Dolphins 2022 Offseason

Is it just me or does Rosenhaus represent like every guy we just had sign a contract?

The only move I didn't really like in any fashion was the Preston Williams one. I just don't get it, he's that guy that people always think will break out and always just doesn't. I'm over him, would rather try someone else. If his presence means we don't draft a guy, I wouldn't be happy.

Williams being the only OL is the most interesting/disappointing thing. Either they are working on a big deal for a marquee guy yet to sign like Armstead or Tretter, or they are focusing on adding via the draft. Or they actually really like our personnel and think coaching will be able to turn them into at least an OK group. I don't think that's a good idea, personally, but the McDaniels regime has the opportunity to make their own choices, obviously. It will either work or not.

"texanphinatic wrote:

Is it just me or does Rosenhaus represent like every guy we just had sign a contract?

The only move I didn't really like in any fashion was the Preston Williams one. I just don't get it, he's that guy that people always think will break out and always just doesn't. I'm over him, would rather try someone else. If his presence means we don't draft a guy, I wouldn't be happy.

Williams being the only OL is the most interesting/disappointing thing. Either they are working on a big deal for a marquee guy yet to sign like Armstead or Tretter, or they are focusing on adding via the draft. Or they actually really like our personnel and think coaching will be able to turn them into at least an OK group. I don't think that's a good idea, personally, but the McDaniels regime has the opportunity to make their own choices, obviously. It will either work or not.

Preston got a one-year "show me" deal, and honestly I wouldn't care if we signed him to that the next 3 seasons. He either performs or he doesn't, and he'll have to stay off IR to get another contract. He's young enough though where I think it's an easy decision- if he gets beat out in camp, oh well. If he makes the team, oh well. Really nothing to lose at $2M a year.

The line is what has my attention as well. I said all last year that we have coachable talent- we just didn't have any coaches. I'd be surprised if we don't add a tackle somewhere in the mix and I'll be shocked if we don't upgrade at center. With Tua's fast release, the interior line is critical for his success, probably more important than upgrades at tackle. So I like what I'm seeing but still very intrigued in the fate of Eichenberg, Jackson, etc. into next year.

If it's me though, I'm taking the best center in the country with our 1st rounder and I'm getting Jackson on the bench for at least a full season.

Not seen anything yet on Xavien Howard.

"KeyFin wrote:

If it's me though, I'm taking the best center in the country with our 1st rounder and I'm getting Jackson on the bench for at least a full season.

If they add a quality T in FA and Linderbaum falls to them in the draft, then you’d have to be happy with this off-season as it relates to the OL. Then let the new coaching staff get to work.

While most here seem to be focused on individual players, the tell tale of this off-season is going to be what McDaniel and company are going to be able to do with the players we have.

Keeping last season’s defensive staff is a VERY intelligent move by the new HC. Now, will the offensive coaching staff he’s assembled be able to get better play out of the offense, especially out of the offensive line.

If Tagovailoa is still running for his life and only having 1 1-2 seconds from snap to pressure, the passing game is not going to improve. I’m hopeful that McDaniel is going to improve the running game and balance the offense to open play action pass game.

"The_Dark_Knight wrote:

While most here seem to be focused on individual players, the tell tale of this off-season is going to be what McDaniel and company are going to be able to do with the players we have.

Keeping last season’s defensive staff is a VERY intelligent move by the new HC. Now, will the offensive coaching staff he’s assembled be able to get better play out of the offense, especially out of the offensive line.

If Tagovailoa is still running for his life and only having 1 1-2 seconds from snap to pressure, the passing game is not going to improve. I’m hopeful that McDaniel is going to improve the running game and balance the offense to open play action pass game.

Indeed. The bottom line this year will have to wait until the regular season starts and we really see what this team is about. Until then it's all just up in the air.

Bills signing Von Miller. Guess it’s gonna be a fight for 2nd/3rd place.

"mlb1399 wrote:

Bills signing Von Miller. Guess it’s gonna be a fight for 2nd/3rd place.

They can have 2nd/3rd we going to take first!!

Miami
Bills
NE
Jets

"OwesOwn614 wrote:

While I still believe another offensive lineman signing is coming, I want to reiterate that I don’t believe the Dolphins think the OL is as big of a problem as most people do

Wouldn’t surprise me if they saw a bad scheme last season more than they did bad players

— Marcel Louis-Jacques (@Marcel_LJ) March 17, 2022

That is my hope. I don't think the offensive linemen should have been as bad as they were last year. If half of the reports are true, the lack of a consistent vision was a huge problem with the offense.

"Dol-Fan Dupree wrote:

That is my hope. I don't think the offensive linemen should have been as bad as they were last year. If half of the reports are true, the lack of a consistent vision was a huge problem with the offense.

I think it was mostly coaching. But the other major problem, IMO, is I think we may have drafted players with generally good NFL attributes but not necessarily attributes that are good for the schemes we ran. When you have guys bumping into each other, you may have a guy who's capable of zone blocking next to a guy built for a traditional scheme. If any of my suspicions is true, it's tantamount to malpractice on multiple levels. The best case scenario for us would be that we somehow accidentally have guys who can zone block.

With that being said, if they can't zone block, maybe we can trade them for some ZBS capable players who are similarly miscast and in need of a change of scenery.

"OwesOwn614 wrote:

I think it was mostly coaching. But the other major problem, IMO, is I think we may have drafted players with generally good NFL attributes but not necessarily attributes that are good for the schemes we ran. When you have guys bumping into each other, you may have a guy who's capable of zone blocking next to a guy built for a traditional scheme. If any of my suspicions is true, it's tantamount to malpractice on multiple levels. The best case scenario for us would be that we somehow accidentally have guys who can zone block.

With that being said, if they can't zone block, maybe we can trade them for some ZBS capable players who are similarly miscast and in need of a change of scenery.

I don't know if that is an exact problem. I think all linemen should at least look competent in the scheme. These are amazing athletes. Just some will look better in some schemes than others.

What was terrible with the line was just how incompetent they looked and I have seen them all (other than Dieter) look better. I have been wanting Davis cut for three years now, (I don't need to see any statistics nonsense), I just don't think he is very good. Hate watching him on the field. I will admit that he has never looked as bad as he did last season.

No one looked like they knew what they were doing and even when they did block well Gaskin would miss the hole.

It was just terribleness last season.

I am hoping that a lot of it was because of the turmoil behind the scenes, and having a consistent vision will at least allow a few of those players to be competent. I am done dreaming of a great offensive line. I just want a below average one at this point. One that isn't an embarrassment, because that is what we had under Flores.

"Dol-Fan Dupree wrote:

I don't know if that is an exact problem. I think all linemen should at least look competent in the scheme. These are amazing athletes. Just some will look better in some schemes than others.

What was terrible with the line was just how incompetent they looked and I have seen them all (other than Dieter) look better. I have been wanting Davis cut for three years now, (I don't need to see any statistics nonsense), I just don't think he is very good. Hate watching him on the field. I will admit that he has never looked as bad as he did last season.

No one looked like they knew what they were doing and even when they did block well Gaskin would miss the hole.

It was just terribleness last season.

I am hoping that a lot of it was because of the turmoil behind the scenes, and having a consistent vision will at least allow a few of those players to be competent. I am done dreaming of a great offensive line. I just want a below average one at this point. One that isn't an embarrassment, because that is what we had under Flores.

Your comment on Davis looking the worst he did last season has been my issue with the O-Line and it's coaching. Nobody seems to be getting better. I'd be a lot less critical of the work that the O-Line had done last season if there had been any sort of vision or logic outside of well we need to have some guys play that position, lets just hope that they don't kill the QB.

"Wilkimania wrote:

Your comment on Davis looking the worst he did last season has been my issue with the O-Line and it's coaching. Nobody seems to be getting better. I'd be a lot less critical of the work that the O-Line had done last season if there had been any sort of vision or logic outside of well we need to have some guys play that position, lets just hope that they don't kill the QB.

Of course, the question I now have is that since we have four guys with two or fewer years of experience, have they developed bad habits that are going to be hard to break? Or even a cynicism toward coaching?

My big concern with the coaches/GM believing that a new approach with the current players might pay off is the fact that for 20 years, we've been trying to field an OL that's sufficient and it hasn't worked. We should have been digging deeply to put a line together that was foundationally superior. If we don't invest in upgrades now, it just seems like more of the same.

"OwesOwn614 wrote:

Of course, the question I now have is that since we have four guys with two or fewer years of experience, have they developed bad habits that are going to be hard to break? Or even a cynicism toward coaching?

My big concern with the coaches/GM believing that a new approach with the current players might pay off is the fact that for 20 years, we've been trying to field an OL that's sufficient and it hasn't worked. We should have been digging deeply to put a line together that was foundationally superior. If we don't invest in upgrades now, it just seems like more of the same.

This.

It's hard to go from "historically bad" to "actually pretty decent" and we need at least that. At the least, we needed to sign some vets to short term deals and put young dudes on the bench to rebuild mechanics, learn and improve before we throw them back into the fire. This approach, barring a sudden delving into the FA pool/draft is just playing with fire.

Saw this on Reddit just now:

path=%2Fr%2Fmiamidolphins%2Fcomments%2Ftggbtz%2F

Posted by
u/hamhandling

1 month ago

How a weird Tom Cable technique left the Dolphins OTs playing with one arm figuratively tied behind their backs.

A couple of months ago I came across this video of a former NFL OL by the name of Ray Roberts complaining about what Tom Cable's OL technique did to Duane Brown:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H96UR9W3IEk&t=487s

I thought this sounded familiar- and was worth looking into, as Lemuel Jeanpierre both played and coached under Tom Cable for a number of years, and sure enough the film is littered with this stuff being used(and failing) the Dolphins OTs.

What Roberts describes is a technique where the OTs are extending their inside arms(or even reaching out and touching) the Guards next to them, and how it can cause some serious problems- essentially the OT is playing one-handed on their initial contact with outside rushers. On top of that, they're leaving their chests wide open for bull rush techniques.

If you look at the Dolphins this year, there's loads of blown block where you can see this backfiring...

Liam Eichenberg gets knocked on his ass by Josh Uche because he gave his chest up:

https://twitter.com/iambrianhines/status/1437172518092148741?s=20&t=wXrbL1--v-iTr1sZpom5WQ

Jesse Davis jumps back off of the snap quickly in anticipation of the rush, but then has to fufil the technique and put his arm out on the OG and is left employing a dubious "hug" technique on Christian Barmore:

https://twitter.com/ckparrot/status/1437457136074829828

Jesse Davis playing to close to the OT gives him no chance to get the edge rusher on time:

https://twitter.com/houtz/status/1447288771783823369?s=20&t=lhW1Zi655qErSQOOseTgiw

Etc. and so on. There's loads and loads of stuff on tape here, where you've got guys who are either getting hammered because they're leaving their chests open, or because they're essentially late because they're trying to protect the inside.

This stuff kind of works for Tom Cable... sometimes. But when it's really worked best is when he's got huge offensive tackles who have the size and strength to absorb what are essentially body blows on bullrushes, and have the reach and upper body strength allow them to recover once they've got their outside hand on a guy. Kolton Miller, Trent Brown, etc. On some level it makes sense- a lot of pass protection is just blocking inside-out, and building a wall that lets your QB step up in the pocket is as good a strategy as any than leaving your IOL on their own individual islands.

Your 2021 linemen just couldn't do this. Liam Eichenberg and Jesse Davis are built like Guards, relatively light and short-armed. Austin Jackson is a mechanical mess, and really probably did not need to learn a weird technique that didn't fit him at all on top of it. You're kind of left wonder if Robert Hunt couldn't make it work better than what you had, but they insisted on him at Guard.

IMO, I think this is certainly worth considering going forward when it comes to guys who are already on the roster, that you took a bunch of young OT's and gave them questionable instruction in blocking techniques that has a fairly checkered track record even at its best.