Most Exciting Position Battles At OTA’s
QB is set, but more than one position on the 2017 Dolphins is up for grabs.
Miami needs some rookies to step up and take a veteran’s position
The Miami Dolphins OTA’s are underway, which means position battles have begun.
There are some positions that aren’t going to be a battle at all, such as QB, LT.
But Miami spent a lot of money and time adding depth and competition to their roster, so there’s also quite a few positions that the starting position is totally up for grabs: OG, CB, DT, LB, and S.
These OTA’s will be our first chance to get a sneak peek at which players will rise to the competition–hopefully, there will be a few with bite.
NFL odds provided by the best pay per head review sites are on the Guard and Cornerback position being the two most hotly contested position battles throughout camp. Both of these positions have an influx of players competing for starting positions… and competition fosters performance, so it’ll be exciting to see which players end up earning the starting roles.
At Guard, the Dolphins have Jermon Bushrod and Ted Larsen penciled in as the starters. However, nothing is guaranteed, and there are quite a few other players that will have their chance to earn a shot at starting. Rookie Isaac Asiata along with veterans Anthony Steen and Kraig Urbik all have the potential to push their way up the depth chart.
The most intriguing of these players is Asiata, who was recently drafted by Miami in the fifth round after a slide in the draft. If Asiata can fix some technical issues and pick up the offensive blocking scheme quickly, then he may have a real possibility of bypassing Bushrod or Larsen for one of the starting guard positions.
Good depth puts Miami in a position of strength when it comes to injuries
The other position that appears up for grabs and is loaded with possible starters is Cornerback. Even though the Dolphins were hit with the injury bug last year at CB, this unit still played relatively well. As of now, the penciled-in starters are Byron Maxwell and Xavien Howard. Both players missed games due to injury last year, so the first thing to see will be how healthy they are. Even if they are 100% healthy they are still going to be pushed by Tony Lippett, Bobby McCain, and rookie Cordrea Tankersley.
Lippett filled in nicely last year and showed a lot of growth, so it will be interesting to see if he continues to show improvement. Considering that he made a position change from wide receiver to cornerback when he got to the NFL, it appears that he may just be scratching the surface of his potential.
The other player that I am very keen on seeing is Tankersley, who was a stud for Clemson the last two years and proved to be a true ball hawk with 9 interceptions during that time. Considering that Miami has Maxwell scheduled to make $10 million in 2018, but with no dead cap hit, if they choose not to keep him, it will be interesting to see if Tankersley can truly develop into Maxwell’s potential replacement.
Ultimately, I see a lot of battling for 3rd and 4th string, but only Asiata looks to actually take a starting position–an interesting side note is he has also played at Center… hmmm. Well, I’m sure there will be other surprise players–at least we hope so. What are the rest of the Miami Dolphins’ thoughts about these two position battles and any others that you may be especially interested in seeing develop?
AcePerHead.com is the Pay Per Head industry’s No. 1 service provider. We offer a wide range of bookie software services, all bundled together into one great price, $10 per player per week. If you want to jump in and start using the best sportsbook software, sign up for a free trial with us today. You’ll get the chance to see why so many bookies are already using Ace’s best pay per head software to make more money as a bookie.
Out of all the linebackers I would think Timmons the least likely to move outside. Yet that’s what they’re doing. I don’t get it but hopefully they’re smarter than me
That’s the thing Samson… are they smarter than us? Are they smarter than most of the other regimes? This Miami regime is operating like they believe they are. I have taken the stance (for the most part) that I think they might be. Jimmy is swimming harder than me in this direction. Plenty of comments question many of their moves, and I totally agree that under common circumstance and regimes that this would be an ill omen. But there is place in NFL circles of elite coaching and talent acquisition where players are found and placed where there strengths are allowed to be the center piece of their game. We have seen the Pats, Seahawks and the Cardinals of the NFL do it time and time again. Players and the team seem to rise above the projection. I am more saying that this Dolphins regime needs to be that kind of team– at least for this year– to find success. I reserve the right to be wrong, but I have a feeling that they are at least close to this level. Of course, time will tell.
Just finished my coffee and was thinking about your post:
Timmons, Hewitt, Kiko, Misi and McMillan are the front runner at this point.
SLB: Misi, Timmons, and McMillan
MLB: Timmons, Kiko, and McMillan
WLB: Kiko or Hewitt
These would be the likely spots in either hard coated positions or in the versatile positioning Burke spoke of.
I’ll just consider hard coated at this point.
Misi is excellent at run stop and terrible in coverage and injury prone and not practicing at this point. I wasn’t there– sadly, so I don’t know where everyone was playing. Was it Kiko in the middle with Timmons at SLB and Hewitt at WLB? I don’t mind that, if so. Timmons gets a bad wrap for coverage, but he was beat by the Pats covering Edelmen… so I think this take is’s very skewed. So, he comes from a 3-4 which means he gets alot more engagement with Linemen than a normal 4-3 backers. So I’m not concerned at this point with him moving. Also, this is OTA’s and it is the feeling out stage. I’d say I’d be fine with him at MLB because of history and the aforementioned hype about his lack of coverage. Kiko had a very hard time last year beating blocks,, his man coverage wasn’t hot either. But he excelled in one coverage by mid season and in his read and attack. Last year though he was subject to too much scrum due to the DL screwing it up and not forcing blocks and beating blocks. Even though he is bigger in that way he is like Zach. Zach was obviously amazing, but having Gardener and Bowens and Taylor to keep him clean allowed him to accentuate his read and attack and tackle skills. IF Phillips becomes what he could be, paired up with Suh, Kiko could be and excellent MLB. So, given his long term projection as a Fin and his skill set, I can see him returning as MLB with Timmons backing him up. Also, I could see him as a WLB. BUT WLB doesn’t have the same impact as MLB, but due to being on the back end it would allow him to have his skillset be even more accentuated as he could pursue backend with even less interference and use his zone covers skills. Then their is Hewitt, who I think is a bit underappreciated. He had a solid year and I don’t see any reason why his growth is capped. I only see him in the WLB spot. He does attack well and has alot of burst, speed, and athletics. His coverage should be better with growth. It is more about knowing where to be and applying his techniques and keys more than ability to get there. Last there is McMillan. Still not sure what his role is… MLB or SLB? He could be a situational or depth player. Of course, he could have a whole lot of bite and take a spot. Likely though, if it were me, and given the importance and difficulty of this season, I can see SLB Timmons, MLB Kiko, and WLB Hewiit with Misi providing depth and situational presence and McMillan filling in as injuries, growth, and matchups allow.
Just my post coffee-pre caffeine drink–2 cents. Maybe after my Monster I’ll change my mind brother! 🙂
I still think Hull could be a decent MLB. If like you say Phillips steps up and the line keeps the backers clean. The little bit he played he seemed to be around the ball a lot. Don’t know if any can be really good without the D-line playing better. Maybe Timmons because he seems to be the best at getting through tackles
I like Hull too, but he seemed to be a little overwhelmed physically last year. Who knows at this point. Maybe Timmons plays MLB and is just getting a feel for SLB just in case. Burke did say he likes being able to move guys around. Maybe Kiko and Timmons are chess pieces with huge flexibility? That would be awesome. There are so many quantities with an unknown quality it’s tough to figure out… especially this early. Even the coaches would admit alot of this is a shot in the dark at this point. But it’s fun pulling the trigger :).
When looking closely at the draft and current situation it’s clear the Fins did little to improve their weaknesses. Thus, critiques really are correct. Where are the weaknesses and what should have been done? The same thing that everyone was yelling about: Guard, LB, CB (not necessarily in that order). However, they lost the chance to get a top Guard or LB and chose DE instead. Uh okay. Well, that’s eh interesting. Did they think our #1 DE is the kind that won’t be available again for some time? If so, then they made a calculated guess because they had a shot at a career Guard in Lamp or the choice of LB including a TRUE outside LB. Something that we do not have (definitely a problem).
There’s this idea that guards are a dime a dozen. Okay – well prove it. Go get one. They didn’t. Instead they got Larsen. We’ll see but if he may get overtaken by either a rookie or 2nd stringers….hmmm.
Kevin, you nailed it, “prove it”. I personally thought they should have picked up Osemele last year, but they are running the high end FO template, and as you said, they must prove it. If they don’t it will be as bad as 2015 when they missed out on Mathis. If they get solid play out of the line this year, they earn brilliance markings for being smarter than conventional wisdom. If they don’t, then they are fools and will have severally tarnished the image the have been building. Asiata, Bushrod, Larsen, and Steen must be at least capable or this regime will wear the dunce cap.
As far as OLB, it looks like Timmons might be playing there as he practiced outside. Not sure if that means kiko is inside and Hewitt is outside, or Kiko is also outside and McMillan is inside… or some other combo. But at this point is seems Timmons is the SLB– at least from the reports.
And again, this season, and their moves to set it up, will prove them to be either wise or fools…
…the position battle that will matter most to our season will be at LB
…unless Asiata is a huge surprise, our OL will be mediocre …at best
…Lippett could make the CB battle interesting but not season changing
…but LB? …we have a new FA LB that may be a 2-down player at MLB, a 2nd rounder who played MLB all his life, a decent LB that played MLB well last year for us and we’re moving outside …maybe …and an average joe returning from a season off who last played a full year at MLB …and then we have a Dion Jordan type LB we’re projecting at DE …to do what? …warm the bench there? …not to mention Hull and Hewitt trying to break through …and a rookie DC with a myriad of other problems
…how the LB battle plays out could easily define our season more than any other position contests …imnsho of course 🙂
…the position battle that will matter most to our season will be at LB
I could live with Timmons at MLB and Alonso at WLB and Misi at SLB–athough timmons was playing outide in OTA’s.
…unless Asiata is a huge surprise, our OL will be mediocre …at best
If a miracle of science happens and Pouncey is healthy, I could see slightly above avg. Guard with the rest do well enough… if Pouncey goes down then it’s avg. or slightly below…and that’s not good enough.
we have a new FA LB that may be a 2-down player at MLB, a 2nd rounder who played MLB all his life, a decent LB that played MLB well last year for us and we’re moving outside
We’ll see about his coverage skills and with Timmons practicing outside, he could be vying for MLB
But, all in all, I think LB over Cb as well… Jimmy thought different.