A rift between the Dolphins and Porter is mutual

Immediately following the 2009 regular-season, Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter met with coach Tony Sparano and the two discussed the player's season as well as his future with the team.

It was a frank discussion because, as one source close to Porter said, "Joey's no shrinking violet. He says what's on his mind."

You can read the rest of the story at http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolphins_in_depth/2010/01/immediately-following-the-2009-regular-season-dolphins-linebacker-joey-porter-met-with-coach-tony-sparano-and-the-two-discus.html

All I have to say is good ridance; it's not that I don't like Porter, I own his jersey! it's that we don't need that kind of attitude around here... It never bothered me much when he directed it at other teams but if he's gonna turn it around on the Dolphins then don't let the door hit you on the way out!


Senior Bowl Day 2: Tebow Fever Reaches Gulf Coast
Tim Tebow fever has reached the Alabama gulf coast this week. Unfortunately, fever has also reached Tebow.

You can read the rest of the story at
http://www.miamidolphins.com/news/senior-bowl-day-2-tebow-fever-reaches-gulf-coast

I' one of thse people who thinks that Tebow won't ake it as a QB in the NFL but I think he could make it in another position, such as a TE as I've discussed before; I'll say this though, the guy has an incredible work ethic... And I like Terrence Cody too. He would work out beautifully in our defense I think (nothing against Ferguson, I think he is great as well)

After taking a little time out from my team analysis to discuss the shelf life of the wildcat as part of our offense, it only seems logical to pick up the discussion again by taking a look at our running unit. I’ll start off by saying that although I do indeed like Henne and would love for him to get the #1 WR he needs to get to that next level; I do not believe that this team will or should become strictly a passing team. We all know we are good at running the ball (we had the #4 rushing offense in 2009), and although I would like to see the passing game and the rushing game striking a balance I want to see that balance come as a result of us stepping up our passing game without sacrificing the run; if we can find a way to do this (and I believe we have the necessary tools) our offense will be unstoppable this upcoming season.

Ronnie Brown.- There has been a lot of talk about whether or not Ronnie will come back to play for the Dolphins again next season. He has chosen not to opt out of his contract and even said that a contract extension would be ideal for him. Now, I don’t think they’ll offer him an extension after coming off an injury but I sure would love to see him here at least one more year. Sure, he might be injury prone but he is a power runner who produces when we need him to.
Before his injury last season, Ronnie had played 9 games and led the Dolphins in rushing yards and carries. During those 9 games he rushed 648 yards in 147 carries, averaging about 4.41 yards a carry. He was ranked fifth in the AFC and tenth in he NFL. He also scored 8 TDs and fumbled only once.
Ronnie is a very productive guy and I believe that his experience will be invaluable to the younger guys on the team who have shown great promise. I really don’t see how getting rid of Ronnie will strengthen our team next season and I really hope to see him back.

Ricky Williams.- During the 2009 season Ricky Williams proved that he still has what it takes by rushing for 1121 yards in 241 carries, setting an NFL record for the longest span between 1000 rushing yard seasons. Those rushing yards led to 11 TDs. In the final games of the season when Ricky was a starter even though the wildcat became a much less prominent part of our game, he was able to keep our rushing attack going and he had all of us fans screaming “Run Ricky, Run” every time we saw him take off.
After signing a one year contract extension through 2010 last year, Ricky announced that he plans to retire as a Dolphin after the 2010 season, and after the way he performed this past season I would hope that Ricky gets an opportunity to have a more prominent role throughout next season than he did at the beginning of the 2009 one. As I said before he proved to us that he has it in him, so I believe we should give him the chance to prove it to us one last time.

Lousaka Polite.- Polite is our go to guy in 3rd and 1 or 4th and 1 situations, he was put in this position 16 times this season during 14 different drives and managed to get us a first down every time.8 of those drives ended up in a touchdown.
As a fullback he has been one of the players that has impressed me the most not only with his ability to get us those critical downs but also with his blocking ability and the resilience with which he plays the game, and I believe he will continue to grow throughout the offseason. This is definitely one of those guys that we have to hold onto.

Lex Hilliard.- I believe Hilliard has shown the potential to be developed into a good RB. He rushed for 89 yards in 23 carries averaging 3.87 yards per carry and scoring 1TD; he also managed a decent number of receiving yards including 2 TDs as well. With Ricky retiring after next season I believe that we should put in the time to develop Hilliard, he has the potential to do some great things for us in the future.

The other players currently in our roster who are part of our running unit are running backs Tristan Davis who was signed to future contract on January 7th, 2010; Kory Sheets who was signed off the San Francisco 49ers practice squad on October 13th, 2009; and Patrick Cobbs who was placed on the IR list after tearing a knee ligament in the game against the Jets week 5. Also, fullback Rolly Lumbala who was signed from the BC Lions of the CFL; this is the second time Lumbala makes it to the Dolphins, he originally tried out for the Dolphins as an undrafted rookie in May of 2008.

I really do believe that our running unit is not only pretty solid but has players in place that are being prepared as replacements. The opportunity for upgrades is always going to be present but with so many other key positions needing to be addressed I feel as though this is a unit we can rely on next season.


Additional Notes:
The following are some of the RBs who will be free agents in 2010: Cadillac Williams (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), Darren Sproles (San Diego Chargers), Mike Bell (New Orleans Saints), LenDale White (Tennessee Titans), Leon Washington (New York Jets).
The following are some of the RBs who will enter the draft in 2010: CJ Spiller (Clemson), Jahvid Best (California), Jonathan Dwyer (Georgia Tech), Anthony Dixon (Mississippi State), Joe McKnight (USC)

Miami Dolphins safety Yeremiah Bell was named to the AFC Pro Bowl roster today. The selection is the first for Bell in his career as he replaces Indianapolis Colts safety Antoine Bethea, who will play in the Super Bowl

Read the full story at http://www.miamidolphins.com/news/yeremiah-bell-named-afc-pro-bowl-squad

Congratulations Yeremiah on your first Pro Bowl! All of us Dolfans know you will make us proud

Congratulations to the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints for making it to the Super Bowl...
I'm very pleased the New York Jets went home empty handed and happy for the people in New Orleans for making it to their first Super Bowl; their fans desserve it!

This is another topic which is subject to great debate amongst us fans. We all know how effective it was when it was first introduced in the 2008 season, but, how effective will it continue to be from here on out and should we base some or any of our draft choices on this one play alone?

Back in 2008, Miami first used the wildcat week 3 in a game against the New England Patriots. During this game this scheme was used 6 times and resulted in 4 touchdowns. The Patriots couldn’t stop us and oh how good it felt to beat the Patriots 38-13 in Foxboro after starting the season with a 0-2 record. We were all sold!

During the 2008 season the Dolphins used the wildcat a total of 88 times for 579 yards averaging about 6.58 yards per play, but most importantly, the wildcat led us to win games. Other teams around the NFL started to adopt the wildcat as well but none of them were as successful as the Dolphins were.
The success of the wildcat certainly came not only from our ability to run it with the players that we had, but also because other teams just didn’t know how to stop it; they either couldn’t or weren’t well enough prepared to. But when we made it to the playoffs the Ravens defense stopped the wildcat cold by allowing only 7 yards to be gained out of the formation the two times it was used. We were dealt a crushing 27-9 loss and out playoff dreams were done.

During the first 6 games of the last season the wildcat was used 59 times for a total gain of 351 yards (5.95 yards per carry) and accounted for approximately 34.34% of all our rushing yards in those games. The next 5 games the wildcat was used 31 times for a total gain of 56 yards (1.81 yards per carry) and accounted for approximately 8.40% of all our rushing yards in those games. This decline wasn’t due to Ronnie Brown injury since he actually played in 3 of those 5 games.
The next couple of games the wildcat failed to make an appearance altogether. Still we managed to average 136.6 yards per game compared to the 153.55 we had averaged in the first eleven when Brown and the wildcat where in full use.

In looking at those stats it's easy to see that the success of the wildcat has diminished and will probably continue to diminish, especially when used against divisional opponents who have had a chance to prepare and encounter it several times by now.

Does that mean that we should stop using it altogether then? No! The wildcat should definitely continue to be a weapon for the offense; it just shouldn’t be the main weapon. If used occasionally the wildcat will continue to be an effective scheme when trying to throw off an offense who has been successful at stopping the pass or when used as an offensive weapon while we are in the endzone. Keeping the wildcat in our playbook will force other teams to spend hours studying film to be prepared to stop it when it comes and it will leave them with less time to prepare for the rest of our offensive plan which should be a lot different next season and should incorporate more passing since we have the weapons to do that now and other running schemes which we have also proved we have the tools to run.

Finally, considering that we already have the personnel that can run the wildcat effectively I don’t believe any part of the draft should focus on building up solely for this aspect; we have too many issues in other areas that need to be addressed during the draft. We drafted Pat White last season solely for this purpose and we all saw how great the wildpat turned out to be.
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On my last post I took a look at our QB situation so I feel it’s only natural to follow that post up with a discussion of our wide receiver position. I know this post will probably be a little more controversial because there is a wide range of opinions as to whether or not we need a big #1 WR who can be a playmaker and there are a lot of options available so I’ll do my best to be as thorough as possible and cover all the big names that I’ve been hearing discussion about, feel free to discuss anyone else I might have forgotten to mention in the comments section below. Also feel free to e-mail me with any comments or questions or let me know if you want to receive e-mail updates when new posts are posted phins2phins@gmail.com

I’ll start out first by taking a look at what we have:

Ted Ginn Jr.- I honestly don’t even know where to start with this one. This is the guy that is supposed to be our big playmaker; he has the speed after all, the only problem is he cannot catch a ball! Sure there were a couple of games where he apparently decided to show up and make some plays but do we really want a player who is this unreliable on the team?
Now I know there are some Ginn supporters out there but I don’t understand how by now people haven’t noticed that this guy is just not productive. This past season Ginn had 38 catches for 454 yards, averaging 11.95 yards a catch, and only one TD. The fairest comparison I can make as far as size and experience is with DeSean Jackson from the Philadelphia Eagles who had 63 catches for 1167 yards averaging 18.5 yards a catch, and 9 TDs.
Some people out there also hope that with another year and a different guy at #1 he will get better, but the truth of the matter is we had other guys in the team who did step it up this season and I just don’t think we have room for him anymore. Even as a kick returner, other than the two returns for TDs he had against the Jets he didn’t accomplish much, his average punt return last season was 24.9 yards because he is so afraid to get hit he would either slide or run out of bounds.
Bottom line is if we can trade him for anything we probably should because I believe this is truly the best he can do and I’m basing that not only on the numbers but also on the attitude with which he approaches the game, I just don’t see any heart in him.

Davone Bess.- Now this guy is certainly not as fast as Ginn but boy is he productive. Sure he dropped a couple of passes, every receiver is bound to drop some, but he always pulled through when we needed him to. He finished first in receiving (76) and reception yardage (758 yards for an average 9.97 yards a catch) or the Dolphins and I believe if they would have given him the chance to run longer routes more often these numbers would be much higher. Remember that TD pass he caught from Thigpen the last game of the season? He managed to get wide open even though he had two guys running right by him.
And on 3rd downs Bess is probably the one guy you want to have on your team he came in second in the league on third down conversions with 28 (New York Giant’s Steve Smith led the league with 29)
As an exclusive free agent and after his performance this season, Bess is almost guaranteed to play for the Dolphins’ next season and if we can get a true #1 WR you are going to start seeing him put up bigger numbers than Wes Welker. Bottom line is Davone Bess was one of the best finds this team has had in a long time and we should not let him go.

Brian Hartline.- This rookie was our most productive WR as far as scoring goes, he had 3 receiving TDs as well as a rushing TD. Hartline proved he had great hands throughout the season, making some of the best catches I saw from the team all year, not only that but he is the kind of guy that follows the play all the way through, which is exactly how he came up with that 57 yard catch in the game against Tennessee after basically stealing the ball from Griffin.
I think this guy has a lot more to offer than we have seen thus far and I hope they explore his chemistry with Henne more during this offseason. He is another one of the rookies in this team who I can’t wait to see next season.

Greg Camarillo.- Easily our most reliable WR. Camarillo came back from a torn ACL and didn’t miss a beat. This guy didn’t drop a single pass all season! A lot of people are worried he might get traded in the process of searching for that #1 go to guy because he falls in third in the ranking behind Bess and Hartline and I certainly wouldn’t want to see that happen. I like the guy and I think he is a great asset to the team.

In my opinion we need to get a WR to complement this trio and we will be an explosive team offensively next season. And I believe with that scenario, even having a couple of holes in the defense we would get far, just look at the Saints’ whose defense was ranked 25th during the regular season.

Let me just mention that we have four other WR currently in our roster. Patrick Turner who was the third pick in the 2009 draft, Julius Pruitt and Taurus Johnson who were both members of the practice squad and have both been resigned and Ryan Grice-Mullen who played for the BC Lions in the CFL last season and also happens to be Davone Bess’ former teammate.

So with our #2 (Bess), #3 (Hartline) and #4 (Camarillo) WRs in place all we have left to decide is who will be our #1 WR next season. Easier said than done I supposse, I mean, Do we draft some one or do we go after someone who has already proved they can get the job done? Let’s star off by looking at some of the guys available in free agency that people have been talking about.

Miles Austin.- If I could have any WR right now this is probably the guy I would pick and I have to believe a lot of people out there would have to agree with me. The problem is the Cowboys are never going to let this guy go, it would just be a dumb move! I guess we can only hope for a miracle on this one. The one thing we do have going for us is if there was any chance for this deal to be made Parcells' and Ireland's ties to the Cowboy's and Miles' would make us the first option to be considered.

Brandon Marshall.- Marshall has been quoted as saying that he is 100% committed to the Denver Broncos but that ultimately the decision of whether he plays there next season is not up to him. I personally don’t think the Broncos want him there any longer and I think they might be willing to make a decent trade for him. I say if we have the chance to pick him up we should go for it. The truth is this guy is great at what he does and he will put up numbers on the board. I know he had a lot of problems with his team in the past but I honestly believe Mc Daniels played a big part in all that drama that went down, plus I know Parcells knows how to take care of a guy like that.

Anquan Boldin.- Although Boldin told the Miami Herald he wouldn’t request a trade there have been rumors that the Cardinals are indeed looking to trade him for a second or even a third round pick, some people even speculated they would take a fifth and sixth round pick for him if Davone Bess was traded. Now I would never consider trading Bess to get Boldin but if a trade was made for a third round pick I might have to go for it although it wouldn’t be my first choice. I think Boldin can deliver as long as he stays healthy, and getting him for a third round pick will still leave us with the draft picks we need to work on our D.

The draft offers a couple of options as well, but I think we should go with a guy that we already know can do the job, while using the draft to work on our defense because the truth of the matter is most defensive players coming out of college are pretty much ready to play in the NFL while offensive players usually take a little time to develop.

Dez Bryant is the best option for a WR in the draft and I personally believe he will be available when it is our turn to pick in the first round. If they don’t have any intentions of picking up a WR in free agency then this is the guy they should go for, I just don’t know that they will.
The best options after that will be Brandon LaFell (LSU), Golden Tate (Notre Dame) or Damian Williams (USC) I just don’t think any of them will still be around by the time our turn comes around on the second round.

Additional Notes:
The following are some of the WRs who will be free agents in 2010: Vincent Jackson (San Diego Chargers), Braylon Edwards (New York Jets), Terrell Owens (Buffalo Bills), Antonio Bryant (Tampa Bay Bucs), Derrick Mason (Baltimore Ravens), Malcolm Floyd (San Diego Chargers).
The following are some of the WRs that will enter into the draft: Arrelious Benn (Illinois), Eric Decker (Minnesota), Blair White (Michigan State), Marshawn Gilyard (Cincinnati), Jeremy Williams (Tulane), Jordan Shipley (Texas).


GUYS PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO VISIT THIS SITE http://www.nfl-monster.com/#Candidate-Miami-Dolphin AND VOTE FOR RALPH WHO IS REPRESENTING THE DOLPHINS!!! HE NEEDS YOUR HELP TO STAY IN THE LEAD.
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First of all thanks for taking the time to stop by to visit me. I hope you guys enjoy the discussions we set up here and if you have any suggestions on topics you would like to see addressed or questions that you might need answered please feel free to e-mail me at phins2phins@gmail.com


In preparation for free agency and the draft I have decided to write a series of posts in which I break the team down into smaller sections and then discuss what we have, what we need and what is available. I attempted to write just one post addressing these subjects but at the end I found what I had was a really long post which left too many questions unanswered, so hopefully you will enjoy this format and keep coming back to read the remaining posts in the series.

I’m going to start off by looking at our quarterback situation because I feel like there are still too many people out there who seem to be looking at this position as an empty spot which we still need to find the right person to fill. So where do I think we stand right now?

Chad Pennington.- Pennington will be an unrestricted free agent as of September 1st, 2010 and he has clearly expressed his intentions to be a starter in the 2010 season, which means he is willing to go to another team. Furthermore, the Dolphins have not expressed any intentions of keeping him and I honestly don’t think we will resign him. Why? Pennington will never be a great playmaking quarterback. He just doesn’t have a strong enough arm to spread out the defense enough to open up our game.
Don’t get me wrong, I think he brought a lot to the team but I think we have outgrown him. Without a doubt, Pennington’s greatest contribution was in the locker room, he has a great leader quality and he was good at getting people motivated. Sure Pennington played a part in getting the team to win the division in 2008 but really what most people remember from us that season was the revival of the wildcat, without the wildcat we wouldn’t have gotten there and he collapsed at the beginning of the season, not to mention this is his third shoulder injury.
I think keeping Pennington as a backup quarterback could be a good option but at this point in time I really don’t think that will happen; nor do I think it is an option he would go for because there are a lot of teams out there in need of a quarterback and he does have a chance of getting his start somewhere else this upcoming season.

Chad Henne.- Anyone that knows me is aware of the fact that Henne is definitely in my list of top 3 players for the Dolphins this season (Davone Bess and Vontae Davis are the other 2). And honestly I’m still baffled by the fact that there are so many skeptics out there who still doubt Henne is our new QB. Not only did the guy end up with a 7-6 winning record as a starter and kept us in playoff contention until week 17 despite all our injuries; but he also has a rocket of an arm and he grows exponentially every week.
What most of these non-believers use as a basis for Henne not being good enough is the fact that he threw more interceptions (14) than touchdowns (12) this season. But how many great QBs had numbers like these during their first starting season? Payton Manning for examples threw 28 interceptions and 26 touchdowns, Tom Brady threw 12 interceptions and 18 touchdowns, a positive but not overly impressive record in these terms. Also worth mentioning is the the fact that these quarterbacks were indeed the designated starters at the beginning of the season thus they were, at least theoretically, better prepared for the job at hand.
I believe it is also important to take into consideration that more than a couple of those picks came as a result of good passes which were mishandled or tipped by the receivers, and that more than a few accurate passes were thrown and not caught which could have also led to the number of TDs adding up. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not in any way blaming those stats merely on the receivers, it just serves to prove the point that the team chemistry will get better during the offseason and mistakes like these will be minimized. Henne and the receivers will be able to develop a rapport during the offseason which will serve to improve these issues tremendously. I should also add that providing Henne with a good #1 wide receiver will be the final ingredient needed to bump this guy up to the next level.
Henne had 3 300+ yards games this season even though his best long distance receiver is supposed to be Ted Ginn. And for all the people out there that love Marino, myself included, I feel the need to point out that during his first season as a starter Dan threw for a total of 2210 yards, Henne threw for a total of 2878 yards and that is with 3 fewer games and without guys like Mark Clayton and Mark Duper to help him with those long passes.
In case I haven’t made it clear enough up until now, I believe Henne is our starting quarterback and we should start embracing him as the new franchise quarterback because I believe he is here to stay and will be key in making us become the team to beat this decade.

Pat White.- I want to start off by saying, if nothing else there is one thing that this guy has that many other players wish they had (hmm Ginn) and that is guts. That was made clear during the last game of the season when he took that horrible hit in order to gain about 2 more yards in an attempt to get us that first down. He was running right by the sidelines and he could have stepped out at any point yet he went for it; and for that courage he gets my respect.
That being said, I don’t think the kid is cut out for the NFL, he is just too small and he doesn’t have an arm at all. Pat White is easily one of the worst draft picks we have ever made! I still see people out there talking about how good he is but really what is that based on? Undoubtedly his college career because the truth of the matter is he had a chance to prove himself during that last game of the season and he failed miserably. We had absolutely no offense in that game against the Steelers while Pat White was in it, it wasn’t even that he made mistakes, it was that he generate no plays at all.
I’m sorry but White just doesn’t cut it and if the opportunity for a trade was made available at all I believe they should take it.

Tyler Thigpen.- Now this guy unlike White did take the opportunity that was given to him and ran with it. A lot of people blamed the loss against the Steelers on the 2 interceptions he threw but the truth of the matter is that we would have never been in a position to win that game if it wasn’t for that long perfect TD pass to Bess and all the plays that set up that other TD as well.
This guy is young and has a lot of potential and he also has a great arm, during his starting season with the Kansas City Chiefs he accumulated a total of 2608 yards, 18 TDs and 12 interceptions. Keep in mind that he didn’t become a part of the Dolphins’ roster until late September after Pennington went down. Thigpen should be our backup quarterback next season.

So at this point in time I believe our QB position has been clearly defined with Henne as our starter and Thigpen as our backup. Pat White will likely remain our 3rd string quarterback and I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a couple of “wildpat” plays next season although I would like for that to disappear altogether and for them to try to find a replacement for the position but I don’t believe it is something that needs to be addressed immediately, nor do I believe it is something they should focus on during the draft.

There is one more point I’d like to discuss in this post and that is the option of drafting Tim Tebow which is also something I seem to be hearing a lot of people say we should do since they seem to think he would be such a great addition to the wildcat. Let me start by saying that if you still think that our offense should be solely based on the wildcat and that our draft should be influenced based solely on this offensive play I hope you will be very disappointed but we will leave that up for further discussion later.
I don’t believe that Tebow will ever be great as a quarterback in the NFL, he has constantly proven that he does not work well when under pressure and he is oftentimes slow when it comes to delivering the football. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him play a different position in a couple of years, I personally think he should explore his potential as a tight end or as a full back. But if you are a Tebow fan I wouldn’t worry too much about him going to far, I believe he will get drafted by the Jags because if nothing else it will help them tremendously with ticket sales, which is something they are indesperate need to improve.



Additional notes:
The following are some of the QBs will be free agents in 2010: Kyle Orton (Denver Broncos), Jason Campbell (Washington Redskins), Tarvaris Jackson (Minnesota Vikings), Kellen Clemmens (New York Jets), Charlie Batch (Pittsburgh Steelers), David Carr (New York Giants), and Daunte Culpepper (Detroit Lions).
The following are some of the QBs which will enter into the draft: Jimmy Claussen (Notre Dame), Sam Bradford (Oklahoma), Colt McCoy (Texas), Tim Tebow (Florida), Tony Pike (Cincinnati), Jevan Snead (Ole Miss), Sean Canfield (Oregon State), and Bill Stull (Pittsburgh).