I cannot fathom why the Donald Thomas injury...

[Skree]

.. last year is so often left out of the discussion about our injuries last year.

It will also be difficult to replicate the team's overall health; only two starters missed significant time due to injuries, Greg Camarillo and Justin Smiley.

http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sport...gue-with-espn-consensus-2nd-in-division-.html

I guess missing our starting right guard for practically the whole season just never happened. :crazy:

 

[oasis]

Because he started one game on a team coming off a 1-15 season, was an unproven rookie when he got injured, etc. You can't really be considered an important starter when you get injured in your first start...


Only folks who follow the team closely know how much potential he has and what a big loss he was. That's no excuse for the beat writers, but you sound kinda silly when you write that a guy with *potential* was a huge loss.

But yeah, we all know how absolutely enormous his injury was...let's hope he and the rest of the o-line can stay healthy.

 

[DolfanDuBbZ~]

.. last year is so often left out of the discussion about our injuries last year.

http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sport...gue-with-espn-consensus-2nd-in-division-.html

I guess missing our starting right guard for practically the whole season just never happened. :crazy:

You mean a unproven 6th round draft pick deserves mentioning?

 

[The Furminister]

All fairness no one really knew who he was or what he was really capable of since he was a rookie last year, even now no one is 100% of what he is capable of.

 

[Skree]

You mean a unproven 6th round draft pick deserves mentioning?

No I mean what I said. We lost our starting right guard for the season. Not our "potential" starting guard.

I don't care when he was drafted, how long he was with the team, whether or not he was a superstar or if me posting about it sounds silly. Those are all irrelevant "rabbit trails" to the fact that DT was the Dolphins starting right guard, we lost him to injury in the 1st game and it is inexcusable in my opinion for local (or national) writers to ignore it, seemingly, for the purpose of adding weight the the case that our injuries last year were insignificant.

That injury insignificance is part of the whole fluke/gimmick theory about why we were successful last year, from what I read, and part of the "they can't do it again" case.

Fine np if outsiders want to do that. But local writers ? Gimmy' a break.

 

[DolfanDuBbZ~]

No I mean what I said. We lost our starting right guard for the season. Not our "potential" starting guard.

I don't care when he was drafted, how long he was with the team, whether or not he was a superstar or if me posting about it sounds silly. Those are all irrelevant "rabbit trails" to the fact that DT was the Dolphins starting right guard, we lost him to injury in the 1st game and it is inexcusable in my opinion for local (or national) writers to ignore it, seemingly, for the purpose of adding weight the the case that our injuries last year were insignificant.

That injury insignificance is part of the whole fluke/gimmick theory about why we were successful last year, from what I read, and part of the "they can't do it again" case.

Fine np if outsiders want to do that. But local writers ? Gimmy' a break.

If you say so. Fact is Thomas could have been yanked after week 1. But to make out a Rookie 6th rd draft choice as being relevant is silly. He is unproven going into this season. I have to see him be worthy of that starting position for more than 2 preseasons and a few quarters in the reg season.

What has Thomas done to date to persuade any 'theory'?

 

[Pinkboy]

If you say so. Fact is Thomas could have been yanked after week 1. But to make out a Rookie 6th rd draft choice as being relevant is silly. He is unproven going into this season. I have to see him be worthy of that starting position for more than 2 preseasons and a few quarters in the reg season.

What has Thomas done to date to persuade any 'theory'?

You're senile if you cannot see Thomas' talent level.

It was evident in pre season when there was shuffling at that position.. When Thomas was in, the O-line looked a lot better. Whenever someone else was in, the line looked mediocre.

And that was also evident last pre season... Check my posts on Thomas LAST preseason LAST year and you will see I am totally consistent with my opinion on him..

Thomas controls his defender better than any guard we have seen in YEARS.

Watch him play instead of making baseless remarks. The guy is a player.. A damn good one.. And if he stays healthy will be our RG for a long time.

Nobody was pulling him after week one to replace him with Ndukwe.....Not you, not this coaching staff, not anyone else...

 

[NYNCDOLFAN]

lets all just pray he not only stays healthy but plays GREAT!!!

 

[DDTDON]

You're senile if you cannot see Thomas' talent level.

It was evident in pre season when there was shuffling at that position.. When Thomas was in, the O-line looked a lot better. Whenever someone else was in, the line looked mediocre.

And that was also evident last pre season... Check my posts on Thomas LAST preseason LAST year and you will see I am totally consistent with my opinion on him..

Thomas controls his defender better than any guard we have seen in YEARS.

Watch him play instead of making baseless remarks. The guy is a player.. A damn good one.. And if he stays healthy will be our RG for a long time.

Nobody was pulling him after week one to replace him with Ndukwe.....Not you, not this coaching staff, not anyone else...

100% agree with you Grey!!! Finally some common sense, forget what Dubz says he is always trying to hijack a thread with his nonsense. DT will be great like you said, if he stays healthy.

 

[Smith21]

whats funny is the dolphins lost 3 Starters.. but didnt have any injuries??
Matt roth played threw a Bad Groing.. Samson Satele had a bad peck, Jake long rolled his ankle in one game.. taped it up and came back out, Even Davone bess broke his pinky in one game, any other injuries that anyone can think of??

 

[MP-Omnis]

Donald doesn't really have technical talent yet. Just strength like hell. Having him on the O-line is like having a baseball bat for performing surgery.

 

[Phin-Omenon]

whats funny is the dolphins lost 3 Starters.. but didnt have any injuries??
Matt roth played threw a Bad Groing.. Samson Satele had a bad peck, Jake long rolled his ankle in one game.. taped it up and came back out, Even Davone bess broke his pinky in one game, any other injuries that anyone can think of??

Channing Crowder missed a game or two also.

We were not plagued with injuries but we were far from injury free. I agree with the original post in that, regardless of when he was drafted or what our record was a year prior, we lost a starter on our OL in the first game of the season. That is significant.

And some how he came back and won back the job again. It merits a mention.

 

[Digital]

I'm not a big Donald Thomas fan like so many people on this site. I don't really like the idea of building an OL around injury-prone players. I really like Smiley, but let's face it, he is too injury-prone as well, and I say that fully knowing his veteran guidance along the line, exceptional pulling ability, solid pass defending and covering, and effective run blocking. But, OL is all about building chemistry and working as a unit. It is the quintessential 'whole is greater than the sum of it's parts' position. When people are injured, no chemistry exists. For that reason, I still think the jury is out on Donald Thomas. He came here raw, and he still is. His upper body strength is Herculean, and that allows him to ragdoll some defenders and post quite a few highlight reel blocks, but at the end of the day he doesn't grade out as a great player even when he's healthy ... and the guy reminds me of Joe Toledo--lots of talent but just can't stay healthy.

That said, I think we saw last year that our OL problems stemmed in large part from a makeshift RG position. If we can find someone to consistently play that position at a high level, I think our OL will fare quite well. We already have the all-important T's that are so hard to acquire. We have a good C with enough power to handle these NT's as well as a C can be expected. Grove looks to be over his injuries, but I will be watching that one closely. Our two G's MUST stay healthy for this OL to start to realize it's potential. With a healthy Smiley and Thomas we could evolve into a very strong OL. With all the money we have invested into it (Thomas being the lone inexpensive player), we should have a dominating OL ... but last year we didn't see that consistently.

One thing Parcells' teams do VERY WELL is get their salary cap off the training table and onto the field. Our OL seems to be the one area we need to seriously improve in this regard. Fingers crossed, as even a raw Donald Thomas is a big step up from the Ndukwe's of last season.

 

[Atila]

Totally disagree with your post Greyboy - way too much homerism.

It is pretty obvious to me the POINT the guy was trying to make - his point was not that Thomas was actually going to be pulled after the first game, but the fact that he was STILL a question mark.

He still hadn't finished a single game at the position. It wasn't like he was to the RG position as Chad Pennington was to the QB position. That was the poster's point.

It is silly to make a major deal of Donald Thomas not being mentioned amongst our "crucial starters lost". Who's to say he was going to be crucial to the team?


I'm not trying to take anything away from his potential, but you, and the original poster, are grasping at straws here.

 

[Chainsaw]

You're senile if you cannot see Thomas' talent level.

It was evident in pre season when there was shuffling at that position.. When Thomas was in, the O-line looked a lot better. Whenever someone else was in, the line looked mediocre.

And that was also evident last pre season... Check my posts on Thomas LAST preseason LAST year and you will see I am totally consistent with my opinion on him..

Thomas controls his defender better than any guard we have seen in YEARS.

Watch him play instead of making baseless remarks. The guy is a player.. A damn good one.. And if he stays healthy will be our RG for a long time.

Nobody was pulling him after week one to replace him with Ndukwe.....Not you, not this coaching staff, not anyone else...

Agreed. I watched Thomas a lot last preseason as well as this one. And that dude was/is a beast. I think we have to go back to the great LL to find a guard with that much raw talent and road grading blocking ability. I felt last year and do again this year, that Thomas is our very best run blocking OLineman.

I think if Thomas was healthy the entire season, we likely would have kept Satele because any weakness in the middle of the line would have been practically gone with him there.