That’s a great idea by Panos and I’m glad our guys are benefitting. Kindley should switch agents lol.
I will say, the one draft pick who concerns me the most is Austin Jackson. Before the draft, I said he’d be a reach at 17 so I guess I should own that. He has absolutely elite feet, and that’s undoubtedly what got him picked so high. But, truth be told, he’s a projection. He’s going to need to develop, and that means there’s risk. Let’s hope for the best and he turns into a good starter. One benefit of having a southpaw at QB is that he’s not going to cover the blind side. But a tackle is a tackle, and you need good protection on both edges, plus enough nastiness in the run game.
Hunt and Kindley bring considerable nastiness, although watching Kindley in space is worthy of a face palm. At least these two have the toughness and will bring push in the run game. They have strength and toughness that’s been lacking with some of our failed picks, e.g., Dallas Thomas.
Lots of good points here, thanks
@Austin Tatious !
Jackson is a project in three separate ways.
1. He is young.
I think he is the youngest of all the top few tiers of OT's. So he naturally needs more reps, more technique work, more practice. Given today's new-normal, he will be getting a lot less snaps to learn his way through things.
2. He is still recovering from being a bone-marrow donor.
Very laudable, and he's the type of guy for whom we all want to root. But, his body was not in football shape in 2019, and only in the later portion did he even look fit enough to compete. He still needs to get his body in collegiate shape, and then he needs to add 20+ lbs of muscle to get into NFL shape. The kid's body simply is behind the curve and it will take time for him to catch back up.
3. He is unpolished.
I stopped short of calling him raw, but he needs a looooooooooooooot of technique-work. Understandable because of 1 & 2 above, but the fact remains, he is a project. The physical tools are there, we love the kid, seems like a team-first guy and a hard worker, so I have hope for the kid. But, it's simply not going to happen in 2019. He's too far behind the curve. If he plays OT in 2019, that QB is getting killed.
I disagree with you on his position though. I'm fairly confident that the Dolphins intend to play him at RT, which will be Tua's blindside. If Jackson plays RT and Tua plays QB together in 2019, Tua is getting re-injured. Jackson is NOT ready. To me, this draft pick and the Hunt pick (of which I am not a fan), scream that the Dolphins plan must be to start Fitzmagic and give Tua 2019 to heal. Treat him like Patrick Mahomes, let him play late in the season in garbage time behind a more solidified OL just to get rid of the jitters of a first start/first hit/first INT and prevent that from becoming a mental barrier. But otherwise, keep Tua under wraps in 2019.
I think the plan is for Jesse Davis to play LT, and he's the best OT we have so he will protect Fitzmagic's blindside. At some point, we'll try to move in one of the unready rookies (Jackson will eventually hold down this spot, but Hunt will be given a chance to fail too). IMHO, they will not do well, as neither is ready and both are projects in pass pro. The hope will be that one can play RT, but my suspicion is that none will be competent ... not that we'd notice after all, we've been praising Ju'Wuan James' poor play for years at RT, and somehow Dolphins fans seem to think he was good because he was a 1st round pick.
Solomon Kindley is a good pick. No, he's not a pulling guard, he's a power-pig type guard. Put him in the phone booth and let him get his hands on people and drive. Clearly Coach Flow wants to run a power running game like the Ravens. Pass protection is definitely lacking in our 2020 OL draft picks. Ezra Cleveland would have been a great pick if we wanted pass protection, but obviously, we did not.
Good luck Tua ... you'll need it behind this OL. Just ask Ryan Tannehill.