Saturday Dolphins Mailbag: The Tua-Tyreek Connection, Tretter, Thompson, and More - Sports Illustrated

Part 2 of the latest SI Fan Nation All Dolphins mailbag around the preseason finale against the Philadelphia Eagles:

From FinsUpMass (@pauldbotcom):

The run game has been putrid to the "fans" eyes. Are they just not showing us scheme stuff or should be really be concerned?

Hey Paul, yeah, I do think it’s too early to be concerned or push the panic button because I absolutely don’t think the Dolphins have come close to throwing at defenses all the different wrinkles they’ll be showing in the regular season. Wrinkles or not, it’s disappointing to watch Sony Michel getting stuffed on second-and-1 and third-and-1, but in the grand scheme of things I’m not anywhere near ready to fret about this. Remember that Terron Armstead didn’t play in the first two preseason games, Connor Williams didn’t play in the first and fullback Alec Ingold didn’t play in either. So I say let’s give it a bit more time before we get overly concerned with this.

From NemesisTom35 (NTom35):

Best guess on who stays in the RB room? I’m predicting Mostert, Edmonds, Ahmed, and Michel.

Hey Tom, I’ve kind of gone back and forth on this and will be making my final roster projection Monday, but I’m no longer very confident in the fact they’ll be keeping four halfbacks. I think Edmonds and Mostert are locks (or as close to it as you can get), and it’s pretty wide open for the third spot. Based on all I’ve seen in practice and the preseason games, I’m now leaning toward Michel actually not making the 53-man roster and the third spot coming down to Ahmed or Myles Gaskin. Let me hold off on a final answer until Monday (then you can check out my roster project LOL).

From Phinaholic (@dana_buice):

Now that we’ve gone through 3 team practices, 2 pre-season games & almost 20 practices, how confident are you in the offensive line’s ability two protect the QB and make holes to run through? Should us fans sleep like a baby or are we gonna get less sleep than Nancy in Nightmare on my Street?

Hey Dana, bonus points for you for the originality in the question. Well done. As for my answer, how about somewhere in the middle? I’d say right now I feel very confident the line will be better than it was last year (I know, not a very high bar), but I just don’t know how good it can become — understanding that the scheme will help. At this point, I think expecting the O-line to be middle of the pack in the NFL is reasonable and that would be more than sufficient from this vantage point. I don’t think it’s going to flop (barring injuries, of course), but I also wouldn’t expect a dominating group, either.

From Adnas (@Anase815):

Can we revisit making Skylar Thompson the backup? Would have preferred Sinnett over Brissett last year but they went with Brissett and that didn’t work out.

Scroll to Continue

Hey there, can we revisit Thompson as the backup? Sure. Done. Not happening. Look, I understand he’s looked great in the preseason, but the preseason and the regular season are two different ballgames (pun intended) and you just can’t go into the season with a rookie seventh-round pick as the backup to a quarterback with durability issues. There’s a reason the Dolphins gave Teddy Bridgewater $6.5 million guaranteed for this season and it wasn’t to trade him because a rookie had a good summer. As for Brissett, while I’m certainly not going to argue that he shined, understand that the Dolphins were 2-3 in the games he started and easily could have been 3-2 with more aggressive decision-making by the coaching staff in overtime at Las Vegas or if the officials had thrown a flag on the pass intended in the end zone for Will Fuller. The other two losses were against Tampa Bay and Indianapolis, and it says here they wouldn’t have won either game with Reid Sinnett at quarterback.

From Jorge Fernandez (@jfdad):

My question: can Solomon replace Liam at left guard? I believe he is better in pass pro for sure and about the same in running.

Hey Jorge, that is a very interesting question, and I have liked what I have seen of Kindley the past couple of weeks at camp, but there has been no sign whatsoever that this kind of move will be happening. Also remember that the Dolphins gave up a third-round pick this year to move up in the second round of the 2021 draft to get Eichenberg and, like it or not, that’s going to make it more difficult for the team to move him out of the starting lineup (that’s just the way things work, regardless of what coaches would say publicly about the best players playing).

From Olive Grove Jon (@Owlizee):

It seems maybe Gesicki doesn’t fit the scheme and whether there have been trade talks or not, what’s the chances of him been traded before the season starts or by the trade deadline?

Hey OGJ, first off, let me address the issue of “trade talks” and point out that if a team calls the Dolphins to ask what it would take to get Gesicki, that would constitute “trade discussions.” Not saying that’s what necessarily happened in this case, but just wanted to make that point. Given that the Dolphins made it a point to tag him and made enough moves in the offseason to suggest they’re going all in to make the playoffs and to help Tua Tagovailoa as they seek to make a determination about his long-term future as the team’s quarterback, I would suggest a Gesicki trade is less likely than not to happen.

From Jose Carrasco (@JoseCarrascooo):

Do you believe the connection Tua and Tyreek have shown all offseason will transfer over to the regular season?

Hey Jose, if by connection you mean Tua throwing to Hill when he’s been open in practice (which has been often), yes, I absolutely expect that to continue in the regular season. The Dolphins aren’t paying Hill all that money to be a complementary player and he’s too fast not to get open on a pretty frequent basis, so I absolutely expect Tua to look his way many, many times.

From Rensek (@Phudashit):

Does the recent retirement announcement of JC. Tretter explain the reason why we didn't sign him?

Hey Rensek, nope, it’s actually the other way around. Tretter retired because no team showed an interest in signing him this offseason after the Cleveland Browns released him, and he’s probably not wrong when he suggests his role as NFLPA president and his outspokenness about off-the-field issues played a role in that. There’s an interesting story on SI.com about Tretter where he addresses his retirement and a comment he once made that, “My NFLPA job is gonna end my career well before my knees end my career.”

Adblock test (Why?)