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Why Guard May Not Be As Big A Problem As We Think

"Funny how John Benton was a well respected and successful coach while at Houston. Are we saying he came that he forgot how to coach in the humid South Florida air. Or maybe, just maybe he or any other coach for the last decade can't make chicken soup out of chicken ****. It's the players and even if you have 2-3 good players, you can't make up for having 2 being flat trash. We simply suck at finding even solid players to pair with the Alberts, Pounceys, Longs, or James that we can only find in the 1st round or by writing the biggest checks."

Yep. I've been thinking this for years. How bad is our talent if this guy couldn't coach them up? It's embarrassing.
 
Was Benton ever given input on the offensive line prospects we were considering? Did he ever watch them play and compliment them or otherwise?
If you have any brains, you'll hire position coaches that are good enough to help you in talent acquisition because they'll know exactly what's necessary to be successful at those positions.

I will say this, though. WAY TOO MUCH is made of 'Scheme Fit'. You're basically admitting that you're getting or have lesser athletes if you're rationalizing their overall ability and saying "well, they're a good 'scheme fit'". If a guy is a good enough physical athlete, he can learn to play in any scheme.

I'm just amazed at the horribly low quality of athletes that we've tried to fit into our offensive line. Johnathan Martin was weaker than some running backs at the bench press. Dallas Thomas has been losing at the POA (point of attack, for future reference) since day one. I just don't understand how someone can watch him and feel he was worth a 3rd round pick.

Is it that hard to figure out that you need guards who dominate the POA at the college level; not just win, but DOMINATE? The Dolphins looked at Dallas Thomas and thought "Well, he's not exactly crushing it but, it is the SEC and he's holding his own.... Just unbelievably bad scouting.
 
fisi said:
This might be a good time to discuss why the Dolphins have struggled at the offensive guard position the past couple of years.


1-Right off the bat, you almost have to look at coaching. Nearly two months after the final game of the 2015 season, the Super Bowl, Miami's offensive line coach from a year ago, John Benton, has yet to be hired by another NFL team. Let that sink in for a moment -- with all the vacancies on the various teams that fire their coaching staffs, barely a month before the draft, Mr. Benton is, as far as we know, still unemployed.

2-Something else to consider is that if we look at the composition of other teams' offensive lines, most of them are obtaining their starters from a variety of sources, not just high profile free agency signings or high draft picks. The New England Patriots, for example, started three relatively low draft picks in the middle of their line a season ago: guards Ryan Wendell and Tre' Jackson and center Bryan Stork, the latter two of whom were both fourth-round picks, although New England did have the foresight to jump ahead of Miami in last year's draft, to select Jackson.

3-Finally, we need to consider scheme; when you're going up against three of the toughest, scariest defensive fronts in all of football, in the Bills, Jets and Patriots, it's probably not a real good idea to employ a finesse based blocking scheme, but rather, a more physical, 'line up and blow them off the line of scrimmage' based approach.

from Phinsider.com


http://www.thephinsider.com/2016/3/17/11257198/why-guard-my-not-be-as-big-a-problem-as-we-think
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I laughed my nutz off at:

The Indianapolis Colts interviewed Benton last month, to see whether he might be a candidate to coach their offensive line in 2016. The Colts ultimately ended up hiring Joe Philbin as their offensive line coach. Forgive us for being critical, but when you're getting beat out for a job by Joe Philbin, that would certainly seem to suggest that perhaps you're not very good at whatever it was you were applying for. Joe Philbin is a class guy and highly respected by many around the National Football League. With Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill having been the most sacked quarterback in the league the past two seasons, however, one wouldn't think either Philbin or Benton would be a hot commodity around the league when it comes to coaching linemen. Given the choice between the man who coached the entire Miami Dolphins team last season, versus the man who coached the team's offensive line, the Colts chose to go with Philbin.
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That being said, Guard IS as big of a problem as we think.
 
Guard is a huge need for the crowd that believes if Tannehill just is given as much time as he needs he will be great and the offense will be great. #pipedreams
 
fisi said:
Do you know that Miami have drafted a guard since 2013 (13-dallass Thomas,14-turner and 15-Jaml Douglass) and we still have problems. Moreover; they have drafted an Offensive lineman each nd every draft since 2008.
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In the 80's more often than not, Shula would take on OL in round 1.

That said, IMO what most are overlooking in terms of coaching & scheme is; it takes time to transition from a Parcells-esque cornfed to a 21st century ZBS scheme.

I said last yr Turner & Douglas should have been the starting guards from Day 1 and let them under go a baptism of fire last yr. This yr, I have no problem w/ Turner & Douglas battling for 1 of the Guard spots... BUT... Signing Vasquez or Beadles and then drafting one of the kids from Arkansas also needs to be done.
 
Listen, I agree that coaching has been a HUGE problem for our football team under Joe Philbin.

But when you watch Dallas Thomas and Jason Fox on the field for the Dolphins last season, what part of you believes that coaching can fix that? I mean,I don't think there is any coaching that can make up for a guy simply being too slow to get a hand on a rusher, or being bulldozed back repeatedly into the quarterback.

Sure, I think better coaching can help with missed assignments -- which were a problem -- but it's going to do nothing to change the fact that Dallas Thomas was often simply blown back into the quarterback's lap right off the snap.
 
utahphinsfan said:
In the 80's more often than not, Shula would take on OL in round 1.

That said, IMO what most are overlooking in terms of coaching & scheme is; it takes time to transition from a Parcells-esque cornfed to a 21st century ZBS scheme.

I said last yr Turner & Douglas should have been the starting guards from Day 1 and let them under go a baptism of fire last yr. This yr, I have no problem w/ Turner & Douglas battling for 1 of the Guard spots... BUT... Signing Vasquez or Beadles and then drafting one of the kids from Arkansas also needs to be done.
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Beadles was signed yesterday by the 49ers for a 3 year, $11.75M contract.
 
Brazzi said:
Guard is a huge need for the crowd that believes if Tannehill just is given as much time as he needs he will be great and the offense will be great.
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It's not necessarily about the amount of time, it has to do with the pocket itself. An offensive lines interior three are responsible for creating the depth. When that is not established a QB cannot complete his proper drop back and sync with certain timing patterns that include a QB's hitch step.
 
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