Dolphins' linebackers showing promise

[maralieus]

Way to step up and take some responsibility there Phillip.

I dont think that was the place to take responsibility for it. The argument was being made about the linebacker group in general. That is his crew, he's not going to lay down and say "yeah the LB squad sucked last year". They are a team inside of a team and they are gonna always say the right thing to appease their teammates. Now if they ask him if he felt he was out of position a lot last year and if that maybe had to do with them struggling against the run and he said no, then I'd say WTF?

 

[maralieus]

This play made me as angry as any play I've ever seen as a Dolphin fan. Yeah. Let's everyone jog around and hope he just falls down. Grimes missed TWICE on that same play.

In Wheelers defense, yes the missed tackle was bad, but he did a nice job blowing that play up! Too bad he didn't finish and the rest of the team gave up.

 

[flynryan15]

Linebackers need to play a lot better this year. Last year the play I remember most from Phillip Wheeler and the Dolphins run defense was when Giovanni Bernard dodged about 8 tackles to score a TD.

[video=youtube;2KgHCjlfSMU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KgHCjlfSMU[/video]

This play and the play at the end of the Steelers game lack of effort and tackling just sickening!

 

[tay0365]

Moving our lbs around amounts to moving chairs around on the Titantic

Disagree, if Misi can continue to be as good against the run as he has been, there will be a dramatic difference in how the LBs perform.

Even with Misi huge size, Misi can run very well sideline to sideline for a big man, and because he is so big, and strong, he will handle blockers far better then Ellerbe ever did, and Ellerbe will do much better on the outside then he did at Middle LB.

All LB positions are not created equal, trying to put a square peg in a round hole would probably get you the same results then having an athletic, but now so powerful LB try to hold the middle.

The middle LB has to be powerful at the point of attack, instinctive, and able to be the QB of the defense, Ellerbe was not that, Misi just might be, at the very least, he can be powerful and instinctive, if he can be a leader in the middle, the LB position will make a drastic improvement.

Edit: By the way, as for Wheeler, I don't know how long he will continue to start, because I have little confidence with him.

 

[dlockz]

Always hilarious wih the Wheeler bashing while many gloss over how just as awful ellerbee was who got paid much more. He was so bad in fact that we are now playing Misi in the spot we signed him to play.

 

[nick1]

I honestly don't believe ellerbe was that bad. He was out of position but wasnt as bad as wheeler despite that

 

[hoops]

wheeler was the worst by far...if not for other teams injuries in the lb core i don't think i saw a worse lb than wheeler in 2013...other than when depth was forced to play for some teams...

not that ellerbe was good either...only lb that played well was misi and that was for 2 downs at strong

 

[CO-Gator]

Phillip Wheeler was fired from his second job as a dog-catcher because it involved tackling.

 

[So Be]

wheeler was the worst by far...if not for other teams injuries in the lb core i don't think i saw a worse lb than wheeler in 2013...other than when depth was forced to play for some teams...

not that ellerbe was good either...only lb that played well was misi and that was for 2 downs at strong

Agree, Wheeler was a bad as bad could be, and Ellerbe was not a whole lot better. I'm hoping they can play back to 2012 in their second year. We shall see.

I'm warming up to Misi In the middle as a good move, and did not see any better options available. I'm starting to believe it will work, just opinion and nothing to do with a few days of practice.

 

[ChambersWI]

Always hilarious wih the Wheeler bashing while many gloss over how just as awful ellerbee was who got paid much more. He was so bad in fact that we are now playing Misi in the spot we signed him to play.

Ellerbe was not good either, but he atleast contributed a few positive plays. Wheeler was a momentum killer with his missed tackles and penalties in the passing game. Plus, in our defense, the WLB is designed to get open looks at the guys to tackle.

I like Tripp, but from reports he needs to get a bit bigger. No shame in that. Similar to Jenkins last year. When Jenkins got into the game last year, he tended to be in good position but he was too small to make the plays

 

[NRA]

Tripp isn't even making the 2nd team LBs in practice

link?

i could be wrong, but, i could have sworn i read in the day 3 camp reports he was in the 2nd string unit and made a couple noticeable plays.

 

[So Be]

link?

i could be wrong, but, i could have sworn i read in the day 3 camp reports he was in the 2nd string unit and made a couple noticeable plays.

How much does a link matter in the third day of practice on who is playing second team LB? :)

 

[jnewmant]

I dont think that was the place to take responsibility for it. The argument was being made about the linebacker group in general. That is his crew, he's not going to lay down and say "yeah the LB squad sucked last year". They are a team inside of a team and they are gonna always say the right thing to appease their teammates. Now if they ask him if he felt he was out of position a lot last year and if that maybe had to do with them struggling against the run and he said no, then I'd say WTF?

Maybe i'm nitpicking but I would have liked to see him say something along the lines of "while the defense as a whole had an inconsistent year last year, as a corp, we (the lbs) feel we had a lot of improvements to make and we've been working our butts off to do so. At times the other 2 units excelled and we feel like with the hard work we've put in this offseason our whole defense can become elite. " sure beats "The total defense did," "It wasn't just us." but like i said, i might be nitpicking.

 

[DefensiveEnd76]

Yeah Wheeler had tackles. Most of them were 10-15 yards downfield and were the ankle tackle variety. The guy sucks. I wish we weren't saddled with his ridiculous contract. The guy made out like a highway robber when he signed the undeserved contract he got.

---------- Post added at 03:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:42 PM ----------

Watching Wheeler tackle was like watching former Dolphin wimp Sean Smith. Just abysmal.

 

[phinman1]

Can't believe we didn't add substantive LB personnel. Unless somebody surprises, it's going to be the same ole sh**.