Thomas was presenting match-up problems for the defense in OTA’s
Thomas, if healthy, could work the seams of opposing defenses in 2017
The NFL is a passing league. Gone are the days where teams just ground and pound the ball with only a couple of passes per game all the way to the championship.
The league has made it tougher for players in the secondary to cover pass catchers with stricter enforcement of pass interference and strong protection of the QB position through rule changes.
A result of this passing emphasis, the last decade has witnessed the expansion of the Tight End into a game-breaking position.
Instead of Tight Ends being forced to stay on the line and block with their production mostly over-the-middle catches, now Tight Ends are a big-play part of a team’s passing game–just as much as the split out Wide Receivers.
Players such as Gronkowski, Graham, Gates, and Olsen have been deadly, creating mismatches all over the field, and scoring touchdowns at record-setting paces. However, it doesn’t take an expert in NFL Odds, the best pay per head review sites, to realize that Miami hasn’t taken advantage of the shift.
But, now in Adam Gases’ second year in Miami, he made sure to at least address the Dolphins weakness at the Tight End position by acquiring two TE’s: Julius Thomas and Anthony Fasano. The Dolphins parted ways with Dion Sims, who always showed potential, but never really developed into a top passing catching TE. Thomas on the other hand has had a 2-year stint with Coach Gase in Denver where he scored 24 touchdowns.
While it’s been two years since then, Gase and Thomas are hoping they can reclaim that magic.
Thomas is the lightening to Fasano’s thunder of the T.E. position
Gase has proven in both Denver and Chicago that he’s a creative offensive coordinator that can call up tremendous success using his TE’s. The move to get both Thomas and Fasano is the setup to the Dolphins moving the TE position into a more prominent position in Miami’s passing game.
Let’s also not forget that Fasano is no slouch, even this late in his career. Although his blocking– as the best blocking TE in the NFL in 2016– will be his focus, he has still racked up 35 touchdowns in his career. You can count on him to make a couple of clutch grabs this season.
There’s no question that on paper these two players are an upgrade over last year’s TE’s. However, the biggest obstacle to get over is chemistry. Pass catchers and QB’s need to be on the same page, and when Jordan Cameron came to Miami in 2015, only two years removed from an 80 catch, 917 yards and 7 TD season, it was thought that he would be able to replicate those statistics in Miami. However, Cameron and Tannehill never got in sync, so, unfortunately, there are no guarantees that Tannehill and Thomas can develop deadly chemistry together… at least Fasano has a history with Miami’s QB.
During the first week of OTA’s, there was a lot of good stuff going on. One thing that was particularly evident was that Tannehill and Thomas were not on the same page. Yes, Thomas was getting open, but rarely did they have success connecting.
It’s only the first week, so there’s no reason why they shouldn’t get better and more in sync. Thomas certainly has what it takes, now it will be about timing for Tannehill. Then of course there’s the buzz word for many of this team’s players: health. Can he stay healthy long enough to get on the same page with Tannehill? What are the rest of the Miami Dolphins News fans’ thoughts about whether or not Miami can finally have a deadly weapon at the TE position this year?
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