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Dolphins Defensive Line

To say Akeem Spence is just a guy would be too positive. I’d love to see enough youngsters come in to force him off the 53. He is a progress stopper for where we are in our building cycle.
 
Wilkins and maybe Taylor are the ones that matter. Everybody else is a bunch of meh. Hopefully Taylor comes back healthy and Wilkins shines.
 
It's so disappointing seeing the names Miami will play along the defensive line. Outside of Wilkins, who's basically a projection of talent and hasn't proven anything yet at the NFL level yet; there is no one else that jumps off the charts. Godchaux and Taylor are talented but not the star power that once littered Miami's DLine for about 2 decades, with players like Jason Taylor, Adewale Ogunleye, Kevin Carter, Cameron Wake, Trace Armstrong, Paul Soliai, Tim Bowens and Larry Chester. This is a rebuild of epic proportions.
 
dolfan91 said:
It's so disappointing seeing the names Miami will play along the defensive line. Outside of Wilkins, who's basically a projection of talent and hasn't proven anything yet at the NFL level yet; there is no one else that jumps off the charts. Godchaux and Taylor are talented but not the star power that once littered Miami's DLine for about 2 decades, with players like Jason Taylor, Adewale Ogunleye, Kevin Carter, Cameron Wake, Trace Armstrong, Paul Soliai, Tim Bowens and Larry Chester. This is a rebuild of epic proportions.
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This entire team is that way. QB is a joke. RB is set for this year. Wr is set. Oline is the worst in the league. Linebackers are some of the worst in the league. Defensive line one of the wrost in the league. And our secondary, while being the best unit on the team, has an identity crisis by having 2 starting strong safeties, our best free safety playing slot corner, our nickel corner who is only good at covering the slot and is bad at tackling and coberage playing boundary and free safety. This team has serious issues.

This entire team is a joke compared to what we were in the past. Hopefully something will change sometime soon.
 
dolfan91 said:
It's so disappointing seeing the names Miami will play along the defensive line. Outside of Wilkins, who's basically a projection of talent and hasn't proven anything yet at the NFL level yet; there is no one else that jumps off the charts. Godchaux and Taylor are talented but not the star power that once littered Miami's DLine for about 2 decades, with players like Jason Taylor, Adewale Ogunleye, Kevin Carter, Cameron Wake, Trace Armstrong, Paul Soliai, Tim Bowens and Larry Chester. This is a rebuild of epic proportions.
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This entire team is that way. QB is a joke. RB is set for this year. Wr is set. Oline is the worst in the league. Linebackers are some of the worst in the league. Defensive line one of the wrost in the league. And our secondary, while being the best unit on the team, has an identity crisis by having 2 starting strong safeties, our best free safety playing slot corner, our nickel corner who is only good at covering the slot and is bad at tackling and bad in coverage playing boundary corner and free safety. This team has serious issues.

This entire team is a joke compared to what we were in the past. Hopefully something will change sometime soon.
 
TedSlimmJr said:
Perhaps in body type, but not in skillset. The best comparison for Wilkins is a guy like Richard Seymour and what he was able to do in the NFL. He used to make the pro-bowl as both a DT and a 3-4 end.

Ironically, he also came from a defensive line at Georgia that also consisted of four 1st round picks - similar to the Clemson defensive line last year that Wilkins was on.

What made a guy like Seymour so unique, which also applies to Wilkins - is a combination of such rare athleticism for the size, but more importantly how flexible they are throughout their body and how easily they're able to bend. Which allows them to line up on the edge and attack from a wider angle in certain fronts, or line up inside and attack from a wider angle by stunting to the outside.

It's the fluidity and ability to change directions that is so rare for a player his size. If you scouted Wilkins thoroughly during his years in college, you saw him line up at DE or stunt to the outside and were amazed at how a kid that size was able to bend and attack from wider angles. Truly his most unique trait.

However, Wilkins is probably more of an ideal 3-technique than Seymour was - mainly due to the fact Wilkins is a little shorter than Seymour was and facilitates a lower center of gravity. But his most glaring weakness would probably be his inability to anchor. He tends to lose the leverage battle inside against the run by standing up and exposing his chest plate to interior offensive lineman's hands. He's not really equipped to play NT or 2 gap....which Miami won't be doing any 2 gapping anyway.

They'll be 1 gapping up front and disguising where the extra guy is coming from.
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Good stuff, also think that if you have a player that size, that can be flexible and bend like you said, that that athletic ability can learn different moves that they don’t know.

I had him a bit lower then where we drafted him but I’m thinking his versatility will be the upside.
 
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I think Wilkins is gonna be asked to play the most versatile role of the entire d line front.

Including the edges. Maybe Charles harris or someone is asked to play a strong side backer and a de depending on package but I expect to see Wilkins line up anywhere up to the inside shoulder of the tackle. I think outside shoulder he’s gonna lose a lot of luster but he also might have to get snaps there as a sacrificial lamb even depending on package.

In terms of 2018 Vincent Taylor took his game up a level. Very good with lateral flow and backside pursuit down the los. A player that was trending up.

I feel that godchaux might have leveled out a little but that might have been more about ask and anchor. We are soft on the edges we are soft on the interior. In a dline that seriously lacks poa play he’s pretty critical.

They are gonna have to offset the lack of anchor somewhere and hide the range and athleticism of the lb level especially the off ball lb level. Surely Bobby mccain and minkah can’t be asked as slots to make up the slack?

And there aren’t many options edge wise who can win with any consistency (if any) vs starting tackles. So if these guys are smoking our tackles one on one in pads in drills in camp it’s a bad omen. Well that is if they are smoking our right tackles. Tunsil should have a walk in the park with these jags. Should be an entire camp of wash outs unless he’s bored which may be the case.
 
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Back in 2017 I believe, Joe W Dolphin has some film clips comparing Jordan Phillips to Devon Godchaux both anchoring when double teamed and while Phillips was pushed 2 yards backwards Godchaux held his ground, that leads me to believe he will play NT in the 3 man front.

Being in your 2nd year and ranked 12th is respectable and a solid starter, if the other 2 are close that's a decent D-line - Wilkins at some point you would hope cracks the top 5-10. Have to say I'm a bit puzzled why some Dolphins fans say some of are better players are crap. Godchaux and Taylor were excellent late round picks that have developed into solid NFL starters. Possibly Matt Burkes defense,

Dolphins need to play a defense that fits the hot weather we have here in S Fla. this bend but don't break defense has our defense on the field to long and sometimes wore out by the end of the game, point is we need more 3 and outs and for our offense to own the time of position, we may not have the cover safeties to play tighter this year but it's something we should plan on come 2020 draft. We have played so long with the wrong safeties (strong) when both should of been free - cover safeties for 4 or 5 years now.

On the offensive side we need to be a strong run team.
 
illscriptures said:
This entire team is that way. QB is a joke. RB is set for this year. Wr is set. Oline is the worst in the league. Linebackers are some of the worst in the league. Defensive line one of the wrost in the league. And our secondary, while being the best unit on the team, has an identity crisis by having 2 starting strong safeties, our best free safety playing slot corner, our nickel corner who is only good at covering the slot and is bad at tackling and bad in coverage playing boundary corner and free safety. This team has serious issues.

This entire team is a joke compared to what we were in the past. Hopefully something will change sometime soon.
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The joke is, you are still here posting. Go root for somebody else, we're tired of hearing this BS.
 
illscriptures said:
This entire team is that way. QB is a joke. RB is set for this year. Wr is set. Oline is the worst in the league. Linebackers are some of the worst in the league. Defensive line one of the wrost in the league. And our secondary, while being the best unit on the team, has an identity crisis by having 2 starting strong safeties, our best free safety playing slot corner, our nickel corner who is only good at covering the slot and is bad at tackling and bad in coverage playing boundary corner and free safety. This team has serious issues.

This entire team is a joke compared to what we were in the past. Hopefully something will change sometime soon.
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I didnt know whether to laugh or cry at your post, so I did both.

In all seriousness, I'm actually excited to see what a Superbowl winning defensive coordinator has in store for this defense. Yes we have 2 SS, but they can ball. We have an elite corner in X and possibly another elite secondary player in Minkah. That's a good start! On the line we got beef as we switch to more 3-4 looks. I'd imagine Wilkins playing end, Godx at nose, and Spence/Taylor in the mix at end.

Passrusher to me is the big ? Will Charles Harris step up? Is a new slimmer Carradine due for a resurgence? Is Van Ginkel ready day one to play?

Linebackers are in flux because we drafted them to be in a 4-3, but I'm expecting the real Raekwon to show up, Alonso is solid, abd Baker looked like a legit cover guy so I'm not too down on this group.
 
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I understand the excitement with a guy like Wilkins, but we had Suh who was a top 5 player. We had some of the worst run defenses during his tenure. What does Wilkins bring that Suh could not? Did Suh free-lance too much? Was it the defensive scheme? Was it that Suh had no supporting cast worth a darn?

I would like to believe that Wilkins will be our stud player for years, but doesn't it take a lineman a couple of years to find their game?
 
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