Miami Dolphins Will Boast League’s Most Dangerous Pass Rush in 2014

Wow, they had four that's right...damn, what I wouldn't do for that..

They took...Pennington..Ellis..Abraham...Becht.

 

More like 2 percent and that 2 percent may represent as many as one more disruptive play per game, and that can be a big deal.

 

Dropping back doesn't affect pressure rate.

 

He's pretty green to the position, doesn't have the arsenal of moves yet, with his talent, if those percentages are accurate and you say 13 is high, then my hopes and expectations are not at all unreasonable.

 

Oh so its calced as a percent of rushes then? Makes more sense.

 

It's not unreasonable to expect/hope that he goes from where he was as a rookie to being an upper tier pass rusher. Not at all. He was pretty efficient for a rookie.

However I believe you've made some statements that would make him merely becoming "upper tier" pass rusher look like a disappointment. Based on what you've said, you expect him to end up in the 15 to 17 percent range...which is where people like Cameron Wake, John Abraham and Aldon Smith live (also Brandon Graham but that's a different discussion).

He's a little way from doing that and he will most definitely need to add to his pass rush repertoire in order to get there.

By the way, just to give you an idea of the "distance" between Jordan's 11.7% and the upper tier ("the 13's") that I talked about...Jordan's numbers (admittedly, a very low sample size for him thus far) are around 20th percentile and that upper tier I mentioned is around 8th or 9th percentile.

 

And there are only a handful of players in that upper percentile?

 

That's correct. But it is the least I would expect if Dion Jordan truly is the most unique player that has ever come out of the draft at that position, which is what DJ said before.

Not trying to bust chops. I think DJ expects Jordan to be an incredible player, and he has every right to expect that. That's his evaluation. I'm just offering an understanding of how that kind of uniqueness would look statistically.

 

I think he's saying, if the pass rush sample size were larger, the pressure rate may have gone up with experience and opportunity. The sample size being what it is, the opposite is true as well, I suppose.

 

Nope. He was mixed up about what pressure rate means.

 

Let me rephrase, I wasn't impressed with his pass rush ability last year were you?

I'm suprised what I saw is in that percentile, and like you said if he can add to the repertoire, and given his raw talent, is that not good chances that he gets into that 13 to 15 range?

 

I'm like you, wasn't particularly impressed with his pass rush in 2013. I'm also not totally impressed by the percentage which as I said is 20th percentile. You could look at the positive of that being 20th percentile but consider that he was being brought in mostly as an all-out rusher on all-out pass rush downs. Guys that play more downs aren't always in situations where they can rush all-out, even if the play is a pass play. So that tends to boost your percentage a little bit, when you're a specialist.

Which by the way is what makes Olivier Vernon's work as a rookie in 2012 so incredibly pathetic (forgive me, but it was). Vernon was misguidedly used by the coaches as a pass rush specialist which should have given him a boost to his efficiency percentage. But his percentage was only 7.3%. Given that, I was actually pleasantly surprised that Vernon was able to improve to 9.0% while also having his snap participation driven up to a full time load. He made genuine improvement as a pass rusher and believe it or not that doesn't always happen. Many guys just stay the same. That said, I don't know that I would expect OV to improve to a level that is truly compelling as a pass rusher...unless there are some changes to the way he's used.

Getting back to Dion Jordan, there's a big IF when it comes to adding to his repertoire. The reason I say that is because he's been basically the same pass rusher for three years now. Advising the man to develop more than one pass rush move is not exactly telling the man to build an ark. It's something he should have already known to do, something I'm positive other coaches have told him to do for years. Why hasn't he done it? Why does he rarely even try anything else but the outside move? There's something not quite right there.

But if he does successfully add to his repertoire I'm sure he can be at least a decent pass rusher. Whether he gets in the 13-15% range, I don't know about that. We'll just have to see. Right now he's basically Manny Lawson without the linebacker experience.

 

What you say about Jordan's inability to develop some other moves makes sense and does raise some concerns relative to how these coaches want to use him..

I personally have been banging the drum to make this player into the ultimate defensive utility knife, for the very reasons your stating..

In college I know you wrote about his inability to possess an inside move, that seems to be the case thus far..

The good news is, even though the perception is that this staff is going to pigeon hole him into one position, he surely didn't do that last year..Dion played at multiple spots and was successful doing so.

What do you attribute an athlete that can do anything with his body from a coordination standpoint who can't learn new moves pass rushing,?

I would think it would be attributed to a lack of instinct from strictly that position, however I have seen him be very instinctive when he's facing and chasing and not pass rushing..

To me if your an athlete you should be able to mimic good technique and movement, then comes repetition, then comes executing within the game..

I'm a little perplexed given his athletic ability we haven't seen a bit more polish in that regard, but, I'm confident he played injured all ear, and he had no offseason with the team, if he is used the way I think he should be used I believe he can be a great player..

 

I think obviously it's the mental game which is lacking right now. He's got to develop better plans of attack, notice things and adjust better. He'll have to do that between plays but he also has to read better during the play. A lot of pass rush moves require you to read the blocker's leverage and react to it in mid-rush. If he can't do that...