Why McMillan was playing special teams, from Gase

[dolphinlifer]

It seems people prefer the philbin era where rookies don't play all year long, don't gain experience and improve. It is obvious Gase and the staff can develop players. I agree with In Gase I Trust. In a short amount of time he has done wonders for this team.

Gase didn't play rookies either last year, had hull and hewiit getting almost no snaps even when our starting lbs were out, and the vets he put in were terrible, was the perfect chance to play them most of the year and he almost refused to, very Philbin like.

 

[FanMarino]

It was bad luck but I'm not sold on having starters playing STs. Especially a player at at a position where the depth isn't great.

 

[Sirspud]

What Gase says about the nickel and the base defense is true. We're all conditioned to thinking that base defense is starting defense but that hasn't been the case for some time in the NFL. Nickel is your base defense, nickelback is a genuine position, and your other base linebacker (depending on if 3-4 or 4-3 base) is really a package player.

 

[Geforce]

Gase didn't play rookies either last year, had hull and hewiit getting almost no snaps even when our starting lbs were out, and the vets he put in were terrible, was the perfect chance to play them most of the year and he almost refused to, very Philbin like.

Neither Hewett nor Hull were rookies last year. Hewett and Hull were core special team players. If you watched both players last season, especially Hewett, you would have noticed he was slow at times to diagnose plays and was just as much a liability as everyone else.
BTW, Hewett played almost as many defensive snaps (352) as Jelani Jenkins (371), Donald Butler (355) and more snaps then Spencer Paysinger (333). Add in the 355 snaps Hewett played on special teams and you can see he was a busy boy.

Suh was in on 83 special teams snap.

 

[BobDole]

Where's the line for making each other feel better about a no gain decision? Never mind ... found it.

 

[dolphinlifer]

Neither Hewett nor Hull were rookies last year. Hewett and Hull were core special team players. If you watched both players last season, especially Hewett, you would have noticed he was slow at times to diagnose plays and was just as much a liability as everyone else.
BTW, Hewett played almost as many defensive snaps (352) as Jelani Jenkins (371), Donald Butler (355) and more snaps then Spencer Paysinger (333). Add in the 355 snaps Hewett played on special teams and you can see he was a busy boy.

Suh was in on 83 special teams snap.

You know what I meant, they were basically rookies, got almost not pt their first year and that was the perfect opportunity to play them. All those other guys that got equal snaps as hewitt played terrible. Don't give young talent the chance to prove their potential when their basically the only ones left on the roster and it shows you got no trust in rookies, not only that but it hurts the teams future. Sacrifcing the future for what might be a 10% improvement in some plays and a -50% decrease in potential on others is terrible coaching. No way Hull and Hewitt shouldn't have been starting all last year after the starters went down, better for Hull to diagnose some plays slower when he has the chance then never learn to and kill his potential, there was no drop off from Hull and Hewitt and the crap gase replaced them with, that's for sure.

 

[Geforce]

You know what I meant, they were basically rookies, got almost not pt their first year and that was the perfect opportunity to play them. All those other guys that got equal snaps as hewitt played terrible. Don't give young talent the chance to prove their potential when their basically the only ones left on the roster and it shows you got no trust in rookies, not only that but it hurts the teams future. Sacrifcing the future for what might be a 10% improvement in some plays and a -50% decrease in potential on others is terrible coaching. No way Hull and Hewitt shouldn't have been starting all last year after the starters went down, better for Hull to diagnose some plays slower when he has the chance then never learn to and kill his potential, there was no drop off from Hull and Hewitt and the crap gase replaced them with, that's for sure.

Hewett had almost as many defensive snaps (341) as a rookie under Philbin/Coyle as he did last year under Gase/Joseph. If Hewett and Hull was not such a liability against the pass, they may have played more. No one sacrificed the team's future by not playing either player. One was slow to diagnose and the other was just slow. Donald Butler was the only healthy LB who played before Hewett and Hull and he was eventually benched because he was undisciplined. The Dolphins played a lot of nickel defense last season so they usually used two LBs and Hewett and Hull was not one of them because of their liability against the pass. That and injuries was the reason we only had one LB play more than 400 snaps last season.

 

[VBCheeseGrater]

I'm surprised he even bothered explaining himself.

I did the roster math problem for fun, open to corrections.....

46 on the game day roster....
minus 24 "starters" (counting nickle corner and 3rd WR (stills) lets say, could easily add more) = 22 guys left.
Take away another for kicker or punter (one is always on the field), so 21,
Takeout all the backup D/O linemen who don't traditionally play on kickoffs and punts, so at least 8 more gone - down to 13,
at least 1 more QB gone = 12

....leaves MAX 12 non-starting players left available, one of which is the kicker/punter - 11 on kickoffs, long snapper can't play - so now it's just "throw whoever's left out there" at this point

I hear the argument "well we have 70+ players in preseason" but i do think if a player is going to play special teams on game day, he needs some reps in live action.