Kendall Langford

[TraderJoe]

I went back and watched the Senior Bowl a third time to pay specific attention to Langford. In my pre-draft post I mentioned him as a standout so I wanted to go back and check again.

First off he moves very well for someone his size, not fast mind you but certainly light on his feet. On most pass plays he had to be double-teamed or chipped as he has a very good bull-rush and a pretty good swim and spin moves. Probably will not be a big sack guy but he can bring pressure.

Running at him was useless. On nearly consecutive plays he showed outstanding technique. The first one he had two guys on him that he stood up then split and made the tackle for a 2-3 yd gain, on the other he stood up Nicks until the back commited to his cut and then tossed Nicks aside and made the tackle for a 1 yd gain. At the end of the half, near the goal line, the North put a TE on him whom he just tossed aside and made another tackle.

Running away from him did only marginally better. Twice I saw him maintain backside containment perfectly. The first play the back looked like he wanted to cut back on a play designed away from Langford but Langford was sitting right there, once the back committed to his original path Langford ran him down and made the tackle. On another run away from him the back just followed the play and once again Langford had backside containment and I thought he would be way out of the play when suddenly he took off and made the tackle again. I counted 5 tackles in just the first half!

The play of the game though came with about 3 minutes left on 4th and 1 with the North trying to hold onto a 6 point lead. For whatever reason they try to block Langford with a TE again on a run that was going right behind the center. Langford stood up the TE with one hand cut inside and what looked like he flew through the air, clothes-lined the back about 1 yd deep.

In a summary I loved the pick when it was made and feel even better after seeing it again.

On a side note Henne looks like he pats the ball before every throw! He did show savvy and experience when he did a hard count that drew the entire South DL offsides on 3rd and short then on the next play while the defense was still arguing about the offsides call they just ran up to the line and snapped the ball which was a run that picked up 10+yds.

The Senior Bowl three times? I need a life!

[X-Pacolypse]

Originally Posted by TraderJoe

The Senior Bowl three times? I need a life!

That's true, but I appreciate the analysis and breakdown of Langford and Henne. Good Job!

[djphinfan]

Great post and much appreciated analysis, its amazing that theres only a few posts on a thread of this quality but there are about 50 when it comes to garbage.

[Bofin]

thanks for the analysis on langford. the more i read about the guy the more i look forward to seeing him play this season and the future

[Just Win Baby]

yeah great post man, thanks.

[JT-forpresident]

good stuff, i hope it translates to the nfl

[EireTiger]

Interesting analysis on Langford, the official statistics for the game have him with 3 solos and 1 assist for 4 total tackles, no TFLs or sacks. It's good to see your positive analysis, obviously the Dolphins coaches agree with you.

Regarding Henne, he was clearly the best QB at the Senior Bowl, ahead of Flacco, Booty, Ainge, Woodson and Brennan. Not only was he statistically the best QB but in the nuances of the game, no turnovers, two scoring drives, drew the defense offsides, etc.

One final note, it is nice to see that when the draft was done, the Dolphins had dictated the tempo of the draft, taking Long with the first pick and creating a run on OL which allowed the Dolphins to get a DL with a 1st round grade at the top of the second. Then, toward the bottom half of round 2, the Dolphins get a QB who some teams (ATL & Balt for sure) had rated as a 1st round pick.

Compare that to last year when the Dolphins ended up taking guys who had lower rated grades in every round, perhaps because of need. Every independent draft analyst gave Henne a higher grade coming out of college this year than Beck had last year and yet this regime was able to draft him at a lower spot than the previous regime drafted Beck.

Dictating tempo/positional trends versus reacting to them................

[ticophin]

There were sooooo many choices for that 3rd rounder...I just have to trust the Trifecta on that call...It seems like a smart choice, although we had picked a DE in Merling 2 picks earlier.
I would have personally chosen Dan Connor, but, if our coaches feel our major weakness is pressure at the line, so our LBs and Seconday can perform, then lets see what this kid can do!! Go Fins!!!
PS. I hope this means no team will attempt a Justin Fargas on us this season...

[phintim]

Originally Posted by ticophin

There were sooooo many choices for that 3rd rounder...I just have to trust the Trifecta on that call...It seems like a smart choice, although we had picked a DE in Merling 2 picks earlier.
I would have personally chosen Dan Connor, but, if our coaches feel our major weakness is pressure at the line, so our LBs and Seconday can perform, then lets see what this kid can do!! Go Fins!!!
PS. I hope this means no team will attempt a Justin Fargas on us this season...

I agree with all the choices I just wonder I Grecco was on our radar at that time too and was picked right in front of us. I would have been tempted to trade back further and gambled Langford would still be there at the end of round 3 and if not grab a Conner or some other player that was sliding as they always do. One of the things that I guess could prevent from from doing that is if the Dolphins had a certain strategy of picking 2 players at each position that I heard earlier. If that was the case you loose the flexibility of drafting the best player available or in some cases end up trading up to accomplish that goal. It appeared we got 2 DE, 2 guard and 2 running backs in close to the same rounds.

[ticophin]

Originally Posted by phintim

I agree with all the choices I just wonder I Grecco was on our radar at that time too and was picked right in front of us. I would have been tempted to trade back further and gambled Langford would still be there at the end of round 3 and if not grab a Conner or some other player that was sliding as they always do. One of the things that I guess could prevent from from doing that is if the Dolphins had a certain strategy of picking 2 players at each position that I heard earlier. If that was the case you loose the flexibility of drafting the best player available or in some cases end up trading up to accomplish that goal. It appeared we got 2 DE, 2 guard and 2 running backs in close to the same rounds.

Exactly, and left some of us wanting a CB, LB, and WR...I guess we`ll see after the June cuts

[Wwwhat]

Originally Posted by ticophin

There were sooooo many choices for that 3rd rounder...I just have to trust the Trifecta on that call...It seems like a smart choice, although we had picked a DE in Merling 2 picks earlier.
I would have personally chosen Dan Connor, but, if our coaches feel our major weakness is pressure at the line, so our LBs and Seconday can perform, then lets see what this kid can do!! Go Fins!!!
PS. I hope this means no team will attempt a Justin Fargas on us this season...

From my point of view, linebackers coming out of the later rounds and as UDFAs pan out to be valuable assets far more often than any other position (eg Zach Thomas), which is why I'm glad the Dolphins drafted Langford instead of Connor and ended up getting Poppinga as a UDFA

[finfan54]

We clearly picked in two's. 2 DE's. 2 Guards. 2RB's

We got all of our LB's in FA. I wanted Conner but something about him must not have been right since many teams passed on him.

I think Management clearly wanted to establish depth at key positions. The DE spot for a 3-4 needs guys like we got because they are designed to stop the run more than rush the passer. JT and Porter will be doing the pass rushing and other LB's.

[Brad528]

Henne does have a tendency to hold the ball for to long. He needs to learn to just get rid of it. Although at michigan him holding it often lead to long passes to Braylon and Mario

[hooshoops]

love langfords size 6 ft 6 290 lbs. i think parcells envisions him as a better run defending version of chris canty.

don't love philip merlings size as an end in the 3-4 but we'll see.