Five thoughts on Dolphins defensive coordinator Mike Nolan http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/spo...aveHyde-blog+(Dave+Hyde+|+Sun+Sentinel+blogs) The Mike Nolan statistical history http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sport...kolnick's+Season+Ticket+|+Sun-Sentinel+Blogs) The personnel impact of Mike Nolan on the Miami Dolphins http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sport...sweblog+(Miami+Dolphins+|+Sun-Sentinel+Blogs)
Nice read, although at 6-3 250 lbs I never thought Wakes size was in question. If JT and Peezy stay it will be very interesting to see what a real DC can do with those guys.
The prospect of combining Wake with Nolan is what has me most excited about this hire. Last year Dumervil averaged a sack, pressure or hit on the QB every 16 snaps. He was used primarily as a pass rusher since he was considered a liability against the run and poor in pass coverage. Wake averaged a sack, pressure or hit on the QB every 5 snaps. IMO he is better against the run than Dumervil and no worse in coverage.
Well all LBs are a liability in coverage. Its simply a mismatch. There isn't a single LB in the league who has stopped more than half the passes against him in the last three years (that's the period I've seen stats for so its probably longer). The significant difference is that those LBs have to make the tackles on those completions. That's where our LBs failed. Against the run our guys really weren't that bad. I really wish I knew what happened with the Roth situation. If he were here we'd be set on the strong side with Roth (and the rumors that Merling has been told to lose weight) and the weak side with Wake and either JT or Porter platooning. We'd also have depth on the weak side with Anderson and Moses.
I do not see how anyone can say that. It's pretty obvious by now that Roth is always going to have trouble with that groin.
I guess it would depend on who you asked. Porter has always been susceptible against the run. He has always been and still remains a very good pass rusher. Last year his sacks dipped but there are a few contributing factors to that decline. Fist off as we all know he had been playing with an injury for most of the year. Second lets be real the year before he had 17.5 sacks so it would be hard for those numbers not to dip. The fact still remains. He has 9 sacks last year and ranked 6th in that category among active 3-4 OLB's. So unless we bring in someone who can replace those sacks I would think he would stay. I know some people will say Wake is that guy and don't be to suprised if I say I agree. But still let us not forget the excitment we had last year in the thought of having Wake JT and peezy on the field at the same time. That experiment seemd to have failed but it is my humble opinion that the only reason it failed was we didn't have the right guy in charge of putting such a scheme together. I think Nolan is "That Guy" and would love to see what he can do with the three of them.
Wow, Pro Football Focus overload. That's really a ****ty job at analyzing the personnel. That's more listing them.
Not seeing it Bro, could be wrong, but unless it is a money issue, JP is due 7 millie this year, those 9 sacks are just hard to replace with nothing but "potential". JP will have his knee scoped this offseason, imho he should stick around through TC to see what he has and to have some good trade bait.
Well I'll take Charlie Anderson and his 7 sacks(projected for starting the whole season) at the vet minimum all day over Porter, his 9 sacks, big mouth, and 7 million.
I completely agree with you on Roth. He certainly wasn't the most athletic, but he could set the edge against the run. Pass coverage certainly is always a liability for any LB, especially with the barrage of killer TE's we played this year. (Tony G, Clark, Gates Heath Miller, Winslow.) As far as the run though, our weakside really seemed to be a huge liabilty against the run. Taylor played servicably on the strong, but those legs are getting old. From what I saw most tackles came from the DL, ILBs or our safties stepping up. The part that intrigued me most about your post was the rumor that Merling was being told to lose weight. I remember having a couple discussions when he was drafted as looking at him as a potential SOLB. I kept that dream alive until this year, where he weight is now listed as 295. It almost seems to me that he is really being more groomed to make the switch to NT, instead of SOLB. That or the potential choice of him staying at a crowded 3-4 DE position. I was just wondering how recently this rumor has been swirling. It would be nice to see Merling make the switch either way, seeing both are big needs.
Stuff like what Tight End and Quarterback Nolan selected in San Fransciso is pretty irrelevant. Whether or not he made good decisions on his defensive players is irrelevant too. There's nothing along the lines of say, Nolan took Manny Lawson because of his desire for trait "X", which is important in his defense because of "Y".
The Matt Roth situation is still a puzzle. I always felt that he was too heavy at SOLB for us in 2008 and would have benefit from losing a few pounds to help his pass rushing. He really was an underrated player and more effective in rushing the passer (based on snaps) than most gave him credit for. At the least he was a good two-down player at SOLB.
I think the pass rushing stuff is a little bit disingenuous. On the fact of it, if you look at his stats and think about his limited stats, he did fairly good in '08, and the same with Cleveland. Roth gets most of his sacks vs. Tight Ends, Fullbacks, and Runningbacks. His job basically entailed him not rushing unless the guy he was responsible for didn't come out of the backfield and stayed in to block him. He was a good mismatch on those type of players, but I'm skeptical he would have any kind of meaningful production pass rushing against an actual Tackle, and so seemingly was our coaching staff and Clevelands.
So write that, like it is a rare thing for tight ends, fullbacks and runningbacks to block. The thing that annoyed me the most last year was seeing tight ends, fullbacks, and runningbacks blocking Joey Porter with consistant basis and Jason Taylor better and better as the game went on.
