Sunday, June 28, 2009

Outside I Feel A Rush

When you do the math and figure that the Dolphins will probably carry 8 linebackers into the season, and you factor in at least 3 of those 8 will be pure inside guys, I think it's a reasonable thought to have in your head that whoever makes it on the outside positions, will be the creme de la creme of their training camp roster. I mean, think about it, we still need to cut a couple pf players before training camp, yet it's unlikely that any of them will be a linebacker due to the 'tough decisions' Coach Sparano has mentioned since OTAs started.

Needless to say the starters will likely be the same as 2008 but the make-up of the roster could take one of it's biggest re-structuring in this position.

Matt Roth, # 98.
Matt Roth is a guy who looks like a wrestler, plays like a wrestler, and well, he was a wrestler. The big difference is the average wrestler can not run up and down a football field. He converted to strongside LB in 2008 and hasn't looked back. It would be very surprising if the Trifecta doesn't extend his contract during the season at some point a la Camarillo last year. That said, he is not a lock to start, but probable.

Joey Porter, # 55.
Joey had a career-best 17.5 sacks in 2008 playing opposite Matt Roth on the weakside. Earned himself a pro-bowl spot. For most of the season he looked unstoppable coming off the edge. But eventually teams started game-planning for him, and the length of the season slowed him down as well. Still, I was not disappointed in Joey at that point, but in the lack of blitz packages that the coaches brought to the game. When they finally started mixing it up, it was too late for teams to disengage from Porter. If the Dolphins had been sending safety/corner blitzes throughout the year, I believe Porter would have been able to reap the benefits from less protection being slid his way. A guaranteed starter in 2009.

Quentin Moses, # 74.
Ah, Moses. I often was mistaken for joking about Moses as being 'number 74, what's his face?' Truth, is, I was never joking, I honestly could never remember him due to lack of 'showing up'. If he doesn't show up in training camp he will be shown the door.



Jason Taylor, # 99.
Keep an eye on JT in 2009. It may be his last year and it may be your last chance to see something you don't often get to see. A player who's jersey number will be retired, play ball. In my life as a fan, only Marino is a member of that club and I didn't even see the 'good old days'. Only three Dolphins have had the honor. Taylor will be the fourth. It's a shame we didn't have him last year but now we do and the experience Roth picked up cannot down-spoken. Taylor is starter material possibly playing reserve. You cannot ask for better depth.


Tearrius George, # 49.
I was very surprised to see George being used at the outside position. He does have the size to play the strongside position, but with Roth and Taylor there, his best shot at the roster will be as the inside/outside guy. See the video below, George is # 77.





Charlie Anderson, # 56.
Anderson was really hot and cold in 2008, sometimes making big plays on defense, often times negating them on special teams. I went into 2008 training camp and beyond wondering why he was even on the Dolphins roster. I'm willing to give Anderson this training camp/pre-season to show he deserves it or else he should pack it up.



Cameron Wake, #91.
This could be the biggest impact player of training camp. His inability to stand out in the pajama parties could make him even that much more noticeable once they start going full speed.

I already did a full write-up on Wake here, so I won't go into depth again, but despite his unimpressive OTAs, I believe he will take Charlie Anderson's job.

Erik Walden, # 50.
I believe Walden has all the tools to be a legit outside linebacker in the NFL. He's the type of guy who's made a name for himself playing special teams, and that can sometimes hurt a guy's chances at competing at their true position. But considering how often Sparano drops Walden's name, you have to believe he's getting every shot imaginable to make an impression. In my mind he is the current holder-on of the final LB spot right now - could all change once pads go on, for better or worse.

61 comments:

  1. ...so you've cut Tearrius George already? :)  

    ...otherwise good review ...I agree that Walden and Wake are the x-factors in TC ...and that such competition makes everyone better.

    ...among the OLB prospects (including George), are any good candidates to move to ILB?

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  2. I'm looking for Roth the have a big year this year.  Many of us didn't know that he was hurt during lasts season and was playing through it.  I also have my fingers crossed that after the pajama parties are over that Wake really tears it up. 

    I'm also very interested to see which of these guys makes a splash on S.T.  With Wake having 7 blocked kicks in College and I forget how many blocked kicks, feildgoals and punts in the CFL he should be a good addition to our team even if he doesn't start because Roth & Taylor are ahead of him. 

    God, he has to do better than Charlie Anderson on special teams!!

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  3. Here's my list of the guys who stick this year.
    Porter
    Roth
    Taylor
    Walden
    Wake

    Even Though we hear Tony S. likes T. George a lot I think he and Anderson are on the outside looking in.

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  4. Wow, I even edited a short video of him and forgot to put him in....actually to make it worse I mislabeled the photo of him as erik walden!

    That's the last time I do one of these big write-ups on a Sunday night...

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  5. Oh, btw I've updated, added George and the video as well as Walden's photo.

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  6. Rockfin-

    Why do you have a pic of my woman as your avitar?

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  7. The Knight who says Ni!June 29, 2009 at 8:55 AM

    If Walden shows some pass rush ability I think he'll be the 4th or 5th OLB kept. He's good on special teams and he's a good athlete. His teammates on the O-line have said he has fast twitch muscles.

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  8. The Knight who says Ni!June 29, 2009 at 8:55 AM

    Wow, my ex is your woman. Small world.  :-P

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  9. completely unrelated to football but you reminded me of something.  I was watching the Chris Isaak hour when he had Smashing Pumpkins on and Billy Corgan told the story of how he was dating Courtney Love, and they had a fight and he dumped her and kicked her out of his apartment.  Then when she was wandering down the street about an hour later she met Kurt Cobain and the rest is history...

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  10. Do you think they will keep 8 or 9 LBs?  and if they only keep 8 do you think they'll go 4 ILB and 4 OLB or do it based strictly on special teams play?

    I could see them only keeping 3 ILB:

    Roth
    Porter
    Taylor
    Wake
    Walden
    Crowder
    Ayodele
    Torbor

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  11. The Knight who says Ni!June 29, 2009 at 9:21 AM

    I agree with your list at 8. The 9th will be strictly special teams whether he's an OLB or ILB. Sparano said they prefer to have LBs on coverage units.

    I think LB is one of the underrated positions on this team and the competition for depth should be fierce.

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  12. The Knight who says Ni!June 29, 2009 at 9:22 AM

    Wow... I didn't know that. She's such a hole!

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  13. Let me start here. First I'd like to see someone step up and give Porter some competition. He ran out of gas last year and needed someone else to spell him. Plus he is very similar to JT with that I mean he is not much for stopping the run. For that matter neither JT or Joey even look for a run before pressing up the field for a sack. I'd like to see them both alternating time at the same position instead of one on side and one on the other. At least that way the defense knows which way they may need to roll to help fill the gap these guys cause on running plays. That would allow Joey to play big in big games.

    Roth is the Man a Monster Man if you want. He's OK on passing situations with 51/2 sacks last year as his first at the outside LB spot. But Dude, he slams the door in the run, and you win games stopping the run on defense and running the ball on offense. This is where the Dolphins continue to climb the board in defensive stats and in the win column.

    I believe in this defense, and they are the reason for my optomism for the team even with the schedule. These guys are going to be good, and they are only a player and some development away from SB contention on this side of the ball.

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  14. The Knight who says Ni!June 29, 2009 at 9:34 AM

    <span style="">"For that matter neither JT or Joey even look for a run before pressing up the field for a sack."</span>

    That's what the WOLB in the 3-4 defense does. LT did the same thing. Their job is to get in the backfield and disrupt things. The idea is to force everything back inside.

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  15. Fang:
    I saw where you were wondering about me and the brownies!  First of all, thank you very much for the recipe.  I haven't made them yet.  The girls trip isn't until the first of August.  I'll let you know how they turn out.

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  16. Charlie; She said that she didn't have a man.  Either she was not telling the truth or she has a very low opinion of you!!! LOL

    Knight; the operable word being EX.  You know, now that I think of it I do recall her saying something about an ex who couldn't drive a nail with his herring, let alone chop down a shrubbery! That isn't you is it?

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  17. The problem with that thinking Knight is offenses don't always run to the strong side so if the WOLB is 10 yds into the backfeild then the run is most likely going to fall back to the Safety or ILB to make the stop. (I think one of the reasons Crowder's tackles were often 6-8 yds past the line of scrimmage.) Neither Porter or Ayodele (who lines up on Porter's side most times) make the stop and Channing chases the play down.

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  18. I think I will change my avatar afterall.  The only comments I ever get to my posts are about her! Do you guys even read what I post or do you stop at the picture?

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  19. Post? What post? lol

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  20. OK, can you see my post now?

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  21. Charlie, is this one your woman too?

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  22. ok, remember how I said I wasn't going to censor people's avatars....

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  23. how many white russians does it take to get to the center of THAT tootsie roll?

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  24. 30 or 40 at least! after about 30 very strong ones they look exactly alike! Of course you are in a coma by then.  LOL

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  25. I can't decide which avatar to stay with.  The other two aren't in Dolphins gear. Maybe I will use this one.

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  26. Knight, what do you think? your Ex

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  27. or your current girlfriend?

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  28. What's the matter Tin?  Tooooo much skin showning on my newest avatar?

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  29. What's the matter Tin? Tooooo much skin showing on my avatar? >:o

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  30. The Knight who says Ni!June 29, 2009 at 11:45 AM

    It's the same pic.

    Do you ever talk about the topic of the blog or do you just focus on your avatars?  ;)

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  31. The Knight who says Ni!June 29, 2009 at 11:46 AM

    It's not my thinking, it's the way the 3-4 defense is played. Remember Derrick Thomas, all he did was fly off the corner.

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  32. LOL YES I TALK ABOUT THE TOPICS!  My comment was that no one responds to my posts. They only talk about my avatar. Now if someone would say "you are an idiot" or "you don't know what you are talking about" or even "good point" I would know you are reading my post, but the only comments to my posts I get from you are about said picture! :-P

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  33. The Knight who says Ni!June 29, 2009 at 12:12 PM

    Hey now, I'm married and my wife looks nothing like that. Is that an elephant seal with a wig?

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  34. That is a diss on elephant seals everywhere...
    What did the seal ever do to you!?

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  35. Herd,
    Just saw your weather question on the SS - I had already checked out when you posted on Friday. From it, I can deduce you don't follow tennis that closely? The reason I ask is that at the end of the first week of Wimbledon when you posted, there had been no weather stoppages, although the new centre court roof did come across today due to rain (and is currently in use complete with lights and a/c). Aside - I must stop introducing random alternative sports on Tin's football blog.
    Anyway, I suspect this will be closing the stable door after the hoss has bolted, since your BFF will already be here now, but we are having something of a heatwave at the moment. Temps have been in the high 20s all last week (28C=82F btw) and it's projected to get hotter by a degree a day until the end of the week, when torrential thunderstorms are expected. London should be at 32C by Thursday/Friday = 90F. We don't normally get weather like this - basically the gulf stream brings most of the water from US and the Atlantic and dumps it on us for most of the year which is why Ireland is very green (more westerly) and England is quite green. I'm in the North of the UK, where we traditionally do even less well from the gulf stream, but even we are frying in the sun and everyone looks like lobsters. The downside is that temps are in the 60s at night and there are very few houses with a/c over here, so sleeping is but a distant memory. :-P

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  36. That's not a heat-wave....this is a heat-wave...107F here in Northern Cal.
    That's 42C for you UK. There were a few days that it got that hot in London
    when I lived there, but here when it gets that hot, the whole state
    simultaneously combusts!

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  37. The Knight who says Ni!June 29, 2009 at 12:54 PM

    I said with a wig. LOL

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  38. I should say that my bff is in Arizona on business and she said it was 100F
    at midnight there.

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  39. It's a heatwave for us pasty Brits, but 100F at midnight is just plain wrong. At least you have a/c. 42C is an oven temperature for cooking meat isn't it?

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  40. The Knight who says Ni!June 29, 2009 at 1:22 PM

    uk, you don't have a/c?

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  41. Knight - it's only hot enough 2 days every decade to need it!!! :-D
    Offices have it, but I'd guess less than 10% of homes do?

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  42. I didn't have a/c in London. I DID have a space heater that was perpetually
    broken, and an electric blanket that was on 70% of the year.
    I spent more time freezing on the walks home than I did even seeing the
    Sun. Oh wait, that's not true my GF used to buy the Sun twice a week...

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  43. It's much warmer in London. We call them soft southerners up here. But then Newcastle is a party city (further north and colder) where the Geordies go out in short sleeved shirts (boys) and mini-skirts (girls) in the middle of winter. Go figure.
    If I had to guess, I'd say a smidgin less than 1/2 of cars on the road currently have a/c, tho it is getting more popular.
    If your gf got the Sun, you probably didn't get enough time to linger over p3?!? ;)

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  44. uk, to continue your 'other sport' comment, I used to watch tennis all the time.  Agassi was my favorite for years.  I think someone asked me one day on one of these blogs, if I was given a freebie, who would it be, and that would probably be it!  I got to see him play at the US Open the year before he retired.  He had a great run there that year, and we had gotten tickets for the final 4 or 5 days months before, having no idea who would be playing. 

    My friend has been posting messges to me on FB.  Sounds like they are having fun.  I know they are taking a train to Liverpool at some point.  Her niece is a big Beatles fan! 

    Tinshaker, sorry about all this non-football stuff.  At least I'm not talking baseball!

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  45. The Knight who says Ni!June 29, 2009 at 2:10 PM

    Okay, I have heard that.

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  46. au contraire, if she was going to buy that trash I was gonna see some
    titties!

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  47. It's ok. I used to live on the same street as Pete Sampras...
    I'm not a big tennis fan but I do watch the Wimbledon final every year if
    I'm at home.

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  48. Rockphin:

    Good Point, you are an idiot and don't know what you are talking about! 

    I'm immune to your avatar! 

    ;)

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  49. Sorry Herd,
    Didn't see your comment down there. Agassi married Steffi Graf, didn't he. I think they played a mixed doubles game under the new Wimbledon roof earlier this year (to see if it fell down during a match?) I guess you were a fan when he had hair?
    Murray is in a 5-setter, up 4-3 in the 5th, in the latest game ever in Wimbledon - it's dar now but they have lights under the new roof. There are also thousands on "Henman Hill" (which is now Murray mound) watching it on the big diamond vision screen.
    I like the Beatles, but you shouldn't mention Liverpool to a Mancunian - they are our local rivals. Grrrrr.

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  50. "There are also thousands on "Henman Hill" (which is now Murray mound) "
    LOL.

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  51. uk, you had to go mention Steffi, didn't you!  And hair/no hair, didn't matter to me.  Do you think I'm shallow and only interested in appearance?

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  52. I'll put half of my pension plan on the fact that it was his eyes that swung it for you? Even I thought he was a good-looking sorta guy and I have no leanings in that direction.

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  53. Wow - Murray won in 3 hrs 57 minutes. It's just finished - the beeb have delayed the 10 o'clock news - almost unheard of.

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  54. Wow, that was REALLY gay....

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  55. lol. I don't worry about that kinda stuff. But I can assure you that Rockphin's avatars do more for me than AA. Except the one of FFR's mum!?! =-O  Yuk.

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  56. Madoff is 71 and got 150 years in prison, so he won't get out until he's 221. Who said there's no such thing as justice? LMAO.

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  57. He only got a half sentence, he could've gotten 300 years....makes me think
    of the lord of the rings...

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  58. Tin,

    After noticing how many people from MD & DC were posting to the Herald & Sun-Sentinel Dolphins forums, I decided to create a group.  I just created  <span style="color: #0068cf;">http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Baltimore-DC_area_Miami_Dolphins_fans</span>, for area fans who want to get together and watch the games as a group.  Any chance you could please give a plug for the group for your readers so that we can meet up?  Thanks!
     

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