scary that they still have work to do on defense and that reinforcements are coming in a few weeks too
Well.. I disagree somewhat. That article makes it sound like both years of the "two-year rebuild" were similarly important. I don't think we did well at all in the 2016 offseason and the lack of improvement in the run defense and only marginal improvement overall is evidence of that. I think the great bulk of the credit goes to the 2017 offseason, especially the draft (looking like one of the better drafts in Dolphins history.. and Raekwon might improve that rating next year) and some key FA signings. Other than that I agree.
I agree with you, but I'll also play devil's advocate and point out that Suh was about our only starter on the field for 16 games last season. I mean, we were playing 3rd string linebackers and corners, plus Wake was scheduled to be a backup with a limited role. I think the most disappointing thing about last year is that we didn't get to see what our first string defense could really do. Make no mistake though, when I saw them in the mini-camp in Carolina last season, our defense was just as dominant as what we're seeing now. That's just not the team we got to put on the field.
I agree that the cumulative results of changes made to the defense are now showing, causing it to appear that an overnight transition had occurred. Clearly it did take two years to add to or replace defensive players and alter the coaching staff for this change to be able to occur. This clearly involved the scouting department, the front office and the coaching staff acting as a team to pull it off. This is a team sport and everything either adds or subtracts from a teams performance. I see fans putting halos on the players in the teams more critical positions, only to be disappointed when their expectations aren't met because the team could not perform well enough overall. I hope that many of those forum members that tend to be more negative about the teams performance will take this into account as they review the rest of this years games. This writer saw it. We have much more to be happy about than despondent over.
85% of the variation win percentage in the NFL since 2004 is associated with passer rating differential. The 2017 dolphins are surrendering an opposing passer rating of 102.9, which, since 2004, has been associated with roughly a 4-12 regular-season record on average. There has been but one of 19 teams since 2004 that has surrendered an opposing passer rating between 99 and 105 and has had a winning regular-season record. That team was the 2004 Green Bay Packers, which had Brett Favre and finished 10-6. I certainly wouldn’t be giddy about the performance of the defense to date. If they don’t improve their performance against opposing quarterbacks and passing games a great deal, the team stands to win very few additional games this year.
