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My Theory

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Dolfan1000

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The Miami Dolphins are planning on drafting their "Kevin Burnett" in the upcoming draft.

In other words, they are looking for a coverage LB. With Bill Parcells at the helm, I have typically not paid much attention to LBs who weigh in at less than 240 pounds, simply because they are not obvious fits in the scheme. However, when Dallas drafted Burnett, they were looking for a lighter guy to come in on third down and cover RBs and TEs effectively. To me, based on who we have visited with, this position will be addressed on April 25 (or, maybe more accurately, the 26th).

Evidence:
-DeAndre Levy
-Frantz Joseph
-Marcus Freeman
-Jason Williams

We have shown significant interest in all of these players. They are all (for the most part) under 240 pounds. They excel in coverage.

I have cracked the code! :)

Sorry if you dont consider this groundbreaking, but I just felt I should share my observation with the rest of the draftniks. Your thoughts?
 
Jason Williams certainly has the ability to cover but in the Western Illinois defense he pass rushed like 95% of the time or something like that. So I'm not sure I'd say he "excels" in coverage.

Nor would I say that about Frantz Joseph.

Though Marcus Freeman I suppose I might say that.

I have two primary problems with this line of thinking.

1. It assumes that they knew what they were getting in Kevin Burnett. I think they thought they were getting a whole lot more in him when they took him and were disappointed in what they got.

2. If they wanted the next Kevin Burnett, they could easily have had him...simply by signing Kevin Burnett as a free agent. He was cheap. He's still very young. There was nothing preventing them from getting him.

If you ask me, they will draft an ILB here...and he will be athletic, he'll have very good shuttle/cone/jump type agility. Probably put some premium on him having experience in pass rush and being physical with offensive linemen.

Some names I will add to this are Brad Jones of Colorado, Dan Skuta of Grand Valley State, and Cyrus Mulitalo of Sacramento State.
 
so weird seeing a football player from sac state even mentioned for the draft because i go there and the team sucks (not saying he does but overall the team is terrible)
 
ckparrothead said:
Jason Williams certainly has the ability to cover but in the Western Illinois defense he pass rushed like 95% of the time or something like that. So I'm not sure I'd say he "excels" in coverage.

Nor would I say that about Frantz Joseph.

Though Marcus Freeman I suppose I might say that.

I have two primary problems with this line of thinking.

1. It assumes that they knew what they were getting in Kevin Burnett. I think they thought they were getting a whole lot more in him when they took him and were disappointed in what they got.

2. If they wanted the next Kevin Burnett, they could easily have had him...simply by signing Kevin Burnett as a free agent. He was cheap. He's still very young. There was nothing preventing them from getting him.

If you ask me, they will draft an ILB here...and he will be athletic, he'll have very good shuttle/cone/jump type agility. Probably put some premium on him having experience in pass rush and being physical with offensive linemen.

Some names I will add to this are Brad Jones of Colorado, Dan Skuta of Grand Valley State, and Cyrus Mulitalo of Sacramento State.
Click to expand...

Good points, CK. However, I still maintain that they drafted Kevin Burnett because he could cover... Now, sure, they probably thought he would one day start at ILB, but his failure as a draft pick wont keep them from going after a guy who will start off as a nickel defender and potentially start down the line. As for signing Kevin Burnett himself, as you said, they likely are not high on the player he has become... And, as we have all seen, they're very big on drafting a guy that can do A, B and C rather than signing a FA that can do A, B and C.

But yes, good points.
 
I hope theyre planning to draft the next demarcus ware rather than the next kevin burnett.
 
I will throw two more out:
Phillip Hunt(Houston)
Vertical Jump: [FONT=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-2]41 1/2[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-2]Broad Jump:[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-2]09'08"[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-2]20 Yrd Shuttle:[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-2]4.22[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-2]3-Cone Drill:[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-2]6.91[/SIZE][/FONT]

Daniel Holtzclaw (Eastern Michigan)
Vertical Jump: [FONT=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-2]32[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-2]Broad Jump:[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-2]09'06"[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-2]20 Yrd Shuttle:[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-2]4.32[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-2]3-Cone Drill:[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-2]6.86[/SIZE][/FONT]
 
I think it would be more realistic to believe that they would move down Y Bell into that nickle coverage LB'r. He will probably be playing at @ 220 lbs when the season begins and we know he can hit and blitz so he would fit the nickle LB perfectly. They will bring in another FS type to fill the deep parts of the field in obvious passing situations.
 
Good call on Hunt. Definitely a guy to keep an eye on although I could see him ending up more of a defensive line specialist.
 
Hunt is a guy who carries a bit of weight in his thighs and hips. Not that he's fat, but he's a guy who is thick through the middle. Has good explosive power, but is lacking in base power. He's undersized as a defensive end, and cannot hold the edge very well.

He's half a step slow moving laterally compared to other players.

His big issue is that he tends to stop his feet when he come into contact with blockers. He will struggle to fight to the ball, and play through contact consistently.

He does not have refined hand fighting techniques and can let his hands go dead at times allowing him to be controlled or engulfed to a degree. Combined with his lack of ideal lateral agility he can disappear from games and these are reasons why. His hand use can get better, but I think it may be due to his style of play. He is an up the field rusher, pure and simple - like a Tampa 2 end; he'll tackle the ball on his way to the QB, thus he is used to beating his man off the snap and keeping his hands outside to slap the outside shoulder as he uses an arm over or rip to try and get up the field. Once he gets up the field, he relies on speed to get the job done. He doesn't look to run the arc as he doesn't play through contact. He tries to limit the amount f times he has to work free using his hands. Prefers to blow past people and he was able to do that against lesser competition, now that weakness can be exposed more.

He could do, it but he will need some work.
 
These are the names of the linebackers that the Dolphins have interviewed, have interest in or brought in so far;

OLB: Cincinnati’s Connor Barwin; Clay Matthews of USC; California’s Zach Follett; UCONN’s Cody Brown; Eastern Illinois DE/OLB Pierre Walters; Larry English of Northern Illinois; Utah’s Paul Kruger; Union College’s Willie Williams; DE/OLB Michael Johnson of Georgia Tech and Western Illinois’s Jason Williams; Everette Brown of FSU; Clint Sintim of Virginia; Penn State’s Aaron Maybin; David Veikune of Hawaii; Ohio State’s Marcus Freeman.


ILB: LSU’s Darry Beckwith; Sacramento State’s Cyrus Mulitalo; Ohio State’s James Laurinaitis; ILB Franz Joseph of FAU and TCU’s Jason Phillips; Rey Maualuga of USC; Grand Valley State’s Dan Skuta
 
fishypete said:
These are the names of the linebackers that the Dolphins have interviewed, have interest in or brought in so far;

OLB: Cincinnati’s Connor Barwin; Clay Matthews of USC; California’s Zach Follett; UCONN’s Cody Brown; Eastern Illinois DE/OLB Pierre Walters; Larry English of Northern Illinois; Utah’s Paul Kruger; Union College’s Willie Williams; DE/OLB Michael Johnson of Georgia Tech and Western Illinois’s Jason Williams; Everette Brown of FSU; Clint Sintim of Virginia; Penn State’s Aaron Maybin; David Veikune of Hawaii; Ohio State’s Marcus Freeman.


ILB: LSU’s Darry Beckwith; Sacramento State’s Cyrus Mulitalo; Ohio State’s James Laurinaitis; ILB Franz Joseph of FAU and TCU’s Jason Phillips; Rey Maualuga of USC; Grand Valley State’s Dan Skuta
Click to expand...

Next time you should make sure to note that you copied and pasted this from Boomer's Draft Winds columns.
 
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