Dolphin D- As Good, Maybe A Bit Better? | Page 3 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Dolphin D- As Good, Maybe A Bit Better?

If/when we sign a corner to start opposite grimes I think we can be. Each player swap had its positive and negative points. But I'll give ill go with the youth upside and another year in the system as the deciding factor. And that's before the draft. If we can land another solid guy and a playmaker we could be much better.

Young players will improve and develope while we have very few older ones to worry about falling off.
The Mitchell for solia swap will probably make us a lil worse against the run but better rushing passers. And let's not forget we play a lot of good passers this year.
Delmas will give up a few big plays Clemons wouldn't have but will make plays that he wouldn't have. And his hits will make wrs think a lil more before going across the middle. We really needed a big hitter back there.
While we lost 2 corners pattersons limited playing time makes them seem like just 1 solid player and there are still plenty of solid ones available that can be that. It would be nice to add another stud but more of a luxory since we have grimes.
LBers are even and with the money invested in them and whose left on the market I'd chance it that they both pull there heads out their butts and bring their A game after being called out all offseason. Another year like that and they can kiss a starting job anywhere goodbye. Will also help being more familiar with the scheme and teammates. I'd draft one somewhere between rounds 2 and 4 to develope and give us a replacement option should they still be struggling after a couple games though.
 
This D needs a playmaking linebacker like a Kyle Van Noy and a rugged, instinctive mike like Shayne Skov. Badly.
 
The defense is not really improved. Carroll was solid if unspectacular and its best performances came last year with Patterson dominating the few times he was on the field. Right now the two youngsters set to take over got almost no experience whatsoever, and what they did have certainly didn't seem positive experience. We were only an average defense last year because our CB's were always steady, I think people forget just how bad it can be when your CB's aren't capable. Even if we get capable CB play somewhere besides Grimes (not likely without another player or two) that still leaves the achilles heel, which was the LB play. Even with the CB's largely locking down the outside, teams often moved the ball at will in the middle of the field. We weren't killed by one big play (which the secondary prevented), we were killed by 6 small ones, leading to consistently long drives against our defense that didn't always yield large points at the end of the game (because the clock kept moving) but was every bit as harmful because it both limited our offense's time of possession and kept pressure on them the entire game, influencing Sherman's paranoia against running the ball. If the secondary can't bail them out this year, it's going to be even worse.
 
Holes....Holes everywhere...

LB is still a massive liability...

Not sure if Jones can return to 2012 form or if Delmas is actually an upgrade over Clemons..

Grimes and.....who?
 
How do we think hickey will go about addressing the linebackers? The money we threw at our linebackers last year makes me sick just thinking about the production that went with it. With the money invested and lack of options in free agency, plus the number of holes on our team still has, I believe Hickey will have to get very creative to fix IMO our weakest link after online on our team. Hopefully he has some plan to overhaul the duds we call our linebackers
 
I side with the themes from Digital and KTOWN, in this thread and elsewhere. Soliai is a very rare player. He causes a lot more problems for opponents than are obvious at first or even second glance. Now that he's gone we are quite ordinary at defensive tackle. That's not a good place to be when so many of our outside types are narrow framed.

Mitchell is a projection. A somewhat logical projection, given his skill set. I'm not opposed to it but, as always, I believe the adjustments won't fully pan out. He'll be what he's been, a moderate player who occasionally flashes in the backfield. Those types can be valuable if they make their presence felt at the right time.

I'm glad we didn't resign Carroll. The aspirations have to be higher than that. Who cares if he looked decent for a few games? His level is well known. Gambling on Patterson at reduced rate is a much more astute move. I hope we do it. Jamar Taylor is more talented than Carroll and deserves an opportunity.

BTW, if we score more points on offense we'll allow more on defense. The two are hardly unrelated. We're not dominating anybody on defense with our talent level. The opponent simply hasn't been forced to score since our offense gets stuck in place. Buffalo was allowed to get bored and kick field goals. If our offense somehow averages 24 or 26 points per game we'll naturally drag our points allowed nearby. That's why I'm not thrilled with the Grimes contract. He'll be giving up plays if our games are more wide open under Lazor.
 
No, so far we are worse. Mitchell is not a replacement for Soliai and Delmas is only marginally better than Clemons. We can still use more help here...
 
We had Soliai last season and were still 18th in defensive YPC. Having a plugger helps, but your linebackers have to make the tackles in the end. I like our talent and depth at DT, even without Big Paul in there.

Any real improvement with this group will come from the linebackers playing up to their contracts. The front and back ends of this defense are no worse than average...I'd say the front is above average, and a good CB signing could get the secondary there as well.
 
IMHO, Paul Soliai is significantly better than Mitchell. In all other respects we stayed the same in the front 7. Maybe we improve because Jordan is healthy and no longer a rookie. I would expect improvement from our LB's in their second year. But, Starks and Wake are a year older, and both had stamina issues last season. Likewise, our front 7 didn't really suffer any injuries of consequence, and we let that trainer go didn't we? In the back end, Delmas has difficulty staying healthy ... that worries me. Clemons had the top end speed to catch broken plays ... we might lose a little there with Delmas. Honestly, assuming Delmas stays healthy, our back end should be solid.

The big question to me is ... can we stop the run? I'm afraid that answer this year will be no. Any defense that cannot stop the run is going to be on the field a lot. Our small fast guys aren't going to get better the longer they are on the field. This team scares me because without Soliai, we appear to be built to get out to a lead and pass rush a lot. But, our offense hasn't shown the ability to pull away from people to make that work.

I'm seriously concerned.
 
I get tired of people that say we need weapons.. It's like they can't understand that you can't have 10 Andre Johnson's and 12 AJ Green's on your team at once.... We have enough weapons, we just can't use them because we have no one to block for the guy that has to get them the ball... IF we did have blocking help, we'd have Wallace, Hartline, Matthews, Gibson, Miller, Clay, Sims and Thigpen to throw to and make plays. Add a rookie tight end and running back in there and we have more than enough firepower to be competitive in this league. Without an Oline we will be bottom of the barrel, no matter what star you draft to play receiver.
 
well the running game is predicated on the o-line success, if they gave up 58 sacks last season don't you think the running game suffered too because of it?
 
ITS!MATEO said:
I get tired of people that say we need weapons.. It's like they can't understand that you can't have 10 Andre Johnson's and 12 AJ Green's on your team at once.... We have enough weapons, we just can't use them because we have no one to block for the guy that has to get them the ball... IF we did have blocking help, we'd have Wallace, Hartline, Matthews, Gibson, Miller, Clay, Sims and Thigpen to throw to and make plays. Add a rookie tight end and running back in there and we have more than enough firepower to be competitive in this league. Without an Oline we will be bottom of the barrel, no matter what star you draft to play receiver.
Click to expand...

But we have zero A. J. Greens on this team.
 
i think our D will be no worse than last year .... albeit, there are always questions ...

- does Ellerbe improve in year 2 ... I absolutely believe so

- does Wheeler improve in year 2 ... that I don't believe -- terrible signing, good news is that Jenkins showed some potential to supplant him quickly

- does Jordan improve in year 2 ... I absolutely believe so, would like to hear better reports about his off-season training, but we knew he was damaged last year - and still bitched about him. Should see drastic improvement being healthy and OTCs ...

- does Taylor improve in year 2 ... I absolutely believe so, another damaged goods pick .... should see some great strides being fully healed and OTCs ...

- does Davis improve in year 2 ... I'm not sure ... we took a flier on him, reminds me of Carroll and Wilson ... and we know how long it has taken/took for them to contribute (even though we have better coaching now)

- the weak link on the DL is Shelby ... no contribution that I see ... still don't have a 280+ DE for the run (albeit Vernon has done 'ok')

- the weak link in LB is Wheeler ... see above

- the weak link in CB is ??? ... have to say Taylor right now, pending another FA signing ??

- the weak link in S is Delmas ... I say this only because of his injury history ... if he stays healthy - then it turns to Jones ... and I'm am interested to see Kovacs in year 2 ....

so right now today .... compared to last year -- the only real detriment would be 'the other' CB (and maybe nickel) .... everything else is at least a push at worst ....
 
j-off-her-doll said:
But we have zero A. J. Greens on this team.
Click to expand...

How many AJ Greens does Seattle have? How many AJ Greens did the Patriots have in all of their championships? You don't need 10 AJ Greens, not even one of them to win... You need a complete team.
 
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