The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

He had some interesting tidbits...

Turner is the starting Right Guard and Thomas the starting Left Guard until someone knocks them out of those spots (which we basically have no competition for them or o-line depth so that's your o-line.)  Hickey also said  Jamil Douglas will strictly work as a left guard (ie just push Thomas, not Turner) which is telling

Branden Albert should be ready by Week 1 (which is a huge sigh of relief if this is true), thought was he wouldn't be a month or so back.

Delmas will be back on the field in June, but no word when he will be able to play

The job is Douglas' to lose. If he can't beat out Dallas Thomas, then just cut him right then and there.

I still have hope for Turner. He was a project and hopefully he can be adequate.

Dallas "turnstile " Thomas.  ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???

Scratches head on this one but it is his job to lose.  Turner as well.

Meh, I could care less what the depth chart is when camp opens.  I care about what the depth chart looks like in Week 1 of the regular season. 

True but this coaching staff doesn't change...
-Coyle doesn't play rookies on defense
-In regards to o-line Fins are in love with Turner and keep going back to Thomas like a battered wife! Unless they trade for someone or someone is cut they sign off the street, those are your starting guards

And if that's the case, Tannehill is gonna get killed agian.  Your O-Line allowed 58 sacks in 2013.  Last year, despite improvements made, they still allowed another 42 sacks.   That's 100 sacks in two years!

Tampa realized that their current O-Line starters were gonna get Jameis killed as well, so they went out and grabbed the best tackle available.  Then traded up four spots to get a dominant guard, albeit another Billy Turner (Ali Marpet of D-III Hobart)

I agree and that's why this team is 6-8 wins this upcoming year. The ignoring of the o-line when its a glaring weakness is baffling to me. But they think Billy Turner is the 2nd coming of Forrest Gregg. So, they all can live and die with that decision.

To me, the key is Douglas If he can be competent, then that's 4 out of 5 spots filled with Pro Bowlers or good players. Not saying that you can ever afford to have a bad player on the O-Line, but if Turner sucks, it will be easier to absorb. Basically, the team will survive if one of the guard spots are filled with competence.

Douglas was a 4th round pick for a reason. Wouldn't bank on him as a plug and play type player

you could also call it a 16 sack improvement .. so this year they're on track to give up 26 sacks

I can't for the life of me come up with any reason why this glaring need has not been a top priority.

It's mind boggling. I have my theory. Soprano was an o-line coach. Philbin was an o-line coach.  These guys in their heart believe they can "coach up" any player on the o-line. So they see it as an area to save money on the roster to spend it elsewhere. They truly believe give me anyone and I can coach them up to be suitable on the o-line.  So they get their hands on a Turner or Thomas and they believe they are all set because they will develop them. No matter how much Thomas sucks and its proven time and time again and no matter that Turner couldn't crack the lineup last year and beat out scrubs after guys got injured...they still think they can coach them up.

It's pure ego.

Douglas was a 4th round pick because he played left tackle his last season and struggled.

Watch the tape of him at left guard. These terms like "lacks aggressiveness" or "doesn't finish plays" go out the window when you see him pulling across the line and taking out linebackers 10 yards downfield.

True, still a 4th round pick at the end of the day. Everyone knew his history and he was playing out of position last season at Arizona St and he is a natural guard....and he still went in the 4th round. 32 teams had the same information and he still went in Rd 4. Tells ya something

32 teams had the same info on Brady and he still went in the 6th round. Not sure what the relevance is. Teams get it wrong on players all the time, Dion Jordan was a consensus top 5 pick....

If you are making a point about the NFL draft and you feel the need to cite Tom Brady, your point is almost certainly invalid.

It's like citing Drew Brees or Kurt Warner.  The next NFL MVP is not currently stocking grocery shelves in an Arena Football town, nor is he some team's current early-round bust.

And Tom Brady didn't start Day 1. Thanks for proving my entire point! Expecting a player who is picked in Rounds 4,5,6 to come in and start Day 1 is unrealistic. Not impossible, it can happen but its unrealistic expectations. There is a reason why Douglas went in the 4th round.

Brady sat behind Bledsoe and if Bledsoe doesn't get hurt who knows when Brady would have saw the field in New England. Brady wasn't a plug and play QB just like Douglas probably isn't a plug and play OG, hope I am wrong though.

If you are posting, it is invalid.  ;)

Your point was that teams must have known something. Well what do they know when they have all these future busts slated as first round picks?

And if you know anything about the guard position, you know there are plenty of guys that were drafted in the middle rounds playing guard at a high level in the NFL.

Some positions like guard, linebacker and running back are positions where you can find starters from day 1 anywhere in the draft.

I never said Douglas wouldn't be a great player. I just said don't bank on him coming in and starting day 1. I'm not knocking him, just don't expect him to start Week 1. HOPE I AM WRONG THOUGH!

If Douglas is this sure fire starter as a rookie at guard then 31 other teams are utter morons for passing on him 3 or 4 times. There are a lot of questions about his game (yes at guard, not just tackle) and that's why he fell. Doesn't mean he sucks, but gotta keep perspective when talking about him

There were a lot of good guard prospects and good tackle prospects that would convert to guard in this draft. So for a couple to be available in the 4th round isn't out the question.

In the Dolphins system, he can start at guard day one because they look for athletic guards who can move, not maulers. He's got good strength as well. The knocks on him coming out were lacking aggressiveness and finishing plays, but again this was based on his play at tackle.

If he had come out after the way he played guard he doesn't get out of the 2nd round.

Would you like to wager on this prediction???  To me it's mind boggling when someone says a team is going to be worse this year versus last year when there are multiple upgrades across the team (WR, OL, DL, etc.).  What positions are worse this year versus last year??  (TE probably, but other than that??)

Not betting with you cause I know I will never see the money.I see an o-line with no guards and a secondary that has 1 healthy legit safety entering the year.  This league is about giving the QB time to throw the ball and about being able to stop the pass and cover. Miami's 2 biggest weaknesses are those areas. Plus our head coach sucks.

I REALLY REALLY HOPE I AM WRONG!  But being honest with a schedule that has this team on the road the first 2 months non-stop, I think its a recipe for disaster. Overall I think the team is moving in the right direction. They have a very young core to build around and the arrow is pointing up big-time. I am happy with how this team is being built. I think in 2 years or so they will be ready to compete. But this upcoming year might be really bad for the reasons I stated.

Again, hope I am wrong. Really hope I am wrong.

Well you are right you wouldn't see the money, because people that lose bets don't get paid, winners do.   ;)  I disagree with you on the scheduling, but yours is a valid point.   But as I said in my original post where is Miami worse than last year?  Pouncey back in his normal position, Albert back at left tackle, James back at his normal position, at least the same guards playing (now with more experience and better players to their right and left),  so barring injuries or suspensions the OL will be greatly improved.  So how can anyone predict a worse record??

I think the schedule is tougher and the layout of it doesn't do Miami any favors. I don't agree with you that the o-line is better overall. I don't see it. Albert coming off a major injury and no guards to speak of. Hope I am wrong.

I not only think that Miami has a much better team than last year, I think they win 10 games this year and make the playoffs. This, coming from a person who is normally very skeptical on Miami's chances. They added one of the 2-3 best defensive players in the league (Suh), two excellent WRs (Parker & Stills), an outstanding TE (Cameron), and a quality RB to complement Miller (Ajayi). Did they add enough O-line help? Probably not, but Albert coming back, Pouncey and James back at their optimum positions and Jamil Douglas being better than Dallas Thomas leads me to believe that Miami's O-line will be improved.

At the risk of repeating myself for the 17th-ish time, I believe people are severely underestimating the positive effect that Ndamukong Suh will have on Miami's defense.

Hickey did more interviews Friday. He said Will Davis will be ready for training camp. Which is good because on special teams is an absolute beast

I hope you are right, but I fear that people are overestimating what effect Suh will have on this defense. They'll be better at stopping the run at the line of scrimmage which was a huge problem last year, but once you get past the line then RB's will be free to do whatever they want because we don't have a single LB that knows how to read plays and tackle RB's before they get moving. They will probably also be slightly better at rushing the QB, but again they don't have any LB's or nickel backs that are capable of really shutting down RB's, TE's and slot receivers in the short to mid range pass attack. The weakness of this defense is in the middle which causes a real problem in getting off the field. Way too many 3rd and 5's to 3rd and 10's were converted into first downs last year. I don't see that changing much with Suh unless they sack the QB and that just won't happen enough.

Hickey also said Jason Fox will be competing at OG as well.

Looks like Fins will give Dallas Thomas every bit of competition possible so he doesn't start

I think Miami will go with a 4 man Line to prevent Dallas Thomas from starting again.

I think that, by the end of this coming season, the most prevalent comment about Miami's offensive line will be "Wow, who knew that Billy Turner would have ended up playing so well?"

And I'll just smile and say "I did!"

Hope you're right, I would actually be shocked if the opening day O-Line didn't include both Douglas and Turner.

If they are both starting Week 1 its gonna be a long year.

I might be the only one giving Dallas Thomas a chance here.  I realize he was hot smelly garbage last season, but he was playing a tackle.  I think, in the interior, he may be more serviceable.  We'll see how it goes but I'm not completely writing him off.

If you watch the film on Thomas, he makes some plays, especially in the run game. The problem is he also misses some plays. And when you're an offensive lineman, you only stand out when you make mistakes.

Right now the biggest thing holding him back is consistency and that is a side effect of moving around at different positions. If he can become more consistent, he can be decent.

He started the year on the interior of the line and he sucked there too

Regardless of what we start with ... chances are someone is going down and our half arse line will be even worse. We are world beaters but our depth is even worse. I'm just really pessimistic about our O-line again. seems like somehtings never change.

Yep, kind of hard to argue otherwise given the lack of moves.

The only thing we can do is hope Billy Turner has developed enough and that either Dallas Thomas becomes more consistent or that Jamil Douglas is more NFL ready than expected.

I like Jamil Douglas. I had him coming to us in a couple of my mocks. I think if he had played guard his last season in college, he would be a late 2nd, early 3rd round pick. Playing tackle really hurt him last season.

That being said, Evan Mathis is still a possibility and someone will let a veteran guard go as part of June 1st cuts. There is still time to bring in another body.

Who is left? It's either those 2 or replace one of them with Dallas Thomas, who has shown that he is one of the worst O-Line guys in the league.

Only way we avoid this situation is if Chip Kelly continues his feud with Evan Mathis and cuts him for some insane reason.

I would rather see JD Walton at guard then play a rookie or Dallas Thomas.  He may suck on the same level as Thomas but I would rather roll the dice with him. And I would rather have him than a 4th round rookie with no experience. Hopefully we can find someone that was dumped by another team. Or maybe make a small trade to get a serviceable guard during August.