Barry Jackson Tidbits before Training Camp | Page 6 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Barry Jackson Tidbits before Training Camp

Crazy685 said:
Oh I see now that I've been outspoken about Matthews recently everyone is hopping on the train, eh?

;) Just kidding (But seriously, I've been talking about Matthews being the best potential for playmaker this whole time. I think he has to make the roster first). But seriously, I never understood how he lasted as long as he did. The guy has very good speed, he seems to have tremendous balance while running the ball, and seems to be sure handed. Doesn't have the big size whatsoever but I saw him play in the Boise State game (My roommate's friend is a huge BSU homer and was over watching) and I was sold on him immediately.

Knowing that Slimm had a 3rd round grade on him is... pretty reassuring of my opinion.
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Matthews is North of 6 feet and close to 220 lbs.- that's pretty good size for a WR and a huge upgrade over Bess's size.
 
Crazy685 said:
Oh I see now that I've been outspoken about Matthews recently everyone is hopping on the train, eh?

;) Just kidding (But seriously, I've been talking about Matthews being the best potential for playmaker this whole time. I think he has to make the roster first). But seriously, I never understood how he lasted as long as he did. The guy has very good speed, he seems to have tremendous balance while running the ball, and seems to be sure handed. Doesn't have the big size whatsoever but I saw him play in the Boise State game (My roommate's friend is a huge BSU homer and was over watching) and I was sold on him immediately.

Knowing that Slimm had a 3rd round grade on him is... pretty reassuring of my opinion.
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He was on my mock draft and I think he's the best pick we made, from a value perspective. Interesting that Slimm mentions McNutt. When you consider our new WR coach is his former OC in Iowa, Ken O'Keeffe, it doesn't say much for McNutt that we passed on him for BJ Cunningham.

O'Keeffe is the interesting coach in the mix. He's an ex-WR himself, but hasn't directly coached WRs for years. Has been instead a successful OC, with a Dan Henning-like penchant for pretty vanilla offenses. Apparently is a good QB mentor, also interesting as we don't have a QB coach (I think?). Could we see a committee approach to coaching the QBs from Philbin, Sherman and O'Keeffe?

Anyway, back on track, we've got this raw goup of receiver and a few guys we need to wring more production from. Ken O'Keeffe wouldn't be the name that jumps at you to accomplish that, in terms of being a progressive, modern coach who understands today's NFL receivers. On the plus side, he has had to turn pretty raw clay into Big 10 receivers and did a pretty good job with McNutt.

He's an unsurprising choice in that he's very tight with Philbin (as per Coyle and Sherman), but surprising in terms of the challenge we face to get a great corps out of the talent in house. Much as I like Philbin, might he have been choosing buddies to coach with in order to keep him secure and unchallenged as HC? Might he have been better served going out of that comfort zone and taking on an NFL coach (on the big assumption somebody of quality was available to offers)?
 
Crazy685 said:
Oh I see now that I've been outspoken about Matthews recently everyone is hopping on the train, eh?

;) Just kidding (But seriously, I've been talking about Matthews being the best potential for playmaker this whole time. I think he has to make the roster first). But seriously, I never understood how he lasted as long as he did. The guy has very good speed, he seems to have tremendous balance while running the ball, and seems to be sure handed. Doesn't have the big size whatsoever but I saw him play in the Boise State game (My roommate's friend is a huge BSU homer and was over watching) and I was sold on him immediately.

Knowing that Slimm had a 3rd round grade on him is... pretty reassuring of my opinion.
Click to expand...

We (Slimm and I) had been having a lot of discussions on Rishard Matthews prior to the 2011 Draft because I don't think either of us bought into the Kaepernick hype train and we actually appreciated that Colin had a lot of weapons around him at Nevada that made him look a little better than he otherwise might have, which included Vai Taua, Virgil Green (whom we both also liked a lot) and especially Rishard Matthews. That Boise game you speak of was the performance most of his fans will talk about (in particular that reverse he ran which was an insane play), but he had a lot of other good ones. I appreciated that in 2011 without Kaepernick there and really with some terrible QB play, he only increased his footprint on the offense. But he hits one snag with a slow 40 time because of an injury, and even though he re-runs and shows it was just an anomaly, doesn't matter he's now sort of a forgotten man. He's got his weaknesses. He's certainly not a burner which is concerning because he's definitely a Z receiver. You would like him to come down with more strong hands catches in challenging situations.

I liked him a lot better than Cunningham. I appreciate that Cunningham is a smooth receiver with great eye level and ability to run through catches, also the ability to adjust his route based on leverage, but he's just not a physically impressive guy. Like Matthews, you don't see too much strong hands stuff on challenging catches. He doesn't have the leg strength that Matthews does. I felt he was more likely to really feel outmatched by the increased level of competition.
 
jim1 said:
As I mentioned, I can see it both ways but see Bess as far from a lock of making the team. This offense will be far more wide open- does it suit his skill set?

Interesting article:

Davone Bess could be the odd man out in the Miami Dolphins‘ wide-receiver competition. He is very popular amongst the Phin fan base because he has a good story, being undrafted out of Hawaii, and embodies the “hard work defeats talent” mantra. This underdog is still the smallest and slowest receiver on the team. He is also returning from a partially-torn ACL and MCL in his left knee.Bess has good hands, makes few mistakes, but lacks big-play ability. He was Tony Sparano‘s type of guy, a “field goal” of a receiver, if you will. Why on earth would you use him to return punts? Because he was 5th in the league with an 11.9 yard average, you say? Yes, but his longest return was 25 yards. 12 different punt returners scored a touchdown last year, and 23 had at least one return longer than 25 yards. Tell me you ever had the feeling that Bess was going to break one. I dare you.Slow and steady doesn’t win in the NFL. Sorry.

Now, let’s break down the receiver race. I believe Chad Johnson, Brian Hartline, Legedu Naanee, B.J. Cunningham, and Rishard Matthews make the team. Once again we have to applaud Jeff Ireland, who waited patiently knowing there would be WR value in the late rounds of the NFL draft. Cunningham and Matthews were projected third-rounders because of their size and productive collegiate careers but apparently slid because of their lack of top-end speed. I believe they will produce in the NFL.Last year, the Dolphins kept 6 receivers so there could be one position left. If available, the battle will be between Davone Bess, Jeff Fuller, Clyde Gates, Marlon Moore, Roberto Wallace, Chris Hogan, and Julius Pruitt.Joe Philbin will also place Reggie Bush and Lamar Miller in the slot, at times, to bolster the passing game.Analyze it any way you want, Bess is on the bubble.

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http://phinphanatic.com/2012/07/11/miami-dolphins-potential-cut-davone-bess/
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The guy is predicting BJ Cunningham will make it over Bess, Wallace, Pruitt, Gates.
 
Curious what people think of O'Keefe's suitability to develop this WR group. Any Iowa fans out there know what he's like with receivers?
 
RobertHorry said:
The guy is predicting BJ Cunningham will make it over Bess, Wallace, Pruitt, Gates.
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I don't agree with that. I see Cunningham as landing on the practice squad, tops. I see Matthews making the final 53, and that will be a problem for Bess imo. Pruitt was lauded mightily by Philbin as rocking mini camp, Garrard loves Wallace, I see Fuller as a serious dark horse, I love the Chad Johnson pickup- tough decisions will have to be made. There are bigger and faster Wrs than Bess on the roster, with uin my mind more potential. Said it before, I'll say it again- Bess is small and slow. It will be very interesting to see what happens imo.
 
bess gives you probably the best defeat press man coverage wr on the roster right now with his short area quickness and cod i mean he beats people up in short areas but the further he goes down the field vertical in his route the more time the db has to recover and the less effective bess becomes cause he's painfully slow and lacks any real acceleration...he wears guys out on underneath stuff but as soon as he catches the ball its like a damn stampede how fast he gets run down...i'm with slimm we need a more explosive quality player there but i don't think that he's the same level eye sore that channing crowder was...bess may need to be upgraded in the near future but he's still effective for what he is...and he's got nice soft hands...just offers no big play explosion type upside though...with bess it's pretty much 15 play drives all the way down the field
 
I've not seen Joe Philbin "laud" Julius Pruitt "mightily".

I think beyond the three guys Brian Hartline, Davone Bess and Chad Johnson, if you're tryng to tell anyone what will happen and use anything anyone has said or implied as evidence, you're as likely to be wrong as right. Those #4 and #5 spots aren't even close to earned yet, IMO. All we can say for sure is that Legedu Naanee, Roberto Wallace, Rishard Matthews, B.J. Cunningham, Clyde Gates, Julius Pruitt, Marlin Moore and B.J. Cunningham are competing for those two spots. I left out Chris Hogan just because until Barry Jackson's most recent note you hadn't heard a single word about Hogan. I think Jackson put that note in there specifically because he realized Hogan is probably the one guy on the entire roster nobody has said a single thing about this entire time.
 
ckparrothead said:
I've not seen Joe Philbin "laud" Julius Pruitt "mightily".

I think beyond the three guys Brian Hartline, Davone Bess and Chad Johnson, if you're tryng to tell anyone what will happen and use anything anyone has said or implied as evidence, you're as likely to be wrong as right. Those #4 and #5 spots aren't even close to earned yet, IMO. All we can say for sure is that Legedu Naanee, Roberto Wallace, Rishard Matthews, B.J. Cunningham, Clyde Gates, Julius Pruitt, Marlin Moore and B.J. Cunningham are competing for those two spots. I left out Chris Hogan just because until Barry Jackson's most recent note you hadn't heard a single word about Hogan. I think Jackson put that note in there specifically because he realized Hogan is probably the one guy on the entire roster nobody has said a single thing about this entire time.
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I recall Philbin complimenting Pruitt quite a bit during mini camp but I can't find the quotes online so far. Maybe I got it wrong. I think it was a day that he scored 3 TDs or something like that.

[h=2]June 21, 2012[/h]
[h=3]Update from Thursday Dolphins practice; Some good, some not-so-good for Tannehill[/h]
On Thursday, the final day of the team's offseason program, Ryan Tannehill got the most first-team snaps that he ever has on a single day since joining the Dolphins. Until Thursday, his snaps with the first team were very, very, very limited.
The results Thursday were mixed.
For a full report on Thursday's practice (including all the highs and lows from Tannehill); a look at everything Joe Philbin had to say after Wednesday's practice; and news and notes from Tuesday's practice, please click HERE on my Sports Buzz blog and keep scrolling down. You'll see the reports from all three days. We also have Thursday quotes from Joe Philbin from moments ago wrapping up the team's offseason program.
Shout-outs today go to Julius Pruitt (three touchdowns), Reshad Jones and Sean Smith (both made interceptions); David Garrard (remains pretty consistent; threw a TD to Pruitt) ; Anderson Russell (picked off Matt Moore); Roberto Wallace (very good the past month) and cornerback Quentin Lawrence, who got more work with Nolan Carroll sidelined.
--- BARRY JACKSON

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolphins_in_depth/#storylink=cpy
​

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http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolphins_in_depth/
 
One of the columnists wrote recently that Philbin loves Nanee.
 
I recall the day Pruitt scored his three TDs. Hard to tell what to read into that. During the red zone drills, a lot of TDs are scored, which is the point.

Barry Jackson did say that Philbin loves Naanee but it's hard to tell if Barry based that on something Philbin (or anyone else) told him or if he based it on Philbin's quote from a press conference in which he mentioned some things he liked about Naanee. The latter is what Barry used in the article as his evidence that Philbin loves Naanee. The problem is I watched that press conference and Philbin's praise of Naanee was faint, and not volunteered. He was asked about Naanee so he gave a description. Saying that Naanee is good on in-breaking routes is essentially the same as saying you don't like him on perimeter sideline and vertical routes.

Like I said if you're trying to read any tea leaves as for how those #4 and #5 wide receiver positions are stacking up, prepare to be disappointed.

For myself, in these situations I usually try and just beat the coaches to the finish line by examining the talent and making predictions based on that, then waiting for things to shake out exactly as I would have predicted based purely on the talent. I have a lot of luck doing that. Sometimes you get caught up in reading into words and innuendo, making assumptions, you end up totally lost as you're reading things into statements that aren't there. I'd rather just stay focused on what I know about the talent and waiting to see if I was right.
 
Nanee is one guy I am just finding it hard to root for. The ridiculous name doesn't help, but it seems so unlikely that he'll ever be more than a roadblock for a younger more talented player.
 
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