There are plenty of legitimate positives.
1. Jonas Gray had a heck of a game. He averaged 5.9 yards per carry on 7 carries and pitched in an extra 4 catches for 35 yards. Notice all the work he got in passing packages, blocking and catching. That's not a coincidence. Those are Daniel Thomas' traditional packages. We may finally see an end to Daniel Thomas' three and a half yard reign of terror.
2. Chad Bumphis led all WRs in production for the second week in a row, after having led them in the intra-squad scrimmage. Some will focus on the drop. Whatever. He dropped a ball. There were like 5 drops in the first half alone and any one of them could've been picked off and returned for a touchdown if the defenders had been in place for it. The outcome of the play was coincidental. He had 5 catches for 85 yards and showed all kinds of toughness and fight on those catches. That's what you focus on. He's a natural slot receiver and if the Dolphins make the mistake of letting him go, another team will see that.
3. Josh Samuda blocked really well I thought when he played right guard, rather than center. I've never really considered him a center. He played that position just because he's versatile and it was the easiest opening on the roster for him to win. But he could be our starting right guard and he showed promise in that role tonight. This run blocking unit may be a lot better than I thought it would be.
4. Derrick Shelby was great. His pass rush was lively, strong and even explosive. His two sacks tonight were not coincidental. I think some people have the wrong read on what his responsibilities were on the first drive. He didn't play poorly. He should give Olivier Vernon a legit competition for his role in the defense. Vernon is going to have to show in the games that he's as good as he's been in practice against Jon Martin (who was beat tonight by Kyle Wilber).
5. Michael Egnew got opportunities and he ran with them. But most impressive of all was his blocking tonight. Particularly, the ATTITUDE in his blocking. It was night and day compared with the passive, not confidence attitude we've seen at other times. He had a will to dominate people tonight and he even got a holding penalty because of that aggressiveness. He didn't hold a guy because he was all passive and got beat. He held a guy because he was blocking the hell out of him and he just kept doing it and eventually he got over zealous and put him in a choke hold. I think that big catch and run helped his confidence tremendously because from there he was running his routes with authority and getting open, and catching football likes (gasp) an NFL tight end. In my eyes he put a lot of distance between himself and Kyle Miller tonight. Miller looked lost, in blocking as well as running routes. And his size made him look insignificant.
6. We may finally have a depth player at the linebacker position that doesn't make me cringe, that being Lee Robinson. I was paying attention and the guy did really well. He belongs. On that final touchdown there he ended up chasing after the ball and looking like he may have blown it but I looked close at the play and it was Hinds that blew the assignment, and from there Pressley (who had an awful game) lost his containment of the edge. Also Keelan Johnson got pretty thoroughly blocked.
7. I thought Tristan Okpalaugo showed enough that I really want to see more. The combination of body and explosiveness was impressive. The play he made was the kind of play you tend to have opportunities to make when you have that kind of combination going for you. I'm intrigued.
8. Jordan Kovacs was exactly what I expected him to be which is a guy that is ALWAYS near the ball, will hit the crap out of anything that needs hitting, and generally do a bunch of little things that make you say...I find it tough to cut this guy. He may still end up cut in the end because his combination size and physical ability are not the stuff of legend and so he could probably pass freely through waivers...but he's a guy the coaches will want to keep around which is what I said when we got him UDFA.
9. I thought Evan Rodriguez showed some of his potential in the passing game. He's a very athletic fullback and you can do more things with him than you could with a Jorvorskie Lane. Rodriguez is more similar to a James Casey.
10. Last and certainly not least is Dion Jordan who had a good, solid night. He beat people, he pressured the quarterback, he contributed to sacks, but it was some of his goal line work that really intrigued me as everyone were soooo convinced he's terrible against the run. I've been trying to tell people this forever. He's not. And I don't care how many 16 year olds try and tell me different.
