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If the O-line is a disaster, look back to the offseason

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PressCoverage

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in the "O-line needs to shutup" thread (if i read it correctly), this person was asking me to determine who was available for an O-line overhaul this past offseason...

Dol-Fan Dupree said:
and replaced with who?
Click to expand...

well, let's see...

the following free agent linemen were available this offseason:

OG Joe Andruzzi
OG Cosey Coleman
OG Marco Rivera (among the best in the league)
OT Kareem McKenzie (admittedly, huge contract)
C Casey Rabach (very cheap to Wash.; would have been my choice, positionwise, to upgrade in free agency)
OG Rick DeMulling
OT Fred Miller
OG Roberto Garza
OG Mike Wahle (came really cheap to Carolina)
OG Jermaine Mayberry
OT Oliver Ross
OT Jonas Jennings

some good players in there... but instead, we spend $38 million on a 31-year-old defensive tackle (albeit still a good one)

in the draft: when we took Roth, a guy like RT Marcus Johnson of Mississippi was available... he's taken over the starting job in Minnesota and looks very strong... also Khalif Barnes was there... he dominated North-South game (or one of the postseason all-star games, i forget which one), and will soon start for the Jags...

Roth may be a decent player, but OT, OG or C were areas of desperate need...

You can analyze it all you like and say "well, the draft wasn't deep at position X" or "there wasn't a good enough guard at that slot", etc. etc. ... But, here we are... Still trying to make chicken soup with chicken droppings... If you doubt it's a serious problem because it's "only preseason," have a look at the complaining by the underachieving O-Line players themselves, and the return sniping by the coaches on them for blown assignments, false starts and no real push in the run game this summer....

i'm sure the coaching staff and front office knows what they're doing, long term, but i believe the defense had depth already -- at least in the front seven... and a few capable interior linemen would have made the defense all the fresher... at the very LEAST: we needed a center worth a damn...

don't get me wrong: I love Carter, i have my fingers crossed for Roth, i wish the best for Traylor, i pray Holliday can stay healthy, i hope Donnie Spragan makes plays, i wish Tillman, Tebucky and Shulters all the best...

i just feel that 1 or 2 of those contracts should have gone toward better hogs up front... Casay Rabach, at least...

Prediction: We'll average less than 4.0 yards per carry and allow sacks in the bottom third of the league this year...

I do hope I'm wrong -- In Hudson Houck We Trust!!!
 
I think one of two things happened. Either Nick overestimated what Houck could do with this collection of third-stringers, or he has a 2-3 year plan and we won't really understand everything until the plan is realized. For instance, Alabi won't contribute anything this year, but Houck seems to be quite impressed with him, so 2-3 years down the road, we may have a dominant tackle. Combine that with Carey and Hadnot and we're in a lot better shape.

Saban impresses me as a pretty good chess player and I'm fairly certain that he has a grand scale plan. He probably also had the same question we all had...what kind of talent do we really have at QB (Feeley) and on the O-line. To Saban and Houck's credit, it appears they have done a wonderful job with Carey, especially when you compare Tony Wise's efforts from last year.

The truth is, this team had so many holes, Saban must have felt like a kitty with diarrhea in a litter box, he didn't know which pile to cover up first.
 
Joe Andruzzi, Mark Wahle, Kareem McKenzie and Jonas Jennings all earned contracts this team couldn't afford.

That $38 million your talking about on a DT is shenanigans. It's a cleverly disguised 2 year $10 million contract.
 
i just dont wanna see Ronnie Brown injured or lose confidence when he averages 3.2 ypc this year...
 
Good post. I don't necessarily disagree, but the fact is that unless you have experience as an O-line coach and are analyzing game film, we're not really competent to evaluate the talent on the O-line. Most of the guys we have were relatively high picks: McDougle (1), Carey (1), McKinney (3), McIntosh (3), St. Clair (3), Smith (3), and these guys went about where they were projected to go. That at least suggests a certain level of physical ability. I was looking at the Scouts, Inc. player ratings on ESPN Insider and these guys rate pretty well. The Fins had 9 linemen who rated as adequate NFL starters or better. These guys also rated well in the Sporting News NFL Scouting Guide. But most importantly, Saban, Houck and Davis apparently felt the talent was there when they decided to bring in a bunch of new defensive players and basically ignore the line. So while I'm not so sure they talent isn't there, the bottom line is that if the line doesn't perform well, the fault will lie with Saban and Houck, whether its because of lack of talent or lack of coaching.
 
PressCoverage said:
i just dont wanna see Ronnie Brown injured or lose confidence when he averages 3.2 ypc this year...
Click to expand...

If he averages that then it's more then the offensive line. Sammy Morris had a 4.0avg behind this line last year. The line is bad but it's better then last years at least. It's got better coaching and at least 'some' gelling going on there despite the preseason switching.
 
PressCoverage said:
i just dont wanna see Ronnie Brown injured or lose confidence when he averages 3.2 ypc this year...
Click to expand...

If Miami changed their entire line they would have the same problem they are having now. The line has to learn how to play together. That generally takes time. They have been blocking live together for a month now?
 
The O-line could've been addressed, but than some other positions would've been neglected. I think Houck will have the line playing much better as the season progresses. I think the team probably could've brought in a good veteran rather than sign say Holliday and Tillman, but I think Carter was a good signing.
 
VanDolPhan said:
Joe Andruzzi, Mark Wahle, Kareem McKenzie and Jonas Jennings all earned contracts this team couldn't afford.

That $38 million your talking about on a DT is shenanigans. It's a cleverly disguised 2 year $10 million contract.
Click to expand...

and we couldn't do the same with those four you mentioned?

Andruzzi's base salary is less than $1.5million each of the first three years
Wahle as well

Jennings? heavily backloaded, much the same as you suggest Carter's
McKenzie as well.. .
 
The Dolphins are about two years from being able to go after free agents like that. I always say it and here I go again......... We need good players on cheap rookie contracts to right this ship.
 
PressCoverage said:
in the "O-line needs to shutup" thread (if i read it correctly), this person was asking me to determine who was available for an O-line overhaul this past offseason...



well, let's see...

the following free agent linemen were available this offseason:

OG Bennie Anderson
OG Joe Andruzzi
OG Cosey Coleman
OG Marco Rivera (among the best in the league)
OT Kareem McKenzie (admittedly, huge contract)
C Casey Rabach (very cheap to Wash.; would have been my choice, positionwise, to upgrade in free agency)
OG Rick DeMulling
OT Fred Miller
OG Roberto Garza
OG Mike Wahle (came really cheap to Carolina)
OG Jermaine Mayberry
OT Oliver Ross
OT Jonas Jennings

some good players in there... but instead, we spend $38 million on a 31-year-old defensive tackle (albeit still a good one)

in the draft: when we took Roth, a guy like RT Marcus Johnson of Mississippi was available... he's taken over the starting job in Minnesota and looks very strong... also Khalif Barnes was there... he dominated North-South game (or one of the postseason all-star games, i forget which one), and will soon start for the Jags...

Roth may be a decent player, but OT, OG or C were areas of desperate need...

You can analyze it all you like and say "well, the draft wasn't deep at position X" or "there wasn't a good enough guard at that slot", etc. etc. ... But, here we are... Still trying to make chicken soup with chicken droppings... If you doubt it's a serious problem because it's "only preseason," have a look at the complaining by the underachieving O-Line players themselves, and the return sniping by the coaches on them for blown assignments, false starts and no real push in the run game this summer....

i'm sure the coaching staff and front office knows what they're doing, long term, but i believe the defense had depth already -- at least in the front seven... and a few capable interior linemen would have made the defense all the fresher... at the very LEAST: we needed a center worth a damn...

don't get me wrong: I love Carter, i have my fingers crossed for Roth, i wish the best for Traylor, i pray Holliday can stay healthy, i hope Donnie Spragan makes plays, i wish Tillman, Tebucky and Shulters all the best...

i just feel that 1 or 2 of those contracts should have gone toward better hogs up front... Casay Rabach, at least...

Prediction: We'll average less than 4.0 yards per carry and allow sacks in the bottom third of the league this year...

I do hope I'm wrong -- In Hudson Houck We Trust!!!
Click to expand...

Maybe he looked at the talent available and then looked at the talent we had, found them both to be lacking and said to himself, we better have a damn good defense.
 
inFINSible said:
Maybe he looked at the talent available and then looked at the talent we had, found them both to be lacking and said to himself, we better have a damn good defense.
Click to expand...

but that's just it.... the names on that list, almost to a man, are better than anything we've got -- besides perhaps Carey's potential...
 
PressCoverage said:
and we couldn't do the same with those four you mentioned?

Andruzzi's base salary is less than $1.5million each of the first three years
Wahle as well

Jennings? heavily backloaded, much the same as you suggest Carter's
McKenzie as well.. .
Click to expand...

Andruzzi also got a $2.5 million signing bonus and would have either A) been switched to RG where we got a promising young Hadnot who just needs time to play or B) swallowed a cap loss by releasing Jeno James.

Jennings got a $12 million signing bonus and his 2nd year cap number is over $4.5 million for an average tackle and crosses over $5.5 million for the rest of the deal.

Saban isn't about to hand out big deals in his first year until he sees what he has.

Once you get past the big names who signed for large contracts you got mostly aged guys who are no better then average.
 
OG Bennie Anderson (Good run blocker, stinks as pass blocker)
OG Joe Andruzzi (took less money to go to cleveland. Obviously its where he wanted to go)
OG Cosey Coleman (stinks)
OG Marco Rivera (among the best in the league but got PAID)
OT Kareem McKenzie (admittedly, huge contract)
C Casey Rabach (very cheap to Wash.; would have been my choice, positionwise, to upgrade in free agency)....agreed but this was the only spot it really made sense cause we knew seth stunk. We didnt and still dont know what Houck could do with the rest of these cats.
OG Rick DeMulling (Good player but we have competant guards in jeno and Rex)
OT Fred Miller (Old)
OG Roberto Garza (bleh, no better than what we have)
OG Mike Wahle (came really cheap to Carolina and is being converted to LT. Good luck with moving a guard to LT)
OG Jermaine Mayberry (big contract, no?)
OT Oliver Ross (31 and a role player at best)
OT Jonas Jennings (got a ton of money from sf)

Marcus Johnson wasnt the answer @ RT. Vernon can handle that.

LT was what we needed so while I like roth, Barnes would have made a lot of sense. No argument about that. Who knows though, maybe saban saw/heard something he didnt like.
 
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