2017 brings a lot of new faces, but which one will offer the biggest impact?
Dolphins need some of these new faces to contribute in a big way
The Miami Dolphins made plenty of moves this off-season by signing free agents, drafting rookies and bringing in a bunch of undrafted Rookies.
Each acquisition was done with painstaking research in an attempt make this roster even better than last season.
The 13 players added to the roster that are expected to make the most contributions are: Lawrence Timmons, Nate Allen, Julius Thomas, Ted Larsen, William Hayes, Charles Harris, Raekwon McMillan, T.J. McDonald, Cordrea Tankersley, Davon Godchaux, Isaac Asiata, Vincent Taylor, and Isaiah Ford.
There are a bunch of other undrafted rookies and camp bodies looking to make the team as well. Maybe one of them like RB De’Von Smith might shake this up.
But I’ll just focus in these 13.
There’s been a fair amount of hype about TE Thomas. Given Miami’s weak Tight End play over the years, it’s easy to see why he’s getting a lot of play as the favorite to have the biggest impact of the new comers.
Sometimes new players don’t pan out… but sometimes they make all the difference to a season
It doesn’t take Bookmaker Software as AcePerHead.com to see that Thomas has a huge advantage having played two years in Denver while Adam Gase was the Offensive Coordinator… during which, he put up eye-popping game statistics with 108 catches, 1,277 receiving yards and 24 touchdowns, and that was with him missing a total of 5 games.
However, we all know the rest of the story. After Thomas cashed in on his performance and went to Jacksonville, he missed 11 games in two seasons with the Jaguars and never performed like he did in Denver.
Having Peyton Manning throwing the pigskin made a world of difference–huh?
I’m not saying he’ll be a flop. I think he will contribute, but history says it’s 50/ 50 whether the impact will be big. Unfortunately, history says the he’ll get injured is more like 75/ 25.
Despite this, the Dolphins are banking on a healthy reunion with Gase to the tune of 6 million this season. Smartly, they avoided long term commitment… they played hard ball and won.
To the plus side, after somewhat of a rocky start that was a bit of Jordan Cameron déjà vu, Tannehill and Thomas made strides in their timing, generating several chunk plays down the seem.
Can’t complain about that.
Yet, despite this improvement, I’m pushing my chips to Linebacker Lawrence Timmons to make the biggest impact of the new comers.
Guy’s like Timmons may be new to the Fins, but are savvy vets to the NFL
First of all, Timmons has played in this league for 10 years, and he only missed a total of two games in 2009, which shows he’s a warrior and tough as nails. Also Timmons’ play has been about as consistent as you can ask with 100 plus tackles each season for the last 5 straight seasons (It would have been 7 in a row, but he had 93 tackles in 2011).
Now that’s history siding with you!
He also had some success in impact play as well. In those last 5 seasons he has averaged 3.5 sacks each season, 1 forced fumble each season, and 1.5 interceptions each season.
Since Linebacker was one of our biggest needs this off-season, I love his chances to make the biggest immediate impact of any of our new additions due to production, a filling need, versatility, and leadership.
As a close runner up, I’ll put Rookie DE Harris as the new comer who’ll generate the most impact.
During OTA’s and Mini-camp he was consistently one of the most impressive players on the field, and he appears to have an excellent motor and work ethic already.
Yeah, it was just practice, but so far, on and off the field, he has been exemplary.
But even if he’s just a pass-rushing specialist, given the value of getting to the Quarterback, Harris impact would be immense if he could get a to 7-9 sacks this season.
Which player’s doe s the rest of the Miami Dolphins News fans think will make the biggest impact in their first year as a Miami Dolphins?
