What went Wrong and Right in Training Camp so far for the Phins
What went Wrong and Right in Training Camp so far for the Phins
The Dolphins have completed 10 days of training camp so far and will be playing their first Preseason game this Friday, and there has been a mixture of very positive and negative things. It will be interesting to watch how this team improves throughout training camp and preseason.
For the positive developments, let’s start with the most important, which is Ryan Tannehill. It appears that Tannehill has picked up Bill Lazor‘s new offense very quickly, and it is a good fit for Tannehill’s athletic abilities. Let’s not forget that Tannehill was once a very good receiver at Texas A&M, and he made a lot of plays with his legs after the catch. It appears that Lazor plans on using some read-option in his offense, and this will give Tannehill the chance to make some more plays with his legs. He has already flashed his running potential in camp, and it has the chance to make him more of a double threat this upcoming season. In addition to this, Tannehill has also improved on getting rid of the ball a lot faster. Football betting software knows first hand that Tannehill has struggled his first two seasons with holding on to the ball too long, and this was one of the reasons for his 58 sacks last season. Tannehill’s quicker release is a combination of his personal improvement and Lazor’s up-tempo offense, and this should help to limit his sacks during the season.
Another positive development is that the secondary has been very active in creating turnovers during training camp. The secondary only gave up 5 passing touchdowns last season, and they appear to have improved since last year with some solid play from their two new free agents Delmas and Finnegan. These two players have also added more physicality to the Phins’ defense, which is a sign of a good football team.
The two biggest negatives so far have been finding a player that can consistently anchor the right guard position and a lack of improvement from the linebacking group. At the moment Shelley Smith, Dallas Thomas, and Billy Turner are all competing for the chance to start at the right guard. Smith has been a career backup, and training camp has not given any indication as of yet that he is worthy to be a starter. He looks small and his pass blocking skills have been suspect. Billy Turner has looked like the toughest and most aggressive of the three, however, his technique and fundamentals need a lot of work if he wants to be able to hold his own against NFL defensive lineman. Lastly, there is Dallas Thomas who has bulked up since his rookie season, but he still looks to be lacking on the physicality side, and he has no NFL starting experience. It will be interesting to see which player will be able to shine during the preseason games and make a legitimate claim to the starting right guard position.
The other negative is that the linebacking group which was a weak link last season has the same players as last year. However, the coaching staff has decided to move Misi into the middle linebacker spot and move Ellerbe to the outside. The move makes sense since Misi is the type of player who is always in the right spot and does not make a lot of mistakes, so being the center of the defense should not be that hard of a responsibility for him to handle. However, he has never played middle linebacker in his college or NFL career, so it’s hard to measure if this change will actually be an improvement for the linebacking group. The problem is that the Phins have put all their eggs in one basket on this experiment, so if it does not pan out then the only thing they can do is move Ellerbe back to the middle, and we will then be stuck with the same exact situation as last season. So until this group actually plays a regular-season game together with Misi in the middle, it will be a mystery if this maneuver was a success or not.
