A few S. Florida players rank with best at their skill set
South Florida sports fans have been reminded of greatness a lot this summer, with the passing of
Don Shula, vintage Hurricanes football games airing on ESPN and NBC-SN, and replays of the Big Three Era Heat championship games popping up on ESPN.
For most of the past 50 years, we have had a player or coach who would qualify for any discussion of the greatest. Shula and
Pat Riley would be in the conversation among greatest coaches; Dwyane Wade in the debate (with Kobe Bryant and Jerry
West) for second-best shooting guard ever behind Michael Jordan, as NBA legend Isiah Thomas asserted; LeBron James in the discussion for greatest players of our era; Jason Taylor among the top five pass-rushers of his era; Dan Marino among the best pure passers ever and more than a dozen Canes among the best at their position in modern college football history.
Jose Fernandez ranked among Major League Baseball’s best starting pitchers before his tragic death in 2016.
But with Wade’s retirement, it’s becoming more difficult to find an active South Florida athlete who belongs in the discussion of greatest at his position.
That’s why it was refreshing to hear NFL Network’s Daniel
Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks list the Dolphins’ Xavien Howard/Byron Jones cornerback combo among the NFL’s best.
Brooks ranked that duo third, ahead of Pittsburgh’s Joe Haden and Steven Nelson (Brooks ranked them fifth) and the Chargers’ Casey Hayward and Chris
Harris (fourth), but behind New England’s Stephon Gilmore and
Jason McCourty (second) and
Baltimore’s Marlon Humphrey and Marcus Peters (first).
“Brian Flores wants to play man to man, and he has two man-to-man specialists,” Brooks said. “Byron Jones does a great job of getting tight with wide receivers, shadowing them down the field. Xavien Howard, he was a guy a couple years ago, who has tremendous ball skills, got hands on everything. Terrific player.”
Jeremiah made the case that Howard/Jones should be higher on the list.
“I look at this Dolphins tandem; there might be a better tandem, but there’s not a more talented tandem,” Jeremiah said. “You talk about big, long, athletic guys that can play the ball. I’ve got to know who you got ahead of that group!”
That discussion got us thinking. Besides Miami’s cornerbacks, what other South Florida player — or position — would rank among the best nationally?
Here’s what we came up with:
BEST COLLEGE PASS RUSHER
UM’s Greg Rousseau. With 15.5 sacks last season — and 15.5 in 14 college games — Rousseau enters 2020 as arguably the best pass rusher in the nation. He was second in the FBS in sacks last season, behind only Ohio State’s
Chase Young, who’s now with the Washington Redskins.
“It’s amazing that he’s so polished as a pass rusher at this early point in his career,” Jeremiah said. “He can win in so many different ways. He’s also very comfortable and effective working inside against interior offensive linemen. He rarely gets bounced around and bullied by guys that outweigh him by 50plus pounds. I was very impressed. He has the tools to emerge as a perennial All-Pro player.” BEST THREE-POINT SHOOTING SMALL FORWARD The Heat’s Duncan Rob
inson. He has played 77 percent of his minutes at small forward this season, and no player at that position was better than Robinson this season in terms of three-point percentage (44.8) and makes (243). In fact, only shooting guards James Harden
(271) and Buddy Hield (244) made more threes than Robinson in the entire league.
He’s not the best three-point shooter in the league ( Steph
Curry would be that), but he is the best three-point shooter among small forwards. BEST BALL-HANDLING CENTER
A case could be made for the Heat’s Bam Adebayo, with his ability to get the Heat into offense, dribble downcourt in transition and find open teammates with the vision and skill that many bigs lack.
Though Adebayo played a lot of power forward this season, he was at center more often after
Meyers Leonard’s ankle injury. And among centers, his 5.1 assist average trails only Nikola Jok
ic’s 6.9 this season. This is essentially a Jokic/Adebayo debate. BEST DEFENSIVE TEAMMATE TANDEM
Jimmy Butler — who was four times NBA second-team AllDefense and three times NBA third-team All-Defense — belongs in any NBA discussion of top wing defenders, and Adebayo’s ability to defend any position makes him incredibly valuable in today’s game.
At this point, as a defensive duo, they likely would rank behind Milwaukee’s pairing of
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Eric Bledsoe (both first-team NBA All-Defense last season), the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard and Patrick Beverly and possibly Golden State’s Klay
Thompson and Draymond
Green (both second-team NBA All-Defense last season), with Thompson missing this season with a torn ACL.
But Butler/Adebayo, at their best, belong in the top five of this group. Adebayo figures to get some second-team All-Defense votes this season.
FASTEST RUNNING BACK
The Dolphins’ Matt Breida would need to be in any discussion. He hit 22.3 miles per hour on an 83-yard run last season against Cleveland, the fastest by a ball carrier on any play since the start of the 2018 season. Breida has two of the top three fastest times for a ball carrier in that time frame. He ran a 4.38 for the Eagles before the 2017 draft, which is blazing for a running back.
BEST RUNNING COLLEGE QB
UM’s D’Eriq King must be in any conversation. Beyond the 1,421 yards rushing in his career (on 5.6 per carry), consider this: In 2018, he averaged 4.65 yards after contact on his running attempts, which was best in the country.
Note: While the Panthers’
A Aleksander Barkov belongs in any discussion of top five NHL centers, most would place him behind Edmonton’s Connor
McDavid and Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby.
CHATTER
Though Riley, 75, wanted to
A be with the Heat in Orlando, an associate said he is taking COVID-19 very seriously, not wanting to put himself or his wife in jeopardy, and that’s why he sent assistant GM Adam Simon instead. ... The Indianapolis Star reports — as we have — that “the strongest preliminary indication” is 2021 free agent Victor Oladi
po prefers Miami as his destination.
Despite his struggles last
A season (.173) and this spring (.103), the Marlins say Isan Diaz will be their starting second baseman. They feel he’s done everything he can at Triple A. ... With Lewis Brinson sidelined, outfielder Monte Harrison’s chances of sticking have increased. “Monte looks good,” manager Don Mattingly said. “Mega-talented kid, plays with energy. The fans of South Florida are going to love this guy.” Mattingly said he’s Miami’s best outfield defender at all three positions.
AA handful of Dolphins players have become more outspoken in recent days about the NFL not agreeing to their safety-first requests about rules for training camp. “Frustrating to hear the NFL has yet to address major issues regarding player health [and] safety with training being two weeks away,” Byron Jones tweeted. And of the NFL banning postgame jersey exchanges and close postgame interaction with opposing players, cornerback
Nik Needham said: “Let’s at least make it make sense.”