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Steve Marshall – November 17, 2020 Download PDF version

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Offensive Line Coach Steve Marshall

(I’m just wondering how you think T Austin Jackson has played in his first two games back at left tackle after the foot injury?) – “Austin is getting better. In the Arizona game, his first game back, I thought he did some things. Fundamentally, he was a little bit rusty, I guess is the best word to say. He did a little better this week. I anticipate him getting back into the swing of things after a month off. It’s still like training camp for him. He’s got the (Bradley) Chubb kid this week in pass protection and of course if you’re a left tackle, you’re going to have those every week. He’s got a big challenge in front of him.”

(Obviously you guys have rotated with the linemen the past few weeks with T Robert Hunt and G Solomon Kindley and G/T Jesse Davis. Do you anticipate at one point getting a solid group, or do you anticipate rotations throughout the year?) – “I think we do have a solid group and I think one of the things that we can do is be able to rotate guys when we need to or have to – whether a guy gets hurt or a guy get nicked up for whatever reason. Really, the key factor is Jesse. Jesse has been a guy that’s been able to function and play at a solid level at – obviously he’s played at multiple positions this year. It affords us the opportunity to stay solid, as you say. The ongoing thing is to have five – everybody thinks you need to have five guys every single week; but those guys work well together. To answer your question, I’m not real sure. I think we’ll see how it goes. This is a long, tough season and guys get nicked up and we’ll kind of see where it goes with that. Like I said, Jesse’s flexibility and experience playing inside and outside affords that opportunity to always try to get the best five on the field for that particular week.”

(I wanted to ask you about a comment C Ted Karras made after the game. He said that he thought that this was the offensive line’s best running game performance. I’m curious if you agree and if so, what was it about this game that was the best so far this year for the running game? – “It’s kind of hard to rank them per each game. I think that each game, you have a set game plan for that. I thought we were very productive running the football this week. When I watch the film with the guys, they are not maybe seeing it was the best because there were some things we can definitely do better. It’s been a big emphasis. I think we’re trending in the right direction, kind of where we’re going and what we want to do. Each week, we need to have – you hear Coach (Chan) Gailey talk about it all the time – we have balance in our offensive attack, whether it’s run or throw it. If we’ve got to throw it 50 times, we’ve got to throw it. Or if we’ve got to run it 30 times each game, that’s going to be the thing. I thought we trended in the right direction against a very tough front. We’ve got a lot of work to do in that regard, but we’re trending in the right way.”

(Staying with what C Ted Karras said after the game, he really owned up to the mistakes, specifically the fumble. Is it just a matter of getting more reps between Ted and QB Tua Tagovailoa to prevent…) – “No. The ball slipped out of his hand. His hand was wet and it just slipped out of his hand. Very unfortunate. I feel bad for the kid, because obviously that scenario – it wasn’t a matter of reps. The ball hit him in the ankle. It just slipped out of his hand. We always take procedures. As you know here in South Florida, there is a little bit of humidity in the air and we had been on our 14th or 15th play I think of that drive. There is no other explanation other than it slipped out. Do we need extra reps? No. I think we can try to get extra towels. That’s really kind of an unfortunate deal there. I know there is nobody that feels worse about it than Ted Karras. I know that.”

(Is the offensive line different than other positons in this way: the Dolphins are very opponent specific. So a certain linebacker or corner might get more reps based on the weakness or strength of an opponent. Is it true that you guys might say for this week, G/T Robert Hunt matches up well with this guy we think, or G Solomon Kindley matches up good with this guy for this week? Or is that going too far?) –“Well, you make a great point. There is some of that, but the thing obviously with our position is how they practice and how they do things. There is some specificity as far as what we’re trying to do that particular week. I don’t know if we’re quite at that level with those young guys yet. They are playing in their ninth game. But I have been in this league and I have been around teams and been part of teams that say, ‘hey, this guy is a better pass protector than run blocker so to speak. Maybe we need this guy against player X or player Z.’ I think there certainly is room for that and we do take that into consideration, absolutely.”

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