Dolphins Scrimmage Provides Fans Chance To Talk
By Brian Miller
Forget about what this player did or that one, following today’s Miami Dolphins intra-squad scrimmage at “The Rob” (I like that better than Sun-Life), about the only worth talking about is, talk. It won’t matter if Ryan Tannehill lights up the scoreboard with a few touchdowns and it won’t matter if Karlos Dansby knocks Reggie Bush to the ground five times behind the line of scrimmage. It’s a practice. Just a little more glorified.
My case in point in this matter was nicely pointed out on this mornings Sun-Sentinel website when they showed last years statistical wonder. Chad Henne over 100 yards passing and 3 touches and Brandon Marshall with 3 touches. Should have been a precursor to a great season for those guys right? Not exactly. So today’s numbers really shouldn’t be an inflection on the future possibility as much as an opportunity for everyone to see how a player might perform under a different style of controlled practice.
With that being said, looking at the numbers from today’s practice/scrimmage provided by the Sun-Sentinel. What do you take away from these stats?
"Matt Moore: 10-20, 65 yds, TDDavid Garrard: 9-17, 57 TDRyan Tannehill: 10-13, 114 TDChad Johnson 5-42Legedu Naanee 5-38 TDAnthony Fasano 3-39 2TDs"
Looking at them really tells me nothing because I wasn’t there. I didn’t see how the players moved, ran their routes. How structured was the scrimmage? Could defenders hit the QB? Could they tackle the runners? Hit the WR’s? All of that factors in to how a statistic measures out. Next week, we get a much better barometer of what the team is starting to look like when they Dolphins play their first pre-season game.
The fact that there were kept stats, unofficially of course, only implies that someone was paying attention to the numbers. Take Anthony Fasano’s numbers for example. How much did he play? Three receptions and and two TD’s is not bad but did those come in game type situations or red-zone drills? Frankly it makes a difference but the good news is, he was involved.
I don’t want to take too much away from this, on either side of the fence. There is good in the above stats as well. Legede Naane catching five passes tells me he is involved, Chad Johnson’s five for 38 yards isn’t overly impressive but how much did he play and who was the QB? Which brings me to the QB’s.
I am impressed with the Ryan Tannehill numbers but caution that Chad Henne’s numbers last year were impressive as well. Tannehill had only three missed passes and tossed a touchdown. Again, the structure of his time on the field is something I don’t know and for all I do know he could have been sacked 12 times (he wasn’t only 3 players unofficially recorded sacks) The positive is that he is producing regardless of what team he is out there and that is a positive when you are judging your incoming rookie QB.
Perhaps the surprise however is the stats of David Garrard. Garrard likely played with the first unit and if it were with the 2nd unit I would be more concerned. He completed just over half of his attempts for a paltry 57 yards and a touchdown. Full drives or red-zone drills? If you were there, let us know.
To put all this into perspective, what was out there today is only a portion of what the team is an it’s impossible, as last year pointed out, to gauge the success, progress, or regress of the team in any facet of the game. Next week says a whole lot more, the two weeks after that will really be good samples of this teams ability. For now, it’s water-cooler talk and that’s o.k. So long as we don’t hang our hats or ourselves on the statistics.