Mailbag: How much of Dolphins win against the Ravens can carry over to Jets and beyond?
Winning is the cure for everything, and as Dolphins tight end Mike Gesicki said Monday, there’s been a bit more positivity in Miami’s practice facility lately. The Dolphins are on a two-game winning streak, their latest victory coming against the Baltimore Ravens in primet ime last Thursday night.
Though Miami is still 3-7, the second half of the season begins to ease up a bit and the team will travel to New Jersey this weekend to face the New York Jets (2-7).
In this week’s mailbag, I take a look at what the Dolphins can take away from last week’s big win and more. And a reminder that if you have questions you would like me to answer in future mailbags, you can ask me on Twitter or email me.
Here we go:
Can we expect Miami to incorporate the same game plan against the Jets as they did against the Ravens and have the same success or do you think there will be a different scheme that may work better to take on the likes of Mike White, Elijah Moore and Michael Carter, etc? - @Dan_B_Phin_Phan
Yes and no. Specific to the defense, there are some aspects of the game plan that I would be surprised to see consistently for the rest of the season, like playing Jerome Baker at outside linebacker and blitzing safeties Jevon Holland and Brandon Jones at such a high rate. Both decisions seemed to be made with Lamar Jackson’s speed in mind, and Miami will rarely have to face a quarterback with the same skill set.
With that being said, the presnap Cover 0 looks that the Dolphins deployed so much against Baltimore could be here to stay. Miami didn’t always bring the house but was effective in disguising coverages and confusing Jackson, and I think something like that could translate to other matchups, regardless of the quarterback and offense.
The continued stubbornness to not address OL problems is baffling. They’ve made 1 move to move Jackson and so far Jackson has been better as a Guard. What will actually make Flores decide that Eich and Davis at Tackles is a terrible idea, neither has shown improvement. - @MiamiFan133
The likelihood of the Dolphins making a change along the offensive line on a short week was always slim, and Flores pretty much said as much Monday. Eichenberg’s move to left tackle has been pretty rough, to say the least, and Davis isn’t doing much better. Many would like to see Greg Little at one of the tackle spots, and it’s understandable, given the offensive line — specifically the tackles — hasn’t shown any noticeable improvement. Part of me wonders how hellbent the Dolphins are on trying to develop Eichenberg as a rookie, for better or for worse. And the other part of me wonders, for as much as Flores has mentioned considering given Little some time, maybe this truly is Miami’s best option along the offensive line.
Will there be more deep shots vs. the Jets secondary? - @hl_305
You would hope so because the Jets defense has struggled massively in recent games. I will say one thing on the big pass plays against Baltimore: the 52-yarder to Isaiah Ford and 64-yarder to Albert Wilson both came off busted coverages in the Ravens’ secondary. But when you have struggled to generate explosive plays like Miami, you take them any way you can get them. Tua Tagovailoa’s 35-yard pass to wide receiver Jaylen Waddle in the third quarter was a really impressive throw and catch in zone coverage. It does seem like the Dolphins have made more of an effort to attempt downfield passes in recent weeks, which is refreshing for an offense that has been so stagnant at times
Can we expect (tight end) Hunter Long to play this season, and (cornerback) Noah (Igbinoghene) is in the path of getting cut at the end of the season? - @claudineyton
Before the Dolphins’ two-game winning streak, I thought it might be a possibility. But the offensive coaching staff likes the contributions of tight ends Adam Shaheen and Durham Smythe, and I wouldn’t expect their roles in the offense to change, barring an injury or the team being out of playoff contention later in the season.
It has been a weird few weeks for Igbinoghene. He was active for the Buffalo Bills and Houston Texans game but didn’t play a single snap on defense or special teams. Then, he logged 25 snaps on special teams against the Ravens, a role the team likely needed him to play because Elijah Campbell was inactive with a toe injury. If Campbell is healthy, this week will be telling if Igbinoghene really is making his way back onto the game-day roster.
As for his future with the team: He signed a four-year, $11 million rookie contract, and the Dolphins have a team option for a fifth year. Miami would have to exercise the fifth year before the start of Igbinoghene’s fourth season and that’s way down the road, but it’s hard to see a scenario right now where the team does that.
Cutting Igbinoghene after the 2021 season would cost the Dolphins more than $5 million in dead cap space, according to Spotrac, a hefty sum of salary cap they’d be unable to use but not overly detrimental given the large amount of cap the team will have for the 2022 offseason (Miami could lower the dead cap by trading Igbinoghene, either after the 2021 or ‘22 seasons, but the cap relief would still be negligible compared to the dead cap).
Igbinoghene’s long-term future in Miami doesn’t look great but unless the front office and Flores truly don’t see anything redeemable, I would expect him to be on the roster, at least for the 2022 season.
This story was originally published November 16, 2021 at 9:39 AM.
