Why on earth did the get rid of Lousaka Polite???

He really fell of last yr c-jet, add in the different style of offense with more passing and quicker runs without a pure FB and he just no longer fit what they are trying to do.

The writing was on the wall; it certainly didn't come as a surprise to me.

I know things have change offensively, and I know that Chas Clay is talented but they should have kept him another year, if for nothing other than a mentor for Clay. I see Sporano kept 11 Offensive Linemen (2 on IR) to satisfy his fetish. I think they could have let one of them go and kept Polite another year.

How many times does Sparano have to say, "His position is dying out," before releasing him is not a surprise?

"cobrajet wrote:

I know things have change offensively, and I know that Chas Clay is talented but they should have kept him another year, if for nothing other than a mentor for Clay. I see Sporano kept 11 Offensive Linemen (2 on IR) to satisfy his fetish. I think they could have let one of them go and kept Polite another year.

You don't waste a roster spot on a "mentor", much less for a fullback mentor. Let the runningbacks coach do the mentoring. That's his job.

You want Polite to mentor him on a job Polite cannot perform? Some mentor.

This was a guy I respected. He is nearly impossible to stop in short yardage. Get him out the AFCE!

"cobrajet wrote:

I know things have change offensively, and I know that Chas Clay is talented but they should have kept him another year, if for nothing other than a mentor for Clay. I see Sporano kept 11 Offensive Linemen (2 on IR) to satisfy his fetish. I think they could have let one of them go and kept Polite another year.

Almost every team keeps 9 OL. You're reaching.

His blocking skills diminished greatly last year and with the fullback only being used as another blocker, it was only a matter of time before he was no longer going to be a Dolphin.

"Aqua4Ever04 wrote:

I said it earlier this week and I'll say it again, I'd prefer we just call ourselves a single set, three wide offense and do away with the full-back entirely. I like the idea of sprinkling Clay in as an H-back, and hopefully he can be a short yardage guy. Especially when you consider the fact that Reggie is more of a perimeter guy, I don't see us having a huge need for a guy to plug the A and B gaps on every running play any more. Even our power guy, Daniel Thomas, ran out a single back set at Kansas State.

Depending on how much Daboll gets to run his Offense, you might be seeing quite a bit of this.

The best we looked in all of preseason was in that set.

Good luck with those 3rd and 1s...

"NaboCane wrote:

The writing was on the wall; it certainly didn't come as a surprise to me.

Same here. I'm not shocked at all. Hilliard was moved to fullback, we have a new offense, and Polite's lead blocking deteriorated badly.

I read before that Ireland wanted Hilliard to get more playing time but Sparano didn't really want to play Hilliard, so I guess this is the compromise: put Hilliard at FB.

Clearly there were signs this could happen. The change to the new offense and emergence of Clay as an H back kind of forced the issue. The fact is he didn't have that good of year last year for whatever reason. Certainly not like the year before when the guy was absoloute money in short yardage. I'm going to miss him and I hope he catches on somewhere outside of the AFCE so I can continue to root for him.

"Aqua4Ever04 wrote:

I said it earlier this week and I'll say it again, I'd prefer we just call ourselves a single set, three wide offense and do away with the full-back entirely. I like the idea of sprinkling Clay in as an H-back, and hopefully he can be a short yardage guy. Especially when you consider the fact that Reggie is more of a perimeter guy, I don't see us having a huge need for a guy to plug the A and B gaps on every running play any more. Even our power guy, Daniel Thomas, ran out a single back set at Kansas State.

Well, do think we will see Hilliard and Thomas in toss sweep situations like they had Hillis doing in Cleveland.

Just from a start of the season pov, without injuries and having no real idea how the RT/RG/C combo will work out, I think the design of the offense has the pieces at skill positions to be highly productive, meanng it is well thought out, as I was in the camp that thought Polite was going to make just for situational football, but Sparano has bought all in.

Let's see where it goes from there.

I still expect LOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUU chants on 3rd and 1.

All last year Lex Hilliard was learning the fullback position..He said so himself..When Lou is in the game its pretty predictable whats gonna happen, lex can get out in the flat and turn his hips, run hard up the middle in short yardage, and has the athleticism to be a good blocker.

"FreeStyle wrote:

Wow, I was shocked to hear about LOU "Mr. 3 and 1 automatic 1st down" Polite being cut, the Fo must have something up their sleeve.

Yeah, passing offense. It's a weird concept for us, I know. Will take a while to get used to.

"FreeStyle wrote:

Wow, I was shocked to hear about LOU "Mr. 3 and 1 automatic 1st down" Polite being cut, the Fo must have something up their sleeve.

Something isn't right if our FB's biggest strength is converting 3rd and 1s.

With Bush's ability to spread a defense, the there's a greater need for a multidimensional FB. Bush's plays are likely to have wrinkles for the FB to attack the area abandoned by the defense.

When Hilliard was drafted, I thought his nose for the goal-line (iirc, 53 college TDs) may translate into a Richie Anderson type of FB to convert 1st downs. Although Lex is not the receiving threat, I was surprised with Anderson's running production with Dallas (70 carries for 4.4 Y/A and 57 carries for 4.3 Y/A). My guess is that team wants similar production from Hilliard and Clay with Lex getting the bulk of the carries while Charles has more receptions.

The goal-line offense could address the lack of an inside blocking FB by utilizing a defensive player. One of the special team LBers or Randy Starks might be suited to crash the line. When Daboll was with the Patriots, they frequently used defensive players and I wouldn't mind if they expanded this to include Jason Taylor as a goal-line TE.

It was a dramatic fall off from 2 years ago where i think he was robbed by not making the pro-bowl to last year just being an abysmal blocker. I loved this guy, will miss him.

"cobrajet wrote:

I know things have change offensively, and I know that Chas Clay is talented but they should have kept him another year, if for nothing other than a mentor for Clay. I see Sporano kept 11 Offensive Linemen (2 on IR) to satisfy his fetish. I think they could have let one of them go and kept Polite another year.

I think that's heading off the reservation a bit. You'd do better arguing they had a linebacker fetish (4 spots, kept 10, plus a guy on IR).

The offense has changed. He had a good skill, but unfortunately the more important skill seems to have been used up in 2009. Understandable, as that's not an activity a lot of guys can withstand for long periods of time.

I like and appreciate the guy, but would have been disappointed if they'd kept him.

"sandcastle wrote:

With Bush's ability to spread a defense, the there's a greater need for a multidimensional FB. Bush's plays are likely to have wrinkles for the FB to attack the area abandoned by the defense.

When Hilliard was drafted, I thought his nose for the goal-line (iirc, 53 college TDs) may translate into a Richie Anderson type of FB to convert 1st downs. Although Lex is not the receiving threat, I was surprised with Anderson's running production with Dallas (70 carries for 4.4 Y/A and 57 carries for 4.3 Y/A). My guess is that team wants similar production from Hilliard and Clay with Lex getting the bulk of the carries while Charles has more receptions.

The goal-line offense could address the lack of an inside blocking FB by utilizing a defensive player. One of the special team LBers or Randy Starks might be suited to crash the line. When Daboll was with the Patriots, they frequently used defensive players and I wouldn't mind if they expanded this to include Jason Taylor as a goal-line TE.

Good post.

I want to say Taylor actually drew a PI call on the goalline in 2009 for us.

Dolphins are desperate for a good blocker, and Polite was not cutting it. Hilliard may be better at that.

Seems like they are slowly edditing away more of the former Cowboys.