New head coach Joe Philbin has an extensive history of working with offensive lineman. He wants to employ a zone-blocking scheme for the Miami Dolphins going forward, which is quite a switch from the power-blocking the o-line had been doing. Early on in the OTAs and preseason we saw John Jerry struggle to fit in to the new system. The 3rd round pick in the 2010 NFL draft was added to be a power blocker, but with Miami’s new blocking strategy Jerry was plummeting down the Dolphins depth chart. Guys like Eric Steinbach, Artis Hicks, Will Yeatman, and Josh Samuda were all getting looks ahead of Jerry. Word out of Miami is that is changing…
Steinbach retired, Hicks went on injured reserve, Yeatman will take time to develop, as will Samuda. Jerry has put in some hard work with offensive line coach Jim Turner, and the word is it is paying dividends. We could very well see a lot of playing time in the 2012 season opener vs the Houston Texans. In fact, Jerry is likely going to start.
This will be NFL season #3 for the 26 year old. He is a b-i-g fella. 6’5″ 350. He was a 4-year starter at the University of Mississippi. His roommate Michael Oher got a lot of the publicity, but Jerry was awesome in college. He showed a ton of versatility and leadership.
The Jerry family is a football family. His older brother Peria Jerry is on the Atlanta Falcons, and he is cousins with ex-NFLers Dwayne Rudd and Eddie Strong.
Jerry has a natural and wide base. Strong legs. He needs to improve technique when the defensive lineman do a double-move, and when he locks up with a lineman for an extended period of time he can get out of his technique and rely too much on upper-body strength (that can be problematic). This is especially true when he is run-blocking (he starts well with his technique, but often does not maintain long enough and the defender can shake loose).
Jerry can be an asset against any interior pass-rushers/blitzers. Just about every play he fires off the ball well, and starts with very good technique. He is working on consistency with that (he starts the play well, but too often as the play develops his technique breaks down). He uses his long arms well, but does need to get his hands to be more aggressive/explosive.
The entire right side of the 2012 Dolphins o-line is in flux, but word is that John Jerry is going to get the first opportunity of the group to show that he is a legit right guard option for Philbin and his squad going forward.
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