Whats in the future for this team?

[DANTODUPER]

Ok. I am really down on this team because of the performance against the Bills. I am frustrated by watching the offensive side against Pats and Bills.

But then, I have to remind myself this is a process and while it surelly looks like we will have a very hard time stopping the run, and giving the QB time to throw, there are some areas in which we should be better in the future or at least we dont know as of today if we can be better. Why is it? Because this is such a young team. On defense we know we can take the ball out from the other team, 3rd down defense has been awful but Flores has shown that he can deliver on that side of the team, so I expect improvement on that area. I dont know how we can improve on stopping the run, but I think this defense was always been constructed for playing with the lead or within a close score. So when the other teams have doble digit advantage before first half, our defense will melt because they are not designed to stop the run as a first priority.

But the real problem and the future of this team is on the other side. We need to answer lots of questions on that side.
The first two, and most important ones are.
Do we have the right QB?
Do we have the right system?

How can we evaluate any QB with a line and a coaching staff that seem to be struggling so bad?

Our OCs and the coaching staff on that side should be also improving on a weekly basis, learning from their mistakes. And at this moment there have been lots of them.

The OL is struggling big time since preseason. I think we need drastic changes on the line just to see if there is any improvement and the best time to do those changes is while our starter is recovering. I think Hunt at RT and Eich at LT could improve to the point of being above average at their positions. If there are some miss comunication issues and the Center is responsible, why not try Mancz at Center and put Dieter and Jones at OGs? I dont know what would be the best possible combination, but I know it is not possible to answer this two crucial questions without a OL that at least give us the chance to see if the QB and the system are right.

So whats in the future for this team is impossible to evaluate if our offense keeps playing like that, and the reason of it is 80% on the OL.

I know WR drops are so frustrating, and to be honest I do believe Grant and Wilson should be kept on the bench. Now that Fuller is back, I want to see lots of Fuller, Parker and Waddle and even Gesicki as a Slot. Preston if healthy should be a great 4th. But if the OL and coaching (adjusting for CB blitz) cant give time to the QB, you can have the KC offensive weapons and it will not matter.

 

[artdnj]

I think it's bleak unless:

1. We hit on our first rounders a bit...zero studs except X, many swings and misses. This also plays into the fire Grier narrative
2. Get some quality coaching and stick with them. Listening about player/s on the oline saying they saw things that surprised them (paraphrasing here) is concerning. First being that they were unprepared and second that they essentially blamed coaching.
3.Get an offense that produces points be it RPO, more run, more pass but being below average on a few things isn't a good thing.

I don't think our D will mimic last years because I think we overachieved. So far only X has shown up. Van G, Baker and other LBs have disappeared which is concerning. I do think Coach Flo has made chicken salad out of chicken **** but this year his recipe is off...so far anyway but this next game will be huge.

 

[jason37]

Fixing the o-line would fix a lot of things. The philosophy of putting an injury prone QB behind a very young O-line is very questionable.

 

[1972forever]

As long as the OL struggles, this team is going to have a hard time scoring points. The defense while good, isn’t great and they can’t be expected to hold teams to under 20 points in most games.

While many on here want to place the blame for the lack of offense on Tua. No QB would have success behind an offense line that struggles to open hole in the running game and is terrible when it comes to pass blocking.

Until the OL gets a lot better than it has been the first two weeks of this season, the Dolphins are going to have trouble winning against the better teams on their schedule and they will probably lose some games they shouldn’t against weaker teams on their schedule.

If the OL can somehow develop into an average OL and the OC’s can improve their game plans, the Dolphins still have a chance of making the playoffs this season.

 

[DolfanISS]

I think the team will play better this week. The run defense issues have really only been 2 big runs, otherwise we aren’t giving up that much. To be clear I’m not a “take away the big runs and they only give io X yards per carry” guy. The big runs happen and it needs to be fixed.

I’m much more concerned with the offensive line and offense in general. First off we really haven’t seen Tua play really well since the Arizona game last year. He’s been OK but he was special in that game. I’d like to see that show up again soon. Bigger concern though is the line and I’m not sure if juggling it is going to be enough. There is a lack of talent that I believe will ultimately prevent Miami from getting where they want to go.

My biggest fear is these guys get a pass, trade the farm for Watson, spend big on the line and get a quick fix next year. Someone needs to be held accountable for wasting all of the draft and FA resources it looks like they’ve wasted for the past 2 years. If this thing unravels this year I want accountability. I think Grier should be canned and I don’t care if he’s taking advice from Flo on the picks. First rule of management, “everything is your fault”.

 

[1972forever]

I think the team will play better this week. The run defense issues have really only been 2 big runs, otherwise we aren’t giving up that much. To be clear I’m not a “take away the big runs and they only give io X yards per carry” guy. The big runs happen and it needs to be fixed.

I’m much more concerned with the offensive line and offense in general. First off we really haven’t seen Tua play really well since the Arizona game last year. He’s been OK but he was special in that game. I’d like to see that show up again soon. Bigger concern though is the line and I’m not sure if juggling it is going to be enough. There is a lack of talent that I believe will ultimately prevent Miami from getting where they want to go.

My biggest fear is these guys get a pass, trade the farm for "he whom shall not be named", spend big on the line and get a quick fix next year. Someone needs to be held accountable for wasting all of the draft and FA resources it looks like they’ve wasted for the past 2 years. If this thing unravels this year I want accountability. I think Grier should be canned and I don’t care if he’s taking advice from Flo on the picks. First rule of management, “everything is your fault”.

The problem is if they make that trade, they will have to pay him $40 million dollars next year and will have a lot less cap space to sign free agents. It also makes it less likely they could upgrade the OL unless they decide not to resign Gesicki, Ogbah, or Fuller.

They would also likely have no 1st or 2nd round picks until 2024. Watson already showed in 2020 that he isn’t good enough to win with a bad team around him. If they make that trade and have little cap room to resign their best free agents or upgrade the OL along with no high draft picks for three years, the Dolphins will quickly become the 2020 Houston Texans within a few years.

If Grier and Flores are looking to get out of Miami in the next few years. Make that trade and they will be gone by the time they do have another first round pick, IMO.

 

[Dolph N.Fan]

First and foremost we need these OL players to get their heads out their asses and get better so that everything else can fall into place. OL gets better so Tua can rightfully be assessed and go from there.

 

[ForksPhin]

At this point, the repeated changes at OC and OL coaching seem to be having a negative effect on this team. And after two games, the evidence suggests we might be looking at a new OC and a new OL coach again in 2022.

 

[ForksPhin]

First and foremost we need these OL players to get their heads out their asses and get better so that everything else can fall into place. OL gets better so Tua can rightfully be assessed and go from there.

An unlikely scenario.

 

[fansinceGWilson]

Ok. I am really down on this team because of the performance against the Bills. I am frustrated by watching the offensive side against Pats and Bills.

But then, I have to remind myself this is a process and while it surelly looks like we will have a very hard time stopping the run, and giving the QB time to throw, there are some areas in which we should be better in the future or at least we dont know as of today if we can be better. Why is it? Because this is such a young team. On defense we know we can take the ball out from the other team, 3rd down defense has been awful but Flores has shown that he can deliver on that side of the team, so I expect improvement on that area. I dont know how we can improve on stopping the run, but I think this defense was always been constructed for playing with the lead or within a close score. So when the other teams have doble digit advantage before first half, our defense will melt because they are not designed to stop the run as a first priority.

But the real problem and the future of this team is on the other side. We need to answer lots of questions on that side.
The first two, and most important ones are.
Do we have the right QB?
Do we have the right system?

How can we evaluate any QB with a line and a coaching staff that seem to be struggling so bad?

Our OCs and the coaching staff on that side should be also improving on a weekly basis, learning from their mistakes. And at this moment there have been lots of them.

The OL is struggling big time since preseason. I think we need drastic changes on the line just to see if there is any improvement and the best time to do those changes is while our starter is recovering. I think Hunt at RT and Eich at LT could improve to the point of being above average at their positions. If there are some miss comunication issues and the Center is responsible, why not try Mancz at Center and put Dieter and Jones at OGs? I dont know what would be the best possible combination, but I know it is not possible to answer this two crucial questions without a OL that at least give us the chance to see if the QB and the system are right.

So whats in the future for this team is impossible to evaluate if our offense keeps playing like that, and the reason of it is 80% on the OL.

I know WR drops are so frustrating, and to be honest I do believe Grant and Wilson should be kept on the bench. Now that Fuller is back, I want to see lots of Fuller, Parker and Waddle and even Gesicki as a Slot. Preston if healthy should be a great 4th. But if the OL and coaching (adjusting for CB blitz) cant give time to the QB, you can have the KC offensive weapons and it will not matter.

I'm odd man out. I'm not going suicidal based on the embarrassing Bills game. Yes, they looked bad, in fact, TOO bad to be believed. Not one coach, unit looked NFL level. When I see that, I see one of those games where everything went wrong. Not absolving the OL, OL coach, OC, or HC. I've stated my frustrations with them elsewhere and have no desire to pull out another stick. And, for the record, the Bills would win these games 9 out of ten games.
Overall, the players looked flat, unprepared. Their minds somewhere else. I'm still waiting til 5 games are in the books before I get to excited. By then fans will have more data to know where fault lies.

 

[BennySwella]

The team has regressed because the oline has regressed. Letting go of Karras and Flowers, signing Skura and then letting him go were all mismanaged moves.

 

[multistage]

I'm odd man out. I'm not going suicidal based on the embarrassing Bills game. Yes, they looked bad, in fact, TOO bad to be believed. Not one coach, unit looked NFL level. When I see that, I see one of those games where everything went wrong. Not absolving the OL, OL coach, OC, or HC. I've stated my frustrations with them elsewhere and have no desire to pull out another stick. And, for the record, the Bills would win these games 9 out of ten games.
Overall, the players looked flat, unprepared. Their minds somewhere else. I'm still waiting til 5 games are in the books before I get to excited. By then fans will have more data to know where fault lies.

Spoken like a guy who’s been a fan since…..

….well, a long time.

Me too. You and I have seen decades worth of Dolphins football. Some good, some bad. I think the meltdowns are from younger folk who have never seen us when we were unreal. They believe that 1984 Dan Marino could cure our issues today.

But he wouldn’t, couldn’t have. He had a line. If a line played for a Don Shula team and performed the way the line did the other day, Shula would have cut them all THAT DAY. All of ‘em. Hire new guys that want to play football on Monday.

Old guys like you and I know better. Because we’ve been watching it since before many on this forum were breathing.

I understand. Guys like us have at least watched this team dominate, win, rule supreme. I expect the younger folks are just frustrated. Heck, they’ve never seen this team perform well game after game, year after year…

They are quick to condemn. And I don’t blame ‘em.

Even Gase started out 1-4, then went 10-6 with a good D, a sledgehammer running game, and finished with a backup QB…

You and I saw this before a long time ago.

You are spot on correct. While disappointing and frustrating, last week’s nightmare was by no means the end of the season for us….

 

[Riftur]

Fixing the o-line would fix a lot of things. The philosophy of putting an injury prone QB behind a very young O-line is very questionable.

I do not know if Tua falls into the injury-prone category just yet (if we had a line that could block, I am pretty sure Tua would be playing but they do not want to risk him being killed) but your comment pertaining to the O-line is all that matters at this point in time. No other questions can be answered until the line is able to block for more then 1-2 seconds. There is no way to know how good Tua is, how good our RB is, even our receivers can not be evaluated properly because the QB gets hit before our receiver's are 5 yards down field. It also hurts our defense tremendously because they can not rest.

 

[John813]

Honestly it's tough cause there's so many variables involved.

David Carr could of been a very good QB but poor OL play detailed his career, potentially.

We drafted 3 ol in one draft. Odds are some will bust. Problem is 2 of the 3 haven't shown much to date and Hunt is now at RG.

Tua came from a powerhouse to the outhouse in the NFL. Line in shambles below average rbs and weapons that are brittle. This year the weapons are better on paper but same crap at ol and rb.

Every team has bad picks. But right now since the rebuild we haven't seen too much success from the 19+ draft with all the picks we've had. Still early. But being a healthy scratch year 2 is very concerning.

If the line sucks the qb will suck. Especially a young qb at that.

Luckily we still have some future extra firsts due to dealing, but if the FO can't scout properly it's all for not.

 

[jason37]

I do not know if Tua falls into the injury-prone category just yet (if we had a line that could block, I am pretty sure Tua would be playing but they do not want to risk him being killed) but your comment pertaining to the O-line is all that matters at this point in time. No other questions can be answered until the line is able to block for more then 1-2 seconds. There is no way to know how good Tua is, how good our RB is, even our receivers can not be evaluated properly because the QB gets hit before our receiver's are 5 yards down field. It also hurts our defense tremendously because they can not rest.

Maybe injury prone was too harsh. I should have said a quarterback with injury concerns.