114 replies to this topic

[smastroyin]

Watching this game I'm impressed they have won anything. if you don't have big talent you have to have discipline, and these guys are just fucking stupid.

[pdaj]

Watching this game I'm impressed they have won anything. if you don't have big talent you have to have discipline, and these guys are just fucking stupid.

Overall, Miami has been an average disciplined team, in terms of penalties. The last 5 games or so have been a tough stretch, as they began the year pretty good in this regard. You're making an assessment based on watching the team play one game.

The Dolphins are a tough, well coached team. They'll probably finish the year with 7 or 8 wins, which is pretty impressive considering the talent they have to work with. The Dolphins lost their clear-cut best #2 CB for the year, played today without Jake Long, and gifted the Pats on their two TD drives; yet they still kept the high-powered Patriots offense to 23 points.

I think the future's bright in Miami under Philbin.

[smastroyin]

The future may be bright, but they have some major things to work on. I posted that right after the stupid roughing the punter play so a little excessive maybe, but you literally cannot have a dumb ass play like that. It lets down the whole team and then the Pats go on to turn it into a TD. Everyone makes dumb plays but damn, that was horrific. The crappy illegal block that was away from the play that blew the interception return (you could argue the refs should have let it go I suppose). These are plays that change a game.

Just like in the Wannstedt years, the defense is way ahead of the offense, but they also have a propensity to give up plays and drives when the Dolphins need a stop.

Tannehill has regressed a lot. Perhaps my reason above is why, perhaps he's just having a sophomore slump in his freshman year, maybe there's a book now. He's young so fine and has little experience so it's all fine and ironically if the Phins were 2-10 and he hadn't shown the 4 weeks of looking like a good NFL QB I'd probably feel better about him. But the thing is that his problem has not been reads or anything, he has really started just not being able to make throws. He's like the anti-Favre. His decision making looks good most of the time, but he just can't deliver the ball right now. I would expect the opposite. They need to figure out what that is about because he's the only hope for the offense and the franchise right now.

[CaptainLaddie]

Well, he glazed over a few things today.

[pdaj]

This was arguably one of Tanny's worst two performances of the year. While he didn't turn the ball over, he was inaccurate on many throws, even several key completions. In addition, he had an over-throw and under-throw to Hartline that should have lead to two easy TD passes. Overall, it was just a below average performance.

That said, I think the success of Luck and RGIII (as well as Tannehill's early season highlights) has lead to unrealistic expectations for RT this season. Tanny's shown much more ability than I expected so early, and he's doing it with subpar talent around him. Thus far in his rookie campaign, he's shown many, many flashes of tremendous ability; and I expect to see the consistency improve significantly as he garners more experience and is given more weapons.

[Shelterdog]

The Dolphins may not be good, but they're old. Long, Fasano, Smith, Hartline, Starks, Clemons, and Bush are free agents next year, Wake is 30, Dansby 31, Burnett 30 in three weeks, Solai 29 in three weeks. The cap situation is good but there just isn't a lot of young talent (Pouncey, Bess, Tanny) with good contracts.

[pdaj]

The Dolphins may not be good, but they're old. Long, Fasano, Smith, Hartline, Starks, Clemons, and Bush are free agents next year, Wake is 30, Dansby 31, Burnett 30 in three weeks, Solai 29 in three weeks. The cap situation is good but there just isn't a lot of young talent (Pouncey, Bess, Tanny) with good contracts.

The Dolphins were the 13th youngest team in the league (25.9) heading into Week 1, compared to the 9th-ranked Pats. On defense, Odrick (24), Vernon (22), Misi (24), and Reshad Jones (24) are all good, young players still under contract for next year. Jonathan Martin (23) has also played fairly well in his rookie season at RT, and Lamar Miller (21) has some tremendous upside at RB. I expect Smith (25) and Hartline (26) to be off-season priorities; while Long (27) could receive the franchise tag. I'm hoping Starks can be kept at a decent price, but aside from that, I expect Philbin/Ireland to use the draft (1,2,2,3,3) to bring in play-makers on offense and replace any departing players. With the right moves in the off-season and decent progression from Tanny, I think the Dolphins can be a playoff team. Considering the last decade, I'll take it.

Edited by pdaj, 02 December 2012 - 11:09 PM.

[soxfan121]

Tagging Jake Long would be among the worst decisions ever made by a front office because of his horrific pre-CBA salary and the escalators involved. No single player is worth 20% of your cap, not even Tom Brady and certainly not an offensive tackle.

And don't get me wrong - Long is a great LT. One of the best in the league. But the contract is a relic and the qualifying number will be onerous. The Dolphins need to decide if they can dedicate $15M/season to LT or if they will be better off in the long run letting Long walk away with his huge cap number and starting over.

Oh, and get a WR who can run down the field. Bess & Hartline are nice complimentary players but they aren't feature weapons - reminds me a little of the Pats in 2006, when poor Brady had Caldwell & Gaffney and shitbags like Doug Gabriel.

If the Dolphins were a bit sharper yesterday they might have won. Botching the punt, running into Mesko, stupid penalties...they torpedoed themselves and looked like a stupid, undisciplined team. Maybe they aren't all the time...but they lost yesterday because of those stupid mistakes.

[pdaj]

Tagging Jake Long would be among the worst decisions ever made by a front office because of his horrific pre-CBA salary and the escalators involved. No single player is worth 20% of your cap, not even Tom Brady and certainly not an offensive tackle.

And don't get me wrong - Long is a great LT. One of the best in the league. But the contract is a relic and the qualifying number will be onerous. The Dolphins need to decide if they can dedicate $15M/season to LT or if they will be better off in the long run letting Long walk away with his huge cap number and starting over.

Isn't the cap set for slightly over 120 million? If so, that means Long's 15 million for 1 year would make up 8% of the Dolphin's cap. Is that big pill to swallow? Absolutely. But it might be the best option available if the alternatives are 1) Letting one of the best LT in the game (still?) go or 2) Making a mistake and signing Long (who may arguably be declining and has become injury-prone) to a long-term contract. The Fins need a bridge year to decide.

A similar strategy was used with Paul Solai in 2011, when the Dolphins franchised him for 12 mil. The Patriots did the same with Mankins, which cost New England slightly over 10 million. When you consider the cost of replacing a player, as well as the drop off in talent with the potential replacement player; the tag can be an effective method for buying a team more time fill a potential at a particular position. And LT isn't a spot you want to fuck with it. That said, I'll be interested to see how the rookie, Jonathan Martin, plays in Long's absence for the remainder of the year. He was moved to the right-side after playing LT for his entire career at Stanford.

Oh, and get a WR who can run down the field. Bess & Hartline are nice complimentary players but they aren't feature weapons - reminds me a little of the Pats in 2006, when poor Brady had Caldwell & Gaffney and shitbags like Doug Gabriel.

If the Dolphins were a bit sharper yesterday they might have won. Botching the punt, running into Mesko, stupid penalties...they torpedoed themselves and looked like a stupid, undisciplined team. Maybe they aren't all the time...but they lost yesterday because of those stupid mistakes.

I agree on both points. Philbin said it perfectly in his post-game interview. "Our plan was to make New England earn everything they got." That clearly didn't happen.

[Wilco's Last Fan]

Tagging Jake Long would be among the worst decisions ever made by a front office because of his horrific pre-CBA salary and the escalators involved. No single player is worth 20% of your cap, not even Tom Brady and certainly not an offensive tackle.

And don't get me wrong - Long is a great LT. One of the best in the league. But the contract is a relic and the qualifying number will be onerous. The Dolphins need to decide if they can dedicate $15M/season to LT or if they will be better off in the long run letting Long walk away with his huge cap number and starting over.

Is he anymore? I don't mean to use PFF as bible, but according to their metrics, Long is the 51st-highest graded T at run-blocking, and just 29th in pass-blocking. Then there was this article from a week or so ago.

I'm not smart enough to say one way or another—just thought I'd at least raise the question.

Edited by Wilco's Last Fan, 03 December 2012 - 11:19 AM.

[soxfan121]

Isn't the cap set for slightly over 120 million? If so, that means Long's 15 million for 1 year would make up 8% of the Dolphin's cap. Is that big pill to swallow? Absolutely. But it might be the best option available if the alternatives are 1) Letting one of the best LT in the game (still?) go or 2) Making a mistake and signing Long (who may arguably be declining and has become injury-prone) to a long-term contract. The Fins need a bridge year to decide.

I am not positive but tagging Calvin Johnson would have cost DET ~$25M on a cap basis, which is why they had to re-do his deal. Long is on a similar pre-CBA contract and I would think the one year tag cost to be much higher than $15M. If you can sign him up for 6 or 7 years at $15M, that's a different situation.

[Shelterdog]

I am not positive but tagging Calvin Johnson would have cost DET ~$25M on a cap basis, which is why they had to re-do his deal. Long is on a similar pre-CBA contract and I would think the one year tag cost to be much higher than $15M. If you can sign him up for 6 or 7 years at $15M, that's a different situation.

It's been reported that the franchise tag for Long would be roughly $15 million.

http://espn.go.com/n...-miami-dolphins

I'd say adios if I were the Dolphins and he were dead-set on playing. He's good but that's a ton of scratch on one lineman.

As an aside, Mankins didn't play a year under the tag--he got tagged, reported, and got extended. The Dophins did have Soliai play on a one year, $12 mill tag but that strikes me as an idiotic move (for that amount of money you can frontload a multi-year contract for a very good player at the same position).

[Andrew]

http://boston.cbsloc...-disrespectful/

“It really (ticked) me off. It was disrespectful to us to run the same play over and over and be successful,” defensive tackle Tony McDaniel told the Palm Beach Post’s Brian Biggane. “Normally when somebody’s driving down the field you just think, ‘Well, they just had a good run there,’ but you run the same play over and over, as a competitor that (ticks) me off.”

What the hell? I had to check to make sure this wasn't an Onion article after I read that. It's disrespectful to run a play you can't stop?

[pdaj]

Translation: It's insulting to us that an opponent would think they could run the same play over and over again and be successful. And it's embarrassing that it did work.

At least that's what I hope he was trying to say.

[Tony C]

i thought that was the Onion, too...still not sure it wasn't.