I'll be posting some various threads on several topics related to Dolphins Training camp this week and will be basing my thoughts not just on the 3 practices I attended live, but also based on things I've read from folks I respect and from the excellent coverage we've seen here in this forum from guys posting highlights, thoughts, and pundit observations.
This thread is dedicated to the group that performed the best in camp IMO so far. Our defensive Front (OLB, DE, NT, DE, OLB) was really pretty much UNBLOCKABLE.
First some bad news, that will be discussed in a seperate thread is: Our OL is not looking great, so that added to how well our Front looked on Defense.
But the Good news is the speed, strength, and techniques of our Defensive Front is very impressive, play after play.
Things I observed:
OLB Phillips was unblockable for the entire camp and right now appears to have taken a major jump in terms of his playmaking. He literally ate the RT's in camp alive. He used speed sometimes and flew by untouched, and powered through them as well whenever he wanted to. I can't emphasize how impressed I was with his hand techniques on his rush and he took perfect angles to the QB or RB. Phiilips was getting to the QB with Wake/Taylor type of quickness and I'm absolutely expecting him to have an amazing season.
DE Seiler was our best inside DL, narrowly outperforming Wilkins in both our 3-4 concepts and in our Dollar / Dollar Sugar (if you're a Madden guy like me). Don't get me wrong, Wilkins was Wilkins and an absolute beast (more later), but Seiler was faster to the QB, split Doubleteams over and over, and blew up the run on his side, from the backside, and sacked the passer more than his share of times. He dominated every one on one drill against any OL he faced. If he can carry this on throughout the season, I'm going to make a very bold predicition that he makes the Pro Bowl and that we go far in the playoffs. So far IMO he is among our BEST defensive players and everyone I sat by in the stands at camp was raving about his play and hard work ethic. He has had amazing growth as a player and as good as he has been, whatever Fangio is doing with him has been a homerun. I would love to have an interview with Fangio sharing how he likes to use him because I don't understand some of what is going on - yet!
DE Wilkins was just what you'd expect from Wilkins. Talking, laughing, dominating in ways that make you just say "Wow"... Wilkins practices so hard and is just manhandling OL in one on one's as well as in team. His technique with his hands and leverage are getting better, and he seems stronger than ever. Something my son and I noticed at practice was interesting - the Dolphins DL Coach was in Wilkins grill almost every time he repped in team, drills, or technique time. I mean chewing his ass out. In his grill, pushing Wilkins to be better and Wilkins seems to just be absorbing it all and"appreciating" the force of the committment this coach had to challenge him. This is a scary good quality to have. No butthurt, no talk back, no prideful response or anything but "yes coach" and eye contact, positive nodding, and then application of the loud discussion next rep. I know this might sound like hogwash to some of you, but to me as a coach it was one of the most impressive things I learned at camp about Wilkins and our coaches. They are pushing this guy to new levels and I love that culture in Miami. I remember the days when guys like Keith Sims or Troy Vincent didn't want to be pushed because "they were pro's bro"... so glad for what Wilkins brings to Miami and I'm sure it's going to take us places we may not have reached otherwise. Anyhow - Wilkins was definately one of our top 5 performers and I have no problem predicting his biggest season yet in 2023.
NT Davis had some very impressive reps. He didn't win every one on one that he was in, He was blocked at times by Eich, Hunt, and our Centers Williams and Uluave (more on him in the OL thread), but Davis won a lot more than he lost and I thought he looked really good overall. Top 10 performer but closer to 10 than 1 and he was quicker inside than I've seen him in the past. I also like how he was using those big hands and lengthy arms. It's obvious that our defensive front coaches are working handfighting a lot in their technique training at practice because we have really improved there. Davis is still our biggest guy and he will start at NT in our 3-4 scheme while he backs up both Seiler and Wilkins in our Dollar looks at DT (Over the OG's) with Phillips and Chubb at standup OLB/DE's. (I'll have a separate thread discussing our new Dollar look under Fangio).
OLB Chubb looked very solid but frankly unspectacular compared to Phillips, Seiler, and Wilkins. Some of that observation should be tempered though by the fact that Phillips was blowing up plays so quickly, Chubb just couldn't get there in time to blow it up first, but he did quickly beat his blocker most the time, just not in the same fashion as Phillips which was eye popping (not kidding or exagerating).
NT backup Pili looked best on Thursday and went down in production each day IMO. He is pretty good stuffing the run, and had some noticable stops inside, and even showed a little bit of an inside push on pass rush. All of our backup inside DL had ups and downs, but I'd take Pili as the one that impressed me the most (without watching film). I think he sticks on our active roster UNLESS we sign a vet (which is starting to get reported)
OLB/ILB/Dollar DE Van Ginkel is really looking at home in Fangio's defense. He's pretty much looking like the playmaker he is and consistently finding ways to blow up plays against the run and pass. I love seeing him line up all over the place, and when he's in you can see that he is having success winning the play most the time. I expect him to have a great year for us as one of our most productive non starters. Originally I thought he might beat out Baker at ILB (if given the reps there) but frankly Baker looks like a much better player in this defense. Not a super star but definately a starter and his best version of a starter. Since I mentioned Baker I throw out there too that David Long Jr is making plays all over the field, especially against the run. He reminds me a lot of Zach Thomas in his skillset. I shouldn't need to say more than that.
Our other backup LB's (inside and outside) look good, especially against the run. Much faster to the back against the run and pretty good vs the pass, but the run stuffing really stands out to me. I think (not sure - YET) that our Fangio reads allow for a higher priority stopping the run NOW when the run reads predict themselves. Long and Tindall (at times) really look quick to stuff the run.
If you have any questions about our Defensive Front standouts, post them here and I'll do my best to respond to them. I'm going to have another camp topic on specifics about scheme (3-4 variations and Dollar variations) coming soon so save the scheme stuff for that thread after I post it (soon btw)
So our defensive Front, not our Secondary or WR's appear to be our very best unit going into this season. I'm excited to see how this all pans out in Fangio's scheme, he seems to have the right pieces to build something special in Miami.
This thread is dedicated to the group that performed the best in camp IMO so far. Our defensive Front (OLB, DE, NT, DE, OLB) was really pretty much UNBLOCKABLE.
First some bad news, that will be discussed in a seperate thread is: Our OL is not looking great, so that added to how well our Front looked on Defense.
But the Good news is the speed, strength, and techniques of our Defensive Front is very impressive, play after play.
Things I observed:
OLB Phillips was unblockable for the entire camp and right now appears to have taken a major jump in terms of his playmaking. He literally ate the RT's in camp alive. He used speed sometimes and flew by untouched, and powered through them as well whenever he wanted to. I can't emphasize how impressed I was with his hand techniques on his rush and he took perfect angles to the QB or RB. Phiilips was getting to the QB with Wake/Taylor type of quickness and I'm absolutely expecting him to have an amazing season.
DE Seiler was our best inside DL, narrowly outperforming Wilkins in both our 3-4 concepts and in our Dollar / Dollar Sugar (if you're a Madden guy like me). Don't get me wrong, Wilkins was Wilkins and an absolute beast (more later), but Seiler was faster to the QB, split Doubleteams over and over, and blew up the run on his side, from the backside, and sacked the passer more than his share of times. He dominated every one on one drill against any OL he faced. If he can carry this on throughout the season, I'm going to make a very bold predicition that he makes the Pro Bowl and that we go far in the playoffs. So far IMO he is among our BEST defensive players and everyone I sat by in the stands at camp was raving about his play and hard work ethic. He has had amazing growth as a player and as good as he has been, whatever Fangio is doing with him has been a homerun. I would love to have an interview with Fangio sharing how he likes to use him because I don't understand some of what is going on - yet!
DE Wilkins was just what you'd expect from Wilkins. Talking, laughing, dominating in ways that make you just say "Wow"... Wilkins practices so hard and is just manhandling OL in one on one's as well as in team. His technique with his hands and leverage are getting better, and he seems stronger than ever. Something my son and I noticed at practice was interesting - the Dolphins DL Coach was in Wilkins grill almost every time he repped in team, drills, or technique time. I mean chewing his ass out. In his grill, pushing Wilkins to be better and Wilkins seems to just be absorbing it all and"appreciating" the force of the committment this coach had to challenge him. This is a scary good quality to have. No butthurt, no talk back, no prideful response or anything but "yes coach" and eye contact, positive nodding, and then application of the loud discussion next rep. I know this might sound like hogwash to some of you, but to me as a coach it was one of the most impressive things I learned at camp about Wilkins and our coaches. They are pushing this guy to new levels and I love that culture in Miami. I remember the days when guys like Keith Sims or Troy Vincent didn't want to be pushed because "they were pro's bro"... so glad for what Wilkins brings to Miami and I'm sure it's going to take us places we may not have reached otherwise. Anyhow - Wilkins was definately one of our top 5 performers and I have no problem predicting his biggest season yet in 2023.
NT Davis had some very impressive reps. He didn't win every one on one that he was in, He was blocked at times by Eich, Hunt, and our Centers Williams and Uluave (more on him in the OL thread), but Davis won a lot more than he lost and I thought he looked really good overall. Top 10 performer but closer to 10 than 1 and he was quicker inside than I've seen him in the past. I also like how he was using those big hands and lengthy arms. It's obvious that our defensive front coaches are working handfighting a lot in their technique training at practice because we have really improved there. Davis is still our biggest guy and he will start at NT in our 3-4 scheme while he backs up both Seiler and Wilkins in our Dollar looks at DT (Over the OG's) with Phillips and Chubb at standup OLB/DE's. (I'll have a separate thread discussing our new Dollar look under Fangio).
OLB Chubb looked very solid but frankly unspectacular compared to Phillips, Seiler, and Wilkins. Some of that observation should be tempered though by the fact that Phillips was blowing up plays so quickly, Chubb just couldn't get there in time to blow it up first, but he did quickly beat his blocker most the time, just not in the same fashion as Phillips which was eye popping (not kidding or exagerating).
NT backup Pili looked best on Thursday and went down in production each day IMO. He is pretty good stuffing the run, and had some noticable stops inside, and even showed a little bit of an inside push on pass rush. All of our backup inside DL had ups and downs, but I'd take Pili as the one that impressed me the most (without watching film). I think he sticks on our active roster UNLESS we sign a vet (which is starting to get reported)
OLB/ILB/Dollar DE Van Ginkel is really looking at home in Fangio's defense. He's pretty much looking like the playmaker he is and consistently finding ways to blow up plays against the run and pass. I love seeing him line up all over the place, and when he's in you can see that he is having success winning the play most the time. I expect him to have a great year for us as one of our most productive non starters. Originally I thought he might beat out Baker at ILB (if given the reps there) but frankly Baker looks like a much better player in this defense. Not a super star but definately a starter and his best version of a starter. Since I mentioned Baker I throw out there too that David Long Jr is making plays all over the field, especially against the run. He reminds me a lot of Zach Thomas in his skillset. I shouldn't need to say more than that.
Our other backup LB's (inside and outside) look good, especially against the run. Much faster to the back against the run and pretty good vs the pass, but the run stuffing really stands out to me. I think (not sure - YET) that our Fangio reads allow for a higher priority stopping the run NOW when the run reads predict themselves. Long and Tindall (at times) really look quick to stuff the run.
If you have any questions about our Defensive Front standouts, post them here and I'll do my best to respond to them. I'm going to have another camp topic on specifics about scheme (3-4 variations and Dollar variations) coming soon so save the scheme stuff for that thread after I post it (soon btw)
So our defensive Front, not our Secondary or WR's appear to be our very best unit going into this season. I'm excited to see how this all pans out in Fangio's scheme, he seems to have the right pieces to build something special in Miami.
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