This is why I think Porter is the one who needs to be used as a situational player as opposed to JT.

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“I'm here" You're welcome!" - Kenny Powers

In a 3-4 the OLB's are primarily pass rushers and the ILB's are primarily run stoppers. That's how the defense is designed!! Our weakness against the run is more of a knock on Ayodele and Crowder than Porter!!!

As for "numbers don't lie", that's bull. You have to take into account many factors other than statistics. Just look at all the players who were off the charts statistically in college and complete busts in the NFL. If it was all about numbers, David Klingler would be in the Hall of Fame.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2009 01:53AM by montequi.

Joey Porter is not a situational player but he should be. You cannot say he is one already because he played all 3 downs last year. He is just not good against the run and yes it IS his responsibility to read, react and make the tackle if they run at him...not the ILB's. He still has to get off the block and make the play. To say that the OLBs play the pass and the ILB's play the run is ridiculous. So are OLB's just supposed to stand there on running plays like Randy Moss????

Matt Roth is an OLB and he did better than almost anyone stopping the run and setting the edge. It is not the ILB's job to set the edge. If a running play goes outside they can't depend on the ILB to get over there and make the play. That being said...no matter how you want to disect JP's play, we won several games because of his play and would not have made the playoffs without him. He was being doubled and game planned for later in the season.

You also cannot take his multiple sack game against the Pats out of the equation...that was part of the season. He is the one who made the plays. JP had 6 games with .5 or 1 sack. He had 4 games with 1.5 -2 sacks. He had one game with more than 2 sacks (4) and he had 4 games with no sacks. Weeks 16 and 17 he had 1 tackle total (KC & Jets).

That is how it works. No DE or OLB gets a sack in every single game. Even in JT's MVP season, he had 4 games with no sacks. In his best sack year (2002) he had 18.5 sacks and had 4 games with ZERO sacks. The difference is that JT still made tackles in those games against the run (4.25 avg) and you know that out of those plays he had a few FF's and FR's as well. We are also not taking into account the QB pressures that lead to Int's and incompletions. While numbers do not lie, they also do not tell the whole story even though Mike was talking about Pro stats not college stats...which don't mean crap in the NFL or this conversation.

I also don't think you can say that JT is "clearly breaking down physically". One year does not a career make and anyone that saw him last year with any objectivitiy saw a man who was playing injured and out of his natural element but still fought through it to finish the season strong and still have similar stats to the full time RIGHT SIDE defensive end on a very poor pass rushing team after missing multiple games.

If he was actually breaking down, he would not have improved his play at the end of the season. Even the game announcers were saying that JT seems to be back in normal form.

The thing is that the Dolphins need (for this year) a ROLB who can play the run on running downs and then bring in JP on passing downs. I would not be surprised to see it happen this year if a player can step up in camp.

I can see Roth and ???? starting the game with JT and JP coming in as pass rushers. I can also see JT playing DE on a 4 man front. Taylor gave a ringing endorsement to Cam Wake this week and said he is far better than JT was in his first two years and he is going to be a great player. That says a lot.

We have 8 or 9 OLB's right now and surlely one of them will improve over last year....Anderson, Walden, Wake, Moses or George...may step up and be a starter this year on the weak side. You never know.

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“I'm here" You're welcome!" - Kenny Powers



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2009 05:51AM by eesti.

eesti Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Joey Porter is not a situational player but he
> should be. You cannot say he is one already
> because he played all 3 downs last year. He is
> just not good against the run and yes it IS his
> responsibility to read, react and make the tackle
> if they run at him...not the ILB's. He still has
> to get off the block and make the play. To say
> that the OLBs play the pass and the ILB's play the
> run is ridiculous. So are OLB's just supposed to
> stand there on running plays like Randy Moss????
That's not what I meant. The statistics on Porter are deceiving because of our overall futility against the run last year.

As the weak side OLB, his primary role is rushing the passer, which means he may overrun running plays if he is too far upfield. A lot of that is due to how we call and excute our defense. Do we need to keep Joey back? Do we need to bring up a safety or slide over an ILB on that side to help with the run? There are options, but plain statistics don't show that.

True...he definitely needs help. As I understand the position, he has outside containment responsibilities...whuch means he fights upfield but does not break containment in case of a run in which case he needs to set the edge and force the run inside so that our ILB's and Safeties can make a tackle. The key is recognition and figuring out if it is a run or pass. For instance...if it is 3rd down and 15...there is a pretty good chance its going to be a pass and he can rip upfield. If it is 2nd and 10, it could go either way but he cannot let the RB get outside of him and just go all out to rush the QB. Of course it all depends on the defensive call as you said and who is rushing and who is dropping back.

One thing I do find interesting is that everyone wants to knock Matt Roth and replace him but he was Miami's best linebacker against the run (24.6 percent success rate, allowed 3.5 yards per rush). This in his first year at LB and at a playing weight of a 3-4 DE.

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“I'm here" You're welcome!" - Kenny Powers

I don't remember the names but many were criticizing Roth and I couldn't agree more about JT playing full time. Porter is a great OLB but not the same category as Taylor...even at 35 years old.

Porter gets sacks but Taylor gets the sack, the forced fumble, the fumble recovery and the TD and has been doing it that way for many years!

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“I'm here" You're welcome!" - Kenny Powers



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2009 09:48AM by eesti.

I agree that some criticize Roth. My statement was more rhetorical... The criticisms of Roth are generally unfounded.

You're absolutely right about Taylor. He's a game changer. While Joey may be good for a sack a game, Talyor has been responsible for 2-3 wins per year (aside from the camcam season) for nearly his entire time in a Phins uni. While Joey provides consistent pressure, I don't recall where his pressure has ever changed a game we were losing into a game we won.

I like Joey coming in as LB in the nickle, JT moving up to DE in a 4-3 alignment with Roth and Crowder and Joey as LBs. That along with our new DB squad makes for a formidable 3rd and long situation.

In fact, with this crew I've got to wonder if we will see a 4-3 alignment?