Some great few posts in there ck. This is going to be an interesting offseason, I just hope the picks / signings we make work well and fit what we need.
Getting back to the thread topic of fits for our system(s), I fully agree with Awsi Dooger when he says "legitimately great players" (emphasis on the full and specific meaning of that descriptor) will fit any system.
The problem is most of a draft you're probably not trying to get "legitimately great players". Maybe the top of the 1st round. The rest of the draft you don't have a ton of whacks at the bat to try and get a legitimately great player.
One assumption I've often seen put out there is that good is the enemy of great when it comes to draft picks. I don't agree. Terrible is the enemy of great. Bad is the enemy of great. Mediocre is the enemy of great. Often when I see General Managers or draft picks cited as examples of how drafting for "good" can be dangerous, we're talking about BAD PLAYERS. I mean Eddie Moore was a friggin' bad player. That wasn't "good is the enemy of great". That was a bad player, a bad eval. Let's not try and stretch that into our convenient narratives.
It's sort of like saying that going for Jamar Fletcher was trying to hit a single instead of a home run, then turning around and saying that going for Anquan Boldin in the 2nd round would've been swinging for the fences. Really? Because Jamar Fletcher and Anquan Boldin were basically the same player at different positions. Both College Football Hall of Fame types who were GREAT players (not good, GREAT) in college, but who had some measurables that didn't necessarily add up for pro translation. One of them went on to be a great pro. The other didn't.
I think the great players to come out of the draft beyond a certain point (e.g. top half of the 1st round) come out of all walks of life. All styles, all levels of competition, prototypes, etc. It's a little like hitting the lottery. And I've never seen any evidence that consistently hitting on good players that give you good contributions in your system(s), will actually decrease your chances of finding a great player. In fact it's probably the opposite.
I think we're quickly establishing a pretty good prototype on the defensive side of the ball for what they want particularly at corner and linebacker.
If a corner isn't at least six feet with good length in his arms, he probably need not apply to our Outside CB position. Perhaps he could work the Slot CB position, but not the outside.
At linebacker Chris Grier recently admitted that both he and Tannenbaum come from the Bill Parcells school of prototyping, and Tannenbaum threw in the old Parcells quote, "Don't take linebackers that drive Volkswagons." Add in Matt Burke's history particularly at the Mike linebacker spot where he enjoyed success with the likes of Stephen Tulloch (Tennessee originally, reunited in Detroit) and Rey Maualuga (Cincinnati), I think it could be a safe bet that Burke is the source of the talk about moving Kiko Alonso to Will and then finding a new Mike. So what does that mean they want at Mike? A lengthy hammer, I guess.
Defensive end is a bit harder to gauge. From a front office standpoint, and likely also from Jim Washburn's standpoint, it seemed like there was an emphasis on length and size with the additions of Mario Williams, Jason Jones. There was the announced intention of making Cam Wake a pass rush specialist. Andre Branch was Vance Joseph's guy but at 6'4" he fit well enough. But Vance kept saying publicly that he likes his defensive ends to look more like outside linebackers, which has not been Jim Washburn's M.O. during his career, nor does that philosophy seem very compatible with giving Mario Williams $8.5 million in 2016. Then partway through the season Mario Williams gets benched, as does Jason Jones, and Andre Branch and Cam Wake (two guys who "look like outside linebackers") got elevated. Vance once even went as far as expressing that one of Adam Gase's strong suits was his willingness to bench "established starters". And I've heard privately that Vance Joseph's personnel input basically batted a thousand this year.
So there may have been disagreements on defensive end, between Vance Joseph and several others. Does that persist now that Vance is gone? Maybe we're back to the same philosophies which saw us signing Mario Williams and Jason Jones. It's hard to say. We're gonna have to watch and find out.
But clearly they're going to want guys who can set the edge, re-trace like linebackers, convert speed-to-power, and stunt to the inside from a Wide rush position. Clearly the ability to get off the blocks matters to these guys, at both the defensive end and defensive tackle positions. No matter what those guys look like physically. They may be looking for a guy who has the versatility to go inside and help there. They may be looking for a guy who will be a Sam in base and can put his hand down and rush reliably well at will. Matt Burke once coached Julian Peterson in Detroit.
On offense I'm not even really sure they have a "type". Adam Gase likes to throw everything at the opposing defense. We ended up using a lot of zone blocking because Jay Ajayi had so much success with it. But his history has not been to use zone blocking exclusively by any means. I think he's actually very demanding on his OLs because he asks them to execute a lot of different things and to always have in mind what the goal is on the different kinds of plays so that they can improvise at will.
I know that from a personnel standpoint Adam Gase puts a lot of store in physical benchmarks like lifting prowess, measures of explosiveness, measures of agility and speed, measures of length and size. He also equally puts a lot of store in how smart the players are, how quickly they can identify things, how well they're going to know the playbook and what they're trying to accomplish as a unit on each play. That may sound like he's just looking for the perfect offensive lineman. But the thing that is actually a trailing third in that profile...is technique. He doesn't care a ton if a guy has sloppy technique. He figures they'll teach him that, and as long as he's physically and mentally impressive, that's good enough.
I have been under the impression based on what I have heard, which is corroborated thus far with the fact they've re-signed MarQueis Gray but not necessarily prioritized Dion Sims, that they're looking for more of an in-line tight end. A true #1 guy with true versatility. Many people claim that the joker types are versatile but they're not really versatile unless they can be used in-line one down, an H-Back the next down, a slot WR the next down, and then perimeter slant the down after that. That's versatility. I think they covet the likes of Kyle Rudolph, Greg Olsen, guys like that. That's why when I hear this talk of David Njoku, I shy away from it a little. I love the player. I'm just not sure that's what they're looking for.
At quarterback I think it's pretty clear that Adam Gase hates the spread and he's not very into dual-threat quarterbacks. He wants guys that work the pocket, read the field, make good decisions and make good throws. He doesn't like the spread but he seems to accept that to some extent it is a fact of life in college to pro quarterback translation. There aren't a whole lot of Cooper Rushes out there. He was willing to take a shot on Brandon Doughty whose system had pro concepts in it and was kind of like half-spread. That said, based on things I've heard I think Adam Gase can also kind of show a few nepotistic tendencies, which honestly you did see in the Doughty pick since that was kind of a Dan Marino favorite. Gase has a relationship with Kliff Kingsbury, and if Kliff is really pushing Davis Webb or Patrick Mahomes, Adam may set aside some of the spread and/or dual-threat biases he inherited from his mentor Mike Martz and actually buy into a player his friend is selling.
Running back, there's no pinning that one down. Adam Gase is all over the board there. He just wants someone GOOD. Right now, and this may be temporary, I think he may be looking to use the position more in the passing game. Based on what I've heard. He's a little stuck in this regard as Jay Ajayi isn't very good in the passing game. But Damien Williams and Kenyan Drake are...
Trust me when I say that both Adam Gase and Clyde Christensen have been seeing what these smaller, super quick guys like Tyreek Hill are doing in the passing game...especially out of the backfield. It didn't work out with Jakeem Grant that way. They'll give him another crack at it. But they'll look to give him competition in the form of perhaps a Ryan Switzer, Trent Taylor, Kermit Whitfield, someone like that. They're going to take to the drawing board this off season and start drawing up those plays and implementing them into the CORE offense. And either Jakeem Grant is going to run them, or someone else is. Getting someone to compete with Grant that way is the best way to ensure that someone's there to do it one way or another.
But clearly they're going to want guys who can set the edge, re-trace like linebackers, convert speed-to-power, and stunt to the inside from a Wide rush position.
This is where you have a flashing neon sign that says "Taco Charlton" in my opinion. He's the type of guy that you want to stunt and exchange to reap the most benefit. He's not going to beat tackles in the NFL to the outside with any consistency, which is why he'll likely never be a double-digit sack artist threat if he has to rely on beating tackles in the NFL on the edge. However, he is the type that needs to reach his 3rd step before contact is made and utilizing a pass rush move (in his case the spin move) and he can do that lined up in a wider 9 technique. Furthermore, as I mentioned previously, he excels at doing things that force the action but don't always show up on the stat sheet.
Carl Lawson is another one in addition to Jordan Willis. Both just without the overall length that Charlton has.
So you guys agree with me on Willis then?
I don't see it with him or taco. I'd take walker all day and twice on Sunday in the first over both of them. They don't anything in particular to impress me enough to justify a high pick ... and I see both of their combines being underwhelming. Cleveland is a dumpster fire but those 2nd and 3rd round picks last draft will be paying off for them for years. That's how you do it.
I've noticed anzalone keeps coming up when no one wanted to talk to me about him during the season. It looked like he was trying to get hurt when he broke his arm. What did he think would happen there? That kind of stuff scares the hell out of me with injury prone guys. Makes you think they won't ever shake it. He can play though. I don't know if I'd think about him until the 5th though ... maybe 4th ... ideally 6th or 7th ... this team will need high round picks to be dependable.
I noticed corner has been forgotten ... there might be some really good value there at 22. Have to hit with that pick.
You're absolutely right about that, although it's not really the point of the conversation. Of course I'd take Demarcus Walker over either of 'em in the 1st round. We were talking more just in general in regards to Charlton or Willis in the 2nd or 3rd round as specific players that fit the style of front the coach was describing. At least I was anyway. Particularly if they decide to go in a different direction other than DE with their 1st round pick.
You're also correct that a team like Miami has to hit with that 1st round pick. Demarcus Walker is the guy that I've always felt strongly about in regards to Miami selecting at #22. That's probably who it would be if I was picking. All I'd need to see him do is confirm it at the combine. It's him or O.J. Howard.
A.J. Klein really has really good tape at MLB in place of Luke Kuechly this season, and would be an excellent fit for Matt Burke.
The man has been stuck behind two of the top 10 linebackers in the league for his entire career. That's been bad for him in terms of how much he's played. But it's been excellent for him in terms of his development. Watch his Oakland game in Week 12 in place of Kuechly. He was ridiculous. The communication with Davis and the rest of the defense, the pre-snap recognition, aggressiveness, the way he relates to receivers in zone, you can see Kuechly and Davis have rubbed off on him tremendously. And he was ALWAYS good, going back to Iowa State when he was the hammer next to Jake Knott who was the coverage specialist. I used to love watching those two go at it on that same defense with David Sims and Leonard Johnson.
You've just got to know what he's not, which is a Tampa Two MLB. You probably don't want him running 40 yards down the middle of the field in man coverage with a wide receive like Michael Crabtree. Or if that happens once, you get it fixed so that they can't find it the second time around. This will not really a problem in Matt Burke's defense. It's not as if you had Rey Maualuga or Stephen Tulloch being asked to do that consistently.
Neither Alex Anzalone, Karlos Dansby, nor Sio Moore would be the type of Sam that you have sticking their hand down and rushing the passer. I thought saying, "maybe even laying a hand down and rushing the passer a little bit" (maybe being the operative word) would imply that some of these guys could perhaps be looked at doing that, and some of them would not. Karlos, Snorsio, and Alex do not fall into the category of the maybe. Tyus Bowser, Ryan Anderson, T.J. Watt, and Takkarist McKinley fall into that category.
As for Tyus Bowser as a poor man's Haason Reddick, it sort of depends on what you mean.
Haason Reddick is probably going to find his best fit in the NFL as another one of these "running backer" types, a stacked linebacker. Maybe even a Will backer. Something like a Jamie Collins. He's a corner convert who pass rushes like a corner. If he's not beating you around the edge or to the inside with pure speed and very little contact it's hard for him to win. I've watched Kophi Amichia and several other not-NFL tackles just consistently shut him down in pass rush too much and at his size that's a big concern as he's only 6'1" and 237 lbs. And it's not like his 6'4.5" wingspan or 32" arms are anything special either. The problem is when these guys who won't play in the NFL are able to shut him down, they make it look kind of easy to do it. I like the player a lot. The reason he's a fit in Miami is because they probably want their Sam to be a stacked player, and one day due to his corner experience you may even see Reddick become a very interesting coverage player. In the mean time he's so athletic you can have him blitzing from all over. But is he an edge rusher? Probably not.
Back to Tyus Bowser, he actually can pass rush with his hand down. He did it at the Senior Bowl. There were a few snaps where he beat tackles and got to the passer. If you go back to his Houston tape, on a PER SNAP basis, this guy's pass rush production may have been the best in the country. He only played in essentially 7 games this year, as he was injured I believe pretty early in the Texas State game and went on to miss the next 5 games. He's an inch taller than Reddick, each arm an inch longer, wingspan about 1.5 inches longer. More importantly he's a more natural pass rusher on film. He doesn't have to just run around blocks, which works if you're a blitzer and they don't always see you coming, but doesn't work as much when you're down and blockers are gearing up to block you.
The problem with Tyus Bowser from Miami's standpoint is probably that he's a more classic on the line Sam linebacker, and Miami may be looking for more of a stacked Sam. So Haason Reddick may actually be the better fit for us, provided you think he can stay on the field in nickel and play some coverage.
Anyway, I'm just tossing out some names to think about. It's not as if we have enough information yet to throw on gold stamps and say this is what the Dolphins need to do each step of the way I have the answer. We have no clue if these guys will be available here or there in the draft, we don't know if certain players never even make it to market in free agency, and for all we know Andre Branch could submit his ludicrous demands to teams, be met with pure ridicule, and come back to Miami with his tail tucked between his legs.