OK lets do some Defense. I concentrated a little more on the Offensive today but also watched some D-line and some Lb's and very little with the Secondary. Although to note. Bell, and Allen were the starting Safeties. It was just a little rough trying to do this without pen and paper which is something I'll never do.... because on almost every play I had to look down at the roster to see what player made the play. I'll get it though...
Vonnie Holiday is now the RDE, and he did his share of showing the young rookie that it's a different world in the NFL. I give Long a ton of credit for his efforts today but Holiday gave him some fits at times.
Ferguson overheated and was led off the field at about mid practice. Rutro! Coming from Dallas you would think he'd be ok in this environment but I guess that ocean air got to him. Hopefully he'll be fine because he is quite a load out there.
I won't get on Soliai's case yet. I see glimpses of being one heck of a DT but at times, he seems to take plays off. On one play, he just dove at the feet of the Center, and made no contact at all. In one on one drills he was showing a nice swim move and constantly pushing whomever was in front of him backwards.
Rod Wright showed an excellent undercutting swim move and BURST into the backfield between the RT, and RG. He was tripped at the last second though but it would have been a sack.
Kendall Langford is one tall dude. He looks to be a perfect fit at DE in the 2 gap 3/4 scheme. He gets plenty of push and was always disrupting the run on his side of the ball.
Mat Roth has bulked up a bit for sure. He was getting some push off the snap but never got a sack. He also lined up at Lb twice, and broke up a pass once.
Phillip Merling is another monster. He was backing up Holiday and I think he's going to be a player. He caught Ricky a little off guard and knocked him flat on his butt. He moves down the line very well, and when Ricky cutback into the lane, Merling was steam rolling right at him. Nothing Ricky could do but take that hit and say ouch.
Lb's
Charlie Anderson took JT's spot at Lb today, and he looks pretty good. He's pretty fast, and fills the gaps well in run support.
Quenton Moses was over on the side where Joey Porter would be. He was switching in and out with Akin Ayodele.
Crowder is looking in excellent shape as usual.
It was good to see Edmond Miles out there and contributing on defense and on special teams.
I also took notice of Kelvin Smith. He was pretty stout against the run, and doing a nice job in pass protections.
I don't know how we all got our last names given to us back in the day but I do know there are two people who should be ashamed that they did. Giving someone the name Pappinga? And Derilek? I'd like to thank the person or persons who made my last name right now!!
Ok now one thing they did today was split up the defense into three sections. For the most part this was a prep drill for FG's. The lineman were shown to just push and hold their gaps on one side of the field, then on the other they had the Lb's splitting blocking dummies, and the secondary was practicing splitting, and jumping thru two blocking dummies. Each and every player had to raise his hand up right on contact and keep it there. They went like this for about 10 minutes then lined them all up together against the offense. It started out a little messy but after a few plays you could tell there was a madness to this method. Now I'm not saying look for this team to block a FG or two, or a punt for that matter, but they sure are working on it.
Another cool drill they did was with the Lb's. They had a Qb dummy out there and were going thru rep after rep of sacking the Qb from the behind him, or the blindside. All tackles were to be made while bringing their outside arm down on where the Qb's throwing arm would be then wrapping him up. It's the first time I've seen this drill used at Dolphins Camp. The last time I saw it was a long time ago when Don Soldinger (former UM Rb/ST Coach) was coaching High School. This shows me they plan on blitzing a lot....
I know I forgot a few things so if there are any questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer them...
Vonnie Holiday is now the RDE, and he did his share of showing the young rookie that it's a different world in the NFL. I give Long a ton of credit for his efforts today but Holiday gave him some fits at times.
Ferguson overheated and was led off the field at about mid practice. Rutro! Coming from Dallas you would think he'd be ok in this environment but I guess that ocean air got to him. Hopefully he'll be fine because he is quite a load out there.
I won't get on Soliai's case yet. I see glimpses of being one heck of a DT but at times, he seems to take plays off. On one play, he just dove at the feet of the Center, and made no contact at all. In one on one drills he was showing a nice swim move and constantly pushing whomever was in front of him backwards.
Rod Wright showed an excellent undercutting swim move and BURST into the backfield between the RT, and RG. He was tripped at the last second though but it would have been a sack.
Kendall Langford is one tall dude. He looks to be a perfect fit at DE in the 2 gap 3/4 scheme. He gets plenty of push and was always disrupting the run on his side of the ball.
Mat Roth has bulked up a bit for sure. He was getting some push off the snap but never got a sack. He also lined up at Lb twice, and broke up a pass once.
Phillip Merling is another monster. He was backing up Holiday and I think he's going to be a player. He caught Ricky a little off guard and knocked him flat on his butt. He moves down the line very well, and when Ricky cutback into the lane, Merling was steam rolling right at him. Nothing Ricky could do but take that hit and say ouch.
Lb's
Charlie Anderson took JT's spot at Lb today, and he looks pretty good. He's pretty fast, and fills the gaps well in run support.
Quenton Moses was over on the side where Joey Porter would be. He was switching in and out with Akin Ayodele.
Crowder is looking in excellent shape as usual.
It was good to see Edmond Miles out there and contributing on defense and on special teams.
I also took notice of Kelvin Smith. He was pretty stout against the run, and doing a nice job in pass protections.
I don't know how we all got our last names given to us back in the day but I do know there are two people who should be ashamed that they did. Giving someone the name Pappinga? And Derilek? I'd like to thank the person or persons who made my last name right now!!
Ok now one thing they did today was split up the defense into three sections. For the most part this was a prep drill for FG's. The lineman were shown to just push and hold their gaps on one side of the field, then on the other they had the Lb's splitting blocking dummies, and the secondary was practicing splitting, and jumping thru two blocking dummies. Each and every player had to raise his hand up right on contact and keep it there. They went like this for about 10 minutes then lined them all up together against the offense. It started out a little messy but after a few plays you could tell there was a madness to this method. Now I'm not saying look for this team to block a FG or two, or a punt for that matter, but they sure are working on it.
Another cool drill they did was with the Lb's. They had a Qb dummy out there and were going thru rep after rep of sacking the Qb from the behind him, or the blindside. All tackles were to be made while bringing their outside arm down on where the Qb's throwing arm would be then wrapping him up. It's the first time I've seen this drill used at Dolphins Camp. The last time I saw it was a long time ago when Don Soldinger (former UM Rb/ST Coach) was coaching High School. This shows me they plan on blitzing a lot....
I know I forgot a few things so if there are any questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer them...
