I think Gates is gone... I know we don't anyone else on this team with his speed, but what good is his speed when he can't run good enough routes to get open or catch the ball as consistantly as others. IMO, he's behind Nannee, Bess, Johnson, Hartline, Wallace, Pruitt, and Moore for sure. And now with Matthews showing value as a returner he's losing some space between him as well.
My thumbs up--
Ryan Tannehill- He made some unbelievable throws tonight. Throws that we haven't seen a Dolphin's QB make in a long time. The most impressive thing to me was how comfortable he looked out there. The game didn't seem to be moving too fast for him and he looked in complete control. Great start to his career.
Roberto Wallace- I think he has the most potential of any other WR on this team. The word on him from the beat writers though, is that he isn't conistant enough. I think he needs to put together another game like this to guarantee himself a roster spot.
Charles Clay and Anthony Fasano- They look like they could be a great 1-2 punch for us at TE for us this season. Probably not at the level of Hernandez and Gronk, but I'll take what they showed us tonight. Fasano is just a good reliable target underneath while Clay looks like he could be a great seam threat for us.
Jason Trusnik- The only defender in the first half that stood out imo. He was all over the place. We really need depth at LB and it's great to see we might have a capable backup there.
Thumbs down--
The entire secondary- Just a horrible way to start the season. You had a bunch of everything thrown in there. Sean Smith whiffed on a tackle that led to a touchdown, Vontae got straight up beat a couple of times, Reshad Jones took some bad angles AGAIN, and Jimmy Wilson just played that ball as bad as you possibly could. Wilson took the correct angle but then tried to field it like a punt which allowed the WR to snag the pass away from him. It should have been a pick and turned into points for Tampa. This unit really needs to step up the next few games.
Chad Johnson- Wasn't in there long, but that would've been a huge first down for us. We were looking impressive that opening drive and his drop plus Carpenter's missed FG just killed momentum for us. He ran a great route and hopefully his drop isn't a sign of things to come otherwise he won't be here for long.
Starting Interior OL- We didn't really run block that well to start the game, but Bush bailed out the OL with a few nice moves. Also seemed like we had a lot of tipped balls which means the OL isn't getting into their man good enough. Wasn't as bad as last year, but we still have room to improve.
I also thought Pruitt, Freeney, Matthews, and Egnew had solid games as well. It was ugly there for awhile but there ended up being some good things to take out of this game.
