http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7064975/darren-sproles-rise-space-player The article is about how New Orleans uses Darren Sproles and gets the most out of his ability. To make this Dolphins related, this article basically shows you two things. First, how the Dolphins should be using Reggie Bush instead of trying to make him a feature back, and second, how the Dolphins have royally overpaid for a player who is not quite as good as Darren Sproles is. Of course, there are some good reasons why we may not necessarily be able to use Bush on screen passes the way the Saints use Sproles on screen passes. Probably the biggest is the offensive line. Can you imagine asking Marc Colombo to make the block Zach Streif makes in this article when discussing the speed screen? Our linemen, outside of Mike Pouncey, simply do not move well enough to get out in front of Bush and block on screen passes. That would be my reason, but I really wonder if the coaching staff realizes that. That may be giving them too much credit, and they may not be running screens because they don't believe in them. Fellas, the utilization of space players is the direction this league is going in. This is an adaptation to the college spread offenses the league has had to make, and the more space players like Chris Rainey at Florida enter the league, the more teams are going to have to eschew the traditional leads and dives in the running game and run things that fit these guys more. Not only is Reggie Bush misused in Miami, but Davone Bess is currently being horribly underused as well. Miami has it in their mind that they have to attack constantly down the field, and they also have to pacify Brandon Marshall. As a result, Davone Bess who is one of their best, most efficient and reliable offensive players, has been largely an afterthought at times. He runs great routes and has a nack for finding the opening in the zone. He can work the underneath space that is created by the downfield threats. It will be interesting to see if this coaching staff realizes this going forward, because Bess could be doing for us what Wes Welker does for New England. Another space player in the league that I like is Danny Amendola, who is out for the year but was very productive for the Rans last year. The use of these kinds of space players is why I want a head coach that is going to embrace the ideas the come from the college spread, whether it is the route combinations and progression reads from Mike Leach's offense, the use of the quarterback in the running game from Dan Mullen's offense, or the use of quick, shifty tailbacks from Chip Kelly's offense, and the pace of Gus Malzahn's offense. These are ideas that need to be embraced and utilized to maximize what the college game is producing. These are ideas that I'm not sure an old school coach like Bill Cowher will embrace.
agree on the misuse of D Bess. Is this Daboll just ignoring or deprioritizing Bess, or does he just not know how to use him. Last season we started off with a very respectable 3rd down conversion rate and it was due to Henne trusting Bess and getting him the ball on 3rd down. Or is the problem that defenses are double covering Bess on 3rd down. either way, it's no coincidence our 3rd down conversion rate sucks this year.
Danny Amendola is this leagues next Wes Welker. Look at his 2010 stats, one of the best in the league flying under the radar
Alert! Someone has taken over KB's account. These are words I never believed he would say. I'm kidding. Very good well thought out post, and it's refreshing to see you are being flexible in your thinking. You make a good point, as why you said before that Jon Gruden makes the most sense for a new head coach. He has shown he can adapt to best utilize the skills of his current players. Sort of what was Shula's strongest attribute. Gruden just isn't strong in personnel accrual though and I'd hope he can agree to just focus on coaching and not want to run the draft process along with it.
I really wish you didn't feel a need to manufacture reasons to complain about players you don't like. Brandon Marshall has nothing to do with whether or not Bess is ahead of him in the read order for a given play. That's entirely up to Daboll, who probably sees Marshall as a better target than Bess (and he would be right: Marshall can be targeted with more types of throws than Bess). I'll concede there might be some pressure to target Marshall a little extra because of his contract, but that's not the same as needing to pacify him. Otherwise, you found a great article, and I largely agree with your accompanying description.
Not by me, Armendola is the only player to have averaged 2k all purpose yds for the last 3 seasons. Agree with KB about Devone Bess's disappearance, I understand the need to stretch the field, but also think Daboll chooses bad times to do so, normally on 3rd downs, which just kill drives.
That's funny, I didn't read it that KB was doing that all, just making up reasons to diss Marshall. Obviously YMMV.
