Dolphins Eric Studesville non-committal about Gore when talking RB’s
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins did not retain a lot of Adam Gase’s staff but running back coach Eric Studesville was one of them. He spoke about the RB’s.
Last week the Miami Dolphins made their assistant coaches available to the media and all of them spoke in non-committing terms to the futures of any players specific and all of them talked of a singular vision. When Eric Studesville took questions, he stayed with that theme.
When asked about Frank Gore, an impending free agent, the coach said that the evaluation would be done and they wanted to get him healthy and then move forward. Studesville was the same regarding Kenyan Drake but was a little more open about Kalen Ballage.
Questions about Drake came early and touched on the topic of his losing yards trying to make the big play, the decreased carry count and whether that will improve, and of course his running style. Studesville told the media, in a nutshell, those things happen and that they are working on getting the system and the players in position to make the scheme successful. His comments were not negative and they were not glowing positive.
They also did nothing to persuade the casual observer that Drake may indeed be on the trade block if Miami finds a suitable partner and return.
In regards to Kalen Ballade the talk was a bit more intriguing to a degree. Studesville commented on Ballage’s body size and mentioned the fact that he can “run” a couple of times. While he says there is still more growth needed, he said that he comes “ready to work every day”. He didn’t say anything similar about Drake.
"“I think his size. His size and he can run. He can catch the ball. He’s got speed for a big man. All of those things make him impressive as a player.” – Miami Dolphins transcript release"
Studesville is still in the eary stages of going over the new offensive scheme and system with OC Chad O’Shea and HC Brian Flores so naturally there were areas of questions that he didn’t have answers to at the moment. Still, it will be interesting to see what happens once training camp rolls around in late July. We should get a decent idea during OTA’s and mini-camps which will be starting in May.
As for Frank Gore, the veteran will have to wait to see where his fate lies. Studesville was coy on the topic when asked and told the media that if a decision has been made on him returning, he “doesn’t know.”