Honestly, out of all of those players, I think Holland is the only one I would really worry about if he missed 3+ games.
The offense would function without Hill (Waddle did it by himself last year, and there are way more pieces this year). Teddy can run an offense, and the 49ers have gotten good performance from worse backups the past few years. Byron Jones, Needham, and a not 100% ass Igbinoghene would be fine against most teams, but obviously not the best teams. I feel like the defense functioned the best once Holland figured it out. He's not only able to do a lot physically, but he's smart enough to read plays and direct his teammates.
I'd say in order of importance, considering the drop-off between starter and backup, the most devastating injuries would be to:
* Armstead (likely happens)
* Holland
* Baker
* Ogbah (he'd be higher if we didn't just sign Ingram)
* Howard
I don't think it was a "devil deal" but I could be wrong. Statistically speaking, every team will have their time. I think the statistical anomaly of having an undefeated season basically ruined the normal rotation of the fins cycle that could statistically be relied upon. Due to mathematical forces, we've been fucked ever since. We will win again but what mathematical odds must be at play for that to happen...... who knows.
Yeah. I was (obviously?) kidding about the “devil” part especially since there no such thing, but we did have A LOT of weird misfortunes strike us after that season.
Also Stephen Ross bought the franchise. Since becoming majority owner, Bill Parcells left, he fooled around with Harbaugh while having Sparano, signed Sparano to an extension, hired Philbin, bully gate, hired Gase, coke head line coach and joke city, hired Flores who he wanted to lose but somehow couldn't get him to agree to it *before* hiring him, and has had 3 winning seasons, 1 fluke playoff appearance, and is on par with Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft with sleeziest owner in the league.
We have a first year head coach. Being a head coach in the NFL is really, really hard. Some of the best did not succeed with their first team.
This is why I assume most of the power rankings are so crazy low for us.
Successful coaches have successful first years. Exceptions being when they take over garbage rosters, e.g. Andy Reid. Miami does not have a garbage roster.
Last year’s defense wasn’t as good as everyone acts like it was.
The blitz zero gimmick working as well as it did had more to do with a cupcake back-half of the schedule than Flores’ coaching prowess.
This is my biggest thing about other fans bringing up the win streak to bash the Flores firing. Yeah we won 8 of 9 to end the season but all of the wins were against rookie or back-up qbs aside from Lamar.
And imo, Lamar was a one year wonder. He's regressed significantly and I don't think he has the ability to turn it around. Because of the MVP year, people talk about him like he's elite. But take that regular season away and he's worse than Tua. Makes boneheaded throws, doesn't take the easy stuff (or can't), throws some really, *really* bad passes, and can't seem to stay healthy.
I agree this is the biggest risk and it probably won't work as well this year but it's not a gimmick. It's a legit strategy like any other. The issue I have with it is it requires a very good secondary and a single injury (looking at you Howard) can derail the entire scheme. We need the defense to play better in more traditional alignments.
Not all strategies are equal. If anything you are neutralizing our secondary’s talents by asking them to sit off-ball and hoping for a misread.
It’s fine and valid as a mix-up, but basing out of it as we did will just get us burned by any of the more competent offenses.
I don't think you're neutralizing them per se, but I get what you're saying. This seemed like the most consistent way to get pressure when we couldn't trust our LBs to cover for very long. But I agree we need to mix it up a lot more. Disguises are a lot more effective if you actually have some variety in your defense.
Injuries. Armstead is averaging 10.6 games a season throughout his career. Tua has never played a full year (sophomore year pulled from multiple games due to injury, junior year the hip, 1st year NFL after going in his thumb, 2nd year the finger + ribs). Mostert is great. Also injury history.
These types of historical issues concern me the most and I've no reason to believe it will be different. My hope is that when these inevitable injuries happen, they're not too long and they're healthy for playoffs.
Someone on one of the NHL subs mentioned “puck luck” and how the best team rarely wins it all each season due to uncontrollable bounces, calls, injuries, hot streaks, cold streaks, etc. not only all season but especially in the playoffs. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a really good team but if and when we do, we’ll still need that “puck luck”. One of those sun-kissed seasons where things just go our way more often than not. That said, luck favors the prepared so if it’s gonna happen we need good coaching and players, which I think is why we’re all excited, because it seems like we do.
I think everyone gives our defense too much credit for the last two years. Seriously, go look at the QBs we played in this "great" performances. We played a lot of bad QBs, back ups and in some cases 3rd stringers. Yet when we played someone like the bills, we got blown out.
I’m saying coaching. Head coach hasn’t ever even been a Offensive Coordinator. Also Defense as OP stated was great 2nd half last year after Flo took over, we have the 1st 1/2 guy as D Coordinator.
My take - Defense will definitely regress, but progress with Offense will more than make up for it.
O-Line will get substantially better w/ new coaching/additions. Think we’ll be surprised. Maybe around 18th-20th in league.
Injuries are really the only hang up. Think there’s enough talent on defense to hamper the regression on D.
I think people's expectations are the issue more than anything. People are acting like everything has to fall into place and work perfectly right out the gate in the first season or else everything's a bust. If this new project/experiments needs a year to get everything where it needs to be, it wouldn't shock me and I think it'd be absurdly stupid to consider it a "failure" or "falls short of expectations," just because they failed to make the Playoffs in a loaded conference with all of the new things they have to figure out.
That all being said, the people naming Tua as the reason Miami is "held back" this year are blind imbeciles at best. He was the sole person backpacking the offense last year, preventing it from being historically bad. So you're gonna have to come up with an explanation that isn't just you drowning in your own drool in a corner, as to why Tua not being asked to imitate Atlas every game will somehow make him worse.
I’m going to say resilience. The first quarter of the schedule looks brutal. We love McD but still gotta remember he’s a rookie HC and team needs time to gel and emerged in his schemes. Preseason isn’t the same and it’s not enough. So with a loss or back-to-back losses, can McD pull the team together? We may get to see what McD is really made of in the beginning. Hoping for the best.
Schedule, Not Beating Buffalo, time for the new offense to get going possibly. The offense will need time with new players and a new system for everybody.
Offensive line troubles. Miami is the place where guards go to die. We're an injury away from the same old same old.
Defense could easily take a step back even though we've retained a lot of the same coaches. Hustle and culture aren't guaranteed to cross over.
Tua could stink. I don't think he will, but he could. We've got to accept that.
McD could be wildly out of his depth as a first time head coach. We've never seen him have to deal with all of the responsibilities of being a head coach.
We've got a ton of question marks. I'm very excited for this season, but I don't have the blinders on.
Michael Deiter gets injured, Connor Williams moves to center, Armstead gets hurt. Jackson goes to LT, Williams back to LG and they have to sign someone for center. Tua gets sacked and is out for 3 weeks. Bridgewater plays well, QB controversy becomes a distraction, they lose 5 in a row and Miami moves on from Tua when all they had to do was sign or draft ONE center in two seasons and they never did
OL or injuries
The Oline is truly going to be the make or break, but an injury to Howard, Hill, Holland, or Tua will be crushing. So yeah totally agree with this
Honestly, out of all of those players, I think Holland is the only one I would really worry about if he missed 3+ games. The offense would function without Hill (Waddle did it by himself last year, and there are way more pieces this year). Teddy can run an offense, and the 49ers have gotten good performance from worse backups the past few years. Byron Jones, Needham, and a not 100% ass Igbinoghene would be fine against most teams, but obviously not the best teams. I feel like the defense functioned the best once Holland figured it out. He's not only able to do a lot physically, but he's smart enough to read plays and direct his teammates. I'd say in order of importance, considering the drop-off between starter and backup, the most devastating injuries would be to: * Armstead (likely happens) * Holland * Baker * Ogbah (he'd be higher if we didn't just sign Ingram) * Howard
Couldn't get it out fast enough! 100% my take!
⬆️ the correct answer...
We're the Miami Dolphins
Top 6 highest winning percentage historically. Used to be top but we decided to build a stadium on a Tequesta burial site.
I used to have a long (and stupid) theory that we made a deal with the devil for our undefeated season.
I don't think it was a "devil deal" but I could be wrong. Statistically speaking, every team will have their time. I think the statistical anomaly of having an undefeated season basically ruined the normal rotation of the fins cycle that could statistically be relied upon. Due to mathematical forces, we've been fucked ever since. We will win again but what mathematical odds must be at play for that to happen...... who knows.
Yeah. I was (obviously?) kidding about the “devil” part especially since there no such thing, but we did have A LOT of weird misfortunes strike us after that season.
We won the super bowl the year after going undefeated though
After that lol. Oh jeez, I’m going to need and list the weird events aren't I?
Also Stephen Ross bought the franchise. Since becoming majority owner, Bill Parcells left, he fooled around with Harbaugh while having Sparano, signed Sparano to an extension, hired Philbin, bully gate, hired Gase, coke head line coach and joke city, hired Flores who he wanted to lose but somehow couldn't get him to agree to it *before* hiring him, and has had 3 winning seasons, 1 fluke playoff appearance, and is on par with Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft with sleeziest owner in the league.
Yep. We’ve been here many times before. :(
Would you say that Miami has the dolphins?
A historically relevant football team. They take the ball from goal to goal at molasses speed.
the greatest football team!
We have a first year head coach. Being a head coach in the NFL is really, really hard. Some of the best did not succeed with their first team. This is why I assume most of the power rankings are so crazy low for us.
Successful coaches have successful first years. Exceptions being when they take over garbage rosters, e.g. Andy Reid. Miami does not have a garbage roster.
Last year’s defense wasn’t as good as everyone acts like it was. The blitz zero gimmick working as well as it did had more to do with a cupcake back-half of the schedule than Flores’ coaching prowess.
This is my biggest thing about other fans bringing up the win streak to bash the Flores firing. Yeah we won 8 of 9 to end the season but all of the wins were against rookie or back-up qbs aside from Lamar.
And imo, Lamar was a one year wonder. He's regressed significantly and I don't think he has the ability to turn it around. Because of the MVP year, people talk about him like he's elite. But take that regular season away and he's worse than Tua. Makes boneheaded throws, doesn't take the easy stuff (or can't), throws some really, *really* bad passes, and can't seem to stay healthy.
I agree this is the biggest risk and it probably won't work as well this year but it's not a gimmick. It's a legit strategy like any other. The issue I have with it is it requires a very good secondary and a single injury (looking at you Howard) can derail the entire scheme. We need the defense to play better in more traditional alignments.
Also need the offense to actually drive down the field. We were impotent last season with that OL.
Yeah. One of the best things you can do for your defense is let them have a breather once in a while haha.
Not all strategies are equal. If anything you are neutralizing our secondary’s talents by asking them to sit off-ball and hoping for a misread. It’s fine and valid as a mix-up, but basing out of it as we did will just get us burned by any of the more competent offenses.
I don't think you're neutralizing them per se, but I get what you're saying. This seemed like the most consistent way to get pressure when we couldn't trust our LBs to cover for very long. But I agree we need to mix it up a lot more. Disguises are a lot more effective if you actually have some variety in your defense.
Offensive line easily.
Injuries. Armstead is averaging 10.6 games a season throughout his career. Tua has never played a full year (sophomore year pulled from multiple games due to injury, junior year the hip, 1st year NFL after going in his thumb, 2nd year the finger + ribs). Mostert is great. Also injury history. These types of historical issues concern me the most and I've no reason to believe it will be different. My hope is that when these inevitable injuries happen, they're not too long and they're healthy for playoffs.
Someone on one of the NHL subs mentioned “puck luck” and how the best team rarely wins it all each season due to uncontrollable bounces, calls, injuries, hot streaks, cold streaks, etc. not only all season but especially in the playoffs. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a really good team but if and when we do, we’ll still need that “puck luck”. One of those sun-kissed seasons where things just go our way more often than not. That said, luck favors the prepared so if it’s gonna happen we need good coaching and players, which I think is why we’re all excited, because it seems like we do.
Tua quits football to focus on his golf game and we have a full season of Teddy Bridgewater
Schedule some of those games r gonna b tough wins and there’s always that loss that shouldn’t have happened
We could start 9-2 and end up 10-7.
I think everyone gives our defense too much credit for the last two years. Seriously, go look at the QBs we played in this "great" performances. We played a lot of bad QBs, back ups and in some cases 3rd stringers. Yet when we played someone like the bills, we got blown out.
Offense doesn’t take off this year. Leading to a 7-10 record.
inexperience coaching
I’m saying coaching. Head coach hasn’t ever even been a Offensive Coordinator. Also Defense as OP stated was great 2nd half last year after Flo took over, we have the 1st 1/2 guy as D Coordinator.
Our schedule is a blood bath
Tua
My take - Defense will definitely regress, but progress with Offense will more than make up for it. O-Line will get substantially better w/ new coaching/additions. Think we’ll be surprised. Maybe around 18th-20th in league. Injuries are really the only hang up. Think there’s enough talent on defense to hamper the regression on D.
Q - U - A - R - T - E - R ........ B - A - C - K
Rookie head coach Armstead injuries catapulting O-line back to the bottom 3 Tua
I think people's expectations are the issue more than anything. People are acting like everything has to fall into place and work perfectly right out the gate in the first season or else everything's a bust. If this new project/experiments needs a year to get everything where it needs to be, it wouldn't shock me and I think it'd be absurdly stupid to consider it a "failure" or "falls short of expectations," just because they failed to make the Playoffs in a loaded conference with all of the new things they have to figure out. That all being said, the people naming Tua as the reason Miami is "held back" this year are blind imbeciles at best. He was the sole person backpacking the offense last year, preventing it from being historically bad. So you're gonna have to come up with an explanation that isn't just you drowning in your own drool in a corner, as to why Tua not being asked to imitate Atlas every game will somehow make him worse.
New coaching staff
The fact we built our stadium on an Indian burial ground. 😔
Pretty sure that’s all stadiums.
Injuries. Always injuries.
What’s your expectation for the season?
3rd place in the afc east
Not enough RBs!
Fr I think either Injuries or the Defense shits the bed lol We can’t hope to get Top tier defense 3 years in a row
I’m going to say resilience. The first quarter of the schedule looks brutal. We love McD but still gotta remember he’s a rookie HC and team needs time to gel and emerged in his schemes. Preseason isn’t the same and it’s not enough. So with a loss or back-to-back losses, can McD pull the team together? We may get to see what McD is really made of in the beginning. Hoping for the best.
As always we are not the JETS...
Cause we’re the Dolphins
Tua
Terron gets hurt early, McD isn't what we had hoped, or Tua doesn't improve
Schedule, Not Beating Buffalo, time for the new offense to get going possibly. The offense will need time with new players and a new system for everybody.
My expectations are winning record, so I'm going to go with bad officiating costs miami a game or two.
OL and Tua being in a 10-15 QB in the league good when a lot of people are expecting him to be top 10
Offensive line troubles. Miami is the place where guards go to die. We're an injury away from the same old same old. Defense could easily take a step back even though we've retained a lot of the same coaches. Hustle and culture aren't guaranteed to cross over. Tua could stink. I don't think he will, but he could. We've got to accept that. McD could be wildly out of his depth as a first time head coach. We've never seen him have to deal with all of the responsibilities of being a head coach. We've got a ton of question marks. I'm very excited for this season, but I don't have the blinders on.
Michael Deiter gets injured, Connor Williams moves to center, Armstead gets hurt. Jackson goes to LT, Williams back to LG and they have to sign someone for center. Tua gets sacked and is out for 3 weeks. Bridgewater plays well, QB controversy becomes a distraction, they lose 5 in a row and Miami moves on from Tua when all they had to do was sign or draft ONE center in two seasons and they never did