Deus Irae

I knew when I cleared my ignore list post-draft that it wouldn't be long before I regretted it.

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"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius

Metaphors

So do the Fins and Jets have any issues? Let's take a look:

Fins
They added Marshall to give them a legit WR target, but his YPC last year was 11. Camarillo? 11. Bess? 10. Fasano? 11. Those are Welkerish numbers. When Brian Hartline is your deep threat, you probably still have some work to do.

Then again they can always roll out the wildcat. Nobody will be expecting that!

Apparently the Fins are content with Soliai and his 5 career starts at NT for the first half of the season. Did get a couple of linemen (Odrick, Oghobaase) that are fairly redundant with the guys they already have (Merling, Langford and Starks).

Need OLBs? Got a couple of LBs (Misi, Edds) that fit better inside...where they just spent wads of cash for Dansby. I'm sure Wake is ready to build on his 1 career start.

Jets
Jones to Greene
Washington to McKnight
Richardson to Conner
Faneca to Ducasse
Yep...no uncertainty in the #1 rushing attack that led the Jets to a 7-7 record.

No worries. Sanchez will make a tremendous leap forward this year. I mean he will as soon as he can leap. Or run. He does have a cool range-of-motion machine in his house so he'll be fine.

Who will he throw to (when he can throw again)? They did pick up Holmes and he'll be a fine addition after week 4. They only have the Ravens, Pats and Fins in the first 3 weeks. What could possibly go wrong?

Of course the defense will carry them. Assuming Jenkins reports to camp under 500 lbs. and delays his trip to the IR for a little while. Ellis and his 33 yo. body should be ready to go (unless he gets cut). Even then, DeVito has proven enough with his 1 career start and 20 tackles to jump right in. That doesn't even count seeing Gholston at DE and the impact he ... sorry, can't even generate enough sarcasm to do that justice.

So Rex "Snow White" Ryan and his 6 acquisitions (Pouty, Tokey, Vanity, Dizzy, Shankful and Pop) should have the Jets positioned even better than last year. Maybe 8-6 and only needing one team to lay down for them to make the playoffs.

But seriously...the Jets and Fins have done some good things but both will be counting on new and unproven players to come up big. If they can do it, why is it so hard to believe the Pats can do it as well.

Keyser Söze

Ryan is collecting talent, Belichick is building a team

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Patspsycho

Honestly, what are we nervous about? You have a locker room that's a powder keg waiting to explode. You guys are collecting talent, not building a team. You can't possibly claim that any one of those FA signings are true team players, can you?

You just kicked out Faneca and Washington, two team players.

Also did you check Damien Woody's Twitter? If you didn't, let me give you the link:

http://twitter.com/damienwoody

HEY BRO! WHAT UP?

You've got to be kidding me when you think the Dolphins could finish ahead of the Pats in 2010. I'll admit, the Jets look pretty damn good on paper but they still have Sanchez at QB and the Pats have Tom Brady. In the end, the only way I see the Pats finishing 2nd or even 3rd is if they implode like they did against Baltimore in the playoffs.

PATRIOTSFANINPA

No one saw the 1-15 Dolphins of 2007 become the 11-5 2008 division winners either (Yeah,I know no Brady but still 10 games improvement).....The NFL is unpredictable except for bad referee calls which are inevitable

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patsfan-1982

i don't see the jets or fish winning 12 or more games each. i say NO the pats are not a 3rd place team

Fencer

Good find.

Twitlonger: We work with guys that put it on the line everyday! We spend more time 2gether than we do with our o is a classic.

That said, the Pats have their "Day of mourning" vet departures most years too.

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wockenbauss

Good point... but on the other hand, he's going to have a completely different QB and surrounding cast.

Welkerish numbers? Without a legitimate number 1 WR on the roster? And this is bad I take it?

Possibly so. We'll see. It's also possible the addition of Brandon Marshall can improve the opportunities of everyone else.

I think it's about played out myself... although making other teams prepare for it, is never a bad idea. They did draft John "the green mile" Jerry though, as a presumed replacement for the fragile Justin Smiley - which isn't an indication to me they intend to forget about the power running game.

Randy Starks is moving to NT according to Ireland's draft press conference... Solia will still be the backup (still steadily improving)... and their 1st rounder Jared Odrick will work with Merling at Starks former RDE position. Jason Ferguson returns after game 8.

Only majorly redundant if you missed the fact Starks is moving to NT... but then when did redundancy become a bad thing when your talking about D-Line rotations?

Big time.

Edds will play inside (probably contributing as a nickle LB to start - due to coverage skills), but Misi is definitely an OLB. They picked up a small school sleeper in Chris McCoy out of Middle Tennessee who they will try weak side OLB as well.

Dansby is capable of playing multiple positions... inside and out... but holdovers Anderson, Wake, and Moses haven't shown much - other than Wake in a pass rush only role.

I'm not. Wake is a liability so far at everything except rushing the passer... which is about all he was used for in 2009. But that isn't unusual for any DE to OLB convert this early in the game. Despite his very limited opportunities, Wake was 2nd on the team (behind Starks) with QB pressures.

I think you did hit the nail on the head though. The LB corp will determine the fate of the 2010 Dolphins. There are 14 LB's on the roster currently (including the RFA Dobbins who was thrown in with the Charger/Dolphin trade last week). Whatever comes out of this youthful competition, should in large measure determine whether the Dolphins defense is improved or not.

Other factors...

Mike Nolan > Paul Pasqualoni?

Theoretically speaking... a team could probably do worse than having Bill Parcells draft some young LB's for a competition such as apparently will take place down south this summer.

It isn't. In fact, the Pats should be favored. But I don't think the Jets or Dolphins should be dismissed so lightly as they have been in the recent past, and as some are still wont to do.