BY http://www.realfootball365.com/index.php/articles/dolphins/11211 After a college career during which he was a four-year letterman at a school where going undefeated doesn’t assure you a chance at the national championship, the Miami Dolphins took him in the second round of the 2007 NFL Draft. He is now entering his second season and will be expected to call the signals for what is arguably the most important unit on the field. Every offensive play will start with the ball in his hands. And unlike quarterback John Beck, he has virtually no competition at his position going into the 2008 season. good read
Ya got me AT, thought this was about Beck. Satele should really have a breakout year for us, and finally the OL should have more than just a month or so to gel. I'm excited to see wht our OL can do, which I was very worried about the OL before the draft. This OL rebuild is the Tunaville's best accomplishment so far this off season IMHO.
I disagree that Samson Satele is the key to the OL performing well. I believe the OL sinks and swims w/Jake Long. If he's awful, oh man...wow that's would be just terrible. It'll begin and end with him.
I'm hopeful we can get Carey locked up to a contract, even if we have to pay through the nose for him. I think he could be our most valuable lineman simply because we know what we have with him. If Jake Long plays well on the left side (God I hope he does) we have a pro bowl calibre RT in Carey. If Long sucks we can switch him to the right where we again may have a pro bowl RT while we have a LT who can hold his own against most defenses in the league. It seems to me we really are set at tackle and letting Carey leave would put us right back to square one. If our line is in the top quarter of the league this season, and there's no reason they can't be with the talent there, we really could be in the mix for a wild card spot until late in the season IMO.
Not really. It starts with Satele for sure, he's the guy callin the signals down there for the line to pick up blitzes and such. If, for some odd reason Jake fails at LT, we can easily swap him with Carey who was serviceable at the LT position. The entire OL won't collapse with Jake being shifted over a spot. Center is a very underrated position on a team i think.
I think Satele was a big reason that it wasnt terrible last year. He was our rookie of the year imo. If you watch alot of Ronnie's big plays, you ll almost always see Satele knocking people back on the line and continuing to down the field. I think our OL has a lot of promise this year. Obviously we drafted Jake Long so we're counting on his big *** to be a cornerstone. But we also picked up Smiley almost immediately in FA (lol somehow it only took about 20 mins). And dont forget we still have Vernon Carey and will hopefully be moving back to the right. Either way he'll be solid for us as well. I'm really pumped about our OL. It'll be nice to have a ton of holes for R and R. Also we'll get to see what a QB can do while their verticle instead of hit as the snap arrives.
Well, the future could be bright for this OL. The addition of Long and Smiley puts some zing into the talent level. Satele could actually end up being the weak link ?? But the that could be putting the cart before the horse. The fact is that this line is completely rebuilt from the previous two regimes... Watching this OL come together should really be fun for us fans in the coming years...
Definitely lock up Carey for long-term. Seeing as how much BP and Sparano value solid OL men, I would hope thats a pretty obvious goal for them. I completely agree. You guys are too fast for me lol
Very good read. I enjoyed the mis--direction at the beginning, making us think it was about Beck at first. lol. My only quibble is that the article says our line is set for ten years, but I am not sure we'll pay to keep Vernon Carey, who becomes a Free Agent after this season. The reality is, Vernon will get offers of Left Tackle money. I don;t think we can afford to pay him Left Tackle money to keep him at right tackle. Especially with an O-line that will be eating up about 20% of the entire team roster's salary cap by 2009. Either we... 1) sign Vernon to a reasonable extension after camp/at the beginiing of the season (once the coaches have seen what he can do, but before his agent can smell Free Agency around the corner in February) 2) trade him at that point to get a pick (if we intend not to resign him anyways) 3) draft/sign his replacement next offseason. I honestly don;t want to see us pay Vernon Left Teckle money, as it will grossly imbalance our salary structure. Sure, we'll enjoy to O-line, but we'll all be complaining about our defense, or receivers, or something else because we cannot afford to pay/keep top talent in every area. Bpk
Thats a good point, his versatility def demands more money then most tackles. I guess we'll have to wait and see how J Long works out and what happens this year before we do anything. Unless we trade him but I dont see that happening at the moment.
