4 conspiracy theories coming out of the Miami Dolphins win over the Chargers
By Matt Serniak
Why did David Long Jr. see so few snaps comapred to Andrew Van Ginkel?
One of the Miami Dolphin's best and stealthy free agent signings was middle linebacker, David Long Jr. We saw how he operated in the preseason and the guy, like many on the offense, does things fast. He thinks fast, reacts fast, and hits fast. These are all things we all wanted to see and expected would be a great help to an inside backer unit that at best is below average as a whole. So, it was only natural that we all figured that we would be seeing a bunch of David Long Jr. on Sunday. That isn't what happened.
Instead, we saw Andrew Van Ginkel, or AVG as I want him to be referred to unless he doesn't want to be called that, play a ton of inside backer. I wrote in training camp how it was being reported that mad scientist, Vic Fangio, was experimenting with AVG at inside backer as if he was a a scientist conducting MK Ultra experiments. I thought it was something to keep an eye on. I never thought we would get a full dose of AVG and Long Jr. to be on the sideline.
Dolphins Wk1 snap counts:
— Daniel Oyefusi (@DanielOyefusi) September 11, 2023
🐬 Waddle limited late but gets same workload as Hill
🐬 Berrios/Cracraft split WR3
🐬 Elliott plays every snap at S alongside Holland
🐬 Van Ginkel outsnaps Long at ILB by a wide margin
🐬 No defensive snaps for rookie CB Smith. Apple is CB3 in Wk1 pic.twitter.com/Gg46ELNX85
The numbers don't lie. AVG out snapped David Long Jr. by 42%, overall, on Sunday.
Maybe the style of defense Fangio wanted to play against the Chargers wasn't conducive to what Davind Long Jr. does. Seems like an odd thing to say because what does AVG truly do better than Long Jr.? I'm not entirely sure about that one. It's something to keep monitoring and monitor I will.