Going back to his high school coaching days, Mirabel has always had a special place in his heart for the undersized but relentless worker especially at guard. Maybe it can be explained that Mirabel sees himself in those guys as he was the fat, undersized underdog when he played.
All that said, I think we will grow frustrated as the year goes on and Mirabel continues to trot SJ out there at guard despite the mounting evidence that we potentially have better options for that guard spot.
I hope I'm wrong, and SJ gets benched this week.
Besides SJ, the other interior issue is Rodriguez. Snapping was better last night but he seemed to consistently get pushed back into the RB in the run game. One particular play, Rodriguez got pushed back into SJ who was pulling leading to a TFL.
And if we want to dig a bit deeper, McCoy had fits with his guy in the pass game.
Mirabel and Cristobal need to do some soul searching this weekend and figure out who the best five are. It was cute during camp with all of the "cross training" and the talk of having 8, 9 guys who could start. Well, in hindsight they may have gotten too cute moving guys around and not getting their 5 consistent reps together to work through their communication and cohesion. The tape is clear, this current group struggles with movement and delayed blitzes - clear signs that they aren't all on the same page.
He’s bad when he’s one on one with someone directly over him but he is God Awful when he has to perform the even a smidge of amount of blocking assignment recognition.
