Biggest needs this offseason

[nfil53]

Here is a list of what I consider to be the Top 5 offseason needs for the dolphins.
1) OLB - Porter won't be around forever and the passrush needs to improve. This is a critical position in the 3-4 scheme and we may not be able to hide roth here for much longer.
2) Guard - The dolphins run game relied more on trickery and confusion and in order to be a great team they need to be able to run the ball more effectively.
3) Wide Receiver - This group really lacks a bonafide posession receiver who can make tough catches in traffic and demand double teams to loosen things up in the running game.
4) Cornerback - A team can never have enough corners and even though Goodman stepped up towards the end of the year and Will Allen is a proven starter, they are approching the end of their carreers (both are 30).
5) ILB - With the potential loss of Crowder this position becomes a bigger need. There are several marquee talents at this position that will be available in the draft and free agency. Could be a good time to improve here.

 

[dolphinator86]

I agree with your OLB and pass rush. Wake should help and i find it hard to believe we wont be drafting/bringing in 2 or 3 linebackers this offseason who all can be classified as "playmakers" so that will be addressed.

Guard is important i think we will get some people in free agency but this is an incredibly deep draft for O-linemen so look for another year of atleast 2 draft picks maybe even three.

Now i do not agree that we need to bring in a receiver we just need to throw down field more and i REALLY dont like that you dont think we have a possession. Yes size wise we do not have a 6-5 possession but Bess and Camarillo just move the chains. Bess will emerge as an elite slot guy remember him dragging 2 guys for an extra 5 yards. I think when Cam comes back him Ginn Bess and London will be a good set of wide outs. Now i am not saying i wouldnt mind a receiver maybe a vet to teach all these young guys somethins or maybe a Barden in the 4th. BUT i am saying if we go into next season without having aquired a WR i will be more than ok with that.

CB is def a need they were ok in the last part of the season but we need a young guy. But a consistent pass rush can help them out. I htink adding a McFadden and maybe a safety in the draft and we will be alot better off.

ILB while i think it is a need i dont think its a top 5 need with or without crowder. I mean there are a bunch of free agent ILB and i def think we land one and with the addition of a Brinkley or a big thumper in the draft we will be fine in that regard.

HOW COULD YOU FORGET NOSE TACKLE.....Fergie is 35 and Solali is unimpressive more often than not. We HAVE TO BY ANY MEANS NESSESARY get our future at the Nose

 

[insomnia411]

Top 5 needs according to me:

1. WIDE RECEIVER

The collective inability of our wide receivers to get open forced us into an offense that relied heavily on trickery, throwing short passes to tight ends and running backs, and it put lots of undue pressure on Pennington. Not only that, but since none of our receivers can stretch the field (please stop with Ginn, no one is afraid of him) it allows defenses to sell out for the run and stuff would be holes for Ronnie and Ricky.
We need a true #1 wide-out that can stretch the field, go up and get the ball in traffic, and strike fear in the hearts of defenses. I like Bess and Camarillo as #3 guys but I think we really need 2 receivers. Ginn can be an occasional trick player and deep threat, he's just not an every down wide-out and he needs to return kicks more often so he can at least be useful in some capacity.
In my opinion, we have a spectacular quarterback in Chad Pennington and he proved that thoroughly this year. Let's go get him some damn help.

2. OLB/DE

We had 40 sacks as a team this year... Joey Porter accounted for 17.5 of those sacks... Whenever you have ONE player racking up nearly half of your team's sacks, you know you have a problem with all around team pass rush. Joey won't be around forever either, and if you watched Dolphin games this year you know that our lack of consistent pass rush really hurt our pass D and it can't continue to happen if we want to have a successful season next year. It's not only about sacks, it's about constantly harrasing the quarterback and getting opposing offenses out of rythm. Hopefully Cameron Wake can be a revalation for us, but we desperately need a couple of guys who can put consistent pressure on the quarterback.
Aaron Maybin, Larry English, Clint Sintim anyone?

3. FS

Yeremiah Bell is a good tackler and a very active playmaker at strong safety, but Renaldo Hill is a joke over at free. We really need a guy who can cover, tackle and make plays at the free safety position. Obviously Ed Reeds are not easy to find, but I like a few guys in this draft that could become solid NFL free safeties. (Louis Delmas, Patrick Chung, Michael Hamlin)
Let's put the Jason Allen experiment to a stop too... Please.


4. ILB

Channing Crowder - Solid tackler and decent all around middle linebacker who is really nothing special and does not make any plays per say. If he demands anywhere near what I think he is going to demand we should really tell him to take a hike.

Akin Ayodele - Meh, does he even play on this defense? Outside of the few picks he had did you really ever hear his name called at all this season? I sure didn't. He is very run of the mill and we could do much better... Somewhat reminiscent of Morlon Greenwood.

Reggie Torbor - CAP CASUALTY!

Need I say more? We need linebackers like OJ needed Johnny Cochran... If you don't get that reference we desperately need playmaking linebackers...

5. NT

Jason Ferguson is good but he is now old and injury prone, Paul Solai has shown me nothing inparticular, and Randy Starks is not big or stout enough to play the nose.
I'll take one of those kids from BC in the draft (Raji or Brace) because I don't think there is anybody out in free agency who is up to the task.

All in all, we have a lot of needs and there are a couple of others that I could have mentioned like CB and guard. This is exactly why we need Vernon Carey back very badly, we have too many needs as it is and we can't afford to have another glaring hole at RT. Vernon Carey is a run blocking machine and an all around good tackle, he and Jake Long can be bookends for us. Pay the man!

 

[CedarPhin]

Offensive Line
Secondary
Linebackers
Defensive Line
Wide Receiver

 

[Etuoo33]

Receivers take about 3 years (average) to produce in quanity, so I think we'd be better served by going OL/DL or S/LB with the first and second picks. I wonder if they think Brandon London can be the guy to loosen up secondary's, with the other guys we have.

 

[TGall13]

Here's mine, in no particular order:

(1) Build a Championship Defense
(2) Build a Championship Defense
(3) Build a Championship Defense
(4) Build a Championship Defense
(5) Build a Championship Defense

Look at Pittsburg this year. Our offense may be more dynamic than theirs, but we need a stoudt defense to go far in the playoffs. It's that simple. Offensively, ok we could add some depth on the OLine and it would be nice to have a Fitzgerald type of reciever...but, I think we are a lot better off on offense than we are on defense.

 

[Zounds]

Biggest need is linemen - offensive and defensive. We may have been 11-5, but we will never be able to compete with the lines of Baltimore, Tennessee, and Pitt unless we get stronger and bigger in the trenches. We have good RB's, but our line cant even open up holes for them in our base offense. Our DL is ok, but it was evident in our first game against Baltimore that we coundt stop the run when Jason Furgeson was out - and he's in his mid 30's. We need lineman thats can start this year. Any other pick we make is going to sit on the bench for a few years.

 

[Dfootball11]

I believe our offense is more than average, so we do not need to address much on that side of the ball outside line depth and possibly a big WR (not 100% necessary)

What we really need is a strong defense and i believe in order to have that we need to upgrade these 4 positions..

1)NT- as other have said ferg is good but also old and wont hold up much longer. We need a dominant young line clogger up front

2)SS- if you look at pittsburgh and baltimore there defenses rely heavily upon Troy P and Ed Reed. Having a player even near that calibur can disrupt all sorts of offensive schemes

3) ILB/OLB (LB corps)- run defense has been very inconsistant to say the least. A stud ILB to fill the A gaps would go long ways to improving this D. Also adding another pass rusher be is wake, a free agent, or draftee, on the other side of Porter will create all sorts of havok in opposing offenses (much like the steelers do with Harrison and Woodley)

4) CB- i have been preaching this need for years since Surtain left us awhile back. We need a shut down corner to defend against top notch recievers like Moss, that would free up the rest of the secondary to play zone effectively

 

[finowski]

ILB) With Crowder gone or not, we have no playmakers and we are not athletic enough to pass rush or cover faster tight ends.

OL) Smiley and Thomas recovering from season ending injuries and not enough depth. Our running game should be elite with Ronnie and Ricky as our running backs.

NT) Ferugson too old and Soliai undependable. Maybe the biggest need beside ILB.

FS) Playmaker needed, Hill is just not good enough. We need an athletic ballhawk who can provide leadership. (I would like a high draft pick here, because our secondary is not the youngest.)

OLB) We need more pass rush. Porter was great this season, but had knee problems in the past and theres not much pass rush beside him. Roth seems to be a good backup.

WR) We can address this position with a low draft pick, or free agent pick up, just to have some competition. But i doubt we find a guy in free agency that provide us a no.1 receiver and i would prefer to spend our high draft picks on the other needs.

 

[Skree]

ILB) With Crowder gone or not, we have no playmakers and we are not athletic enough to pass rush or cover faster tight ends.

OL) Smiley and Thomas recovering from season ending injuries and not enough depth. Our running game should be elite with Ronnie and Ricky as our running backs.

NT) Ferugson too old and Soliai undependable. Maybe the biggest need beside ILB.

FS) Playmaker needed, Hill is just not good enough. We need an athletic ballhawk who can provide leadership. (I would like a high draft pick here, because our secondary is not the youngest.)

OLB) We need more pass rush. Porter was great this season, but had knee problems in the past and theres not much pass rush beside him. Roth seems to be a good backup.

WR) We can address this position with a low draft pick, or free agent pick up, just to have some competition. But i doubt we find a guy in free agency that provide us a no.1 receiver and i would prefer to spend our high draft picks on the other needs.

I'm on the same track you are.

#1 I would put NT (Fergi out ='s Screw us) #1 to be addressed. The NT in a 3-4 is THE #1 most important position.

#2 C/G as equally #2. We can only hope Smiley and Thomas make it back 100%. I wouldn't bet on both being back at full potential. Satele just doesn't look like our answer at C. Our depth overall on OL needs to be upgraded. But IF the FO is pretty sure both guards will make it back then I think Center steps up as #2.

#3 You are right we just have NO depth at ILB. Most of the season we had no one listed as #2 on the depth chart behind Crowder. Need more ILB's and an upgrade in depth. I expect a couple draft picks here and maybe a FA pick up.

#4 FS and CB. Again we just don't have those young up and comers, no depth.

As the man said, you can never have enough OT's. So I expect 1 in the draft that they can develop. Unless we don't sign Carey. Then this moves to #1. IF we don't sign Bell then I think SS goes up very high as well. Got to have a high energy, smart SS.

I'm not so worried about OLB now that they hired Wake. They must believe in him to back up/rotate/replace Porter. Roth either needs to learn how to get off blocks better or we need an upgrade there. I could live with him there another season IF he does get better. Maybe a late round pick to develop.

WR we need to upgrade but even if we went with what we have (Wilford to be replaced and depth upgraded) I could live with it. I expect all our starters to improve as they are still a VERY young group.

The positions I am least concerned with are QB, RB, TE & special teams (end of the season they seemed to get a handle on ST).

 

[nfil53]

Top 5 needs according to me:

1. WIDE RECEIVER

The collective inability of our wide receivers to get open forced us into an offense that relied heavily on trickery, throwing short passes to tight ends and running backs, and it put lots of undue pressure on Pennington. Not only that, but since none of our receivers can stretch the field (please stop with Ginn, no one is afraid of him) it allows defenses to sell out for the run and stuff would be holes for Ronnie and Ricky.
We need a true #1 wide-out that can stretch the field, go up and get the ball in traffic, and strike fear in the hearts of defenses. I like Bess and Camarillo as #3 guys but I think we really need 2 receivers. Ginn can be an occasional trick player and deep threat, he's just not an every down wide-out and he needs to return kicks more often so he can at least be useful in some capacity.
In my opinion, we have a spectacular quarterback in Chad Pennington and he proved that thoroughly this year. Let's go get him some damn help.

2. OLB/DE

We had 40 sacks as a team this year... Joey Porter accounted for 17.5 of those sacks... Whenever you have ONE player racking up nearly half of your team's sacks, you know you have a problem with all around team pass rush. Joey won't be around forever either, and if you watched Dolphin games this year you know that our lack of consistent pass rush really hurt our pass D and it can't continue to happen if we want to have a successful season next year. It's not only about sacks, it's about constantly harrasing the quarterback and getting opposing offenses out of rythm. Hopefully Cameron Wake can be a revalation for us, but we desperately need a couple of guys who can put consistent pressure on the quarterback.
Aaron Maybin, Larry English, Clint Sintim anyone?

3. FS

Yeremiah Bell is a good tackler and a very active playmaker at strong safety, but Renaldo Hill is a joke over at free. We really need a guy who can cover, tackle and make plays at the free safety position. Obviously Ed Reeds are not easy to find, but I like a few guys in this draft that could become solid NFL free safeties. (Louis Delmas, Patrick Chung, Michael Hamlin)
Let's put the Jason Allen experiment to a stop too... Please.


4. ILB

Channing Crowder - Solid tackler and decent all around middle linebacker who is really nothing special and does not make any plays per say. If he demands anywhere near what I think he is going to demand we should really tell him to take a hike.

Akin Ayodele - Meh, does he even play on this defense? Outside of the few picks he had did you really ever hear his name called at all this season? I sure didn't. He is very run of the mill and we could do much better... Somewhat reminiscent of Morlon Greenwood.

Reggie Torbor - CAP CASUALTY!

Need I say more? We need linebackers like OJ needed Johnny Cochran... If you don't get that reference we desperately need playmaking linebackers...

5. NT

Jason Ferguson is good but he is now old and injury prone, Paul Solai has shown me nothing inparticular, and Randy Starks is not big or stout enough to play the nose.
I'll take one of those kids from BC in the draft (Raji or Brace) because I don't think there is anybody out in free agency who is up to the task.

All in all, we have a lot of needs and there are a couple of others that I could have mentioned like CB and guard. This is exactly why we need Vernon Carey back very badly, we have too many needs as it is and we can't afford to have another glaring hole at RT. Vernon Carey is a run blocking machine and an all around good tackle, he and Jake Long can be bookends for us. Pay the man!

Couldn't agree more about hill but i think j. allen deserves another shot. he has the tools to be successful. As far as the stretching the field aspect goes, I love pennington but he does not have the type of arm to make defenses respect the deep ball consistently. Orakpo would be a perfect fit if we could trade up.