Linebacker coach Frank Bush talks about his rookie linebackers

Miami Dolphins linebacker coach Frank Bush talked to reporters today about his young crop of linebackers including two rookies.

The Dolphins have two linebacker on the roster from this past draft and one who was drafted last year and never played a down. All three are expected to have some impact on the Dolphins defense.

Raekwon McMillan is showing up exactly like the Dolphins hoped he would, Bush said he “is who we thought he was”. McMillan has blossomed into a leader who used his time off last year to study film, watch tape, learn from the mistakes of others and through all that found a way to become a leader.

His fellow teammates who were drafted last April, Jerome Baker and Quentin Poling are facing their first NFL training camp and while they both are having ups, they also have their share of downs as they learn the speed of the game.

Bush says they will get more reps as practice moves along and as the pre-season begins citing that reps right now are not always available. It is likely that they both make an impact on special teams however.

Following today’s full-pad practice Bush talked about the younger guys as well Stephone Anthony who is now entering a full season with the Dolphins after they traded for him last season. The former first round pick did not look good last season after struggling with the New Orleans Saints. The team that drafted him.

Bush believes that Anthony is getting better with the more reps he is taking and how he is improving now knowing the full system of the defense. Here is the full press release from the questions to Frank Bush courtesy of the Miami Dolphins.

(We’ve seen LB Chase Allen out there a couple of times at outside linebacker and a couple of times with the starters. What are you liking about him and what enables him to play middle and outside linebacker?) – “Chase came in last year and proved to us that he’s worthy of giving a look. He played some spot duty for us last year outside as well as inside. He’s done a good job in the offseason of preparing himself. We just want to keep the competition going. We don’t want anybody to get comfortable, so we’re putting him back outside to make sure he and Steph (Anthony) have real competition out there; but meanwhile making sure that he’s getting enough reps inside.”

(As far as LB Stephone Anthony, he’s a guy that we haven’t talked about a whole lot. How is his training camp going?) – “It’s going well. He came in later in our system last year, and we weren’t able to use him fully like we expecting to. We used him in some third-down situations; but now, he’s in there with the first group on first and second down. He’s doing a good job for us and really kind of learning the system and owning the information. He’s coming along. We just want to always keep our options open and make sure that we have the competition going.”

(What are your impressions on LB Jerome Baker so far?) – “(He’s a) really, really good athlete. He runs around really well. His brain has been good. He just has to learn how to be a pro and just keep it going every single day. He flashes a lot of good stuff, a lot of stuff to work with. He just has to mature as a player and keep it going.”

(Have there been mental mistakes with LB Jerome Baker?) – “No, not so much mental. A lot of it’s physical. A lot of it’s not understanding kind of how we do things and what we do. It’s time on task. He needs more time on task and reps, and he’ll get it. ”

(I know we’re not going to know this until preseason games, at least a full picture of LB Jerome Baker’s ability against the run. Do you have a feel for it yet, how good he will be against the run?) – “I know he will trigger when we ask him to trigger. So far, so good. We just have to go live with bullets. A couple of these practices have done wonders for him, but we have to go live with it. He has to be consistent.”

(One thing we know on LB Raekwon McMillan, obviously: poised, polished, he prepares. As far as on-field skills, what have you seen in this camp after not seeing him after early August last year?) – “He is who we thought he was. He’s doing all of the things we suspected. His legs have come around, his brain has always been good. He’s just consistently getting better. Obviously he didn’t get a lot of reps last year. He transitioned to the first group later on in the preseason last year, and we were looking forward to seeing him in that first preseason game. It didn’t work out that way; but so far, so good. He has growing pains. He’s a redshirt rookie out here, so he has growing pains; but ultimately, we like what we see.”

(When that happens – like you said, it’s like taking a redshirt year in college – how much can that benefit? When you look at the silver lining, how much can that benefit a player?) – “It teaches you how to be a pro. You know how to go about your routine, you know what you have to do to get yourself better as far as physically and whatnot. He stayed around and learned the system. He really got into the playbook. He studied all of the games, all of the cutups, all of those things. That part of it allowed him to kind of learn the system from a relaxed standpoint, so that really helped him that way.”

(When that happens, can you really tell a difference in the second year on the field, how well it translates?) – “Absolutely. Some of the things he was doing last year and making mistakes on, this year he’s not making as many mistakes. So, yes, I think that helped him a lot.”

(LB Quentin Poling, you’ve seen him make some plays. What are your thoughts on him?) – “(He’s a) young kid, a very sharp kid. He does a lot of good things. He’s just like every other rookie, he’s operating at about 60 or 70 percent right now. That 30 or 40 percent is still new to him. He’s doing a good job for us. We like his energy. The kid’s got a great attitude. He’s proven so far that he does not mind the physical part of the game. Again, unfortunately he’s not going to get as many quality reps as some guys; but he will get his opportunity as camp goes on, and we expect him to keep getting better. ”

(We’ve seen some good plays in pass coverage from LB Quentin Poling. Is that something that you weren’t sure what you had or did you expect that?) – “We expected that because we thought the athlete was capable of doing those things. Now it’s about positioning. Can he put himself in the position to do it and understand the speed of the game? That’s part of when a kid comes from a school like that, a system like that, that sometimes the speed of the game is a little bit too much for him. But he’s proven that over time, he’s speeding his game up and it’s not too much for him.”