College football is not the same without fans

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In an episode of “Batman The Animated Series,” in which the hero was perceived to be out of the picture, the Joker tried to take advantage of the caped crusader’s absence by robbing a jewelry store. At the end, the Joker lets out a deep sigh with a long face and says, “Without the Batman, crime has no punchline.”

The 2020 college football season feels the same way. Saturday’s game between the South Florida Bulls and the Citadel Bulldogs was the first game this year with zero spectators in attendance.

Without fans, college football has no soul. What’s the meaning of an upset without the sight of the distraught home fans covered in body paint putting their hands over their head in disbelief?

A full stadium is the ultimate stage in sports, but this game looked like a dress rehearsal. Especially when considering The Citadel uniforms. The Bulldogs took the field wearing a plain white helmet with two blue stripes on top and no logo, a blank white jersey with just blue numbers in standard font, no name or stripe, and grey pants. They looked like the generic football team in the commercials.

Matchups between FBS and FCS teams are usually the dress rehearsal of the season but that never stopped fans crowding the perimeter of the stadium, tailgating, celebrating the return of football in their town.

There was none of that in Tampa. While Florida State and Miami opened their season with a small number of fans at the games, USF elected to not allow anyone but media and staff into the stadium for their season opener, waiting until their conference slate in October before allowing a small number of spectators.

First year USF head coach Jeff Scott, who previously spent the last five years as Clemson’s offensive coordinator, found it to be fitting.

“We’re starting over,” Scott said. “This is a new era. This is starting a new decade. We’re gonna start in front of no fans and then hopefully we get back in October and start building it. It goes to 15,000 fans and if the guys truly buy into what we’re doing, I have a vision we’ll fill this stadium up in the future whenever we’re allowed to.”

USF defeated The Citadel 27-6 with relative ease. The Bulls players seemed to not even need the energy normally supplied by fans in attendance. They did that themselves through cheering and dancing.

“I really don’t care too much about fans,” USF receiver DeVontres Odoms-Dukes said. I was more focused on catching this touchdown pass, helping the team win and celebrating with my teammates. Those are my fans.”

Dukes also said that having fans cheer the team on will be helpful and is indeed missed but the sentiment has long been there. Players have always been so isolated from college student body and the locals that it creates a sense of separation. The players are taught to believe that they only have themselves and everyone else is either the enemy or irrelevant bystanders. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exasperated that.

The corona virus ravaged the United States and the rest of the world. It has caused fear and division among us. Like a post-apocalyptic Dr. Seuss world where we are divided up between the sneetches with stars and without, but the stars are replaced with masks in this reality. Everybody should wear a mask, but nobody wants to. To wear one is for protection, but it is also an annoyance, especially if you wear glasses.

A week will not go by where instead of scrolling on Twitter every Saturday for college football jokes, you’ll end up with video clips of people bunched together and the fear mongering that will come with it.

The PAC-12 and Big-10 have decided to postpone their football season to the fall, although the ladder is reconsidering due to public backlash. The other conferences are going out as planned but with a small number of allowed fans spread out around the stadium.

It is a noble attempt but it’s just not the same. Without the normally sold out crowds, college football is nothing more than a television product suitable to long distant fans and those looking to make a quick buck based on an accurate prediction.

Heat’s Goran Dragic, on a Tear, is Hardly Done

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One minute and 21 seconds on the clock.

Jimmy Butler with the ball at the top of the key up five. He drives to the basket and gets double teamed. Goran Dragic noticing, finds open space on the opposite baseline. Jimmy finds him and Goran hits the dagger to finish off the Milwaukee Bucks in game five.

After a bunch of wild sequences that followed this possession, this play got pushed aside. But it shouldn’t have. Miami was in major need of a bucket, and Goran delivered once again.

This was just another clear example of Goran’s unbelievable feel for the game off the ball, which isn’t normal for a point guard.

But what is normal for Goran?

Is it normal for a 34 year old to be playing 35 minutes a game in the playoffs? No, it’s not.

Is it normal for a player to naturally adjust from a sixth man role to the starting point guard and absolutely flourish? No, it’s not.

But well, it is normal for Goran Dragic. He’s a player that plays the exact same way every game, since he can control the game at his own speed. This is why Goran has played so well with the bench unit throughout the season, since he can be in control of the offense.

He’s currently averaging 21.1 points per game in the nine playoff games played, but that number doesn’t fully express the things he has done for this team in this deep postseason run. Big shot after big shot. Crucial play after crucial play.

Although he’s a bit of a defensive liability, he has made much needed defensive plays throughout the playoffs, including vital double teams and clutch steals late in games. That’s because he’s a winner. And winners do things that they don’t usually do to end games.

(You can get that here…)

He’s also a guy that plays with the most lineups on the team. Spo continually likes to mix him in with different units to find a spark. And he’s found that spark as of late with inserting Goran in with the second unit, which he’s played with throughout the regular season. This then allows Goran to be the number one option on the floor, while he’s more of a facilitator with Jimmy Butler and the starting unit.

This doesn’t take anything away from the special connection of Jimmy Butler and Goran Dragic. They both end up on the court together to finish games out late in the fourth quarter, which allows them to bounce off each other. They usually put the ball in the hands of whoever has it going at that time, just as we saw them do to close out game five. And they’ve also had a clear chemistry off the court, mostly since Goran shares the same exact mentality that Jimmy does, which is a winning one. He mentioned the other day in a session with media, “I love my teammates,” and it clearly shows that’s true in the games.

Goran Dragic is here for one reason and one reason only, which is to win a championship.

It doesn’t matter if it’s EuroBasket, a practice scrimmage, or game 7 of the NBA finals, you can guarantee Goran’s going to give it all that he’s got. He’s a Miami Heat type player, which has been further shown over this stretch.

The dragon has fire in his eyes heading into the Eastern Conference Finals, and he’s not satisfied.

 

Brady Hawk (@BradyHawk305) contributes on the website and on Five on the Floor shows. If you want to sponsor his work, email Sales@FiveReasonsSports.com 

Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores has been fired

Pressure Point: Brian Flores man of the moment for Dolphins

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South Florida sports are suddenly rife with intriguing personalities. Would-be difference-makers. Most are young with dynamic potential.

Some already recognizable by a single name.

For the Miami Heat, bound for the Eastern Conference finals, there’s Jimmy (Butler, the veteran exception, spearheading this run in his first season in Miami), Bam (Adebayo), (Tyler, we didn’t have to wait for another) Herro.

The playoff-contending Miami Marlins: Sixto (Sanchez, the new Jose), Sandy (Alcantara), Jazz (Sweet and Sour Patch Kids Chisholm).

The retooled Miami Hurricanes: Flashy new quarterback D’Eriq King — by either name, a winning ring.

Finally, the Miami Dolphins, entering Sunday’s season opener: shortest, most recognizable and carrying the grandest expectations — Tua.

But the pivotal character in this certain-to-be most unusual Dolphins season isn’t Tua Tagovailoa immediately emerging as the team’s first star quarterback since Dan Marino retired two decades ago, though it would be a welcome development.

The Extra Yard: Projecting 2020 Miami Dolphins season

Flores most important Dolphin

Coach Brian Flores is the Man of the Moment for Miami in 2020 — the man on the spot.

Will Flores be the first to cast an enduring name as Dolphins coach since Shula? Or will he come and go in the blink of a Gase?

However it plays out, Flores is a fascinating figure — a man of action, a man of principle, a man of the times.

For now, might as well call him “Sir” and get out of his way. Because Flores is coming straight at you and not yielding.

Flores has been outspoken about racial inequality in the country and relates it to his experience growing up as a Black man of Honduran descent in Brownsville, Brooklyn, one of the roughest parts of New York City.

He was fully involved in the powerful video Dolphins players released Thursday, featuring verse about racial issues and explanation of why the team intends to remain in the locker room before Sunday’s game at New England during the playing of the national anthem and the Black anthem “Lift Every Voice And Sing.”

This Miami Dolphins season not just about football

He is similarly principled in his approach to running a football team. Ultimately, that’s how he will be judged here.

This second season at the helm should start to tell about the direction of the rebuilding collaboration between Flores and general manager Chris Grier.

Still finding way as head coach

But make no mistake, this is Flores’ team. Through an extensive roster makeover since he was hired in 2019, the coach has gotten the type of players he wants to mold under his philosophy. Those who haven’t fit or bucked the program have quickly been shown the door.

Those have included accomplished talent such as Minkah Fitzpatrick, Kiko Alonso and Kenny Stills.

Some of Flores’ methods have been eyebrow-raising, such as the practice-field stream of Jay-Z songs to get under Stills skin and motivate him. It didn’t go over well, and Stills was traded soon after.

It also remains to be seen how Flores’ in-your-face, no-nonsense approach will endear him in the locker room over the long haul.

“I coach guys hard. I’m demanding. I’m still that way and I’m going to be that way,” Flores said this week.

It should be noted, though, that he has made an effort to get to know his players away from the field and taken an interest in their lives. Also, several veteran free agents who worked under or were well acquainted with Flores on the Patriots elected to sign with the Dolphins this offseason.

Still, he is still finding his way as a head coach. Some decisions have been head-scratching. Certainly, some of the personnel decisions by Flores and Grier have been questionable.

Some questionable moves

They quickly discarded injured fifth-round pick Curtis Weaver, an edge rusher with potential, when they could have kept him for the future.

Oddly, they drafted a long snapper, Blake Ferguson, in the sixth round when they could have taken another promising edge rusher and South Florida product, Jonathan Garvin, a former Miami Hurricane who went in the seventh round and earned a job with the Green Bay Packers after an impressive training camp.

Then there was the failed experiment with quarterback Josh Rosen, who they acquired for a 2019 second-round pick and a 2020 fifth-round pick, only to release him this summer.

An interesting viewpoint on that was presented by Kyle Crabbs of thedraftnetwork.com, who argued that if the Dolphins hadn’t traded for Rosen they probably wouldn’t have been in position to draft Tagovailoa at No. 5 this April.

That is partly predicated on Rosen’s three ill-fated starts. Had Ryan Fitzpatrick been in there instead, particularly for the Washington game in which the veteran nearly completed a remarkable comeback in relief of Rosen, the Dolphins may have finished with at least one more win in 2019. That would have given them the No. 8 pick and Tua would have been out of reach unless they traded up.

Flores’ view: “You don’t hit on every player, on every trade, on every draft pick. Show me a team that’s hit on every one. And I’ll applaud that team.”

We will begin to find out Sunday if Flores/Grier made the right choices in the 2020 draft and free agency.

Rookies earn roles

Draftees Austin Jackson (left tackle) and Solomon Kindley (right guard) are already starters on the offensive line and Robert Hunt is a prime backup at guard and tackle.

On defense, cornerback Noah Igbinoghene and d-linemen Raekwon Davis and Jason Strowbridge are expected to have immediate situational roles.

Versatile receiver Malcolm Perry, a seventh-round pick who was a quarterback at Navy, has gotten favorable reviews. They picked up a similarly intriguing player, Lynn Bowden Jr., in what amounted to a swap with the Raiders for 2017 second-round pick Raekwon McMillan.

No doubt Flores has more talent available in year two. It’s up to him to fit the pieces together and make them work.

Eventually he’ll decide when the time is right to unleash Tua.

Flores earned himself some capital last season by coaxing five wins out of a roster that was stripped down and constantly churned until a team that started 0-7 went 5-4 over the last nine weeks.

Fitting that it begins Sunday in New England, where Flores made his mark as a Super Bowl champion defensive coach and where 2019 ended with a 27-24 Dolphins win that mark the conclusion of Tom Brady’s remarkable run with the Patriots. Remember, the Patriots overran the Dolphins 43-0 in Week 2.

Five things to watch for Dolphins vs. Patriots

Because COVID canceled the preseason, we’ve never known less about a Dolphins team going into the opener.

Maybe some of these Dolphins rookies will make names for themselves in the NFL quicker than Tua. If so, they may help keep Flores’ name relevant in Miami for quite a while.

Craig Davis has covered South Florida sports and teams, including the Dolphins, for four decades. Follow him on Twitter @CraigDavisRuns

Dolphins coach Brian Flores drafted the type of players he wants to build around.

Flores, Dolphins once again at the forefront of change

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Miami Dolphins’ players released a powerful video Thursday night that showed the type of leadership Brian Flores has instilled in his players.

A New Era in Miami

It has been 584 days since Brian Flores became the 13th head coach in Miami Dolphins’ history. It didn’t take long for everyone to notice a change in South Florida.

Sure, after all the moves and signing this offseason, the new players have fans excited.

But it is Miami’s second-year head coach that should give everyone the most hope, and not just for his schemes and strategy.

Earlier this offseason, I wrote about Brian Flores, his leadership during the George Floyd Protests, and how the NFL should’ve followed his lead. 

So, with the season approaching and the world watching to see how the NFL would handle protests and other social issues.

It was no surprise that once again Brian Flores and his Miami Dolphins were the first to make a statement.

 

13 Dolphins players including head coach Brian Flores appeared in this incredible video created by Kaleb Thornhill, the Dolphins Director of Player Engagement.

 

After the video released, reaction around Twitter spread quickly, as expected.

Most of the feedback was positive. However, as you can expect, there was a small group that had an issue with an NFL franchise not “sticking to sports”.

Flores was asked about his thoughts on the video and the origin behind it.

“It came about because of all of the things that have gone on in the country over – obviously starting with Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. I think this has been an ongoing conversation. I think we all know how it came about. It was a player-driven decision that came from a lot of conversations about trying to find a way to voice their opinion. It’s about issues that are important to the players and we decided to move forward with it. They are things that I’m supportive of as well, and that’s why I joined in with them.”

I could not be happier with how Miami’s players and staff have handled this unprecedented season.

There’s an old saying that “not all heroes wear capes.” The same holds true for football players and their helmets and pads.

But in this instance, Coach Flores and his players are heroes.

And like many others have said, I have never been more proud to call myself a Dolphins’ fan — that has everything to do with what this team has begun to embody both on and off the field.

He was then asked if the players had talked to owner Stephen Ross and what they hope to achieve with this call to action.

“I talked to Steve about the video. He was supportive. But it was directed at everyone. I think every individual in this country can do a little bit better. It’s players, it’s coaches, it’s owners, it’s media, it’s everyone. Everyone can do better and that was the message. I think to try to misconstrue the message or take it some other – in a different light – that wasn’t what the message was supposed to be. We can all do better. We all need to do better. What’s happening in this country and really around the world, we need change. And it’s something that we’ve been saying for a long time. The players were – the video speaks for itself from that standpoint; but from a message standpoint, it’s that we can all do better.”

The strongest statement from the Dolphins’ HC on Thursday morning was what he said regarding the NFL’s response to the ‘protest movement’.

“I think we can all do better. That was the message in the video. Nobody is going to put words in my mouth about how I feel about this, that or the other thing. I think the video speaks for itself… We’ve got kids who can’t go to school because there is no WiFi. To me, that’s a major issue because I would have been that kid growing up where I grew up. We can do better. We can find ways to help more people. That’s the message in the video. That’s what it is.”

 

Elandon Roberts, Isaiah Ford, and Mike Gesicki also weighed in on the video and how unified Miami’s roster is.

 

It took 584 days for Brian Flores to reshape the Dolphins into his vision.

We got a long way to go as a society. But if we listen to what Flores and his players preach, change could be imminent.

“We can all do better.”

 

#InBrianFloresWeTrust

 

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D' Eriq King

Miami Hurricanes Take Care of UAB 31-14 to Open Season

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The Miami Hurricanes opened the 2020 season with a 31-14 victory over UAB in front of just over 8,000 fans at Hard Rock Stadium.

Finally, at long last, the Miami Hurricanes appear to have found the answer at the most important individual position in sports.

 

The stat line for King doesn’t tell the whole story, as he finished 16-for-24 for just 144 yards and a touchdown through the air. What stood out immediately was his athleticism not only outside the pocket, but also under duress in it.

 

He did miss several throws, including what would have been an easy touchdown to Jeremiah Payton.

His decisiveness when pulling it down is uncanny, and when he is in the open field his ability as a ball carrier shines.

For the night he finished with 12 carries for 83 yards and a touchdown, with a long rush of 31 yards.

King looks like the real deal and will only get better with each passing week.

Miami’s Backfield is Going to be a Problem

Speaking of the running game, the Hurricanes showed right away that their backfield is going to cause a lot of defensive coordinators to lose sleep.

 

Harris was a force to be reckoned with and set the tone for a balanced offensive attack, finishing with 17 carries for 134 yards (7.9 YPC) and two scores.

Here Comes the Rooster

Miami offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee leaned heavily on the running game as the Hurricanes ran the ball 52 times for a staggering 337 yards.

Harris was not alone as Miami’s highly touted freshman tandem of Jaylan Knighton and Don Chaney Jr. combined for 111 yards rushing in their own right.

Knighton and Chaney bring a great change of pace and compliment Harris perfectly, and each should be able to maintain a high level of production when called upon. Miami has a history of great running backs and this group has the talent to leave their mark as well.

The much maligned offensive line for the most part held up against the UAB pass rush and opened huge lanes for the ground game, their continued development will be a big key to the success of the Hurricanes’ offense.

Miami was 7-of-17 on third down for the game which is a welcome sight from an execution standpoint.

Defense Settles in

UAB opened the scoring in the first quarter after a Mark Pope fumble on a punt return set them up in great field position. Tyler Johnston would hit Austin Watkins for a 16-yard touchdown to give the Blazers an early 7-0 lead. Miami immediately answered on a 66-yard scamper to knot the game at seven, and the Hurricanes would force five consecutive punts to close out the first half.

Spencer Brown did have his moments out of the UAB backfield but he was about the only one as UAB managed only 80 rushing yards total, with Brown finishing with 74 yards of that total. The Miami front seven was disruptive all night, finishing with six tackles-for-loss. However the pass rush wasn’t much of a factor as Quincy Roche managed the lone sack in the game for Miami.

DJ Ivey had a rough game and could not find the football on the opening touchdown, and the Hurricanes did not force any turnovers.

We will have to wait another week for the new Turnover Chain.

 

All things being said it was an acceptable performance to start the season considering the circumstances. King and the offense will only get better, and the running back corps can control the game when they get ahead. Lashlee wants to have a balanced attack and the run-pass factor with King will give opposing defenses a lot to ponder.

We didn’t even see the best of the Miami Hurricanes in Week 1, and they will have to have to be better when they visit Louisville next Saturday.

However the floor for this team already seems higher than any team since 2017, while the ceiling could be much greater.

Follow @5ReasonsCanes for exclusive coverage of the Miami Hurricanes all season.

Subscribe to the 5 Rings Canes podcast here.

Feature image credit miamihurricanes.com.

 

Tyler Herro May Be the Future, But Also the Present

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You’d think people would be surprised that a 20 year old rookie is taking over playoff games against the best team in the NBA, but with Tyler Herro it’s no shock.

In the nine playoff games so far, he’s averaging 14.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game, as well as playing the most fourth quarter minutes on the team. He’s earned the respect and trust from his teammates and coaches the day he put on a Miami Heat uniform, but this playoff stretch has put him on another level.

If you take a look at his outstanding game five performance to close out the series against the Milwaukee Bucks, he pretty much took over. Superstar Jimmy Butler even took a step aside late in the game to let Tyler do what he does best. But that’s because Tyler Herro truly lives for these moments.

While many guys would probably hide in the corner in those situations, Tyler makes sure to go and get the ball at the top of the key, to put Miami in a position to make a play. And now that he’s added so many more dimensions to his offensive package, it makes him even more lethal.

Goran Dragic deserves some credit for the development of Tyler as well, since he’s added a bunch of Goran’s moves to his offensive play. This includes the patience on the pick and roll, the floater around the rim using the backboard, and even uses that off hand push off to his advantage that Goran has done is whole career.

If you take a look back at people’s perception of Tyler Herro early in the season, they’d probably start by saying he’s a natural scorer. Which he is, but if you asked every Heat player on the roster to describe  Herro, they’d name at least three things before speaking about his scoring.

Duncan Robinson spoke about the elite play of Tyler Herro in the postseason a couple days ago, which he said that his play-making abilities stand out to him more than his scoring. He also talked about his natural feel for the game, which he can read different situations in the game.

Herro has also put up similar numbers in his first six playoff games to Heat legend Dwyane Wade. And it seems as if Dwyane approves of Tyler’s outstanding play as of late.

He also has a beneficial match-up in the next round, with an expected Boston Celtics series. He’s played well against Boston this year, and that was when Marcus Smart was coming off of the bench to try and stop him. But with Gordon Hayward out and Marcus Smart entering the starting lineup, it just looks better and better for Tyler Herro. Miami will be looking to him throughout this series even more than the Milwaukee series, since there’s a clear advantage right there.

And now, here we are. The Eastern Conference Finals. Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo leading the way, with Goran Dragic being the unstoppable offensive force that he is. But, now it’s indeed Tyler Herro time.

Tyler Herro may be the future of this Heat team, but his time is now. He doesn’t need a rookie of the year trophy to cap off his extended rookie season. He’d rather take the Larry O’Brien Trophy, and it’s closer than ever.

 

Brady Hawk can be found at @BradyHawk305. If you’d like to sponsor this or other content, reach out to FiveReasonsSports@gmail.com 

 

THE EXTRA YARD: Projecting the 2020 Miami Dolphins Season

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It’s a new year, and after a busy offseason expectations have been re-calibrated. Make no mistake this was a complete roster overhaul right down to jettisoning the “prospective” developmental quarterback Josh Rosen, in favor of a clearer hierarchy with the place holder in Ryan Fitzpatrick, and the QB of the future in waiting Tua Tagovailoa ready to take the reigns. A complete overhaul of the run game (which was historically inept), that came with a new 1-2 punch, a slew of interior linemen and two rookie tackles.

Now, we wait for the results.

So let’s examine what the national media thinks. Most seem to see this large influx of talent, via free agency, the draft, and just assume that — combined with the apparent demise of the New England Patriots — the rise of the Miami Dolphins is sure to come.

Others are just sold on Brian Flores, and why not?

The new coach’s roster last year was built to win no more than a game or two, and he won five, and were really close to winning two more (at Jets, home vs. Washington). The main reason the bandwagon has some passengers all of a sudden comes the exodus from Foxboro of the New England Patriots. Gone, is Tom Brady. There is no Gronk. They lost Kyle Van Noy and Ted Karras to division rival Miami. They had a league high eight opt outs, including top performers Marcus Cannon, linebacker Dont’a Hightower, and safety Patrick Chung. Make no mistake, this is a weakened Patriots squad, ready for the picking.

So let’s examine this Dolphins team.

You have to start with a philosophy. It seems to have built one, via their offseason acquisitions. They seemed to make a conscience effort to build a girthy and powerful offensive line, as they added an Offensive coordinator (Chan Gailey) that specializes in creating an interior run game based on power running.

They added one of the best one-cut backs in football, in Jordan Howard, and gave him a guy to spell him (Matt Breida), that can hit home runs from anywhere on the field. Solomon Kindley is “Jamie Nails” like, in that you have likely have not seen a man as big as Kindley move like he moves. Ereck Flowers and Ted Karras figure to be a decent double team combination to get their lead iso game going, and Robert Hunt is waiting in the wings, and will likely play a lot as a 6th offensive lineman till he takes over at right tackle. Arrow up on the run game.

How bout when they have to throw it? There is a quiet confidence in that building in Davie, that they might have replaced Laremy Tunsil, with one 1st round pick and banked the rest in the haul they received last offseason. Austin Jackson has been a pleasant surprise. The thinking at the time he was drafted, was that he was likely a developmental guy not ready to contribute. He will start at Left Tackle from day 1, prepared to defend Ryan Fitzpatrick’s blind side.

Regarding Ryan Fitzpatrick, rare is the situation where you can be confident in your aging, competent veteran QB, and know that there is likely an improvement waiting to take over on the bench (Tua). Chris Grier deserves some credit as of late, as well. After some nervous moments looking at this WR corps, Grier actively attempted to replace the opt outs of Albert Wilson/Allen Hurns, with the signing of Antonio Callaway and a trade for Lynn Bowden. The passing game powered by DeVante Parker and Preston Williams figures to be at the very least above league average, and if it’s coupled with a good run game, it should be enough to win more than you lose this season.

This team seems built to win games with defense, as here is where the most talent is concentrated. While depth is always a concern, that is true for every NFL team, except the very few that can boast multiple starter worthy players in their rotations. The Dolphins have that on two units on defense. The Defensive line is deep up front with 2nd year starter, (with a rededicated body) Christian Wilkins, steady producer Davon Godchaux, late season standout Zach Sieler, and promising rookie Raekwon Davis exhibiting that “1st round talent” all summer. On the outside, Shaq Lawson and Emmanuel Ogbah are massive improvements over what they had there last year.

The linebacking group is solid with the intelligent, versatile Kyle Van Noy, an athletic dynamo in Jerome Baker, and physical thumper Elandon Roberts taking the Mike Backer duties. There are capable players behind them in Kamu Grugier-Hill and Andrew Van Ginkel.

The secondary is the strength of this team and boasts the third of what could be a legendary 1st round haul int he 2020 NFL draft. Noah Igbinoghene has the look of a budding star, and we already know that Xavien Howard and Byron Jones are among the very best at the position. Nik Needham was very good last year and figures to take a step forward, as he adds depth to an already deep unit. In Bobby McCain, Eric Rowe, Kavon Frazier, and Brandon Jones, you have the best of all worlds, and a versatile playmaking group at safety. This is one of the best secondaries in the NFL. To complete the squad, the kicking game is in very good hands in Jason Sanders and Matt Haack.

So where are they going this year? How good, how many wins?

I see them as a team that is a “mile wide, but an inch deep.”

The Dolphins, in my estimation lack some depth to supplement that young talent. This will make the 2021 offseason a very important one. You can’t forecast injuries, so assuming health for the squad, the Dolphins should field a competitive, exciting young team this year. Their expectations should be in that 7 to 9 win range, so I will be the optimist, and say they sneak out out of the regular season with 9 wins, and a playoff berth, where I see them losing to the Houston Texans in the first round. Too much is going right for this Fins team, for Coach Flores and company to not take advantage of it.

 

Alfredo Arteaga (@Alf_Arteaga) is one-third of the trio that does the Three Yards Per Carry (@3YardsPerCarry) podcast.

The Extra Yard: Five things to watch Dolphins vs Patriots

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We made it.

It has been a long and vigorous offseason following the Chiefs winning it all, but universally, we can all agree what a crazy year it has been and how happy we are to know that football is right around the corner. The lack of preseason was very missed by myself due to that being the time I spend the most analyzing the Dolphins and how all the new additions are syncing with the pieces we thought best to bring back for another year. Unfortunately, due to circumstances out of our control, we will have to do with what we have been given.

Here are five things to watch in the Dolphins week one matchup versus the Patriots.

Offensive and Defensive Lines

The lack of preseason creates a couple of highly interesting dynamics. Primarily around lineups, rotations, and how many snaps will each player be allowed to play? With the first couple of weeks essentially being preseason games, the two groups that will most likely be affected will be the defensive and offensive lines.

From speaking and hearing Flores, starting three rookies makes him a bit queasy, but I doubt that the starting offensive line will handle 50+ snaps right out of the gate. This is the perfect time to throw the rookies in the fire and seeing what they have. Kindley has specifically stood out all camp, and keeping an eye on his development will be critical to this team’s success. The defensive line is another group that will have a lot of bodies rotating. How are Godchaux and Wilkins developing? How are our rookies gelling? Davis seems to be standing out. Can he put it all together live? Can the new additions of Ogbah and Shaq Lawson give this team the pass rush they desperately missed last year?

Running Backs and Wide Receivers 

Another pair of groups that I will be keeping a close eye on will be the Wr and Rb groups. How are the rotations going to play out for the wide receivers on this team? No Allen Hurns or Albert Wilson due to having them opt out of the year means that other receivers will have to step up, especially since Parker has been out of practice since mid-July. How much playing time can Jakeem, Ford, and Preston coming off an ACL injury handle? Will we be forced to run more 2 or 3 tight end sets due to the lack of Wr?

Speaking of Preston, the trade for Lyndon Bowden Jr (A new LBJ in Miami) affects not only our Wr rotation but hopefully will limit the need to use Preston and even Jakeem as returners. The Rb group is impressive because of how we ultimately end up approaching who takes the most carries. Will we go with the Patriots approach, which uses one Rb for a specific role, Laird could be our James White, Howard our Sony, and Breida as our change of pace back. We could also take the 49ers approach and roll out all three guys and let whoever has the hot hand run wild that afternoon on top of all that we need to keep a close eye on how all the moving pieces in the Oline will affect the run game.

How will no preseason affect the team’s play early on?

Typically, during the early part of camp and the first few games of preseason, defenses are usually ahead of the offense. This year will be crucial to see how long offenses take to really get in sync. Will the lack of offense the first few weeks and almost guaranteed injuries force people to admit and realize how much we need at least two preseason games? Defensively, have Wilkins, Baker, Rowe, and Bobby McCain developed enough to take the next step in 2020?  Have all the new additions in Van Noy, Ogbah, Lawson, and Jones, have enough time to learn the system and execute it at a high level?

Is Xavien Howard ready to play a full-16 game season?

Will Xavien missing the whole offseason recovering from COVID and the knee injury that ended his year, be able to play at the high level we expect from the start. How many games until he can play his usual allotment of snaps? Will the most expensive pair of Cb in the NFL live up to the billing?

Will Brian Flores’ team remain disciplined in year two?

One of the few bright spots last year, which we can give a tremendous amount of credit to Flores for, was the lack of penalties. The Dolphins last year finished as the 6th fewest penalized team in the NFL, due mainly to the focus Flores put on that part of the game, as well as the TNT wall from last training camp. The TNT wall did not happen this year due to the time crunch we had to get everyone ready to play week one. Can we expect to improve on one of our strong points from last year? Or are we doomed to revert to what we have grown accustomed to seeing?
Additionally, the players are not the only ones who I’m curious to see development and growth. How will Coach Flores and the staff build on last year? Can they work on situational football, starting the season strong, timeout, and challenge management? If they can improve on those while still maintaining the intense focus on penalties, we may finally have a coaching staff we can rely on.

EXTRA: When will Tua Tagovailoa become Miami’s starting QB of the future?

Finally, we couldn’t finish talking about the Dolphins without speaking or mentioning Tua– now, could we? How does he look holding the clipboard? Does the No. 1 look good on him? Will he wear a visor? No, but in all seriousness, do we get a chance to see Tua in blowouts even from the start of the season? Or will Fitz have a long leash because Tua will only be 11 months removed from a severe hip injury?

Not sure about you guys, but this year feels completely different. It feels like we have a path and a route to follow with us beefing up our Oline and drafting the face of the franchise. Let’s see what this year has in store, because I for one, cannot wait.

 

Tua Tagovailoa’s time as Dolphins savior will come

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Tua Tagovailoa wakes up every day with the same question.

Is he the lion or the gazelle?

It’s a saying that his grandfather passed down to him in his youth. The point of which is both the prey and predator do the same thing every day but only one is pursuing the other. To him, he is the predator pursuing his goals.

HIs goals were to play college football, win the national championship, get drafted to the NFL and become the starting quarterback leading his team to the Super Bowl. Half of those boxes have been checked but his time as the starting quarterback of the Miami Dolphins will have to wait. Head coach Brian Flores announced on Monday that veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick will begin the season as the starter, using the unusual, pandemic stricken offseason where there was no OTAs, minicamp or preseason games as reasonable justification.

The story of Tagovailoa’s destiny with the Dolphins began a year ago, when after another lackluster failed attempt to returned to the playoffs, owner Stephen Ross fired head coach Adam Gase and overhauled the front office. The team’s leadership now consisted of a black general manager and a black head coach, at a time when either of which are as rare as finding a Nintendo Switch on stock.

The Dolphins began the previous season trading away most of their veteran players, the last vestiges of the Gase era, and were set up to lose as many games as possible. The thought of 0-16 seemed realistic when they were outscored 102-10 in their first two games of the season.

The goal was clear, sacrifice the 2019 season to guarantee as high of a draft pick as possible to take Tagovailoa. This was the consensus with the team brass, media and fan base. In a bizarre, twilight zone reality, the fans were rooting for the home team to lose.

With Josh Rosen starting under center, the Dolphins were well on their way to 0-16 with 10 more games to go. It was almost as if he was brought in from Arizona to provide false hope while assuring offensive failure. Head coach Brian Flores and players had to constantly reject the notion of tanking.

It was only fitting that the Dolphins first win came against Gase’s new team, the New York Jets. The rise of Joe Burrow and LSU and Tagovailoa’s season ending hip injury in November made it so that the Dolphins could afford to win a few games and have a chance to claim their prize. Miami finished the season 5-11 after starting 0-7, which lead to the belief that the Dolphins have the right head coach for the job.

It all became worth it at the end when the Alabama quarterback with fifth overall pick of the NFL Draft. When Tagovailoa eventually becomes the starter, the Dolphins will be the only team in the NFL with a person of color at quarterback, head coach and general manager. The point of that, as Tagovailoa put it during his lone media session in August was “That whoever can get the job done for us, that’s who we are going to go with.”

Sports has an interesting way of converging timelines. When Tagovailoa was a freshman at Alabama, linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill was winning the Super Bowl for the Philadelphia Eagles. The two Hawaiians united in Davie during training camp, which helped provide Tagovailoa a sense of familiarity within the locker room.

Despite entering this season as a backup, Tagovailoa had a successful training camp. He proved that he’s healthy enough to play. He’s learning from Fitzpatrick, whom he called “a coach” and “a mentor on and off the field.”

Tagovailoa spent the entire training camp earning the respect of his teammates. Offensive tackle Ereck Flowers pointed to his improvement in the classroom. Offensive guard Jesse Davis said he noticed him being increasingly vocal and show more confidence with every week. Running back Jordan Howard said he couldn’t even tell that Tua even had a hip injury less than a year ago.

Even the Dolphins defense took notice. Defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah noticed how much of a scrambling threat he is in practice. Cornerback Eric Rowe pointed to his arm strength as a factor that makes him a increasingly hard quarterback to defend.

Some quarterbacks were able to hit the ground running in the rookie year, and the best of them, such as Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers, took some time in the bench to learn. Tagovailoa’s time will come soon, and the Dolphins will soon find out whether it was all worth it.

 

Tony Capobianco is a lead photographer and sometimes writer for Five Reasons Sports Network.

Lionel Messi isn’t wrong, but he’s no saint

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This Friday was no news dump in sports, since Lionel Messi made the fútbol world shake by announcing that he is, in fact, staying with FC Barcelona while smartly taking back the narrative by granting an exclusive interview where he was able to put the blame on everybody but himself, especially Barcelona president and corruption investigation subject Josep María Bartomeu.

Messi tried to emulate Anthony Davis with an NBA-style, pre-free agency power move and he failed miserably at it, and he has no one but himself to blame.

All in all, what he ended up pulling was a media stunt that bought him an extra week of vacation missing only a few practices, no matches whatsoever and only hurt the ones that always end up getting hurt and then asked to forgive: The fans.

Manchester City and PSG were led on, Newell’s fans in his native Rosario made a massive caravan happen in order to try to convince him to come back to his original hometown…and then nothing happened. 

Let´s make this clear: Is Bartomeu a tool who should resign and absolutely deserves the scorn coming his way? Yes.

 Is the “It’s not June 10 anymore, so the end of season clause isn’t valid anymore” bullshit? Absolutely, Messi is right about that and he should be able to walk away as a free agent with no strings attached if he so wishes. 

Is Messi also being manipulative and trying to make it seem as if he is just an innocent bystander in the flaming car crash that is Barcelona after the humiliating 8-2 loss against eventual champion Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals? No doubt about it, in my mind. 

Just like when he said he would quit playing for Argentina in 2016 because he just couldn’t stand the thought of having lost three consecutive championship games. The media went nuts, fans clamored for him to reconsider, and then he came back as if nothing happened without missing a beat.

His main argument was that he didn’t want to take Barcelona – the club that he so loves and has played for his whole career, the one that saved him from desperation in Argentina to bring him glory – to court.

Oh, please, cry me a river, Lionel. What did you expect to happen when you sent scathing “burofaxes” (legally binding letters) to the Barcelona board of executives? Did you expect them to just willingly throw away their political futures as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue without a fight? 

Grow. Up. You are 33 years old, and if your dad and your brother didn’t see that coming then you should consider being advised by other people.

The press was “mean” to him with supposedly fake stories. He set up this whole public relations affair through the press, only sitting down to talk with his new coach once throughout the negotiations.

He also said that his wife and kids were distraught at the thought of leaving the city they have made their home for the past two decades, but that didn’t deter him from wanting to play for a more “competitive” team. So you wanted to bail at the first sign of adversity for your team in 15 years regardless of the cost? Got it.

Messi is not wrong to have felt manipulated and deceived by a technicality, but he also is no saint. 

This twisted marriage between a desperate team and an aging superstar will provide plenty of fodder for the tabloids from now until his contract expires in June of next year. 

If I was a betting man, however, I would put my money on him not going anywhere. He has shown not once, but twice in four years that his threats are empty. Barcelona fans deserve better than that from their all-time greatest player.