Tag Archive for: NFL

Miami Dolphins

Dolphins coach Brian Flores fires his first

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The Miami Dolphins still haven’t played their first preseason game under Brian Flores. But he’s already making it clear that he will not hesitate to make changes, even if they are changes to his original direction.

The first of note was today’s firing of offensive line coach Pat Flaherty.

Here’s how it played out on Twitter:

Here’s how our Chris Kouffman (@CKParrot) of Three Yards Per Carry viewed the move:

It should be noted that this came after a particularly brutal performance by the offensive line in practice. There’s not much talent there other than left tackle, so any coach will have trouble. But that group has been overmatched so far by another group (defensive line) that isn’t loaded with stars either.

How was it viewed elsewhere?

Accountability is key, apparently. What a welcome change.

Miami Dolphins

Quickie Dolphins Camp Notes Day 2

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DAY 2

– Glorious day today. Clear skies. Not too hot.
– Ok, forget that, It’s like the 7th ring of hell out here.
– “Allen Hurns is here to bring competition.”- Coach Flores.
– Allen Hurns is also necessary. As our own Chris Kouffman pointed out (@ckparrot), they need a true slot guy, and they had nobody on the roster that did what a true slot has done for the New England Patriots all these years.
– Albert Wilson not limited. Will not practice.
– Pads come on tomorrow (Saturday).
– Excited to see Chris Reed. Excited to see Woodard, Carradine. Some physicality.
– Players will get tested on recall from day 1 install on day 2 and so forth.- Coach Flores

– TJ McDonald is off PUP. The Rest remain. TJ McDonald looks pretty good out there. Slim. Sleek. He had a “bloated” heavy look last year in camp. He showed up in shape this year. Will say this. Further review of his 2018 film reveals a very good NFL player on a friendly contract.
– Charles Harris has lined up wide on each side of the formation. Going to be interesting to see how it translates when people actually try to block you.
– The Team stretch is unlike any team stretch I’ve seen before. You gotta see it to understand. Perpetual motion. Emphasis on staying loose, Hydration.
– QB’s warming up. Rosen never drives it during warmups. He is today. On Day 1, it was lolly pops. He is showing some power today.
– Mike Gesicki might have the best hands on the team. I don’t remember his last drop.
– He just dropped one.
– Goal line work with the QB’s. Rosen displays some touch.
– Rosen being bad throwing on the run, is a thing.
– We are not allowed to talk about what they are specifically doing, but the run game is going to be completely different in every aspect, from play call, alignment, even cadence
– This DJ is on FIYAH. That was Biggie, Wu-Tang Clan, and Busta Rhymes, back to back to back. I was tempted to perform on press row, and then I came face to face with my own mortality as I realized that most of these players were not born when these artists were at the peak of their powers.

Header for first day of training camp

– DeVante Parker, well. He’s good. Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah. I get it.
– Josh Rosen has some moments. Good on an over route. Fast on an option route. Quick to recognize the back in the flat.
– Good for Josh Rosen, but he is not the best QB on this field, and it’s obvious.
– Some 11v11 here….Rosen threw late on a cross. You can see he wanted the guy to clear the zone…good idea, bad execution. Incomplete.
– Uneventful practice today. A lot of Indy drills. Pads come on tomorrow, so it makes sense that they have a lite practice.
– Pads tomorrow. We get to learn MUCH MORE.

Practice MVP: Preston Williams, Brice Butler
Struggled: NOBODY

 

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

Quickie Miami Dolphins Camp Notes (Day 1)

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DAY 1

– Hot day for sure, but not muggy. It’s bearable.
– Full house for the media. Haven’t seen this many media members since Flores was hired. Even Greg Cote is here. Standing room only.
– Brian Flores availability runs 10 minutes late.
– Flores remarks’ was basically boiler plate stuff, but he did make some news by saying he had no timetable for determining who the starter at Quarterback will be.
– TJ McDonald, Dwayne Allen, Cordrea Tankersley, Mike Hull on the PUP. Will not participate. Albert Wilson limited.
– More News? Flores alludes to the Captains being chosen by coaches this year.
– Availability ends, Flores came in after a workout, and made good work of his press time. Growing into job.
– Stills and Grant warm up together. Parker joins the group.
– Practice kicks off for first time in forever with individual warmups, then move into some goal line work, then a team stretch.
– 1st Team OL is: Tunsil, Reed, Kilgore, Davis, Mills.
– DeVante Parker is bigger. Looks different this year. Yeah, I know…*drink*
– Laremy Tunsil, and Chris Reed really look the part. Stout, slim, solid athletes. High hopes for Reed, Just pay Laremy already.
– Oh, there goes Jakeem Grant. Day 1 of camp might as well be the Super Bowl for him. Effort will never be a problem with him.
– On effort…Preston Williams. Kinda lackadaisical. Takes it easy in warm ups. Would like to see a stronger sense of urgency.
– Both QB’s display remarkable touch throwing the fade in drills. A skill that was lost under past signal callers.
– Jakeem Grant puts Jomal Wiltz in the “popcorn machine”. goes out, in, out, spins….Wiltz does the Macarena…TD Grant.
– Wiltz is getting plenty of reps, and you can see why they would like him. Plays low. Twitchy.
– It’s July! Mike Gesicki MOSSES Bobby McCain.
– Jalen Davis on the boundary alert. Jalen Davis gets beat bad by Jakeem Grant.
– Parker makes the catch of the day on a deep in-cut from Ryan Fitzpatrick.
– Fitzpatrick deep ball to Preston Williams,incomplete, but a perfect ball. Williams tangles his feet with Eric Rowe.
– Eric Rowe seems to start camp as the top boundary Corner opposite of Xavien Howard.
– Josh Rosen has the worst rep of the day. Sails a swing pass over Ballage’ head into the sideline.
– Parker beats Rowe and Fitzpatrick seems to have a favorite receiver early on.
– Last year, Mike Gesicki abused Reshad Jones on goal line drills. This year, Reshad wins the two battles they had.
– Josh Rosen Red Zone interception. *drink*
– Isaiah Prince works at RG and RT.
– Rosen makes his first good throw late in practice. a perfect dime to the back of the end zone into a void in the zone. Nick O’Leary TD.

 

Practice MVP: Jakeem Grant, Ryan Fitzpatrick
Struggled: Jomal Wiltz, Josh Rosen, Eric Rowe.

 

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

Featured image for Dolphins Bed GiveawayLuis Sung

Dolphins give away 100 beds during Hope to Dream Sleepover

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Having a good night’s sleep is crucial for any athlete, which is why it’s fitting that the Miami Dolphins partnered with Ashley HomeStore to host their third annual Hope to Dream sleepover. There, they surprised 100 underprivileged with kids with brand new beds that they’ll be getting the best possible sleep with for years to come.

“It’s a big deal,” said Dolphins pass rusher Charles Harris, who was one of the players in attendance for the sleepover. “You can’t sleep, you’re gonna be tired the next day, you’re gonna be restless, you might have aches and pains, everything like that. As a kid, it’s a little less, but as we all know, father time catches up with everybody. So as you get older, you start to see the little aches and pains become a bigger deal, so to have a good bed to come home to is always great.”

Harris was joined by teammates Davon Godchaux, Bobby McCain, and rookie Christian Wilkins, who added clout and a real sense of fun to the evening. With them, the 100 kids in attendance got to enjoy games and other activities with their favorite Dolphins players and cheerleaders, capping the evening off with a movie before going to sleep on their brand new Tempur-Pedic beds.

As the largest furniture retailer in the United States, Ashley HomeStore has made it its mission to give the underprivileged youth of America a good place to rest their heads at night. They dedicate a portion of the proceeds from each mattress sale to its Hope to Dream program, which has donated over 80,000 new beds to children in need since its inception in 2010.

With the Dolphins’ Football Unites program being all about leveling the playing field, that made them the ideal partners to host the sleepover.

“We’ve always been partners in the community, with their charity events, and this was just an idea Ashley’s been doing for a while, and we thought of a perfect partnership with the Dolphins.” President of City Furniture, the South Florida licensee for Ashley HomeStore, Andrew Koenig said. “You’ve got the dome, you’ve got the players, you got the big, cool excitement that kids get to see the locker room. Combine it all together and it’s a really fun night for the kids. They’re sleeping here tonight, and the Dolphins are huge in the community and giving back and so are we, so it’s really a good partnership.”

But the most heartwarming moment of the night was when the kids got to see their beds for the first time, as it’d been kept a secret up until the big reveal. Some kids were shocked into silence, many of them also gave out cries of joy as they rushed towards their beds, elated that they were their property to take home.

“I was like, ‘wait, what?’ I was so surprised that I wanted to jump all the way to, like, the sky, all the way to the sky.” said Martine LaFortune, who will be turning nine years old on June 30. “It means really a lot to me. This is the first company that gave me and my brother a bed. I’m sad that my brother didn’t come, because he would’ve had lots of fun but that’s fine, at least he’s gonna be surprised by the bed that he has.”

Though the team is currently working on becoming a force on the football field again, one thing that has never changed is the franchise’s dedication to making South Florida a better place. Year in and year out, they lead the way and set the example for other NFL (and even non-NFL) teams to follow. Now, as the NFL celebrates its 100th anniversary, the NFL invites fans, players, clubs and employees to join Huddle for 100, an effort to inspire one million people to volunteer 100 minutes of their time to make meaningful contributions to their communities.

So as Miami pushes forth their #DolphinsHuddlefor100, you can be sure that this year, they’ll be kicking their community presence into overdrive. This is only the beginning of what the Dolphins have in store.

Reshad Jones

The Reshad Jones situation is getting frostier

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One of the things that’s become apparent about new Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores, during his increasingly comfortable press conferences, is that he can be direct without necessarily calling anyone out.

He was calm and in control again prior to Wednesday’s last OTA day, including when he was asked about the one proven player who is still not here:

Former Pro Bowl safety Reshad Jones.

Jones is clearly not happy about something, though what that is depends on who you talk to. And it’s apparent that he’s not a long-term part of the Dolphins’ plan, as they try to rebuild this thing nearly from scratch, with the exception of the mega-deal cornerback Xavien Howard got and the one that left tackle Laremy Tunsil is likely to get.

In the meantime, the Dolphins have Bobby McCain working at safety rather than cornerback and Minkah Fitzpatrick is shuttling between positions in the new defense.

Flores has been preaching competition at every position — and as we discussed on a podcast we will be releasing later Wednesday, it will be interesting to see how that applies to the quarterback spot if Ryan Fitzpatrick clearly outplays Josh Rosen, when it makes more sense from a big picture perspective to play Rosen.

But this answer about Jones and whether he would get his old spot back?

Also interesting.

Message?

Kind of.

Flores comes from New England, where he learned under Bill Belichick for a decade and a half.

Belichick doesn’t tolerate distractions of any kind.

Jones is the first test case.

Let’s see if he shows at the mandatory minicamp next week.

 

 

New York is already done with Adam Gase

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That didn’t take long.

The best thing that happened to the Dolphins this offseason wasn’t promoting Chris Grier.

It wasn’t hiring Brian Flores.

It wasn’t drafting Christian Wilkins.

It wasn’t acquiring Josh Rosen.

It was Adam Gase somehow — after a colossal failure here — landing with a division rival, the New York Jets.

Gase was never good with the media in front of the cameras in Davie/Miami, preferring to work them behind the scenes. He fidgeted. He didn’t look most reporters in the eyes. He made excuse after excuse.

We predicted that his smartest-guy-in-football act wouldn’t fly in a tougher media market.

Now he’s in the toughest, and New York/New Jersey has already had enough.

Even the Gase cheerleaders (Manish Mehta wrote a collosally misguided puff piece when Gase was hired) have had it already, as Gase has seemed to push out GM Mike Maccagnan, already appeared to alienate the team’s prized acquisition (Le’Veon Bell) and made a series of odd moves.

This is looking like a Rich Kotite situation.

Mehta, most of all, has done a remarkable turnaround, a spin move that even Bell couldn’t execute on the field.

This is what he wrote upon the Gase hire:

“Why Adam Gase is a Brilliant Coaching Hire.” 

 

Guessing Maccagnan must have been Mehta’s source.

Just a guess.

Anyway, here’s more:

 

 

 

And our favorite:

 

 

 

Will the Dolphins win a game? Numbers (sort of) say no

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It’s time to call upon the ghost of Greg Camarillo.

Actually, the former Dolphins receiver is very much alive, living in California with his family (and you can follow him @CatchCamarillo).

But some of the recent dour forecasts of the upcoming Dolphins season do bring the Stanford grad to mind. It was the crafty Camarillo, after all, who scored the touchdown in overtime of a game against the Baltimore Ravens in 2007 to keep Cam Cameron and company from a winless season.

So could something like this happen again, with the Dolphins rebuilding or regrouping or resetting or tanking or whatever?

A tweet Friday afternoon set of a bit of a firestorm.

If you can read that, congrats on your eyesight.

What it says is that the Dolphins aren’t projected to win a game. Not one. Out of 16. Not against anyone.

Now, of course, this requires some context.

Some were happy about this.

After all, they have their eyes on a greater prize.

We are fortunate to have a bit of a numbers savant in our network — Chris Kouffman (@CKParrot) of Three Yards Per Carry.

Here’s how he sees it:

So while the Dolphins may be favored to lose every game individually, at this early stage before rosters are padded and trimmed over the summer, Clay’s charts aren’t actually saying that is likely to happen.

Rather, the Dolphin should finish up with about 4 wins, which may be bad enough to get them one of the top quarterbacks — and probably would ensure that such an addition would be anointed ahead of Josh Rosen immediately.

But again, much can change.

Remember what happened after the Camarillo catch season?

With a roster that was turned over some, but not completely – and with a more competent coaching staff like Miami appears to have now — the Dolphins won 11 games.

And there’s some history with Clay, whom we hope to have on our podcast.

See how our Josh Houtz reacted to Clay’s views last season (Clay turned out to be sort of right).

Sorry Houtz. We still love ya.

 

Photo by our Tony Capobianco. 

Adam Gase keeps failing forward fast

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It’s been quite the soft, lucrative landing for failed quarterback whisperer Adam Gase.

The former Dolphins head coach, who created more excuses than first downs last season before his firing, snapped up a job with the New York Jets. Now he’s got a second one there, after the surprising, oddly timed firing of Mike Maccagnan.

Gase is now the interim GM.

 

While Maccagnan wasn’t popular with many Jets fans, you don’t often see the top executive of an NFL team jettisoned (sorry) after the draft.

Naturally, there are rumors of a rift and a power struggle, because Gase certainly does seem the type.

He hasn’t typically played well with others… and does not like strong personality in his players.

Maccagnan was bringing some in.

Gase has rejected those rumors.

Others aren’t so sure.

All in all, this seems a positive development for the Dolphins, considering the Jets are division rivals.

The Dolphins now seem to have a competent person in charge, one who will likely be accountable. Brian Flores has shown that in his early press conferences. He is confident, but his ego does not appear out of control.

The Jets have a guy who thinks he knows everything, and doesn’t — and now has another major responsibility he probably won’t handle well.

 

Photo by our Tony Capobianco. 

Josh Rosen discusses overcoming the negative perception about him during his introductory news conference with the Miami Dolphins. (Craig Davis)

All Hail the Hebrew Hammer… or Chosen Rosen

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A new era of Miami Dolphins football starts Tuesday in Davie.

P.T.

That doesn’t stand for Post Traumatic, though it could.

It stands for Post Tannehill.

Ryan is in Tennessee, failing to feel pressure in the pocket, and a new sheriff is in town.

A sheriff who may celebrate the Sabbath.

Tuesday, the media will get their first close-up look at Josh Rosen in a Dolphins uniform, and we will have full coverage from camp. Hopefully, he will not express his concern for protecting the environment, for fear of angering a Dolphins beat writer.

Rosen is the strong favorite to be the starter this season, because he cost the Dolphins a second-round pick and because it doesn’t make much sense to start a 37-year-old like Ryan Fitzpatrick who might go on one of his weird hot streaks that cost draft spots. His new coach, Brian Flores, has welcomed him with some carefully crafted words, speaking last week about how he wants players to “want to know the why,” a trait that has been attributed to Rosen by many as a negative.

Also, Rosen has the best nickname on the team, better than even FitzMagic.

Or Chosen Rosen.

Well, it’s not really his nickname — it’s Ryan Braun’s — but who cares?

Let our Chris Joseph of Ballscast introduce it.

Tuesday, at last, it’s Hammer Time.

Brian Flores keeps QB door open at first rookie minicamp

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Josh Rosen isn’t on the field yet.

Neither is Ryan Fitzpatrick.

That will happen Monday, for the first official day of OTAs, when two quarterbacks 15 years apart compete for a job that should go to Rosen, unless he’s awful.

Still, new coach Brian Flores — in typical Patriots style — isn’t giving anything away yet.

Asked prior to the first day of rookie minicamp whether Fitzpatrick would get a fair shot to start, Flores indicated the journeyman — last of Tampa Bay — would.

Flores doesn’t say a whole lot — he likes first round pick Christian Wilkins’s energy, for instance — but he did have a really good sound bite at the very end.

One of Adam Gase’s issues was that he knew everything, and that wore on players and media. He could not be questioned. If something went wrong, there was some silly excuse. Finally, the Dolphins front office got as tired of that as the players did.

Flores seems to take a different approach.

Here’s an example:

He added that if players aren’t asking why the Dolphins are doing something, that means they are disengaged, and that’s not what he wants.

It may take some time for the Dolphins to be competitive, but the mindset appears to be better — at least at the start.