Garrard released, and Artis Hicks placed on IR
For anyone who has been following our articles on Phins News, there is no surprise that QB David Garrard was released this week before the official start of the season on Sunday. It was a numbers game in two sense of the word, one being that the Dolphins had 4 QB’s on their roster, and two being that Garrard’s salary of $2.75 million would have been completely guaranteed if he was on the roster after the first game. Then throw in the mix, Garrard’s untimely knee injury, and Pat Devlin’s steady development, and the wise sports betting strategy is that Garrard became the odd man out.
Even though this is one of the main headlines on ESPN, the more important headline for phins news fans is that starting right guard Artis Hicks was placed on injured reserve. For an offensive line that has already been porous, this is a major blow that should not be overlooked. With Jake Long banged up, and rookie Jonathan Martin still struggling at RT, the injury to their starting RG is not going to help Ryan Tannehill in his first career start on Sunday against the tenacious Texan’s defense.
Football games are usually won in the trenches, and at the moment the Miami Dolphins offensive line appears to be regressing to one of the weakest units on the team. Before, the Dolphins had glaring holes in the WR, and CB positions, and now they have to add another position to the laundry list that needs to be addressed. It appears that the likely replacement for Hicks will be either John Jerry or Nate Garner. At the moment John Jerry who was the likely favorite to win the job, sat out Monday’s practice with an undisclosed injury. I have a strange feeling that Jerry is going to be fine, and will win the starting job. Not only will he win the starting job, but Jerry, even though he has been inconsistent during his young career, has been a gamer when called into duty. The sports betting strategy is that if Jerry is healthy to play, this injury to Hicks may be a blessing in disguise that allows Jerry to finally step up and perform up to his potential.
Yeah you guys are right It was Ireland who injured Hicks , had Murtha become injury prone and Vernon Davis (another Venereal disease, like Vontae) become a cow (even though he did not draft him.) The person who personally and openly acknowledged dismantling the line was the Truly ‘supposed OL Guru, the Fist Pumper. Ireland is certainly not a great GM but he’s far from clueless . You conveniently ignore unpredictable injuries highlights his failures and forget his successes.
In any case with a new HC, which all of us wanted, whether he had been an experienced looser or a new coach like Philbin, and a new scheme, which they all would have brought, Miami was on for another re-build. And any of you who is not ten years old, also knows that 99.99% of the time the 1st year of a re-bulid you take your lumps (Dont talk to me about Tuna’s 1st year you know it was a fluke) So whether ireland was fired or not we were going to be in for a rough time.
If you add to that a rookie QB starting , when he was supposed to sit behind Garrard who got hurt, you are insanely ignorant if you now blame Ireland for what you guys wanted and some injuries which are part of the Game.
Of course this was going to be a tough year, any year that you begin with a new head coach is a crap shoot, where there will be plenty of ups and downs. I think we are just speaking more about talent, it appears that this offseason, we traded away talented players, and did not add that much talent through acquisitions. Hey if RT becomes a stud franchise QB, then Ireland will look like a genius. I have not once blamed Ireland for injuries, I have blamed him for the type of talent that he has acquired. He traded Marshall, which I am ok with, but to only go out and sign Naanee, and draft two receivers in the 6th and 7th round is not really addressing an area of concern.
Weren’t the Tuna and Ireland brought in here back in 2008 with the philosophy and understanding that they were offensive line gurus, with the plan being to build from the trenches outward? I realize Philbin wants leaner more athletic linemen for his zone blocking scheme, but come on. 5 years in, multiple draft picks and free agent acquisitions later and the O line isn’t much better than when they arrived. Perhaps it’s even worse. This organization needs an enema.
I totally agree, these o-line gurus, have butchered this unit, to the point that it needs to be nuke’d and started from scratch
WR’s and now OL…what the hell has Ireland been doing?
Not his job obviously!
Unfreaking believable!
haha, we came into the offseason with certain holes, and now these holes have grown into craters