Five Reasons for Miami Dolphins’ fans to be optimistic following the draft
- Thread starter fisi
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I think Urbik is in the mix at RG along with Turner and Douglas and Bushrod will back up Tunsil at LG
so unless Thomas does something we haven't seen, he is on some shaky ground
miami365
Rookie
Just hope we can stop the run, couldn't do it with All-pro Suh on the line last year, here's hoping our new DC figures it out.
An attacking mindset on defense is a welcome change. There is no guarantee of results, but I will be pleased the corners will not be 8 yards deep at the snap on every down.
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Big corners in press coverage will help. We gave up corner support at the snap being 7-8 yards off the line.
Actually, he made a profound difference. Most of the work was done during training camp. Great coaching can sometimes not look like much to people on the outside.
I am not concerned with our starters or our depth for OL. We have three backup OTs. We have competition at the last OG, and if the majority fail to step up at OG. I know that Urbik is competent. That is a big change.
What I have noticed is that once a WR leaves Miami they tend to do worse (in the last 4 years)...Wallace, Hartline come to mind. I'm not saying Matthews will be worse off, but I actually think Ryan has helped him more then people realize.
Cutler's played 10 years. Last year he had 483 attempts which was the 4th most in his career. He had a 92.3 rating which was career-best. Whether Gase was the direct cause of these numbers or not is anyone's guess. Still though facts are facts.
Lets also look at the squad around him dude had Alshon out for most of the season...and rolled out there with a who dat squad that could rival Tannehill's rookie season WRs.
Yes, but will any of us outlive him? Given the Dolphins history, he'll probably live to be 118 and own the team until he dies.
It's true the Bears ran more under Gase compared to Trestman but not when you compare it to the offense under Mike Tice. Cutler was more efficient under Gase compared to about the same number of runs under Tice. Cutlers QB rating improved by 12 points from Tice to Gase and Cutler actually threw more under Gase (38 more times to be exact). He had 2 more TD's and 3 fewer picks. We are talking about a small sample period of 1 year with Gase/Cutler and there were several injuries on the offense that surely kept Cutler from playing even better.
Matt Forte missed 3.5 games, Cutler missed 1 game, Alshon Jeffrey missed 8.5, Martellus Bennett missed 5, Eddie Royal missed 6, Kevin White missed 16, Bushrod only started 4 games. At one point Cutler's starting receivers were Marc Mariani and Marques Wilson, yet he still managed to improve.
Kraig Urbik at his worst, was twice the guard of Dallas Thomas. Unless DT has a severe turnaround, he may not even be on the team. You would think the team would lean towards keeping younger players like Turner and Douglas over Thomas. There is still hope for those younger guys and a bit less for Thomas at this point. That doesn't even factor in Bushrod who was a Pro Bowl left tackle. I'm not too worried about a transition to guard for an athletic player like that.
The part of the list I have to disagree with is line 5. I think Williams, Suh and Wake are going to be fine but there are a few issues with that. Wake will have his snaps reduced and be a pass rush specialist. Who is going to play the run at SDE and who is going to stop the run at DT besides Suh?
Our LB's should be better than last year but that may not make up for the deficiency at DT. There are still questions about Phillips ability and Chris Jones health. I think we've all seen enough from Mitchell to know what he brings....which is not much. How he was not upgraded is beyond me.
We also have absolutely no depth on defense. If a starting safety, corner, DT or DE get hurt, we are in BIG trouble.
Matt Forte missed 3.5 games, Cutler missed 1 game, Alshon Jeffrey missed 8.5, Martellus Bennett missed 5, Eddie Royal missed 6, Kevin White missed 16, Bushrod only started 4 games. At one point Cutler's starting receivers were Marc Mariani and Marques Wilson, yet he still managed to improve.
Kraig Urbik at his worst, was twice the guard of Dallas Thomas. Unless DT has a severe turnaround, he may not even be on the team. You would think the team would lean towards keeping younger players like Turner and Douglas over Thomas. There is still hope for those younger guys and a bit less for Thomas at this point. That doesn't even factor in Bushrod who was a Pro Bowl left tackle. I'm not too worried about a transition to guard for an athletic player like that.
The part of the list I have to disagree with is line 5. I think Williams, Suh and Wake are going to be fine but there are a few issues with that. Wake will have his snaps reduced and be a pass rush specialist. Who is going to play the run at SDE and who is going to stop the run at DT besides Suh?
Our LB's should be better than last year but that may not make up for the deficiency at DT. There are still questions about Phillips ability and Chris Jones health. I think we've all seen enough from Mitchell to know what he brings....which is not much. How he was not upgraded is beyond me.
We also have absolutely no depth on defense. If a starting safety, corner, DT or DE get hurt, we are in BIG trouble.
Hey if running the ball more is part of getting your QB to play better and not get pummeled by a dline pinning it's ears back every play, then i'm fine filing that under "QB guru"
utahphinsfan
Club Member
Concur. I think Miami can win 9 next season.
Here's why... Using from 6 wins last yr as the base; add 1 for Gase & his ability to strategize and adapt, 1 for VJ getting more out of the D, & 1 for upgrading the secondary & OL.
zach attach
Active Roster
All 5 things you mention are great reasons to be optimistic. Hell, I'm optimistic we make the playoffs although none of these things may happen. Number 3 in particular, is to be optimistic but we need to see if it's likely to happen. Ryan still needs to work on some things. Deep passes being the big one for me. Just because Gase is here doesn't mean it equals automatic success for Tanny. We need to go through the motions and see how it turns out after the season. Optimistic yes, likely-we'll see.