Saturday Dolphins Mailbag: Tua, Achane, Smith, and More

Tackling more issues ahead of the Miami Dolphins wild-card playoff game against the Kansas City Chiefs

From Bubba (@bbakeez):

Do you think we should switch to a 4-3 defense since our edge players are older? Can’t have Ingram dropping back into pass coverage again.

Hey Bubba, I completely agree the Dolphins should NEVER ask Ingram to cover a tight end down the field, but this is the defense they’ve played all season and they’re not switching to a 4-3 at this time.

From NYCFin4Life (@LoboNoches):

Soooo with the Over/Under at 42 is that degrees below zero or the score ...asking for my bets lol.

It’s going to be way under in terms of temperatures and it’s going to be a close call in terms of points, but I’d take the over there.

From Jayco (@ljc7975):

For you, would a Dolphins upset tomorrow night make you forgive them for their late-season collapse?

What late-season collapse? There’s your answer. An unequivocal yes.

From TV Guy (@CurtisM59427242):

Can LB Munson be a factor at all Saturday?

Munson has played a total of 35 defensive snaps in the past three regular seasons. He’s a special teams player to be used at linebacker only in case of an emergency.

From Yarom (@YaromFarias17):

Do Mike and Tua have a problem to adjust to the defensive adjustments after halftime?

Hey Yarom, there’s certainly merit to the question considering the Dolphins’ second-half struggles in a lot of their big games this season — in the two Buffalo games and in the Baltimore game, for example. It seems the defense comes up with an answer for the Dolphins offense and there’s no countermove.

From Jason Gragnano (@GragnanoJ):

Scenario: The game ends up being a Miami win.. When you’re writing up your post game, what’s the top few reasons for the win and who were the top performers?

Hey Jason, the Dolphins win because the defense shut down Patrick Mahomes and the offense was able to hit a big play, and the top performers are Christian Wilkins and De’Von Achane.

From Bret Hoing (@brethoing1):

Do you think for a Dolphins win, they need 20 to 25 touches between Mostert and Achane?

Hey Bret, I don’t believe in making absolute statements like that because games can be won in a wide variety of ways, but it would seem a logical path to victory, yes.

From Justin Reed (via email):

Hey Alain, just wanted to say I love starting each morning reading through your articles. What would your offseason prediction be for this year? Who gets re-signed and who gets released or what would your roster prediction be for next year?

Man, those are some tough, big-picture questions that are going to require a lot of research and we’ll definitely address on alldolphins.com. For now, the only prediction I would make is the Dolphins find a way to re-sign Wilkins. Beyond that, there’s just too much to evalute and it’s going to have to wait until we’re actually in the offseason.

From Brandon Quinn (via email):

If Cam Smith truly isn’t better than what we’ve gotten out of Apple and Darth Kader (a cool nickname and going undrafted sure does buy you some fan leeway huh?), and Tindall can’t be counted on to rush the passer a couple times to the point we sign 3 guys off the street, how does our scouting department have jobs? I’m also just flabbergasted that we can’t seem to get Claypool involved some. He could know literally zero plays. I’d put him out there to block and run fades every single red zone snap. Why can’t we hunt matchup problems for his size like we do our speed?

Hey Brandon, I get the frustration with Smith and Tindall, but I wouldn’t make judgments about Smith yet because he’s not the first rookie to have a hard time getting on the field. With Tindall, he’s an inside linebacker, not an edge defender, so he’s got nothing to do with the Dolphins signing three players off the street. And with Claypool, this becomes a case of trust and he didn’t help his cause with what looked like a poor route on the last offensive play against Buffalo.

From Richard Deen (via email):

Alain, I read your articles that pop up on Finswire.com and love them thanks. I usually get your weekly email columns too. Anyone, just wondering if you know or could check. But it seems like there have been a ton of Dolphins opponents that have won the NFL Weekly awards for offensive/defensive/special teams player of the week this year. Do you know what the ratio is?

Hey Richard, there have been four players who won Player of the Week honors for their performance against the Dolphins: QB Josh Allen (Week 4), WR A.J. Brown (Week 7), OLB Harold Landry (Week 14), Ravens QB Lamar Jackson (17).

From Josh Allen (via email):

Love you guys. Congratulations on all of your success, and Lord willing there will be more to come. It's a great pairing. However, I would like to point out something that I have not heard mentioned by either one of you. How many times did McDaniel sit a player with a minor injury? Minor, in the sense that they could have played. Look at what that got us! It is not a stretch to say that if we had a coach like Vrabel who pushes his players out there if they are healthy enough to play that we would be at least sitting at the 2 seed. Which coach do you think garners more respect from their players? One last note, I get that athletes curse, but McDaniel’s mouth is beyond foul and is completely over the top being raised in a fatherless home I understand where this habit comes from, but he is old enough now to learn other words. Swearing shows a lack of vocabulary.

Hey Josh, who points out he’s not THAT Josh Allen, understand coachspeak and that when McDaniel says after the fact he player was close, that’s not necessarily an undeniable fact. I mean, do we really think that McDaniel “saved” some players. If guys didn’t play, it was because they weren’t ready or there was an undue risk of aggravation And I can tell that players respect McDaniel plenty. As for the cursing, I can assure you it’s got nothing with a lack of vocabulary because — you may not have heard — McDaniel attended Yale and he’s not at a loss for words.

Dolphins-Chiefs Wild-Card Playoff Predictions Roundup