It’s a good roster for sure. I think we had some excellent rosters in the late 70’s (‘77-‘79) and early 80’s (‘81-‘85) and again in the early 90’s (‘90-‘95). It’s up there
Vic Fangio brings big changes to the Miami Dolphins' defense
- Thread starter DKphin
- Start date
Tailgun
Generational Poster
Pre-FA was a different world. In the 70's we had potential all-pros as back-ups. You could be a great player but if you were behind a slightly greater player you were stuck. FA brought movement and parity as well as shorter windows. Those early 80's teams were also pre-FA (sort of, teams had 'right of first refusal'). But those Dolphin teams were clearly SB contenders.
Those early 90's teams played during Plan B FA where teams could protect most of their good players (37 players on a 47 man roster).
But post-FA this is the first time we've had a roster that is a consensus top 3-5 in the league. We had a ton of poor cap management throughout the 90s and 00s. It wasn't until Grier took over after Tannebaum was fully exorcised that we've been fiscally responsible. People who want to nit-pick about draft picks don't recognize how much better our cap situation has been since Grier took over. I see that as the biggest reason why our roster is the best it's been in about 30 years.
Sorry Memorial weekend had me pulling my hair out lol.
He does have packages that have a true 0T Nose Tackle or a crack nose like his Tite front & Penny front, but it’s more personnel based than it is straight down and distance. Even then Fangio will still opt to use his Nickel fronts against certain teams that use 12/21 personnel, its just a game by game thing really. The problem with running his 5-2 Tite front & 5-1 Penny front is it limits the amount of plays at his disposal to utilize compared to his nickel fronts, which is why he actually does try to stay in his Nickel or Dime fronts most of the time.
These pictures show the playcalls available in each front and you can see just how much more opens up in his Nickel sub package.
The 2-4-5 Personnel is his Nickel fronts, while 3-4-4 is his 5-2 Tite front and 2-3-6 is his Dime fronts. You can see 70% of the time he’s either operating out if Nickel or Dime compared to only 22% in his Tite front. Keep in mind that under Flores/Boyer, Miami also utilized a 5-2 Bear front that operates similar to Fangio’s Tite front with true 3 techniques instead of 4is, and they ran it a lot more, and in that bear front Raekwon Davis has been that 0T Nose for them and finished with one of the best run defenses in the league last year. So I think Fangio is fine with rolling with Raekwon Davis playing in that role another year and in a reduced role since he’ll play his Tite front less than Miami played their Bear front these past few years.
i don’t think Fangios defense is inherently vulnerable to anything super specific like that, staying in sub fronts and keeping a 2 hi pre-snap presentation opens up his entire playbook and allows Fangio to utilize his full toolbox to tackle anything that an offense throws at him. The question would be does Fangio have the horses to run his defense how he wants to, and I think he’s been given the most loaded defense he’s ever had before. Sieler & Wilkins stealing gaps in the interior, David Long ball fitting at the 2nd level, and Holland & Jones fitting late, not to mention the entire secondary is stacked.
You can’t call every play at once though, so it’d have to be an offensive playcaller that can out adjust Fangio, and Fangio’s one of the best to ever do it.
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Tuaffinity and Beyond
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Mcganiel
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I hope that he can and will teach McDaniel the way a game clock should be managed.
I agree, but I also think Spo having in excess of 1100 games coached under his belt v McDs 17 might have something to do with it.
IMO Fangio wouldn't be fine with Davis playing like he did last season. They didn't have a good run defense b/c of Davis. They sold out a bit to stop the run with run blitzes and such. And obviously that came at a cost. Watching film I saw Davis as a guy who too often got moved when he was played at NT. I don't think that's what Fangio wants at NT. I expect if that Davis is asked to play NT and plays like he did last season that Davis won't be brought back.
I agree that this defense is the most loaded Fangio's ever had, but if I had to pick one position that Fangio would feel that he doesn't have the horse he wants, it's NT.
Edit-Just out of curiosity I checked PFF's grading on him. (I don't rely on their grading for anything, but I was curious to see if they had a higher opinion of his play last season than I did). They rated him as the 114th DL out of 127. None of his grades were good (pass rush was the highest), but his run D was far and away the worst. That matches where I believe he's best utilized. I think he's poor as a NT, but can be a rotational penetrating DT. No where near the level of a Wilkins or Seiler, but he can be part of a rotation. I just think it won't be here. There's a role in this defense they may try to shoe horn him into, but it's not where he best fits.
I was thinking the same thing…annoying, not worth the trouble!
I don’t think Raekwon is going to be brought back after the season, and I wouldn’t even be surprised if they brought in someone like Linval Joseph post June 1st. I’m not saying Davis is a great answer (though I don’t think he’s near as bad as the PFF grade given and don’t think it’s much use to pay much attention to that), and while it’d be nice to have game changing players at every position, that’s just not how NFL rosters work.
I feel like focusing on only that one part of my post is missing the overarching point of it. This is a position (0 Technique Nose Tackle) that’s only played in formations that are ran on 20% of the snaps in a given year in Fangio’s defense. The defense can afford to have someone like Davis play those few snaps because they have two excellent run defending 4is in Sieler and Wilkins playing next to Davis. Where the defense is going to show it’s merit is in Nickel & Dime packages, the formations that are run 70% of the time in Fangio’s defense with no 0T and only Wilkins & Sieler in the interior. This is where Fangio likes to live in his defense, where he has his full choice of playcalls and adjustments. These formations are where the horses should and have been allocated.
The thing is you can do that with every depth chart. The 2018 Chiefs offense even though they were the best offense in NFL History, could’ve used a better TE2 when they were in 12 Personnel than Demetrius Harris, but it really wasn’t a big deal because they just didn’t run 12P that often and Harris only played 400 snaps. Fast forward to 2022 and now the Chiefs have Noah Gray, so they played multiple TE sets a lot more this year and Gray & Jody Fortson combined for nearly 1000 snaps. Again they had one of the best offenses in the NFL.
Based on past iterations, Vic has always preferred to stay in his Nickel Even & Dime fronts, so it makes sense to focus acquisitions on improving positions that will be on the field in those fronts. They got a great run stopping LB that has experience playing in light boxes out of Nickel while he was with the Titans, and then they signed Deshon Elliott, traded for Jalen Ramsey and drafted Cam Smith because of the amount of 5 & 6 DB looks Fangio uses. Davis is probably only playing 300 or so snaps, and Miami has proven in past years that while he may not be a direct cause for the great run defenses they’ve had, they have still had top tier run defenses including 4th in overall run defensive DVOA last season with him slotted as the 0 Technique in a similar front that Fangio will utilize with his Tite front. Miami may have utilized cover 0 blitzes that had the defense max run fitting a lot under Flores/Boyer, but that was almost always in Sub packages, not their Bear front when Davis is on the field. When they did bring pressure in their Bear front, it was mostly 5 man pressure firezones. Fangio may not blitz much, but he does actually blitz most often out of his Tite front, and the blitzes he utilized most are…firezones. So saying the Dolphins only had a good defense with Davis at 0T was because they “sold out a bit to stop the run with run blitzes and such” really isn’t accurate, and really Fangio will be utilizing similar firezone blitzes in his Tite front.
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I was thinking the Dolphins would be looking for a better pass rushing DT for Ogbah insurance and in general how much time we gave opposing QB's last year, some in your face pressure.
It's also what you do on a message board. I have already stated that I believe that Miami's defense could potentially be a top 5 defense with the talent they have. But I also believe there is room for improvement on some of those 300 or so snaps. You are free to believe that the defense is perfect and that nobody should talk about where it might be improved. I disagree. I see Davis as a poor fit and a place where Fangio and the team may look to upgrade. It's not my #1 priority, but it is an area I think there will be FAs available that would be a better fit. Therefore I see NT as a position that could be improved this season.