Dolphins’ Flores blames himself, addresses interior of lines, Fuller, plan for Sunday
The interior of the Dolphins lines this season featured an ascending young defensive player who’s still not quite where the Dolphins believe he can be and a center project whose status as a starter after Sunday is very much in question.
The Dolphins envisioned Raekwon Davis as a player with a Pro Bowl ceiling, a mountain of a man (6-7, 330 pounds) who could anchor the middle of their defensive front for years.
And Davis has done enough good things to project as the Dolphins’ starter there next season. But he’s not yet elite.
“He’s done some good things this year,” Flores said. “There’s still a lot of room for improvement. He does things off the field that will allow him to make those improvements.”
Flores praised his preparation.
Pro Football Focus rates him the third-worst NFL interior linemen of 127 qualifiers. The Dolphins assuredly would quibble with that. He anchored a run defense that was among the league’s best during Miami’s seven-game winning streak.
Meanwhile, Michael Deiter makes his eighth start of the season at center Sunday, having regained the job in November after missing nine games with a foot injury.
The Dolphins must decide whether to replace him with one of the half dozen top centers available in free agency.
“Deiter has had an interesting year,” Flores said when asked if Deiter now stands as an average or above-average NFL center.
“He had a good training camp, went down with injury. He’s done some good things. He prepares the right way and does a lot of the right things and has given himself an opportunity to improve, which he has. He has an opportunity against a good front [on Sunday against New England] It’s a good team that runs multiple fronts, so it will represent a challenge.”
Pro Football Focus rates Deiter 29th of 38 NFL centers and 27th as a run blocker.
Flores addressed other issues in his Friday Zoom session with reporters:
▪ Asked reasons for the offense’s struggles all season, Flores cited “lack of execution.”
He said he must “do a better job of getting these guys in position to have success. I would start with myself, things teams need to do to help us play better in all three phases, whether schematically or put players in the right position.”
Asked about the erratic play on special teams this season, Flores said: “Are we doing enough to help guys execute? We haven’t done a good enough job of that.”
▪ Flores again declined to say if Will Fuller’s finger injury is the only reason he is missing the final 13 games of the season or whether there’s an off-field issue in play.
How damaging was Fuller’s loss to the team’s offense?
“Every team deals with injuries and guys out, and other guys have to step up and make adjustments,” Flores said. “We’ve got to make the adjustments. Some we did and some didn’t. There is time to reflect on the season and that’s not right now.”
Fuller finished his Dolphins career with four catches for 26 yards. He collected $10.3 million and played just 65 offensive snaps.
▪ On Jaylen Waddle winning the team MVP award: “Congratulations to him, but let’s have a good practice today.”
▪ lores doesn’t sound inclined to give playing time to young players who haven’t played much this season.
“The goal is to win the game,” he said. “We will play the guys we feel give us the best opportunity to do that.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2022 at 10:54 AM.
