So Much For Mathis

He finally signed--with the Broncos.

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolphins_in_depth/2015/08/the-miami-dolphins-will-not-be-adding-a-former-pro-bowl-guard-evan-mathis-a-free-agent-since-being-cut-by-the-philadelphia.html

As usual, the rich get richer. I am now predicting a season-ending injury to either Thomas or Turner before the week is out.

If one has to get injured, I hope it's Thomas. Ironically, it might actually improve the line.

I keep hearing that Thomas is somehow not sucking and Turner is actually the weak link now.

Plus, Thomas might have to play LT in this next game anyway.

Going after somebody, giving it your best shot, and failing is one thing. But the Fins made it painfully clear from the get go that they didn't even want to try for Mathis, and I cannot imagine any other team needing him more. That's what I have an issue with.

Only thing is can think of is we decided to limit the investment. Not saying it's the right move. We have high price fa at lt and first rd picks at c and rt will be interesting to see how it works out

Just plain stupid. Mathis would have been a huge upgrade, and he ended up being very affordable. I believe this non-move will come back to bite the Phins in the ass.

If he is chasing contenders only, it's possible his agent told us he wouldn't be interested in Miami anyways.

We'll never know how it all went down.

white1 wrote:If he is chasing contenders only, it's possible his agent told us he wouldn't be interested in Miami anyways.  

We'll never know how it all went down.

I think there's some truth to that. We can debate whether or not the Phins are a legit contender, but the bottom line is a team led by Peyton Manning has to be more attractive then a team led by Ryan Tannehill. And then there's the John Elway factor, too. I think the Manning/Elway combo would be very attractive to an older player hoping to get a ring before he retires.

What it comes down to is that I honestly don't think the Phins were all that interested in Mathis anyway. The media played it up because of the state of the Miami OL, but the Phins clearly never showed serious interest that I saw. This current Dolphins team generally gets the free agents they target, and they didn't even bother bringing in Mathis for a visit. They could have had him long before any other teams got involved, if they wanted him.

Well, it's time to sink or swim with the young guards we have...hopefully Tannehill won't wind up on IR.

If you're going to be signed as a free agent OL on this team you have to either be an underwhelming backup or an oft-injured starter.

With $13 million in cap space and question marks at guard, why didn’t Miami make a big offer for Denver-bound Evan Mathis? Among the reasons: Not only has Thomas impressed the Dolphins in camp, but they weren’t convinced that Mathis, at 33, would be better than Thomas and Turner by the end of the season.

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/sports-buzz/2015/08/um-adding-wrinkles-to-62nd-ranked-scoring-offense-rosier-said-it-will-be-shocking-heat-dolphins-marl.html

they either think Mathis is really going to fall off or Thomas/Turner are really going to improve - perhaps a little of both.

I'm really curious to see how Thomas and Turner will play in a full game. It's one thing to play at an acceptable level for a couple of series in a preseason game, but a full game in the regular season is a different story. We'll find out soon enough.

Well, at left tackle, Thomas got his ass kicked quite a bit in this last game.

Degarmo wrote:Well, at left tackle, Thomas got his ass kicked quite a bit in this last game.

Yeah, just finished watching the first half and I saw Thomas getting pushed around a lot. He had a penalty and gave up at least one sack (maybe two...hard to tell on the replay) and got very little push in the run game. He should NEVER play tackle again!

He's just too slow and soft. I don't know what they see in him.

Degarmo wrote:He's just too slow and soft.  I don't know what they see in him.

The thing is, even if he's not giving up an official "pressure" or sack, more often than not he's getting pushed back by the defender. That's something I've noticed since day one with him, and it hasn't gotten any better. So yeah, he doesn't get a negative grade on those plays because the QB wasn't actually pressured, but when you play OL the last thing you want is to get pushed backward.

JMP wrote:The thing is, even if he's not giving up an official "pressure" or sack, more often than not he's getting pushed back by the defender.  That's something I've noticed since day one with him, and it hasn't gotten any better.  So yeah, he doesn't get a negative grade on those plays because the QB wasn't actually pressured, but when you play OL the last thing you want is to get pushed backward.

Yeah, and the thing is that those kinds of occurrences on plays do affect the outcome of the play. If the QB has to move around he will miss seeing an open receiver more often than not and have to check down. If a running back has to alter his path, the play can go from effective to crap. To me, when you're shoved around, it's very much a negative grade, and one would hope these coaches would think that too, but when you hear them talk about their grading, it doesn't sound like they're thinking that way. Net result doesn't always tell you the whole story.

Completely agree...and I don't think PFF or the Dolphins' coaches take those things into account...it's mind-boggling.

I heard Thomas was actually GLOATING about his performance, as in, "See, people? I'm not horrible after all so THERE!"

I KNEW his sudden bout of non-suckitude was too good to be true!