The Trenches win games.

[Sherif]

On our running plays the Bucs seemed to be consistently two yards in our back field at the snap. Butch Barry is a good OL coach and he worked wonders with scraps last year until every starter got injured.

Dave Puloka strength coach has been with the team since 2008 and I'm still not sure if he has any blame for the injuries or if the Dolphins have had more injuries than other teams. Research has shown they're middle of the pack with frequency of injuries.

 

[gofins60]

Tua has his faults and he still has stuff to prove. But good teams, good defenses and good coaches understand how to throw some of our timing off on offense. The issue is that Tua doesn’t have a chance to breathe when this happens because the line couldn’t hold up. The scheme/Tua helps below average offensive lineman look better than they are but when the scheme doesn’t have anyone immediately available, most of the time Tua is ****ed.

Right, and it doesn't help when Grier and McDaniel place little emphasis on improving the line. These back-ups against Tampa looked bad, and the sad part is that they looked like that against second and third stringers, but during the regular season some of them will be starting due to having a few injury-prone starters.

Another thing I don't understand is why the starting o-line didn't get more playing time in the pre-season. I get that you don't want injuries, but it's practically guaranteed that some of them will miss games anyway. OTOH, with new players on the line this year, they need to play together in these pre-season games to develop chemistry so that they're used to playing as a unit against real opponents when the games count. Now, if the starters aren't playing because some or most of them already have injuries, then it's going to be a repeat of last season.

 

[SF Dolphin Fan]

I think the defensive line will be competitive enough. I really like the linebackers and the secondary.

The offensive line is the biggest question mark. Miami needs to stay relatively healthy in the trenches, due to lack of depth.

I'd be looking offensive and defensive line in the 2025 draft.

 

[E30M3]

Yeah, dline is not my concern. We have manageable units at the front with better OLBs and secondary with reserves coming into play as the year progresses. Could be wrong, but barring injuries, this is not a concern I have.

 

[Highzenga]

I think our depth was good. Problem is that we are already down multiple players due to injury. It’s like an avalanche of injuries. Will this ever stop? Injuries have been the reason we haven’t progressed the last two years. If injuries are a problem again then maybe there is a bigger problem.

 

[Ray R]

I think we have issues on dline and online. And we don’t practice enough hitting in practice so we are going to have injury concerns.

Not reacting to this game. This has been my feeling all off season.

If we hit one and other harder in practice, we may get fewer injuries on game days, but won't that imply that the same players just get injured sooner during practice.

I just don't see how your position stands up to reason.

 

[C l u t c H 385]

If we hit one and other harder in practice, we may get fewer injuries on game days, but won't that imply that the same players just get injured sooner during practice.

I just don't see how your position stands up to reason.

If there was any evidence more hitting in practice REDUCED injuries, there would be more hitting in practice.

Logic suggests the opposite.

 

[royalshank]

I dont think either of our lines are going to be good this year. Like, at all. It will be our downfall again...

I hope not. You never know but the run defense hasn’t looked too good in the pre season and the o-line appears to be weaker than last year on paper. That said, a lot of it comes down to “will”. Let’s see if we can impose it w more running and short passes and wear defenders out. The curse of the Marino years was we often scored too quickly. I think your line can get better as a game goes on if your running a lot of plays.

 

[MrChadRico]

So a lot of the talk in this forum has been about the O-line rightfully so since the hype is about our offense and Tua. But I haven't seen much threads addressing our D-line and now that we've lost our best player in it in the offseason (Wilkins) how do we really feel about that part of our team? I feel like we had moments throughout the season where we've failed to provide consistent pressure. And while we have a good secondary on paper I'm worried that our D-line will pedestal and rely on our secondary which usually doesn't really bode well against A-tier QBs. How do you all feel about our D-line going into this season?

Will Chop Robinson shine in his rookie year? Does Campbell still have it a 37? Will Zeiler keep up production without Wilkins?

Well for me personally, the defense is gonna give up points, we have a 1st year coordinator and we lost Wilkins so I don't envisioning us winning many games with defense.

Hence the Oline is a much more important discussion.

Our defense is built to play with the lead. We have small speedy edge rushers, LBs who are more pass pro focused and have spent a ton in the secondary.

If we can't score alot of points on offense and get the lead early, our defense is in trouble. Stopping the run, will not be a strong suit of the defense IMO.

 

[bane]

If we hit one and other harder in practice, we may get fewer injuries on game days, but won't that imply that the same players just get injured sooner during practice.

I just don't see how your position stands up to reason.

Ya I don’t know . You could be correct. I do know that Mike Tomlin has full tackling in practice and Steelers have fewer overall injuries the last 5 seasons but yes what your are saying is possible .

 

[Pacer]

I hope not. You never know but the run defense hasn’t looked too good in the pre season and the o-line appears to be weaker than last year on paper. That said, a lot of it comes down to “will”. Let’s see if we can impose it w more running and short passes and wear defenders out. The curse of the Marino years was we often scored too quickly. I think your line can get better as a game goes on if your running a lot of plays.

Wilkins and Davis were the biggest run stoppers and they have been replaced for the most part by quicker guys who excel more at penetration than clogging the LOS (Benito Jones being an exception). It will be up to the improved LB corps to keep opponents from running wild and if they can do that with some consistency then overall we should see more pressure on opposing QBs and more tackles for loss. At least that seems to be the theory.

 

[Long suffering fan]

Chop has just started his nfl career and already people here are calling him a bust.
Zero nfl real games played and people want him to play like Cameron Wake .
Come on ,we can expect him to be a 4rd down rusher while learning to be a 3 down player.

 

[Virginia99]

I think the defensive line will be competitive enough. I really like the linebackers and the secondary.

The offensive line is the biggest question mark. Miami needs to stay relatively healthy in the trenches, due to lack of depth.

I'd be looking offensive and defensive line in the 2025 draft.

F the 2025 draft

 

[Casas9425]

We rely on too many speedy midgets.

 

[Etuoo33]

We practiced against 3 teams this summer. Our #1's went against their ones in a "controlled" environment... The common thread is the first OL played only one series all pre-season, the drive by Tua against the Deadskins. It doesn't look promising with our backups out there, but we have yet to see the real thing play. Keep that in mind.