Some highlights
“Honestly, it wasn’t that bad since it all came from the same basics,” said Moss, a fifth-round pick in 2017 who spent two seasons with the Giants. “It all kind of blends together in a sense. It’s a cool little system. For a guy like me coming out of (former Giants defensive coordinator James) Bettcher’s system, I think Bettcher’s might have been one of the hardest systems I’ve had to learn. Coming to this, this was simple.”The key to making the system work is having versatile, intelligent, talented players. ...
“We were missing (injured Pro Bowl cornerback) Xavien Howard, we were starting all rookies,” Moss said. “Each week we were bringing in new dudes to start that week. It’s kind of hard to blame it on (Graham) or anything like that. We were all trying to figure stuff out.” ...
The connections Graham created with players helped the Dolphins weather major adversity early last season. The Dolphins were out-scored 133-16 in their first three games and started 0-7. But Miami went 5-4 in the final nine games, and Graham didn’t lose the respect of his players after the rough start. “He put in hours. It was crazy,” Moss said. “The dude didn’t see his family. He would sleep at work and then get back to work. He was grinding so hard. Everybody could see this really means something to him so it drew all of us together, like, ‘We’ve got to get this right. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.’
An inside look at new Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham from his former players - (
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My concern is, as pointed out in the article, the system really needs intelligent players to thrive. They had veteran guys who were able to make their own adjustments in NE, when they went to Miami they had trouble running it correctly and got burned...
My concern is, as pointed out in the article, the system really needs intelligent players to thrive. They had veteran guys who were able to make their own adjustments in NE, when they went to Miami they had trouble running it correctly and got burned...
Miami may have also had trouble running this defense because most of their players were new to the system and not very talented to begin with.
I am ambivalent about posting content behind a paywall, cause selfishly I don't want them to go under. I do post from them (like in the draft thread today) but I try to keep it to bits and no quotes.
That system works in New England with established players like Dont’a Hightower, Jamie Collins, Kyle Van Noy, Devin McCourty, Patrick Chung and Stephon Gilmore. Graham wasn’t able to replicate that success in Miami with a roster full of young players and castoffs. Miami ranked last in scoring defense and 30th in yards allowed this season.
scary because we're gonna need the right players in it, and I dunno if this roster is even close.
Not only that, every year players have to get added with less than ideal prep time or experience due to injuries or whatever. Those guys have little chance at success and entire breakdowns occur.
keep it simple, let them adjust and move forward, and don't make them over-think things.
a defense that calls itself "aggressive" because it has a lot of pressure packages, but makes them to complex to execute, is the opposite of aggressive.
I believe their last two or three games before the Pats game were clunkers. The Giants was one of them and that was ugly for them. I believe they even gave up a lot of points to the Bills pathetic offense too. They did go 5-4 at the end mostly winning shoot outs.
I think you're right and I'm a big fan of that approach. Of course you needs athleticism but at a certain point in the NFL you need a unit to come together and become more than the sum of their parts. That's what we've been missing on defense. No more blown assignments, everyone on the same page playing fast, not reacting.