Is it time to go get a Center? | Page 7 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Is it time to go get a Center?

That’s terrible technique. Should have his on a swivel, watching Defense, snapping the Ball without looking backwards, no?
Aren't there practice techniques where you pay attention to specific details before you move on to final position practicing?
 
Looking at the draft in in hindsight always makes it easy to see what a team should have done differently. Like you, I liked Humphrey coming out of college but I also like Eichenberg. So while at this time I will agree Humphrey appears to have been the better pick. I also believe that with a year of experience and better coaching, Eichenberg is going to develop into a solid offensive lineman for the Dolphins.
He might very well be but Humphrey has a chance to be a great player for many years to come.
 
Looking at the draft in in hindsight always makes it easy to see what a team should have done differently. Like you, I liked Humphrey coming out of college but I also like Eichenberg. So while at this time I will agree Humphrey appears to have been the better pick. I also believe that with a year of experience and better coaching, Eichenberg is going to develop into a solid offensive lineman for the Dolphins.
I love your positive outlook and wish I had more of that. I am a work in progress on that front. But let's be 100% real, are you going to tell me that you had a 2nd rd grade on Liam last year before the draft? I had a high 2nd on Humphrey and a 4th on Liam, and that was fairly standard. We wasted picks moving up for a player I never saw anyone have as high a grade as we had. Now we knocked it outta the park with 3 blue chip players but my stance has long been Grier is a solid GM with one weakness. He can't pick OL to save is life. Maybe we should look into replacing every scout that is providing intel on OL, or bringing in an expert, but our OL picks are horrible. And this is not something being looked at in hind sight. I got the receipts to prove it.
 
I am concerned with the line.

Similar people who criticized me last year for my concerns are the same ones trying to give all the excuses why we shouldn't worry again this year.

Not everyone is doing it, but some.

The funny thing is the excuses sound the same as last year.

The concern is simple. This O line needed to upgrade 4 positions from last year.

LT, RT, C and LG

This line is significantly better than last year.

We made a Perfect upgrade at LT.

We made a solid to pretty good, IMO, upgrade at LG.

Didn't upgrade C or RT.

NOW, I believed out of all the needs, Center was the last priority. I felt dieter was the best of the worst.

Dieter atleast graded as a start, albeit 29th out of 32. Where as our LT, LG, and RT didn't rank in the top 70. None starter material.

So the move of Williams to Center felt counter productive to me. I truly believed with Williams at LG, RT was the only true potential weak spot.

I do trust the coaches. So I will wait and see on his move to Center.

But that move to Center means we have to rely on Eich and Jackson being good.

If they stink it up again ,and Williams struggles at Center the only true upgrade we made was at LT.

WITH that said, if Williams continues to struggle, I would hope Tretter gets a call.

I honestly believe the releasing of Butler facilitated a potential run at a lineman. If necessary.

Additionally, the Saints also should be contacted. They have 2 quality centers. Now neither may be available, who knows.

There's a reason I was pounding the table for Linderbaum..however, I'll take Tyreke all day every day lol.

I trust these coaches, I am a lot more optimistic this year then i was last year. I am not in " we need to make a move" territory yet.

But, last year I said it was an "obvious problem"

If Williams continues to struggle It becomes an "obvious problem" again.

I hope there's a plan in place.

Again, I trust these coaches. Our worst cse scenario is still better than last years line.

But it's just funny to me how I'm reading the same excuses this year, that I read last year, that deals with an obvious problem IMO.

We shall see

Luckily, we have the cap( this year) and draft picks to make a move. We also have coaches and a GM who would be willing to make a move to fix the problem IMO.

Also, get on the phone with Chicago. See what they want got Jenkins. Williams and a late round pick. If u need to, rest him for the year and maybe you can salvage something


“I do trust the coaches. So I will wait and see on his move to Center.”

Agreed. 😎
 
According to the camp reports I’ve read I think you have that backwards. Seems like they’ve all been high. In fact you can see some videos of them online.
The article I read about it said something along the lines of “the snaps aren’t going over their heads, but they are off enough to be noticeable”. It took it to mean the snaps were low when I did a quick read. Either way, the issue is fixable with reps. Snap issues while the QB is under center would be a much larger red flag for me.
 
I love your positive outlook and wish I had more of that. I am a work in progress on that front. But let's be 100% real, are you going to tell me that you had a 2nd rd grade on Liam last year before the draft? I had a high 2nd on Humphrey and a 4th on Liam, and that was fairly standard. We wasted picks moving up for a player I never saw anyone have as high a grade as we had. Now we knocked it outta the park with 3 blue chip players but my stance has long been Grier is a solid GM with one weakness. He can't pick OL to save is life. Maybe we should look into replacing every scout that is providing intel on OL, or bringing in an expert, but our OL picks are horrible. And this is not something being looked at in hind sight. I got the receipts to prove it.
Marvin Allen? Reggie McKenzie? We brought in highly respected guys for our personnel dept.

I think it may just be a matter of philosophy about the draft value of the position, or the value in general by the prior coaching staff. After all, we let a serviceable, if not great center in Karas go over a mere couple mil. On top of that, we paid to get rid of a decent reliable LG when there was nothing to replace him in the cupboard. Those moves, to me, was far more retarded than specific draft priorities.
 
Aren't there practice techniques where you pay attention to specific details before you move on to final position practicing?
Yes. It is common to look between your legs when you are working on aiming your long snaps. It allows you to see the results as you tweak your motions. It may seem silly, but Tua is on the short side so he will need to work on keeping the ball down.
 
Ok so no real good options now, except trading. I think trading would just get us another Dieter, so what is the point if Dieter is on the way to bring healthy.
 
I love your positive outlook and wish I had more of that. I am a work in progress on that front. But let's be 100% real, are you going to tell me that you had a 2nd rd grade on Liam last year before the draft? I had a high 2nd on Humphrey and a 4th on Liam, and that was fairly standard. We wasted picks moving up for a player I never saw anyone have as high a grade as we had. Now we knocked it outta the park with 3 blue chip players but my stance has long been Grier is a solid GM with one weakness. He can't pick OL to save is life. Maybe we should look into replacing every scout that is providing intel on OL, or bringing in an expert, but our OL picks are horrible. And this is not something being looked at in hind sight. I got the receipts to prove it.
Eich pretty much unanimously had an early 2nd round grade. Don’t know where ur getting that he didn’t. I wanted Humphrey too.

But all I did was google “Liam Eichenberg scouting report” and here are the first websites that gave a specific round they had had him graded in…

Sports Illustrated
26C7B39A-1B00-445E-B132-1EDAE92A8B53.jpeg

ProFootballNetwork
ED836746-A207-4C3B-9323-A3BD080F5BB5.jpeg

PrimeTimeSportsTalk
88B3171D-B1E7-492A-AA82-6FCEEC508C32.jpeg

247Sports
C7826765-1464-491D-8B2A-260A5CF06708.jpeg

PFF
BAE6844C-E4E4-4E72-8951-810CEBB43BE7.jpeg

NFL.com
15DE02E5-45EB-4DB2-BF65-7C8836206DAD.jpeg
 
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Herein lies the problem. He's had 1 week snapping the ball in pads yet he needs to play at the level of guys who have done it their whole career. It's a massive task to carry this close to the season opener.
He should have been working on snaps with helmet and shoulder pads on all summer for a small portion of practice. That's a common practice for getting guys ready that are switching to Center. When my son got a full ride to Eastern Washington he was being moved to Center as well after playing OT in high school. They had him come out in June early right after graduation and he was snapping with helmet and shoulder pads all summer during group phase of practice, then would take that stuff off most the time when they ran team.
 
Matt Paradis, who had a 66.9 pff rating last year is still available. Sure he is available because of that knee injury he sustained in week 9 last year. But with our situation I would go ahead and bring him in and have him rest until he is ready to play. By then we will know if Williams has learn the center position. If he has then good, we have a decent to good back up in Paradis. If he hasn't then William's to LG and Paradis to center sounds better to me then the plan we have right now.
They signed veteran centers in 2020 and 2021 and none of those centers lasted more than a year. I assume they feel that Deiter is a better backup to Williams than signing a veteran center who is coming off ACL surgery.
I love your positive outlook and wish I had more of that. I am a work in progress on that front. But let's be 100% real, are you going to tell me that you had a 2nd rd grade on Liam last year before the draft? I had a high 2nd on Humphrey and a 4th on Liam, and that was fairly standard. We wasted picks moving up for a player I never saw anyone have as high a grade as we had. Now we knocked it outta the park with 3 blue chip players but my stance has long been Grier is a solid GM with one weakness. He can't pick OL to save is life. Maybe we should look into replacing every scout that is providing intel on OL, or bringing in an expert, but our OL picks are horrible. And this is not something being looked at in hind sight. I got the receipts to prove it.
I preferred Humphrey simply because I felt the need at center was greater at the time. So obviously I would have been happier if they had selected Humphrey instead of Eichenberg but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel that Eichenberg can’t develop into a solid player for the Dolphins.

As a fan since 1966, I have seen the Dolphins bypass players I preferred in the draft for players they liked more. I just choose not to dwell on the players they didn’t select but rather prefer to root for the players they did select.

I believe Humphrey is going to be an excellent center in the league but he isn’t a Dolphin. So it makes no sense for me to be upset about a player the Dolphins didn’t pick.
 
This isn't that big of a deal, Mike Pouncey initially had issues snapping too.
Snapping a football isn't hard once you get the hang of it.
 
No coincidence that our line hasn't ranked better than 28th since 2014. (going by PFF rankings). 2014 was the year Pouncey had hip surgery and played guard.

IMO center is the 2nd most important position on that line right behind blind side tackle. We need to address that position one way or another between now and next season. (Draft/FA/Trade)

PFF Rankings

2014: 32nd

2015: 31st

2016: 30th

2017: 29th

2018: 31st

2019: 32nd

2020: 28th

2021: 29th
I'm kinda surprised 2016 was that low. Not that I thought top 10 or anything, but I figured it would be higher.
Ajayi = Beast.
 
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