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The Garden State – A few different items to get into today including notes on Miami Dolphins issues and why some are hiding from us . . .
The Dolphins have some injury issues that could help the Jets in their game next Monday night.
The Dolphins lost their talented, big-money left tackle Branden Albert to a serious knee injury a few weeks ago, and he’s on IR.
They replaced him by moving rookie Ju’waun James from right to left tackle. He suffered a finger injury, and had to leave the Dolphins-Broncos game. He didn’t return. James should be able to return for the Jets’ game, but it’s unclear how the finger injury will impact him, and obviously, he’s also playing out of position. He was a right tackle at Tennessee and the Dolphins picked him to play right tackle.
Also, the Dolphins are without starting cornerback Cortland Finnegan due to a serious ankle injury, and his replacement Jamar Taylor, left the Denver game with a shoulder injury, and his status for the Jets’ game is unknown. The Dolphins signed cornerback R.J. Stanford today.
A couple of major injury situations to keep an eye on as the week progresses . . .
The stories about Rex’s job possibly being in jeopardy between now and the end of the season is a made-up angle.
It’s not a legitimate angle.
Woody isn’t going to do that. Perhaps after the season, but not during the season.
Sometimes the media makes up angles . . .
The trap questions continue. And we wonder why the players hide from us in the locker room. And they do, en masse.
Rex Ryan was getting hammered today with questions on whether he thinks the team lacks talent.
Q)How he can say the team does not need an upgrade in talent to improve?
Ryan: I think we have a lot of talent on this football team. We might not be as talented or as deep as other teams in certain areas, but I think we have more than enough talent to be competitive and to obviously have a better record than we do.
Q)Why the team is struggling if the roster has enough talent?
Ryan: Well again, I look at myself first and then you move on. But, I’ve got to find a way to do a better job and I’ll work hard to give our guys a chance. So, I start looking at it from myself first and that’s where I’ll begin.
In the early seventies, the late Joe South had a song, “Walk a mile in my shoes.”
Elvis Presley also covered it.
Does the trap question brigade think Rex is going to ever throw Idzik under the bus? No. So these reporters who keep hammering Rex with the talent questions, how would they answer the questions if they were in Rex’s shoes?
Would they throw their boss under the bus?
It’s a big-time trap question, and kudos to Rex for not falling for them.
And the follow-up question – “Why is the team struggling if the roster has enough talent?”
Is winning in sports just about talent? What an oversimplification – hey just roll talent out there, and you will win. We all knows sports doesn’t work that way. Of course talent matters, but so does chemistry, character, scheme, having the right talent and so forth.
I’m telling you, so many players are fed up with the non-stop trap questions. I’ve never seen it worse than it is now.
November 25, 2014
