What's going to be the most important factor in fixing the Dolphins' run game? Better talent at RB? Better scheming? Better OL talent? Something else? Nothing else, just time. Please specify details with your choice!
I went with "just time", but I also think we grab a stud RB in the upcoming draft. The young kid looked good though yesterday in limited touches....you can see the speed and the vision. I hate that I don't remember how to spell his name.
Does anybody know why Solomon Kindley was replaced by Jesse Davis at RG for nearly the entire game yesterday?
A bit of both in needing time and acquiring better talent at RB. The line has enough talent to improve and become better at run blocking, but the Dolphins need to get a lead back in the mold of a Dalvin Cook/Zeke Elliot
Given the rave reviews of Kindley and Hunt's inability to supplant Davis at RT until Davis had to replace Jackson at LT, I would've thought the best five would be the original starters -- Jackson, Flowers, Karras, Kindley, and Davis.
It's a passing league and they got a passer now. That can open up the run game a little bit. Besides Cook and Henry teams don't rely on their run game to win games anymore.
Every time Jordan Howard touched the ball I felt like we were going backwards. Except that one 8 yard gash at the end and the TD run.
I found this on the Sun Sentinels article on 20 things we learned from yesterday’s win. “ Davis takes over at right guard Austin Jackson’s return from injured reserve, and Solomon Kindley’s struggles at right guard motivated Miami’s coaches to move Jesse Davis from left tackle to right guard on Sunday. Davis, who has started 49 games for the Dolphins, hasn’t played right guard for Miami since the 2018 season but it might be his best position. The hope is that moving Davis inside will help jump-start the running game. -- OK (Doug Murray/AP)”
I was thinking of this when I saw the title. I'd be interested to know who got the most amount of rushing yards across the league yesterday other than Cook. Wouldn't shock me if the answer was Kyler because it felt like nobody was getting any success rushing the ball and yet the scores across the league were huge. I'd even argue that the Titans being focused on giving Henry so many touches every game works to the detriment of their own team.
If the run game continues to be this bad the rest of the season we need to spend a 2nd rounder on RB.
Drafting is going to be so much easier now that we have Tua. I think priority #1 is making this into a great offense and that means we need a true #1 WR that teams are afraid of. The next biggest priority IMO is a good LB because our defense has trouble against the run, especially against dual threat QB's. But once those two are addressed (preferably with our 1st rounders) I agree we should pick a RB and possibly a TE. Make this into a scary offense. DE is also acceptable in the 2nd.
How much of the run woes is LB vs DL? I don’t pay attention to see how our DL as maintaining gap control. I think LB, WR, DL in the first round and in the 2nd you start looking at a RB and any one of those first 3 needs or S.
Bunk that, if there’s a first round quality stud running back, you grab him!! Where in the hell are the Barry Sanders, Emmitt Smiths, and Ricky Williams anymore?
To answer the OPs question, I don't think you can ever go wrong with getting the O line as close to elite as possible. If you have a great offensive line, then any back that's talented enough to be a pro will be able to run behind it. Of course, having a super talented running back would help and if there is a Barry Sanders or another Ricky Williams out there, i'd be more than willing to jump on that player if we have the draft cap to do so. As of right now, I think Travis Etienne is the best back in the draft? Certainly not a Sanders, Williams, or Tomlinson, but he's going to be pretty good. Finding a workhorse back should definitely become a priority at some point. I would love to see us trade for Saquan Barkley, but I don't think the Giants are quite ready to give up on him.
My problem with drafting top tier RB’s is the life span of a NFL is just way too short to take the risk. That and we see good RB’s coming out of the 2nd and middle rounds. As far as drafting OL, I think you always have to have depth there. I’d have no problem using a pick or two in the mid or late rounds.
Agree, they don't have a long shelf life in the NFL. However if the running back is a generational talent...Someone like a Marshall Faulk, LT, Saquan Barkley, I could understand making that move with a top pick. With that said we've seen all time greats like Thurman Thomas, Curtis Martin, Terrell Davis go in later rounds. We've seen Kijana Carter taken with the first pick only to have his career derailed by injuries. Other guys like Ronnie Brown end up having so so careers and are taken extremely high. Trent Richardson was just a straight up bust! I think it comes down to health, security, and the strength of your offensive line. Ezekiel Elliott is definitely struggling right now due to poor QB play, but Dallas also has issues with their O line. Their best guy is not playing this season and it certainly shows even with a back as talented as Zeke.
They do not need to waste a high draft pick on a running back. Great quarterback play will open up the run game no matter who is back there. They need a wide receiver who can take it to the house at any moment. Shore up the trenches. Linebacker, safety are all positions I would look at before running back.
Respectfully disagree. I know I come from an older era of football where running the ball is KEY to everything, but if you have a great quarterback AND a great running back their relationship is symbiotic and they will dominate. Harris and Bradshaw Dorsett and Staubach Craig and Montana Thomas and Kelly Davis and Elway Smith and Aikmen Bettis and Roethlisburger Henry and Tannehill Many others I'm sure I can't recall off the top of myu head but the bottom line is, you don't want your entire offense designed around one player. That's the stupidest thing any team can do a la Colts 2006 with Manning out for the season.
The last five Super Bowl winning starting running backs were Damien Williams, Legarrette Blount (twice), Sony Michel and C.J. Anderson. Edit: All undrafted except for Michel.
Don't think anyone is saying to ignore the RB position and just focus everything on the QB (we've already had bitter experience of how that plays out, as the team never got a running game for #13) but even from that list, not all were 1st & 2nd rounders. Alf & the team were talking about Jordan Howard on the 5 Reasons post-game show and Alf was saying that he is a player that needs touches, as he has historically got better & more productive the more touches that he got in a game. Who is to say that if one back got the majority of the touches in the game that they won't produce, particularly if we can stretch the game from the QB position?
I have no problem with taking an elite back in the first, but anything below elite I agree with grabbing one later.
The thing about Howard is I cant see him getting better as a game goes on. His issue is how slow his feet are to get moving, I'd say if he has in the past gotten better it's either a statistical anomaly or his line was physical in the run game causing tired defensive lineman to be slow off the ball late in games.
On the one hand I'd say grab Etienne with the first pick, but on the other I'd be wary of him due to all of the over-usage. Clemson has used him so much that I think he's unfortunately gonna have a short career in the pros.
I havent watched enough of him honestly, do you feel like aside from the usage hes as close to a sure thing as it gets or just an above average talent at a watered down position?
I'll still be excited if we can get Sewell but I don't think we'll be picking high enough. That guy plays well in both run and pass pro. He could help massively. Have to admit I'm a bit of a Sewell fan boy, though.
Another fun fact- two of the recent starting Super Bowl RB's (or within the stable of RB's) were cut/traded from the Dolphins. Three if you count Miller. I agree with both sides on this conversation. If you have a generational talent sitting there late in the 1st round and it's your biggest need, you draft that RB. There are a few real studs this year coming out but honestly, I don't think they're generational good...Etienne with Clemson is probably the best of the bunch. I would personally take him late 1st/early 2nd but I also agree that you can get a similar talent in the 3rd-5th rounds. Similar doesn't mean equal, of course, so that 5th rounder probably isn't an awesome blocker with incredible speed, a great pass catcher, amazing vision, etc. like Etienne. But he could have many of those traits and be "good enough" to fill certain needs. With Etienne, you get a true 3-down back that can do it all at high levels. These days that's a luxury though- I can see the "RB by committee" approach as well.
Barring injury I would consider him a can't miss guy. Generational? For me that's a really high bar, and as good as he is I wouldn't call him a generational talent. My only question is can he shed NFL tackles? My gut says his YAC is sustainable in the pros as he's almost a mirror image of Dalvin Cook. We wouldn't be having this conversation if MIA would have picked Dalvin Cook in 2017 in the late first instead of Charles Harris...I watched him play every game in college and knew he would be special in the NFL and I really wanted him to play in Miami. I think Etienne is just as good as Cook was in his last year of college (I'm a bit biased on this and it pains me to say nice things about Clemson players).
I keep hearing this term “generational talent”, almost always used to describe quarterbacks. When I first heard this term and how it was applied to Andrew Luck. I was a bit skeptical about him but he did have virtually instant success. Granted he was drafted by a team that was built for a true passing quarterback and he fit the missing piece with the absence of Peyton Manning but that’s another discussion. Now I keep hearing this same term being applied more and more often to more and more players. Mahomes, Murray, Tagovailoa, Burrow, Lawrence all have been tagged with this term. If all of these quarterbacks are that special, then none of them are. With the evolution of quarterbacks, this is now the position. The same concept applies to running backs. There are generational talents at running back. Czonka, Payton, Dorset, Smith, Sanders, Williams, Gore, Bettis, Peterson, Henry...these were talents that were once in a generation find, that set their teams apart from others in the league. This is what Miami needs, that once in a generation talented running back that gives us an edge other teams don’t have. Does anyone here really truly believe that if we didn’t have that generational talent at running back that we wouldn’t be any better of a team than we currently are? I’m not saying this upcoming draft doesn’t have that running back but we need to make that concerted effort to find him. We NEED that back that we can hand the ball off to 25 times a game and averages 5 yards a carry. When we find that piece if the puzzle, we’re going to be unstoppable
After one game? No, it's still a passing league and we should improve the passing game first. That alone will open up the running game. There's no reason not to pursue better talent at RB, but only after making sure our passing game is feared.
Our OL is still very young and needs to develop. This was a bad game, no question. Definitely need to invest a draft pick on a RB and I wouldn't be opposed to drafting an OL in the mid to late rounds. With injuries in the NFL, you always need help. I still think our top needs right now assuming those young OL and Tua develops: 1. A WR that stretches the field 2. A MLB 3. DL 4. RB
Sure but lack of better personnel in the passing game hinders it more. Really, anything you do to improve the team will help all other aspects of the team to SOME degree. The question is where to focus limited resources on. I still stand with what I said in post #13: WR that can threaten deep and LB are the two most important potential additions.