Dolphins Rebuild

[EDGECRUSHER]

Miami's made some really dumb draft picks in the past, but I think Grier has done a decent job.  He's picked guys in the higher rounds that are projected to go where they are drafted (and I think he's done decent in the lower rounds where talent is harder to determine).  If you're getting guys that aren't playing up to their potential then that's on the coaching.  I think Flores is a great coach, but it's the position player coaches that are lacking.  Then when you are changing the O-line coaches every year there is no fluidity.  When players are switching positions on the O-line it makes it more difficult.

I will say this after watching yesterday's game, Austin Jackson better get his act together because he was TERRIBLE!

In addition to bad picks like Noah, we may just be having some bad luck too. Austin Jackson was a necessary and solid pick for us, but he is doing terribly in his second season. Why? Most players don't get worse in their second year but he has been horrible. Tua was the right call and jury is still out since his O-Line murdered him.

I can't judge any of the 2021 picks yet because it's only 2 games and Jaeden was double teamed last week but the 2019 and 2020 picks aren't lighting the world on fire right now. Rebuilding teams can't affod to whiff on them.

[CF DolFan]

Outside of a couple of years I'm pretty sure the priority topic for the Dolphins has been do we have a franchise qb and when is the O-line going to come together? Seems like you'd have to be trying to screw up to be this bad at accomplishing those two things. 

[CF DolFan]

Here we are again discussing our middle school offense.

Let's look at yesterday game.

- First time in history of the NFL that a forward pass became a safety without a penalty.
- Raiders best player on defense goes out hurt and we do not notice or choose to not attack the new guy
- Our speedy rookie had 12 catches for a measly 58 yards which is the least amount of YPC for anyone not out of the backfield.
- We continue to fail on the offensive line

We do less with speed than any team in the NFL. All they talk about is how much speed we have and yet we rarely outrun anyone over top or underneath.

It's early in the season and we could get better but seriously ... are we getting better overall or is this just more of the same old crap?

[EDGECRUSHER]

Here we are again discussing our middle school offense.

Let's look at yesterday game.

- First time in history of the NFL that a forward pass became a safety without a penalty.
- Raiders best player on defense goes out hurt and we do not notice or choose to not attack the new guy
- Our speedy rookie had 12 catches for a measly 58 yards which is the least amount of YPC for anyone not out of the backfield.
- We continue to fail on the offensive line

We do less with speed than any team in the NFL. All they talk about is how much speed we have and yet we rarely outrun anyone over top or underneath.

It's early in the season and we could get better but seriously ... are we getting better overall or is this just more of the same old crap?

We had a whole offseason to get stuff right and we are the same team from Week 17 last year. Let's be realistic, it was a minor miracle we beat the Pats in Week 1 and despite taking the Raiders to the end of OT, we got outplayed all game and it felt like a blowout past the first quarter. We are definitely in the bottom 3rd of the league and coaching has been an issue. I would fire our OCs today, they are incompetent. I usually don't think that fans know more than coaches, but if it took these guys 11 quarters to realiaze you need to run Shotgun formation when you have no O-Line, then they don't belong in the NFL.

Our defense is keeping us alive. They gave up 29 points yesterday in 5 quarters, scored 7 of their own and were on the field almost twice as much as the offense until the 4th quarter. Nothing but praise for them right now, but they are masking the offense and coaching issues we are having.

[Pappy13]

To be fair the schedule has not been kind to the Dolphins so far this year. Buffalo is the best team in the AFC in my opinion this year and Las Vegas is looking like a playoff team. New England is a middle of the pack team, not a bad team. Indy is still a winnable game but Tampa Bay is going to be tough so we will be doing well to escape with a 2-3 record for those first 5 games. The best I had hoped for during this stretch was 3-2 and if the Dolphins could have found a way to win that game yesterday that would have still been a good possibility so I haven't thrown in the towel on the season. After that 5 game stretch the Dolphins have a ton of winnable games on the schedule and they will have to win most of them. If they are still struggling to put up points in those games, then yeah the season will be over, but it's not over yet. It's concerning, but it's still early in the year and there's a lot of time to get things back on track. We'll have to wait a bit to see if things do get on track or if they stay off the rails.

Its frustrating to lose a game you could have won, but I thought there was progress in this game from the Buffalo disaster, so I see progress. The next game is key, if they look good against Indy, I still think the year is salvageable.

[pondwater]

We do less with speed than any team in the NFL. All they talk about is how much speed we have and yet we rarely outrun anyone over top or underneath.

Yeah, where's the speed? Even in 5 wide were throwing 3 yard passes. I could be wrong, but Fuller doesn't look all that fast to me.

[fyo]

Yeah, where's the speed? Even in 5 wide were throwing 3 yard passes. I could be wrong, but Fuller doesn't look all that fast to me.

I thought Fuller looked fine. He had that one streak down the sideline where the defender (smartly) got him trapped, but the difference in speed there was astounding.

The biggest problem is that a simple vertical (like that one) is the only thing you can do when your o-line is as bad as ours. I see other teams throwing deep crossing routes to their speedsters and I get jealous, but we just can't do that if the QB has a defender in his face 2 seconds after the snap.

One thing I really liked with the play calling yesterday was that we stuck with the running game and did a decent job not putting runners in a bad position where they take a 5 yard loss. I didn't like the way Waddle was used, but I did like that we had a lot of short throws into the flat. Combine that with some slants and some rub plays and we can take some of the pressure off the offensive line AND the quarterback. I'm not a fan of Brissett, but he did a decent job running for his life back there.

[EDGECRUSHER]

I thought Fuller looked fine. He had that one streak down the sideline where the defender (smartly) got him trapped, but the difference in speed there was astounding.

The biggest problem is that a simple vertical (like that one) is the only thing you can do when your o-line is as bad as ours. I see other teams throwing deep crossing routes to their speedsters and I get jealous, but we just can't do that if the QB has a defender in his face 2 seconds after the snap.

One thing I really liked with the play calling yesterday was that we stuck with the running game and did a decent job not putting runners in a bad position where they take a 5 yard loss. I didn't like the way Waddle was used, but I did like that we had a lot of short throws into the flat. Combine that with some slants and some rub plays and we can take some of the pressure off the offensive line AND the quarterback. I'm not a fan of Brissett, but he did a decent job running for his life back there.

1) Jacoby did the best he could under the circumstances aside from that historic safety.
2) You're absolutely correct. What good is speed when the WR has half a second to run before the QB is forced to throw the ball? No time to go deep or really create separation.
3) Our 2 running backs and Jacoby did well yesterday. 133 yards on 29 carries combined, I'll take that every Sunday.

[Pappy13]

3) Our 2 running backs and Jacoby did well yesterday. 133 yards on 29 carries combined, I'll take that every Sunday.

Give the offensive line a little credit for this. They are struggling with pass protection but starting to make some holes in the running game. The better this gets, the better the pass protection will get because the defense won't be able to just tee off on the pass rush. I firmly believe that you will start to see a little better protection in the next game from the offensive line. Buffalo and LV are no joke when it comes to their defensive line and backfield. Gotta believe it gets a little better from here on out (except for Tampa).

[CF DolFan]

What good is speed when the WR has half a second to run before the QB is forced to throw the ball? No time to go deep or really create separation.

We had plenty of plays against LV that were long enough to get speed people open. We were bad but not near as bad as the Buffalo game because like I said before the game .. they typically only sent 4.

[Dolphster]

I wasn't sure which thread to post this in, and I didn't think it was worthy of it's own thread.  But lost in all of the analysis of Sundays game was the fact that Jaelan Phillips had a fairly significant game.  He played 59% of the defensive snaps which was more than double the percentage of snaps he played in either of the first two games.  During the first half he was a consistent presence in the Raiders backfield when rushing and he ended up with 6 tackles and was all over the field chasing plays etc. and showing a lot of hustle.  I think we will see him more involved and continuing to play better as the season rolls on. 

[CF DolFan]

I wasn't sure which thread to post this in, and I didn't think it was worthy of it's own thread.  But lost in all of the analysis of Sundays game was the fact that Jaelan Phillips had a fairly significant game.  He played 59% of the defensive snaps which was more than double the percentage of snaps he played in either of the first two games.  During the first half he was a consistent presence in the Raiders backfield when rushing and he ended up with 6 tackles and was all over the field chasing plays etc. and showing a lot of hustle.  I think we will see him more involved and continuing to play better as the season rolls on. 

Like Tua ... he is tied to the guy drafted him that we did not choose that also rushes the QB. Buffalo Bills defensive end Greg Rousseau also played for the Hurricanes but he now has 2 sacks to go along with his 8 tackles.

[masterfins]

Give the offensive line a little credit for this. They are struggling with pass protection but starting to make some holes in the running game. The better this gets, the better the pass protection will get because the defense won't be able to just tee off on the pass rush. I firmly believe that you will start to see a little better protection in the next game from the offensive line. Buffalo and LV are no joke when it comes to their defensive line and backfield. Gotta believe it gets a little better from here on out (except for Tampa).

Remembering what Tampa's defense did to Mahomes in the SB earlier this year, makes the Tampa game very scary.

[Dolphster]

Like Tua ... he is tied to the guy drafted him that we did not choose that also rushes the QB. Buffalo Bills defensive end Greg Rousseau also played for the Hurricanes but he now has 2 sacks to go along with his 8 tackles.

I definitely get that.  I actually had Rousseau and Phillips rated pretty much equally coming out of The U.  I'm not a huge fan of player to player comparisons (especially based on a 3 game sample size) because there are so many variables that prevent it from being an apples to apples comparison.  Things such as different teams running different defensive schemes, number of snaps per game by each player, is the rest of the defense you play on so excellent that opponents focus on other players which frees you up, etc.  Especially with sacks.  Maybe 30% of the time a sack is a direct result of the defensive player dominating a blocker.  The other 70% of the time is a combination of a blown blocking assignment, being the one who gets the credit when another defensive player is who caused the disruption that led to the sack, etc. etc. etc.    And when you are talking about a 3 game sample size, those things are exacerbated greatly by strength of opponent and things like that.  Sacks are obviously very important and they are definitely flashy.  But honestly, a lot of the time a sack is a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

Ultimately, playing the "we could have had that guy" game is a losing proposition.  The team DIDN'T draft that guy.  They drafted THIS guy.  That's like complaining that you didn't date the girl who ended up being the prom queen.  You dated someone else.  And the fact that some other girl became the prom queen has nothing to do with the relationship you are in.  There are no "do overs" in the draft.  Rousseau could end up a Hall of Famer or flame out.  Phillips could be a Hall of Famer or flame out.  Chances are neither of them will be either of those things.  I think ultimately they will both be excellent Defensive Ends with Rousseau probably being better in the short term because he is on a superior defensive team. 

[Downunder Dolphan]

In addition to bad picks like Noah, we may just be having some bad luck too. Austin Jackson was a necessary and solid pick for us, but he is doing terribly in his second season.

What the heck is the story with Noah? I can understand it's a tough ask to replace Howard or Jones in his first couple of seasons, but not even making the squad is shocking and puzzling for such a high pick. The videos of him in practice this offseason looked real encouraging too - is his problem between the ears, injury or something else?

In the draft Jackson was also selected higher than others had ranked him on raw physical talent/attributes - I thought he was solid last year but also noticed some very poor moments in a couple of games. This season those poor moments seem have become the norm, which is a huge worry...