Other than the S position the Dolphins had as much or more talent than the Saints defense last year. The difference in talent was on the offensive side.
Nice posts! Personally Id be surprised if Bryant made it to 12. There are some teams that need a WR as badly as us who will have the first crack, and Bryant (like his personality or not) is at the top of this WR class by a large margin. Much of the debate seems to be on what happens if he falls to us or not. Should he be gone I would have much less of a problem taking a JPP, Hughes, Graham, Morgan etc. However, to take one of these guys over Bryant would be madness in my mind. In my opinion we need to look at Berry, Bryant, E. Thomas, BPA at need. I find it interesting people say WR is a hard position to develop while clamoring for a rush OLB. Actually, I would say just the opposite! Wide receiver in the past few years has seen a marked rise in contributions from rookies. Yeah, there are DHBs, but out of 6 first round WRs he is the only one to really not contribute. Crabtree ofc missed a chunk of the season, but when he did get on the field he was excellent. Throw in Maclin, Harvin, Nicks and Britt and you have a number of WRs making significant contributions. I would argue that NFL ready and talent wise, Dez Bryant is better than all of them. Im not saying we need to ignore defense, but Wide Reciever is clearly a huge need on this team and WILL have more of an impact than any other spot maybe excepting FS. I mentioned something before. Our leading TD catching wideout had a grand total of 3. The two teams in the super bowl each had at least 3 people with more than that. Its an aspect we absolutely MUST improve upon! Dez Bryant, more than any other wideout, has a nose for the endzone. Hes a big target, good leaper, he goes after the ball - much like a Randy Moss. That ball is HIS when its in the air. Waiting till later rounds I have a hard time seeing immediate contributors. Benn and DThom are likely next in line, but they figure to be gone well before we pick, as does Tate. Mike Williams? People talk about Bryant being late for a team meeting, this kid QUIT HIS TEAM! Anyone else is a giant project or question mark. So should Bryant be gone I dont think many of us would mind a Linebacker - maybe not even ol' Jetssuck! But to pass on the talent of a kid like Bryant when that is EXACTLY what we need? Oi, that would give me an empty feeling. Lol, whoosh! Not quite. Its about maximizing. Like I said, this offense was built for Penny, not Henne. Now that we have a QB with an arm, we should maximize it! Its about maximizing rather than limiting, giving him the tools to help him be great rather than just average.
Henne is so jealous of Kolb. His first start he will be throwing the ball to Jackson, Maclin, Avant, and Celek.
i'm merely encouraging the new members to participate more on this fine site. Especially the well versed, intelligent ones. Cant have the riff raff run this place. look it even got you to write a response that was well thought out, reasonable and articulate. obviosuly the seventh seal haas been broken and the locusts are coming
That's a pretty BIG "other than" when you consider their best safety tripled (9) the amount of interceptions all of ours had combined (3), and had as many defensive touchdown returns as any of our receivers had receiving (3). lol And while our young corners played great last year, I'd still take the sum of New Orleans cornerback core over ours (last season). They had more experience at the position and had a better coordinator leading them. Their D-line was better than ours too, but they struggled after Ellis got hurt. And Vilma at middle linebacker makes Crowder look like.... well, Crowder. lol Other than outside linebacker and maybe DT, I'd say New Orleans was better at every position on defense than us last season.
the same can be said for all the interviews, we dont know who they have genuine interest in, and who they are trying to create false interest in...
I don't think its an issue of addressing O vs. D in the draft. I'm sure both of them will be addressed. It is mainly a matter of win. Can you get the coveted O talent you want in the 2nd+ rounds? I don't believe so. Can you get the coveted D talent you want in the 2nd+ rounds. I believe so. This draft looks to be strong in the DE/OLB types this year so finding a talented one won't be hard to do with #43. I think you take the special pick in Dez Bryant and pick a solid OLB prospect in the 2nd. Address TE in the 3rd/4th. However, if Dez is gone, which I think he will be to. I'm on board with Earl Thomas.
You do know Dan Henning is their OC right bro.....you think they are airing it out even if they get Dez or Marshall or whoever....hahahahaha thats a good one...still running...still playing the trench game, Miami will not be the passing team like NO...under that guys wing...
We're pretty much in agreement then. I think if Bryant slips to us, we almost have to take him unless Berry is still around. I honestly believe Berry will be one of the next elite safeties in the league, and is a game changer should he fall to us. And you're absolutely right about converting LB's/DE's to the 3-4 scheme; it is just as hard or harder to do so than developing a receiver. Still, if Bryant is gone by pick 12, i'd much rather take the risk of picking a linebacker/defensive end (or at least trade down) than reaching for a receiver just to fill that need right away. As for last year's receiving draft class, that was definately more of an exception than a rule. Even still, later picks like Massaquoi, Mike Wallace, Austin Collie, Johnny Knox, Louis Murphy and Mike Thomas made just as much of an impact on their respective teams as the 1st round picks did. Typically, the better receivers are found in the 2nd round or later. Just look at the receiving classes of the last few years and you'll see that in most cases, the lower drafted players turn out better than the 1st round picks. 1st receiver taken in 08 draft: Donnie Avery (33rd overall) Receivers taken after him: Eddie Royal (42nd overall), Desean Jackson (58th overall), Mario Manningham (95th overall) and Pierre Garcon (205th overall) In 07, Calvin Johnson was the slam dunk #1 overall pick. Guy is a freak of nature. After him, Ginn was the highest drafted receiver at #9 overall. Receivers taken after Ginn that weren't 1st round picks (and it hurts for me to even type this, trust me) : Sidney Rice (44th overall), Steve Smith (51st overall), Mike Sims-Walker (79th overall) and Steve Breaston (142nd overall). Heck, I'd even take James Jones and Laurent Robinson over Ginn right now. 06 1st receiver taken: Santonio Holmes (25th overall) Receivers taken after 1st round: Greg Jennings (52nd overall), Brandon Marshall (119th overall) and Marques Colston (252nd overall) I understand Dez would fall under the category of a slam dunk pick, but all I'm saying is, there's no need to panic if we don't land him. We just have to find those 1 or 2 gems who will be in the 2nd-6th rounds if we don't.
the Saints were strong up the middle, with Vilma, Grant, and Sedrick Ellis, and Sharper.....Miami was EXTREMELY weak up the middle, this formula doesnt allow you to make plays.....it allows you to give up points.....when you are strong up the middle, it forces play to the outsides, where your defensive skill players are, and it forces QB's to throw to the sidelines, which are much harder throws...
So why don't we just throw a 2 year contract at THAT aforementioned Safety. WIN-WIN-WIN. We get a ballhawking Safety. We get an elite prospect WR. We already obtained the elite ILB. Our Defense will be 3X better than it was last year, and our offense is now much more explosive. Everyone's happy! ...........except the OLB camp. But hey, you can't fix everything in one offseason and there is some good 2nd and 3rd round talent in this draft
It's still just one player, which means you don't need to go all defensive in the draft to solve it. Overall the Saints D was ranked below ours. The key difference is having that ball hawk back there. Even just looking at the Dolphins, we were the 15th ranked defense a year ago with mostly the same defensive team except for S. And we are already better with the addition of Dansby. Adding a S probably gets us into the 10 - 15 range by itself. The area where we were really horrid was converting third and long. We converted 22% of our 3rd and 7+ compared to 37% - 40% which is the NFL average. Basically when we have to pass we can't. In a passing league that's a death knell. Adding that big receiving target is not a luxury, it is a need. It is as big (or bigger) need than any on our team. BTW the only other area where we were also bottom five in the league is allowing the big plays. Not allowing conversions (ranked 15th), just the big plays. So the two biggest needs are a big receiving target and a FS. I would take Berry, Bryant or E. Thomas in that order.
I still definitely believe that the Dolphins would or will take McClain....I dont know, just a feeling....I dont think the KD signing has taken away from that...I would be a little surprised though...
Well, that would be the case if we didn't lose any key pieces from last seasons team (Taylor, Porter) in the process. We now have to replace those outside linebackers while also upgrading at safety and finding a 3rd CB. And the Saints D was ranked 20th overall; we were ranked 25th. People look at the total yardage allowed to judge D, but you should look at the yardage per play given up. Through the air the Dolphins gave up almost the same amount of passing yards (3,754) on the season as the Saints (3,769) despite having 85 less pass attempts thrown on them. We gave up an average of 7 yards per attempt (6th worse in the league) while the Saints gave up 6.2 per attempt (19th in the league). Numbers like that suggest that more than one player is needed in the secondary to fix those problems. You should also note that the Saints were 2nd in the league in takeaways and 1st in defensive touchdowns, which erases a lot of their errors. We were a much better run stopping team than New Orleans but overall, they were a better defense. But again, that's if we would've kept Porter or Taylor. We're thin at LB right now even with the addition of Dansby. This isn't the same defense as 08 anymore. That's just as much the fault of conservative playcalling (while having a 1st year starter at QB) as it is the lack of a legit #1 receiver. Henning has never been a pass-happy coordinator, so I don't think Dez or any receiver is gonna be this quick fix, who makes the Dolphins an offensive juggernaut, that everyone thinks he will be. Agreed. Like I said, if Dez is there (and Berry is gone) at 12, we should take him. I just don't think people should expect some kinda of Peyton Manning, Drew Brees level offense once we get that big play receiver. That won't happen until a new coordinator comes in.
Look at these stats....YOU CANNOT WIN giving this up, regardless if you have Dez, Marshall, Jesus, whoever...you cant simply do it... "Opposing tight ends ran free up the middle and teams were completing passes at an alarming rate—including 14 touchdown passes of 20 yards or more, second-highest total in the NFL. The Dolphins ranked 22nd in yards allowed and gave up a franchise-high 140 points in the fourth quarter."
That depends on the measure. Per NFL.com the Dolphins were the 22nd ranked defense and NO was the 25th ranked defense. I disagree. The numbers suggest that we just needed to stop the big plays by having a S. Those big plays skewed our YPA against number greatly. NO actually allowed more third down conversions than we did, both in total and percentage wise. We were more consistent than NO at stopping third down conversions but the plays we allowed were bigger. JT is still an option. They will probably wait until after the draft to decide whether to bring him back. Porter was no big loss. Even though his sack numbers dropped precipitously, our total sacks went up. I agree that we're thin at OLB, but we have nobody at #1 WR and are thinner at FS. I disagree that it was the play calling. We have longer routes on most every play. We just don't have the targets that are mismatches and let our QB have the confidence to throw it even when the WR is covered. I don't think anybody wants to be Indy or NO. We are a balanced offense and should remain that way. But we have to be able to pass when we need to. If we can't then we have very little hope of contending for anything.
Geez, Eight pages stream out on this topic at the drop of a hat, with some three weeks to go? Imagine the tension when we're finally on the clock. It wouldn't surprise me if theres some degree of conflict between Parcells, Ireland and/or perhaps Sparano on what we should do with our initial pick. While the draft is not an area I often care to speculate, this year is the first one I've seen in some time, where it appears other teams could be enticed into offering us considerable value by trading down, particularly If Bryant, or some other premier talent happens to fall to us.
God forbid we try to build a team similar to the Super Bowl teams! Oh heavens no, the inhumanity! Indeed, you'd rather player Jests ball it seems.
No. geez there are some thick skulls here.you still have to build a defense if you want to stop someone which the Dolphins can't seem to do I would love a high powered offense but not if you cant play defense the defense needs to be fixed first because that side of the ball sucked guys like porter and taylor have held us back and now it is time to build for the future. see how it works?
I see it far more often that if somebody says we need a #1 WR or that a #1 WR will have the most impact, the anti-WR crowd assumes that they want to be NO. I know that for me the goal is balance. The two things we were among the worst (bottom 5) in is getting and giving up big plays. Every statistical analysis in the past five years has confirmed that the biggest correlation between any stat an winning is with your offensive passing game. This is not a matter of opinion. So fixing our passing game is a priority. It is not an after the defense thing.
I think JT still has another good year on the weak side (not strong side). He continues to be an asset to the team. having said that there are three teams that make a team work: 1) the Offense 2) the Defense 3) Special Teams you need to win two out of the three to have a shot @ winning a game as you astutely pointed out, Friend Killerphins, one of the three is consistently losing lessening our odds in any given game by about third. it has to be fixed. simple as that! we need to fix the defense. it is the priority for 2010 & necessary for a run @ the BigEnchilada!
the mere fact that henne will have a season under his belt and won't be playing as a a rookie starter will improve the passing game IMO. Unless you just arent patient enough for that. I've heard people say henne can't develop if we don't pick a top wideout (meaning dez) That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Henne received valuable time last season. He will be more confident this season and the passing game will improve on that alone. Now if we could only stop an opposing offense. That is the crux and the result last season was a losing record. That is on the D.
um they made it to the AFC Championship....regardless of they backdoored it in..... how did they do that in this alimigty passing league the NFL has become?? Certainly wasnt the offense...
i certainly wish, just once, our opposing kicker would miss 3 field goals like Kaeding did for them. Man, that pisses me off.
so bizzare, Kaeding was money all year, and is awesome, I know where you are going though, I just dont get into couldas, shouldas and wouldas.....the bottom line is all that matters...
Same can be said of our pass D with S. Smith and V. Davis not being rookie corners anymore. Our pass D should then improve considerably.
