A busy day at Dolphins’ camp, just got considerably more newsworthy. Jason Allen, not Sean Smith, will reportedly open up the season as starting cornerback opposite Vontae Davis.
Smith had a disappointing training camp and preseason, while Jason Allen quietly came from nowhere. Allen got the nod over Smith against the Falcons two weeks ago, but reports suggested that was purely disciplinary. Give Allen all the credit in the world for having a huge bounce back camp after four seasons of playing like a bust of a first-round pick, but something tells me this is a really bad sign.
I don’t think the Dolphins would halt the progression of Smith unless he is so bad right now they are beginning to question if he has what it takes to be a quality starter, or Jason Allen has emerged as a very solid corner. Has Allen improved? Sure. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.
He’s still done nothing, in my eyes anyway, that would suggest he’s starting material. I’m not questioning the coaches in saying Allen is ahead of Smith right now. Maybe he is. But if that’s the case, it likely has a whole lot more to do with Smith taking a huge step backwards, then it does Allen’s transformation.
What does that mean for the secondary? When you throw Will Allen going on IR to the pot, it’s probably going to take Mike Nolan working miracles with his exotic blitzes for this secondary to avoid finishing in the bottom half of the league again.
I hate to bring anymore negatively to a team who’s been surrounded in it for most of the preseason, but it’s just hard to see a secondary people expected to make huge strides this season fall apart like this on paper. On paper is the key word in this sentence.
You never know in this league, but you can’t tell me your not licking your chops game planning for this secondary if your an opposing coach or quarterback. Maybe they will prove everybody wrong, maybe they won’t.
And just because improvement may have to go on hold against the pass, it’s no time to abandon playoff hopes before they even play a game. Despite a few lackluster performances, the offense still has the pieces to break out this year, and the front seven has all the potential in the world.
Let’s just hope the secondary doesn’t prevent this team from going places it’s capable of.
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