A Coaching Exercise

by ct1361 on Sep 3, 2010 10:21 PM EDT

Now that the preseason is over (finally), I thought that we could now focus an aspect of football / coaching that I have always enjoyed: How to prepare for an opponent. One of the first things that you have to do is identify your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. While this may seem straight forward, you would be surprised how difficult this can be.

One way of doing this is to employ a number ranking to your opponents personnel. Here is how it works: The offensive coaching staff will study film of the opponent’s defense and give a number to every defender on the field from 11 to 1. A number 11 is the best player on the defense, a number 1 is the worst player. Each coach on the staff will make their own ranking, the numbers are compiled and then a composite is worked up. What this does is as a staff it identifies the weak players on the field and gives the basis of a game plan. The numbering system becomes a basis for attacking the weakness or weak players of the opponent.

There are no rules for how you rank a player. You can use whatever method or means that you want (statistics, gut, speed, etc), but you have to be able to defend your decisions. Sometimes, as a staff, there are disagreements and you have to be able to convince others of your point of view of that player. It can literally mean the difference between winning and losing a game.

So here is the task. We are going to do a little self evaluation of the Dolphins starting offense. We will assume that this will be the starters for the season opener against the Bills:

OL: Long, Incognito, Grove, Jerry, Caray

RB: Brown, Polite

QB: Henne

TE: Fasano

WR: Marshall, Hartline

Rank these players 11 – 1 with the best player on offense given the #11 and so on. Let’s see how similar everyone’s rankings are and why. One other thing to remember is that just because a player is given a #1 doesn’t mean that player can’t beat you. It might just mean that he is the least dangerous.

One of the things we always said in the coaching room is if you want to know where you are weakest, watch the film. The opponent, in the way they game plan against you, shows your weakness. Then it becomes a matter of how you counter that. So let’s see where the Phins are weakest on offense.

Here is my ranking:

Long – 11

Polite – 10

Marshall – 9

Caray – 8

Brown – 7

Henne - 6

Grove – 5

Fasano – 4

Incognito – 3

Hartline – 2

Jerry – 1

Good luck and I will tally all the rankings and give a Phinsider evaluation of the offense within the next couple of days.

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Here you go ct.

Marshall – 11

Long – 10

Brown – 9

Carey – 8

Polite – 7

Henne – 6

Fasano – 5

Grove – 4

Hartline – 3

Jerry – 2

Incognito – 1

by FinFanFromCA on Sep 4, 2010 12:13 AM EDT reply actions

I'll bite.

Long – 11
Marshall – 10
Brown – 9
Henne – 8
Carey – 7
Polite – 6
Grove – 5
Jerry – 4
Fasano – 3
Hartline – 2
Incognito – 1

The Phinsider: SBN's Miami Dolphins blog

by Matty I on Sep 4, 2010 7:22 AM EDT reply actions

matty it doesn't happen often enough

but i agree with you …. at least to the extent that polite is rated below Brown, marshall, & henne….

The Future is now, stop the bandwagon and lets get the Henne train rollin, as we all hope that the 14th dwarf is the real prince charming.

by W NY Fins Fan on Sep 5, 2010 6:50 PM EDT up reply actions

what why is Polite rated below?

"I don't mind being ogled, ridiculed, made to feel minuscule. If you consider the source, it's kinda pitiful." - Corey Taylor from My Plague
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by PotM on Sep 5, 2010 7:54 PM EDT up reply actions

Matty made it easy for me (cut and paste)

Long – 11
Marshall – 10
Brown – 9
Henne – 8
Carey – 7
Polite – 6
Grove – 5
Jerry – 4
Fasano – 3
Hartline – 2
Incognito – 1

by michphishfan on Sep 4, 2010 10:04 AM EDT reply actions

well ok

Strenth
long
marshall
henne
polite
carey
fasano
hartline
brown
Incognito
Jerry
Grove
Weakness

wopper "the king" computer

by wild zion beaver on Sep 4, 2010 11:55 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs

here's mine

Long – 11
Polite – 10
Marshall – 9
Brown – 8
Henne – 7
Hartline – 6
jerry – 5
grove- 4
Fasano – 3
Carey – 2
Incognito – 1

by PotM on Sep 4, 2010 6:27 PM EDT reply actions

ct - no idea how i agree with most of your posts/points

but then we hit the details and i couldn’t agree less….

first off any ranking with polite in it is flawed… the fins will run far more 2TE sets then ones with the FB…. so i’d throw nalbonne in there instead… and depending on howmany 3rd and longs you foresee i’d drop a bess in there too….

that said…. i don’t see how you would rate polite a 10…. he is wildly inconsistent… having great games like the carolina game where he pounds people all over the field yet throws games where he totally whiffs on blocking assignments multiple times…
(2nd buffalo game comes to mind)…. at best i’d have polite 5…

now hartline #2 – are you out of your freakin mind…. the guy has good quickness, runs his routes well, is a great blocker (watch the crack back)… now his hands seem to be a little suspect but if you forget about this guy well…. good news for us.

brown – 11
long – 10
marshall – 9
henne – 8
grove – 7
bess – 6
incognito -5
hartline – 4 (dang he’s pretty good for 4)
carey – 3 (most overrated guy on the team)
fassano – 2
jerry – 1 (possible he will move up – but he IS the weak link right now)

The Future is now, stop the bandwagon and lets get the Henne train rollin, as we all hope that the 14th dwarf is the real prince charming.

by W NY Fins Fan on Sep 4, 2010 8:43 PM EDT reply actions

alright, lets c..

long- 11
Marshall- 10
Polite- 9
Brown- 8
carey- 7
grove- 6
henne- 5
fasano- 4
incognito- 3
hartline- 2
jerry- 1

WE GOT BRANDON MARSHALL!!!!!
"Faster than a speeding walrus" -Me.
"Violence is not the answer, it's the question; the answer is YES!!!"

by finzrule on Sep 5, 2010 9:11 AM EDT reply actions

I think every one of these guys has the potential to be an eleven

if they learn to work together as a team. Each one has particular skills and aspects that got him the job.

HOWEVER, I’ll play from a coaching standpoint:

Long – 11 (he’s a friggin monster)

Polite – 9 (amazing blocking back)

Marshall – 10 (might have to sneak in some stickem.lol)

Caray – 9 (big mean slobber-knocker)

Brown – 11 (when games count, this is OUR guy)

Henne – 8 (hope he’s an 11 before the year’s out)

Grove – 6 (love this guy’s general nastiness on the field)

Fasano – 5 (you might add a point because of his establishe relationship w/ Henne)

Incognito – 4-6 (still hard to predict)

Hartline – 5-7 (he has GREAT potential)

Jerry – 1 (his lack of quickness worries me)

"Nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat."
Monty Python

J! E! T! S! Suck! Suck! Suck! Suck!

Tom Brady should have his thumbs removed! Slowly!

by captainugly on Sep 5, 2010 11:15 AM EDT reply actions

are all of you people freakin nuts!!!!!!

so are you HONESTLY TELLING ME that if you are a defensive coach -- you’re going into team meetings and saying that we need to be more worried about polite then r brown!!!!!

i’m shocked, shocked i say!!!!!!

The Future is now, stop the bandwagon and lets get the Henne train rollin, as we all hope that the 14th dwarf is the real prince charming.

by W NY Fins Fan on Sep 5, 2010 6:48 PM EDT reply actions

he is a better FB than Brown is a RB.

if you get what i’m saying

by PotM on Sep 5, 2010 7:55 PM EDT up reply actions

not too sure about that

even before you get to the point of building points of weakness to attack another teams unit…
polite plays 10-15 plays a game and likely has little impact on most plays…. RB has great impact on
every play… in fact most teams have designed their defense against Ronnie the last 2-5 years….
and lets take a look at offensive production when Ronnie is healthy vs when he’s been out…

Ronnie IS one of the 3 best players on the team…

The Future is now, stop the bandwagon and lets get the Henne train rollin, as we all hope that the 14th dwarf is the real prince charming.

by W NY Fins Fan on Sep 6, 2010 3:03 AM EDT up reply actions

little impact? Blocking, and ESPECIALLY lead blocking has a lot to

do with the success of a run. Also, we have run a lot of power run formations in the past, due to our philosophy, that makes a pro bowl FB more important.

by PotM on Sep 6, 2010 10:59 AM EDT up reply actions

the guy is only on the field for

10-15 offensive plays a game… the 2TE formation is used far more frequently by this coach…

on top of that his blocking runs hot and cold… yes he has games like the carolina game last year but he also has games like the 2nd buffalo game where he whiffs on a couple key assignments….

and once again – if you are a DC are you going to devote ANY time in your practice on this guy (maybe that 4th down run) that otherwise could be spend on dealing with ronnie….

this is a no brainer… i know polite is a popular guy… but one of the reasons that he has been successful is because all eyes are on ronnie….

and lets all not forget ronnie was the SECOND PLAYER taken in his draft class for a reason…. he is a beast.

The Future is now, stop the bandwagon and lets get the Henne train rollin, as we all hope that the 14th dwarf is the real prince charming.

by W NY Fins Fan on Sep 6, 2010 2:27 PM EDT up reply actions

you lost me in the second paragraph

by PotM on Sep 6, 2010 7:03 PM EDT up reply actions

Th point of the exercise is to

evaluate YOUR players! I place MORE EMPHASIS on BLOCKING.

No LBer that knows what he’s doing isn’t paying attention to the blockers, isn’t a LB i want to be on my team. Also, when he was perfect for TWO SEASONS, you don’t think teams tried to stop him?

If you go based off draft position, Ginn is almost as beastly as Brown. And Marshall isn’t a starter really.

by PotM on Sep 6, 2010 7:07 PM EDT up reply actions