Ask the Phinsider

Marlon Moore is a WR who has been working with the 2nd team offense and fighting for one of the open receiver spots. He didn’t do much last game against the Falcons (nobody really did), but in the first 2 games he was showing some good skills and looks like he could be a sleeper that will surprise some people.

I would also say keep an eye on CB Nolan Carroll. He has surprised many of us so far in training camp and in the preseason games working both as a nickle corner with the 1st team and as a regular corner with the 2nd team. He is making a few rookie mistakes here and there, but overall he looks to be a solid addition to our DBs so far.

Lastly I will be watching Ike Alama-Francis. He started off as the 2nd string ILB as a backup to our 2nd round pick Koa Misi. But he has been seeing more and more reps with the first team lately, and it’s starting to look like he might actually be in the running to get the starting ILB next to Dansby from Misi.

when They got the WiLdCaT?!?!?!

He had a very good season last year and should benefit from another year and from Marshall’s presence.

our #2 WR is Brian Hartline, who is a second year player. He is very similar in playing style to Camarillo, a little bit faster but without quite as good of hands. He made some pretty good plays for us last season and we’re hoping that he develops the sure hands that Camarillo has to make him a great compliment to Marshall.

We also have Davone Bess to work the slot. Bess has so far been a great pickup for us and has shown that he can be a great slot receiver. He’s quick and has some pretty good hands, and he’s a guy that we’re happy about after seeing what we gave away in Wes Welker all those years ago.

After those guys, it’s still up in the air as to who the other receivers will be, but if I had to guess I would say that the other 2 guys will probably be Patrick Turner and Marlon Moore. Turner was a 3rd round pick for us last year that was drafted to be a big red zone threat, but he got a bad case of the dropsies and barely played in any games. Moore is a guy we picked up this year as an undrafted free agent and he has been making a strong push these preseason games to take one of the open receiver spots.

It’s kind of hard to say how Brown is doing. He moves like he isn’t having any problems and seems as fast and agile as he usually is, but our O-line has not been playing very well in the preseason so he’s not getting much in the way of production. But none of the RBs are, so I can’t really say for sure if he’s not producing much because his foot is still bothering him or if the O-line is not giving much to work with.

But I would be surprised if they kept them in for even 1 full quarter. I would expect them to play for maybe a series or two, and then get pulled for the 2nd team. There may be a few guys they keep in that they want to get some more playing time, but overall I don’t expect them to be in there for very long.

The guy that we have to be his replacement is Cameron Wake at the WOLB. He played as a backup last year behind JT and Joey Porter and managed to almost as many sacks, QB hurries, and QB hits as both of those guys on about 1/3 of the snaps. So far he has shown that he can get pressure on the QB on a fairly consistent basis. While he hasn’t gotten a sack yet in the preseason, he has been getting in the backfield and getting close to the QB and causing them to hurry their throws on a majority of his pass rushes. I think that when the regular season starts and Mike Nolan starts calling some of his more exotic blitz packages, Wake will see his production improve.

As to your questions, let’s see.

1) As of right now, Odrick is a starter. He hasn’t been making a lot of waves, but I did notice in the last couple of games that he was getting double teamed a lot. So while he hasn’t been getting a lot of numbers himself, he has been taking extra blockers away from other guys.

2) They have been having their ups and downs. Some times they are looking like they have made some good progression in their second season, and other times they are still making some mistakes and getting beat. Right now, both of them will be the starters, as our veteran, Will Allen, is still recovering from an injury. We’re not sure yet if Allen will be back by the start of the regular season or not, so the starters will be Smith and Davis with Nolan Carroll playing the nickel corner.

3) We did, and still do, have questions at free safety. We didn’t pick up any free agents for the position, instead they decided to go with Chris Clemons who played backup to Gibril Wilson last year. So far, his play has been inconsistent enough that we’re not really all that sure what to expect from him. He’s made some good plays and had good coverage, then other times he’s whiffed in Gibril-like fashion. I definitely think that FS will be a major area to work on after this season. We did draft a safety in Reshad Jones this year, but he is more of a strong safety than a free safety.

4) If Dez plays, I would guess that he will probably be covered by Sean Smith. Vontae is only 5’11" and Smith has an inch on Dez, at least according to nfl.com’s stats. While Davis is definitely the more physical corner of the two and has been playing better than Smith in the preseason so far, I think they will probably put Smith on Dez to try and eliminate his height advantage over Davis.

Grove hasn’t really regressed as much as he has been battling some lingering injuries. Grove still seems to be the starting center that is being penciled in from what Sparano is saying, but he is still battling a minor injury to his shoulder I believe. More than likely, they are giving Berger more reps to make sure that he can be good and consistent enough to take Groves place if he gets hurt again. That being said, Berger hasn’t been doing too badly, although he hasn’t been quite as effective as Grove usually is. He’s been getting pushed back a little more often, but looks to me like he will be a solid backup for Grove.

As for Jake Long, we definitely do agree that he is one of the better tackles in the league, and are very happy to have a guy as good as him to anchor the left side of the line. To me, he seems to do pretty good in both pass and run blocking, but I would say that he is a little bit better at pass protection than run blocking. Pressure on Henne doesn’t come from Long’s side nearly as often as it does from the right side, unless you’re looking at last weeks game against Atlanta when the whole line looked like they forgot what they were doing.

Right now I would say probably none. But if the season starts going badly we may end up making a trip to the Former Cowboy Superstore later on. =)

As for whose idea it was to draft him, I’m not really sure which of the FO was the biggest one for picking him. It does seem rather quick to give up on a 2nd rounder, but he really has not shown anything at the QB position. His accuracy and decision making were bad last year and they have not gotten better this year so far. I think that if he insists on trying to be a QB in the NFL, he is quickly going to become a big bust. If he is willing to make the move to either a RB or a WR, he might be able to find some kind of spot somewhere.

I think that when he was drafted he was envisioned as being an extra wrinkle to the Wildcat to keep defenses from just stacking the box when we lined up in it. He was supposed to be a guy who could throw the ball if the defense was set up to stop a run and run the ball if they kept enough guys back to defend against a pass. And if he had to come in as the main QB because Henne got hurt, then he could play a Michael Vick type of role, a QB that can pass but is also a skilled runner.

However, he has not shown that he has what it takes at all to be a QB at the NFL level and so like I said, unless he is willing to play another position, I don’t think he is going to find much opportunity to save his NFL career.

Yeah, people were making a big deal about the drops, but I feel the same way you do, that it just needs a little bit of time for him and Henne to get comfortable with each other. That being said, he has made some pretty good catches so far and he has been contributing to the offense in other ways too. He has been doing very well in blocking downfield for guys, and in the Jacksonville game threw a block that actually took 2 defenders out of the play and let Fasano scamper in for a TD. So overall I think he’ll be fine in the offense once the regular season starts.

As for his catches, while I think it is possible for him to get 100 catches again in our offense, I think a lot of that depends on how our O-line is doing. If they can block well and are opening up running lanes and our ground game can get started, I’m not sure if he will get that many catches. But if the running game struggles, they will pass more and he might be able to make it.

Thanks, I haven’t seen any of the newer RvB stuff, haven’t watched it in a while. I need to go back and catch up on the stuff I’ve missed.

I would say that he is looking for the starters to look ready to play the regular season. Our starters did very poorly against Atlanta. The O-line has looked rather lost in 2 of the preseason games so far and the offense as a whole has pretty much sputtered.

If I had to guess, I would say that Sparano is probably looking to see the O-line play like the good unit we’ve enjoyed for the past couple of years and not be missing blocks and opening up running lanes for Ronnie and Ricky. And I think he also wants to see the receivers start making some catches and stop dropping the ball. On the defensive side, he is probably looking to see some more consistency from the secondary and especially looking to see Sean Smith and Vontae Davis keep better coverage on their man and not give up the big pass.

It’s hard to say exactly how long the starters will be playing, from what Sparano is saying he has a number of plays in his head that he thinks the starters need yet to get to where he wants to see them. But he did say that if they play well and he feels that they reach that point before they run that number of plays, he would pull them. I’m going to go a bit conservatively and guess that they may play for about 1 quarter, but I don’t think that he is going to risk them to more than that unless things look really bad.