Sports Buzz: A look at where Dolphins stand offensively and potential solutions

The Dolphins are going to need more help at receiver before any changes at guard mean anything.

 

Fix the Guard position, to me that is obvious.

 

Save the OL. Save the world.

 

1) We need a STUD right guard. One that could slide to right tackle in a pinch. I'd draft high at guard and take a hard look at James Carpenter in free agency.

2) We need a running back with power. Adrian Peterson, anyone? Well, that ain't gonna happen. So, we need to be aggressive to get our guy in the draft.

3) We need either a STUD middle linebacker or a STUD defensive tackle. I'd rather it be a tackle.

4) We need a safety with quickness who can hit. A sound football player.

5) We do whatever it is that needs to be done to get Wallace to pull his thumb out of his mouth and pretend he's a good teammate. He's got a boatload of talent but rocks between his f'n ears.

6) We need to stay healthy.

7) Then, we just let Tannehill and Lazor put us back in the playoffs. I believe in those guys.

 

Interior Oline and Dline are two areas that should be addressed in FA IMO, as the trenches are in need of immediate improvement with proven players, and we shouldn't have to shatter the piggy bank to do it. Thankfully we have plenty of contracts that are expendable to find new starters from.
New starting corner- Finnegan's salary
New starting safety- Fields' salary
New DT- Wheeler's contract
New LG [Frankin/Iupati]- Ellerbe's contract
Re-signing Clay- part of Hartline's contract
Re-signing Odrick- Starks' salary
New RDE [JPP]- Shelly Smith, Garner, Gibsons's salaries plus some massaging elsewhere {Otherwise, their contracts offer salary leeway for the above positions, including upgrades like going from Delmas to Devin McCourty.... or adding Marshawn Lynch and letting he and Miller split the load}


.... with additional emergency funds available via Earl Mitchell's salary. Mitchell has been solid [so no disrespect to him] but his cap saving is 4.5M with no dead money IIRC, so feel free to use his contract to pay for a better and more expensive DT if the opportunity presents itself.... like to go toward Suh..... or Mitchell for Dan Williams.... or Mitchell for Knighton.

If you really want Suh, scrap the entire interior D-line rotation and start over with only his contract while filling out the other 2 rotational bodies with inexpensive "bridge deals" who hold you over while this year's 1st or 2nd round DT acclimates.

Or you realllllly wanna get crazy, grab Pierre-Paul AND Suh, plus a cheap stop-gap DT with some upside like Jarvis Jenkins and a cheap stop-gap veteran DT to hold temporarily fill the positions, trade Olivier Vernon for a pick or player while he's still cheap and thus presents maximum trade appeal before we lose him to FA in 2016, and then use that draft pick and our own 1st or 2nd to land the other starting DT of the future [perhaps Eddie Goldman who would form an ideal tandem with Suh] and JPP's more appropriate backup and heir of the future [perhaps Arik Armstead].

Wake-Suh-Goldman-JPP would be dreamy. It'd be like we took Detroit's elite menacing D-line and flipped it to Miami, only replacing Ansah with JPP and upgrading Jason Jones with Wake, and CJ Mosley/Fairley with Goldman. That D-line took Detroit to the playoffs, so why not go for the home run, eh? Add Frankin or Iupati to the O-line and we'd be killin' it in the trenches. We'd be a 10 win team thanks to the trenches and Tannehill alone. If Hickey can continue drafting well, Suh's contract shouldn't be a problem, and if he botches a bunch of drafts, it won't matter much what we're paying Suh, sooo.....

 

I agree that by fixing the OL and giving RT17 time and a clean pocket, everything on the offense gets much, much better. At least one of the two guard spots needs to be fixed by getting a clear upgrade via UFA that we can plug in and be as certain as possible that the position is solid. No maybes. If the other spot is a combination of Billy Turner and a solid rookie, then ok. College and S. Smith both need to go.

 

More big investments into the OLine...no thanks. Look at the resources we dumped into that unit last season (top FA, two top-3 draft picks, several other FAs) and look where it got us. Go with the guys we invested in last summer and bank on their improvement (hello coaching, conditioning, experience, jelling, etc.). If some good value falls to us in the mid-rounds, fine. But we've spent far too much on that unit. We've been patching holes on the OLine forever and it just doesn't result in wins.

Go out and use your high draft picks on guys who play higher impact positions. Or better yet, use them on a RB who makes your OLine look good, or a QB who makes your OLine look good, or a dynamic TE who boosts you in pass pro and run blocking, or WR who wins quickly and puts points on the board, or a DLineman who will help us keep a lead.

 

so the receiver is giving tannhill time to throw ?

 

There we have it. Maximize the impact of Ryan Tannehill's short area accuracy by surrounding him with guys who can get open in that area and get yards after the catch. Wes Welker, Percy Harvin, Tavon Austin types. Landry is a start. Then a guard doesn't matter as much. You start moving the ball more reliably with Ryan Tannehill's current skill set, without necessarily having improved the pass blocking at all.

 

I think re-signing Satele is a must for depth and worst case scenario he starts at center with Pouncey at guard again. That solves one guard position cheaply. Use that cash for dline upgrades.

 

??? Really ??

 

I don't understand moving a near all pro C to G when we already saw that it didn't work too well...Pouncey is much better at C, where he belongs...

 

See I don't think those seasons were torpedoed by the OLine. I think they were 'torpedoed' by the fact that we have ZERO game-changing players on the offensive side of the ball. No elite playmakers. No one the opposition has to gameplan for specifically. Wallace hints at that dominance a couple times a year, but who knows if he'll be here next season. Maybe Landry starts to reach that level, but he's primarily a slot and athletically he's somewhat limited so it's tough to project.

Every team has holes. Every team has injuries. And they vary year to year. You spend high resources on high-impact guys who can cover up those holes. Look at Seattle: their WRs and OLine are undoubtedly subpar, and have been for years. Those guys would not start on most teams. But they have an elusive playmaker at QB and a hammer at RB. The offense moves and creates big plays. New England's wideouts are awful, but they have an elite TE, a great slot, and Tom Brady.

Here's my bottom line: When you don't have game-changing players, your margin for error is just about zero. This is the story of the Phins for the last decade, and it has gotten us nowhere. I'm sick and tired of seeing a position of need and just trying to patch those holes every offseason. We don't have studs to overcome the year-to-year ebbs and flows of disappointing units (the run D, for instance). We don't have the high-impact star players to to minimize the effect of ONE injury on the OLine.

 

In following the Fins for a long time, like many of us here, it's pretty obvious that they simply have not gotten the OL fixed....period. Knowing full well that we've spent some resources the last few years that haven't worked out, it's even more imperative that we continue to fix those issues...Look at the difference in Dallas' offense with an OL that has some resources used in it ?? They've taken a RB who has been non-descript u[ till last season and suddenly he's being compared to Emmit Smith ?? Tony Romo suddenly found a way to lead the 'Boys to a level he hasn't been able to do in 10 years...

No, fix the OL and a lot of other issues won't be issues...

 

When we have anyone near the level of Dez Bryant, Jason Witten, DeMarco Murray, or Tony Romo...then feel free to spend top picks on the OLine. We don't have the playmakers they do. We've been patching this line for years with high picks and top FAs. At what point is it insanity to keep thinking "we'll really get it this time and finally make the playoffs!"

 

Give him an offseason at guard and I think you'll understand. I saw much better line calls with Satele then I ever seen with Pouncey at center and a lot less bad snaps. He is the better talent no doubt, but with Benton working zoneblocking magic his talent is much more needed at guard.

 

He is not going to play guard because he doesn't want to, and has been adamant that he won't.

 

And when you combine all that with the fact that nearly every QB in the league performs more poorly when throwing the ball later after the snap, the focus should be on getting plays from what Ryan Tannehill does very well (throwing short and quickly after the snap), rather than accumulating players who would theoretically give Tannehill "more time" to throw, which likely wouldn't result in anything of benefit. Having "more time" to throw, for Tannehill and for just about every quarterback in the league, isn't productive. The team is better off getting the ball in the hands of playmakers, quickly after the snap.

 

A good oline sets up the QB and running back, whoever they are, to have good seasons. I would love a big physical receiver, but I do think that oline is more important. If Tannehill showed anything this year, it's that the short to intermediate game is fine. He needed an online that can block 3-4 players, forcing teams to have to send 5-6 to get pressure. He needs an oline that can give protection so that he has time to let the deeper routes develop.

 

I think this needs more explaining. If a QB has alot of time because teams are rushing three or four guys, of course it's harder to throw, there are like 7 or 8 guys in coverage. If teams have to blitz extra guys, and your line gives you time to throw, then you end up with guys open because there aren't enough defenders.

 

I don't think you should have to come up with a resource intensive expenditure on the OL at this point, but ultimately you might have to for two reasons.

One is Mike Pouncey is a FA after next year, and you might want to consider finding his replacement early.

Another issue is Philbin's inability to self-scout. It's just as likely a viable but unspectacular/inexpensive starter will be sitting on the bench next year for whatever disaster-level cluster**** that Philbin decides he's a fan of, ala Daryn Colledge.

 

He said that, damn. I thought he was content with it. I actually thought he was being admirable. Oh well.

 

IMO, you don't need to go after an OG in the first round. It's not an either/or thing... you can pick-up a solid guard in the later rounds or FA and still get a nice receiver in the first round.

 

This...

Limbo, Res, and you are ALL right. We must have a BIG playmaker at WR and a big powerback, but we must also fix the interior of the stinking OL. Sign a FA guard like Franklin who can start from day one and draft a true guard as well later on. There are plenty this draft. Get Pouncey back to center as he's a terrible guard.

Between Shelley Smith, Billy Turner, Sam Brenner, and a rookie, surely this damned staff can develop 1 frigging guard on their own for the other spot.

Tannehill put up what was a typical season for Joe Flacco, Eli Manning, or Matt Ryan and did it behind this god-awful OL and without pro-bowl level WRs, TEs, and rushing attack. Give him his due and get him some help in the trenches and on the OL...

 

I see Matt Ryan as Tannehill's floor going forward. IMO Tannehill's ceiling is higher than Matt Ryan's.

 

Yeah, I don't care where we get the oline help. If we can shore it up through FA, and drop a first round pick on a big, playmaking receiver, I'm down for that.

I just think that an improved oline would get better results than a not improved oline with upgraded receivers/backs. Not saying that's what the front office would do.

 

That's just ridiculous. Albert was awesome until his injury. James was the best rookie lineman in the draft at RT. And Billy Turner is developing. I think we got pretty damn good returns on those investments. However, our play at G was atrocious and T became a massive concern once Albert went down.

Albert, 1st round Rookie LT (convert to G), Pouncey, Turner, James would be a hell of a nice offensive line. Outside of Pouncey, it would be built for the long term (and I imagine we'll get a deal done w/him soon enough). With that kind of line, running the ball shouldn't be any issue. Tannehill will have time to drop back and make reads. W/time, Tannehill proved himself to be pretty ****ing good.

As another poster previously mentioned, look at Dallas as the blueprint. They too were a forever 8-8 team until they pulled their heads out of their asses and invested in the trenches. We don't have much further to go at this point. Yes Tannehill and Co. aren't on the level of some of the cowboys play makers, but it's a step in the right direction.

 

Our first pick should be a LB'er. (Shaq Thompson if he's still there) If he's not there go with Perryman. If he's not there, go with Melvin Gordon. (I suspect that he'll be PPA at 14)

 

Agreed... Matt Ryan's 3rd season, he went 357/571 for 62.5%, 3,705 yards, a 6.49 YPA, 28 TDs, 9 INTs, a long of 46 yards, and a 91.0 PR.

Matt Ryan has averaged 4,023 passing yards, 25 TDs, and 13 INTs per season for his career and that is with a fantastic supporting cast. He is also only sacked 26 times a season on average. That was with a high of 44 sacks in 2013.

Would love to see Tannehill with that supporting cast.

 

I absolutely agree.

I am so tired of talking about building the offensive line in the early rounds of the draft. We now have 3 first rounders on the OL. That's more than most teams have. At some point you have to coach up the guys that you have and keep them together as a unit.

The lack of offensive explosiveness has been the downfall of the organization over the past 15 years. It's a passing league and we run an offense with a team full of #3 caliber WRs. We need a true #1 WR. In general we just need more playmakers.

 

We did not see Pouncey at 100% in 2014, and even if he had played center, he would not have looked like the same player he did in 2013.

 

nah bro, he's gone above and beyond in making it perfectly clear..he was all good when the switch had to happen but now that he knows he's not as effective there, he aint taking no chances..

bottom line, this man needs to dedicate and get bigger stronger faster, and he's at the right age to do it, his body isn't any where near where I think it could be.

 

We need to give up the notion of drafting a RB in the first 2 rounds. In today's NFL you don't need an all-pro back. They are luxuries. Drafting a RB early has the biggest potential for a bust. And as much as we need to shore up the OL, I think in the first round we need to draft a playmaker/skill position. Preferably a big WR. While this draft is deep with WRs, teams tend to make a run on them especially in the lower 1st-middle 2nd, so IMO unless we trade down we can't risk passing up a big target WR.

 

If that's truly how he feels I would cut him before his 5th year option money becomes guaranteed.

 

I can't argue this point, protection is the more important element to the improvement of the qb.

 

nor this point.