http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000169313/article/worst-position-groups-in-the-nfl-offense Wow, wasn't expecting that. Maybe it's because we're by nature homers, but I'm pretty excited about our RB's this year, yes they're unproven, but the glimpses of Miller last season were enough for me to feel fairly confident about the position this year. And the coaches/GM must agree too, as we didn't bring in any veteran RB's as insurance. I guess, from an outsider's perspective, until Miller or Gillislee show what they can do, it is right to doubt what we have at the position, but I still think labelling them as unproven is a lot closer to the mark than saying "worst". PS. We also get a mention in worst offensive line...
Well, think about it, they are going off numbers and right now the combine stats of our current RB crew is not impressive but it also dosen't match their potential.
This article completely sums up the problems with the national media. Unknown = worst...is just flat out lazy reporting. I like to believe there was a time when reporters realized part of their job was to inform us about the unknown. But since the journalist profession became more about ratings/advertising dollars, we don't learn about the unknown, we are given outrageous opinions or controversial punditry. It sickens me.
I've shared this concern since the draft...I really expected them to look sooner than Gillislee for help in the RB position. I don't think this is anything new for those of us that follow the Fins, but from the outside, the author is right. I too am pretty hopeful that Miller will explode onto the scene but we'll have to wait and see. Philbin has made a few unknown RBs flash for him in the past. Now, it could be that they ranked us so low as and adjunct to the weak OL ranking as well?? As to the OL, we have a lot of potential pieces....will they congeal into a unit is the big question... Will Martin make it as a LT ?? Is Louis going to be healthy enough to push JJ ?? Is JJ going to finally grow up and mature as a pro ?? IF JJ matures, could Louis (if healthy) push RI some ?? About the only non-question along the line is Pouncey....thank you very much... So putting us in that category means that maybe, there are some awful OLs out there...
I see nothing wrong with Rosenthal's conclusion, nor is it really surprising. Your RBs are a 4th round pick last year, a 5th round pick this year, a disappointing 2nd round pick two years ago, and possibly a UDFA. In terms of resources allocated, that's not impressive. But Rosenthal is also correct when he says this is the best position to look bad on paper. Running backs are fungible in and of themselves; combined with the fact that the position is now handled by committee on almost every team, and you get a situation where it doesn't really matter if you have a bad RB group. So long as they aren't Daniel Thomas bad, anyway. There is nothing wrong with the article. It's a column, the presentation of the writer's opinion. It is not reporting, nor is it intended to be a report of news. You are attacking it for not being something it was never intended to be, and also because its conclusion disagrees with you. A national website hosting an opinion that does not align with yours is not evidence of something being wrong with journalism. (Not that journalism isn't broken; read the New York Times for proof of that.) Op-eds have been around long before the talking head.
I get it, you see my screen name, read the first sentence and want to argue. However, had you kept reading or if you were actually paying attention you'd have seen this: I know it was never intended to be more than an silly opinion piece. That is my gripe...there's never anything but opinion pieces anymore. And even still, "unknown = worst" is also just a lazy opinion. Oh and while you're at it, do me a favor and read the actual link address. The article is in the news folder of that web site. This also has nothing to do with what I think about our running backs. The entire article's conclusions on every group is unknown = worst and that is lazy and frankly, stupid.
If a team is going to have the worst group of a certain position, RB is definitely the best position to be worst in. The Packers, Saints, and Colts all either won the SB or went to the Superbowl with terrible RBs, or terrible production. I'm pretty sure Arizona's running game was pretty dreadful the year they made it as well. But I forget. Edit: I have no idea if Miami has the worst RBs or not. But even if they do, definitely less scary than having arguably the worst WR corps, like last year.
not sure the Jets RBs are really better than ours. Chris Ivory might be better than Miller (when Ivory is actually healthy) but overall, I think he's a little overrated. Jets don't have much behind Ivory either.
I read your post in full before replying. Your problem is one of expectations. You don't discern between a news report and an opinion column. You expect the latter to be the former. You are the only one experiencing this issue.
Then you are willingly missing the point of what i posted. But you're right, i do have expectations. I expect for these types of sites to tell us things we don't know instead of basically saying unknown = worst. I get that you're ok with that and think its just peachy keen. I maintain its lazy whether it be reporting or opinion. And that laziness brought about by ratings is why the media sucks. Instead of taking that for what it was, you in turn tried oh so desperately to make it about me being a homer or too stupid to understand its an opinion piece (even though its flagrantly obvious I'm upset it is an opinion piece based on lazy fact finding, but whatever). I mean god forbid, I'm upset, a web site that is positioned as an expert on a given subject, offers up an opinion where the opposite of fact finding is used to create that opinion. Clearly, there's something wrong with me and my expectations. Again, you saw my name, wanted to argue, I get it.
How can the Dolphins be mentioned as one of the worst online units? Wasn't Incognito a 2013 pro bowl alternate? Wasn't Clabo in the 2012 pro bowl? Isn't Pouncey one of the best centers in the league? Smh...I guess this us the type if thing that happens when you've been mostly irrelevant for over a decade.
IMO RB is a fungible position that should be replaced every few years late round picks. I also believe that OL in general should be made up of players you develop. So I'm pretty happy about the way those positions are being filled. Fans and media will always equate unknown with poor. I see that as opinions born of ignorance. I've always believed in drafting and developing players. I base my assessments on talent far more than on "names". I also disagree with the concern about our OL in general. The most important OL position is now C and in general it's more important to be strong up the middle than at the edges. We have probowlers at C and LG and brought in a decent to good vet at RG. Even at the Ts we have a recent probowler 2010 and a 2nd round pick in his second year. I see our OL as pretty solid to good at 4 out of 5 positions. And if you track how players develop, Martin was weak in the areas that rookies OL usually improve on form year 1 to year 2. So I don't even see his development as a huge gamble. I don't see that unit as weak relative to the rest of the league. In general if you had an OL with 3 out of 5 recent probowlers on any other team, it would be considered a good to very good unit.
I'd rather be under-rated than over-rated. I think we'll be just fine at running back. I'm more worried about the guys who have to open up lanes for them.
I agree with Des on this one. On paper there's no way you look at Miami's unit and say they look GOOD relative to the rest of the league. There's just no way to do that. But Rosenthal did note that this is the best position to look bad on paper. Yes I would easily rate the Patriots', Jets' and Bills' running backs units to be better than ours. And I have high hopes for Lamar Miller. I like Gillislee too, but it bothers me that we may have to really rely on him whereas on film he does not look like he knows (yet) how to make the reads and run to the right holes in Miami's system. However I will say based on my extremely painful exercise putting together the Daniel Thomas video, I do have some faith in the coaches to recognize what Gillislee is and is not able to do and make adjustments at latest by midseason. I would like to see Jonas Gray given a significant opportunity to pair with Miller.
Looking forward to how preseason shakes this group out. Last time we had a group of running backs this inexperienced was Lamar Smith's first year here IIRC. Bit ironic because prior to coming here, Lamar had more carries than our entire current group of backs combined. I wouldn't rule out adding a veteran back in late July.
It's understandable you would forget this but there was also the year we traded for Lamar Gordon and had him compete with Travis Minor...and Sammy Morris ended up our leading rusher. There was also good ole Leonard Henry.
Lamar Smith's first season was also the last time we won a playoff game.....let's hope for a repeat! I also wouldn't be surprised if we add a vet soon
To be fair, I don't think for a second Rosenthal wanted this article to be taken seriously. It's a joke piece right? Honorable mention goes to Ten, who has Chris Johnson and Shonn Greene. Serious? I don't mind them lumping us in there because really, who do we have? As of now, I have no problem with putting us in there. But yes they left some teams out, and including Ten is just stupid.
Isn't that the year Ricky Williams retired before training camp? IIRC we traded for Lamar Gordon close to the trading deadline and either Ricky was suspended or there was an injury that prompted that trade? EDIT: yeah, 2004 before training camp Ricky retired.
Gif only responses can be hilarious when well timed, relevant and used sparingly. You're doing it wrong.
Ricky suddenly retired during the summer before training camp, yes. Miami headed into camp with Travis Minor and Sammy Morris but when David Boston got hurt (which happened at the beginning of camp) they immediately traded Ogunleye for Marty Booker and a 3rd, and simultaneously traded the other 3rd they had for Lamar Gordon. That wasn't necessarily "close to the trading deadline" which is Week 6 of the regular season. It was at the beginning of camp. So yes throughout camp our backs were Travis Minor, Sammy Morris, Lamar Gordon and Leonardy Henry. All of them were extremely unproven.
And Johnathan Franklin, who I believe could outrush Eddie Lacy in that offense. They also still have DuJuan Harris and Alex Green. I think they've turned the position into a strength.
There is nothing wrong with an opinion piece. My issue with ones like this is that it appears the writer did zero work to educate himself on the topic to form an educated opinion. He should have to watch film and study the players before ranking them. That should be his job as a journalist. But it isn't. His job has transformed into slapping something together quickly that is neither informative nor insightful in order to churn out Internet clicks. And I believe that is the part Fin D was taking issue with.
Ivory was the guy I wanted to go hard after this offseason, jets getting him for a fourth was a steal, not sure why we weren't in that race..
Between Mike Goodson and Chris Ivory, that's a nice backfield. And adding in a Bilal Powell is pretty nice as well.
I don't know if the RB position will be a weakness for this team, but right now it remains a HUGE question mark. Not a single RB on the roster has yet proven that he can be a consistent RB in the NFL. Miller might end up being very good RB in the NFL, but his limited playing time last year didn't prove that he could take over as the main running back. Thomas hasn't shown much as an NFL RB, and I will be surprised if he is even on the roster when the season begins. As for Gillislee and Gray, neither have ever even taken a snap in an NFL game and therefore we have no idea how productive they will be in the NFL. Miller, Gillislee, and Gray may end up being a fine RB group, but right now we really don't know. I can see how you could look at the limited experience of this group of RB's and consider it a weak area of this team. As far as the offensive line is concerned, it really all comes down to two players. Will Martin be an asset or a liability at the LT position? Will Jerry start playing to his potential at RG or will one of the other backup offensive lineman eventually take over this RG position? If Martin and Jerry develop into quality linemen at their positions, the OL could become a strength for this team. If on the other hand Martin can't handle the LT position and Jerry continues to play inconsistently, the OL will definitely be a concern throughout the 2013 season.
Same here. Doubts and worries. Miller hasn't proven anything except that he could sub off the bench and spell Reggie. Five yards a carry isn't as difficult with fresh legs in a part time role.
