South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Youth served on Fins O-line
With offensive-line shuffling making unit younger, is QB position next?
DAVIE — Yes, this will sound strange: But that was more like it. That ugly-fest had to happen. The Dolphins didn’t just look sloppy for much of Saturday’s scrimmage, as you’d expect considering the glaring problems on the roster.
The offense also looked lost and lousy in getting 18 penalties to one by the defense.
And, again, weird as it is to say: That’s OK this one day. It’s part of the uncomfortable process in correcting a fundamental wrong in the opening days of new coach Brian Flores’ era. It doesn’t answer, however, how this wrong was allowed to happen.
When you fire a Super Bowlwinning assistant because he won’t promote rookies, and you then promote the rookies and make other changes, you can’t expect much offensive cohesion three practices later.
These rookies, though, are at the center of the question that’s at the epicenter of this entire Dolphins season. And it leads to New Miami Dolphins offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo immediately moved two rookie guards into the starting lineup in a statement of youth being served.
Dolphins quarterback Josh Rosen, who was acquired from the Cardinals in the offseason, is behind veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick so far during training camp. the next, louder issue at quarterback, as you’ll see.
Here’s the question: Do you throw young players in the deep end from the start to accelerate their development or play veterans with good knowledge and limited ability?
This was the primary reason why the Dolphins fired veteran offensive line coach Pat Flaherty. Dave DeGuglielmo, on his third stint as Dolphins line coach in seven seasons, installed change ordered from above in his first hours.
Rather than sit randomly in the meeting room, players now sat in rows according to the depth chart. Third-round pick Michael Deiter, was promoted to a seat in the first row in DeGuglielmo’s first meeting.
The previous left guard, third-year Jesse Davis, moved to right tackle. Veteran right tackle Jordan Mills sat in the second row.
On DeGuglielmo’s second day, another rookie, undrafted right guard Shaq Calhoun, was given a firstrow seat. He, too, was now starting.
You always look at a new Dolphins regime for statements, and that’s as big a statement as a new era can
make. It fired a good man and proven line coach because of differing philosophies on young players.
Flores didn’t connect the dots directly to that, offering a more roundabout, “We wanted to see different guys in different positions.”
Deiter was the primary issue here. A third-round pick? At guard? On a rebuilding team? He has to start, if he’s at all capable. That’s what his season is about.
Flaherty said a few hours before being fired that Deiter had a “long way to go,” but, “that’s not saying that through the next couple of weeks he cannot gain some ground. That’s what we expect him to do. Then we’ll see where he’s at when it comes to Week 1.”
That’s one way to develop players. It’s not wrong. The other way is to throw them in to sink or swim. The oddity here is, whatever the philosophy, it wasn’t spelled out on a new staff before it spilled into an embarrassing firing.
The other oddity: The Dolphins are going the slower, Flaherty way at quarterback so far. The 36-year-old Ryan Fitzpatrick, Flores said earlier this past week, was the clear leader over Josh Rosen, 22.
But you know what you
have in Fitzpatrick. He’s a pro’s pro, an experienced mind, a good guy and team leader who’s a career journeyman and hasn’t been to a playoff game in his previous 14 seasons.
Why not go with Rosen as in the youth-mandate on the line? Sure, quarterback is different than guard. But the working philosophy of this team should be the same this rebuilding season.
On Saturday, Rosen looked better than Fitzpatrick. Maybe if such days stack on top of each other the decision is an easy one. Or maybe Rosen should be better at attacking the second-team defense.
Put him against the first-team defense, as he was at the end Saturday, and Rosen succeeded only by a leaping catch by Kenny Stills in double coverage and because Xavien Howard dropped an interception into a touchdown.
The Dolphins will look like Saturday a lot this year as the kids learn and the glaring holes across the roster are exposed. But that’s the road this franchise has chosen to go down.
The rookie guards get their shot to develop after a surprising firing. Soon, you can be sure, the secondyear quarterback will get his shot, too.