At the combine today, Philbin and Ireland talked about getting more athletic offensive linemen. This isn't a huge surprise given the transition to the WCO. It surely means that Vernon Carey won't return. It puts John Jerry's future in doubt. And it could impact Richie Incognito. Incognito is not athletic, just a straight ahead mauler. He counts $5M against the cap this year, and would save about $3M if cut. He's never been an ideal fit at LG because he's lousy at pulling, but he's a really poor fit at LG in the new offense. At best, he moves to the right side. At worst, he is cut or traded, with us eating some of the salary. But, this squarely makes a quality LG a need if they are serious about getting more athletic on the line.

Smoke screen.

If Ireland and Philbin are stupid enough to divulge their gameplan to the world....they both need to be fired.

Ireland was groomed by Parcells. While he may be more media friendly...I doubt that he has forgotten how to conceal his true thoughts.

Good OL are hard to find. We would have to sign a FA and take 2 OL in top 4-5 picks which is possible

realist Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Smoke screen.
>
> If Ireland and Philbin are stupid enough to
> divulge their gameplan to the world....they both
> need to be fired.
>
> Ireland was groomed by Parcells. While he may be
> more media friendly...I doubt that he has
> forgotten how to conceal his true thoughts.

Not really in this case. Going to a west coast offense means more one on one blocking and more pulling and trapping, and less zone blocking. Every personnel guy in the league could look at the Dolphins and realize they don't have the linemen for that kind of blocking. It's not really giving anything away. Ireland also said they'd look at WRs and RBs differently, which is not a surprise either. They need more speed at those positions if they want the offense to work.

Evan Mathis, Ben Grubbs, and Jeremy Zuttah would all be upgrades at LG.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2012 05:06PM by dolfanmark.

realist Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Smoke screen.
>
> If Ireland and Philbin are stupid enough to
> divulge their gameplan to the world....they both
> need to be fired.
>
> Ireland was groomed by Parcells. While he may be
> more media friendly...I doubt that he has
> forgotten how to conceal his true thoughts.


A few days ago, I posted the SAME above philosophy in general terms talking about all GMs and Management. But the one exception to the rule just might be the Miami Dolphin management who WOULD just be stupid enough to do that.

I think the phins personel is drooling over griffin3.....They just do not want to let anybody know of their true intentions..

Ireland said he wants guys that fit the prototype and are athletes...who doesn't.

I agree that West Coast requires different blocking schemes....but zone blocking requires quick athletic guys too. So the reality is....

Everyone os looking for the same thing. Big, strong, athletic, smart..."gonna need more steroids!!"

tsstamper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It puts John Jerry's future in doubt. And it could
> impact Richie Incognito. Incognito is not
> athletic, just a straight ahead mauler.
>
> I thought Jerry was supposed to be very athletic
> for a dude his size...I thought that was sort of
> his schtick. At least when he was drafted,
> technique, discipline and smarts didn't seem to be
> his strong points. He showed well all around in
> very limited starting action last year.
>
> On Incognito, if he's a more natural RG (and I
> won't pretend to know the difference in RG/LG
> responsibilities and characteristics), why didn't
> they play him there last year? They were already
> moving Carey inside...why not just move him to the
> right and Richie to the left? Continuity? Carey
> would have been even worse at pulling? I will say
> that he did well on the left side in last year's
> scheme...but that was last year.

Ideally, the LG is more athletic, and is more adept at pulling and blocking on the move. The RG pulls far less frequently, and is more of a straight ahead blocker. If you'll remember, we signed Incognito to play RG, which is where he had played his entire NFL career before Miami. But, Jerry was such a disaster in his first camp, they had to swap them mid-preseason. Also, the TE normally lines up on the right side. As such, the RG rarely ever faces a good pass rusher. On the left side, sometimes the tackle has to block a LB, and the DE will be matched up with the LG. Carey is not known for his conditioning or ability to block on the move, so he wasn't a LG option either.

Our OL is a pretty sad scenario when you consider all the attention it received under Baby T and the pepperoni pizza gang. I’ve been saying for months we need to address and SOLVE the OL in this draft and be done with it. That means OT and OG at or near the top of the draft.

I think we trade down if Philbin & Co. identifies OL as #1 priority.

We have Matt Moore and we'll add Flynn = QB dilemma ostensibly solved (crossing fingers).

R1 (post trade down) = OT (somewhere around #26 or thereabouts)
R2a = OG
R2b = WR (based on draft depth at the position)
R3 = TE (based on WCO and need for speed down the center)
R4-R7 = OLB/DE and S (based on BPA with legit disruption potential)

Keep our critical FA’s which include Soliai, redo Long’s contract.

Do it. And just shut UP!

BNF.

The problem with our O-line (and my main bitch about Ireland), is that we have to find some mid/late round gems at some point, we can't keep adding expensive first rnd picks and aging free agents. It just ruins the salary structure of your whole team. The biggest failure of the Tri-fecta in my eyes, was this complete failure to add quality O-line depth thru the later rounds of the draft. Hopefully we get better in this area with the new coaching staff.

You seriously missed on one glaring need: we need to spend a high round pick on a pass rusher. Other than that, I think its shameful that the "offensive-line guru" that our last coach was supposed to be didn't build us an O-line that was effective, and left us with several glaring needs, some aging lineman, and a turnstile or two. As important as a franchise quarterback is, we have to have a line that can keep him upright and healthy, and I don't think we have that now.

P.S. Richie Incognito may not have the foot speed to pull, but today's offensive lines pull from guard, center, even from the tackle position and you still need those occassional roadgrader types to be able to run the ball effectively. Ask Reggie Bush.

Rick

Plus Incognito has the coolest name on the team.

I vote for Bush.