and 12 hurries over the last four games at right tackle. If he was "only" as bad as Jonathan Martin he would have allowed 3 sacks, 0 hits and 9 hurries. Over the course of only four games, that's Tannehill getting sacked 3 fewer times, and getting pressured overall 10 fewer times. So yes, going from a guy as bad as Dallas Thomas to a guy that is also "awful" can have quite an impact. No excuses.
Man, it's a good thing Tannehill has a lot of patience, because I would have rage-quit at this news if I was him.
All I can hope for is that he is almost serviceable and Tannehill doesn't get wrecked this weekend. I'm terrified for him.