Posts from the Miami Dolphins Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

We're three days into Brett Favre Watch '08 and the speculation continues. In yesterday's Palm Beach Post, Greg Stoda writes that the Dolphins shouldn't even think about making a deal for Favre.

Huh. I didn't know Miami was interested. Sure, they don't have much experience at quarterback, but Bill Parcells is trying to get younger, and the draft picks it would take to acquire Favre would be at odds with that roster-building philosophy. But what if the Dolphins traded a player currently on the team? Stoda advises us to perish the thought.

Don't so much as whisper a Jason Taylor-for-Favre trade scenario. Because the Dolphins don't need - and shouldn't want - Favre.

Is he better at 38 than young bucks John Beck or Chad Henne or Josh McCown or anybody else the Dolphins might trot out this year in their endless search for a quarterback to command the position? Yes. Would he be better than anybody Miami has tried since Dan Marino was great? Almost certainly. Doesn't matter.

Stoda admits that Favre might be good for a few more wins than what Beck/McCown/Henne might provide (woo-hoo! 3-13!), but he wouldn't be the long-term solution. Fair enough, but I suspect that if the Packers trade Favre to the Dolphins (assuming he's still itchy), he'll promptly re-un-retire. For a few weeks, anyway.

Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland had hoped to have all the 2008 draft picks under contract by July 1. Obviously, that didn't happen, but to be honest, it was an ambitious undertaking. Training camp is still some three weeks off, and there's plenty of time to ink second-rounders Phillip Merling and Chad Henne, and third-rounder Kendall Langford.

Yesterday, Ireland appeared on WQAM's Dolphins Tonight to discuss the state of negotiations, scouting the Arena leagues and the CFL, and the risks that go along with paying unproven players obscene amounts of money. I'm guessing owners love his plan to restructure NFL salaries, but the union might feel differently:

"You just wish you could pay them five or six thousand dollars and say, Go earn it, but it's not the same anymore," Ireland said. "But really it comes down to what we're trying to accomplish from a culture standpoint. You want guys that when you do pay them the big contract, they're going to go on and do the same thing they've done..."

Ireland's exaggerating to make a point, but the bottom line -- one that most people seem to support -- is that the rookie-wage scale is out of whack. Ireland, who worked for the Cowboys before taking the Miami job earlier this year, identified Jason Witten and Marion Barber as players teams "don't ... ever have to worry about" because:

Things are looking up in Miami, which is welcome news for an outfit that went 1-15 last season. Randy Mueller and Cam Cameron are out, replaced by Bill Parcells, Jeff Ireland and Tony Sparano; the Dolphins have a franchise left tackle (although some are skeptical); Ricky Williams is again excited to be playing football; Jason Taylor has decided to put off his Hollywood dreamz for another season; and Ronnnie Brown, the team's 2005 first-round pick, expects to be completely healthy by the start of the season.

Brown, who's coming back from a torn ACL, thinks he can return to the form that saw him average 5.1 yards per carry through Week 7 of the '07 season.

Are those expectations too high? Based on other backs returning from ACL injuries, the results are mixed:

[Edgerrin] James averaged 4.4 yards per carry the year before (2000), 3.6 the year after (2002) but 4.1 and 4.6 in '03 and '04. Terry Allen (4.5 year before, 4.0 year after) and Jamal Anderson (4.5, 3.6) also fell off initially but still topped 1,000 yards in their first year back. (Anderson tore his other ACL a year later.)

But Jamal Lewis, who tore his ACL in 2001 training camp, had virtually no fall-off (4.4 in 2000, 4.3 in '02, 5.3 in '03). Ex-UM star Willis McGahee, who sat out his rookie NFL season (2003) after tearing his ACL and two other knee ligaments in the Fiesta Bowl, averaged 4.0 in 2004, the second-best of his career.

NFL Network draft maestro Mike Mayock has been beating this drum for the last six months: former Michigan left tackle Jake Long would make a much better right tackle in the NFL, at least to start his career.

"He's got the talent, the toughness and the emotional stability to play left tackle at a high level, if he's transitioned over time ... I know he's a good athlete; I know he's left-handed and is used to playing the left side. With all those things, I think he could be inundated his first two seasons because I've seen tape when he goes up against defensive ends with NFL-type speed, and he struggles a little bit.

Jake doesn't have the rare feet of a Joe Thomas, who started at left tackle from Day 1."

Obviously, the Dolphins disagree, because Long, who signed with the team in the days leading up to the draft, will be the starting left tackle come Sept. 7. Mayock thinks it makes more sense to keep Vernon Carey on the left side, start Long on the right side and gradually transition him into the job. Unfortunately, the Dolphins won just once last year; they don't have the luxury to groom players.

So what happens when a former first-round pick holds a workout and only four teams show up? No idea, but as MDS wrote yesterday, of those four teams (Dolphins, Packers, Steelers, Lions), only Detroit -- the team that released him earlier this offseason -- would provide the best opportunity for regular playing time.

Somehow, it makes perfect sense.

Still, the Palm Beach Post's Tim Graham wonders if the Dolphins have room in their backfield for an injury-plagued Jones. (A more revealing question: can Kevin Jones play on the offensive line? What about quarterback? Moving on...)

That the Dolphins would be in the market for another RB coming off a serious injury is intriguing and could indicate they're not happy with their backfield as it's presently assembled.

They already have Ronnie Brown (knee) and Ricky Williams (chest), the latter revealing last week their goal is to run for 1,000 yards apiece this year. The Dolphins also drafted two RBs.

An Associated Press account of Jones' workout said he ran the 40-yard shuttle on wet grass in 4.3 seconds. I'm skeptical, but assuming it's true, that's impressive (even for players not recovering from a broken foot).

During his eight-year career with the Steelers, linebacker Joey Porter went out of his way to flap his gums, and was universally loathed for it. Winning + being a jerk = everybody hates you.

So it was with great pleasure for many players and fans that Porter, released by Pittsburgh and signed to a five-year, $32 million deal in Miami, was apart of a Dolphins team that eked out one victory last season.

Instead of talking, Porter was forced to listen. "They gave it to me back. Oh, yeah," Porter said after a recent off-season workout. "Everybody I played against. They don't forget. It was my time to be on the opposite end."

"Fans have some say. To point their fingers, I understand ... (They say) 'We brought this guy in here and he's not taking over games like we thought he was going to do.' ... "But last year is last year. I'm so happy to put that behind me. I think this year is going to bring a lot better things for us."

God, I hope so. Porter has declared his love for the new coaching staff, and head coach Tony Sparano has only been laudatory in his assessment of the veteran linebacker.

Former Detroit Lions running back Kevin Jones, a free agent recovering from a serious knee injury, invited the entire NFL to a workout Saturday. Only four teams showed up.

Among those four teams -- the Lions, Dolphins, Packers and Steelers -- the best option might be for Jones to sign a deal to return to Detroit, assuming the Lions offer him one. In Miami, Green Bay and Pittsburgh he'd have almost no shot of rising any higher than third on the depth chart, and third-string running backs who don't play special teams don't have much job security.

In Detroit he'd at least have a shot at the starting job, although the Lions don't seem particularly interested in bringing him back -- they've even given away his jersey number.

Jones once looked like one of the league's up-and-coming young running backs, rushing for 1,133 yards and 4.7 yards a carry as a rookie. Since then he's never had even 700 yards or four yards a carry. At age 25, there's a chance that he's done.

You knew this was coming out at some point ... and here it comes. NFL commish Roger Goodell has gone on record in saying that the current system of rookie contracts is "ridiculous".

"There's something wrong about the system," Goodell said Friday. "The money should go to people who perform."

"[Top overall pick Jake Long] doesn't have to play a down in the NFL and he already has his money," Goodell said during a question-and-answer period at the end of a weeklong sports symposium at the Chautauqua Institution. "Now, with the economics where they are, the consequences if you don't evaluate that player, you can lose a significant amount of money.

"And that money is not going to players that are performing. It's going to a player that never makes it in the NFL. And I think that's ridiculous."

Well, duh. Everyone around football knows that is true and the people who heard him say that applauded him. It is so "ridiculous" that teams are willing to trade out of the top ten picks so they don't get stuck with some bad contract that will kill their cap for years.

Long received a five-year, $57.75 million contract with $30 million of it guaranteed. If he becomes a bust, the Miami Dolphins will be sunk for quite a while.

It's been 10 years since Ricky Williams won the Heisman Trophy, although, for him, it probably seems much longer than that. He's being honored this week by the Heisman Winners Association, and during an interview with the Associated Press, Williams touched on his past, what he hopes to accomplish going forward, and ... Cedric Benson?

His legacy as an NFL player wasn't important until his troubles started to overtake the good he had accomplished.

"It was never something I thought about until it turned into a negative legacy," Williams said. "Now it's my responsibility to make the life of my family and my children better (by) leaving the game on a positive note ... I think people need to know I'm dependable." ...

Williams figures he can put in four more seasons of pro ball. Time away from the game, from his temporary retirement to his 1 1/2-year suspension for smoking marijuana and violating the NFL drug policy, probably saved his body some wear and tear.

I can totally respect that, and by most accounts, Williams is an extremely nice guy. So he was a little confused about what he wanted to do with his life -- yeah, that happens to a lot of people. Now he's got Bill Parcells in his corner and seems fully committed to football.

Two weeks ago, former Dolphins wide receiver Marcus Vick was arrested with the woman whose picture you see at right, Delicia Cordon. Vick was charged with drunk driving. Cordon, an aspiring model and actress, was charged with being drunk in public.

Cordon was identified as Vick's girlfriend, but she apparently has some type of history with Dolphins running back Ronnie Brown. The web site of the Miami-Dade County Clerk's Office says that Cordon filed a lawsuit against Brown, although that suit was dismissed when Cordon failed to show up for a hearing this month.

The publicly available information doesn't make clear why Cordon was suing Brown, and as Pro Football Talk notes, it's even possible that the case involves a different Delicia Cordon or a different Ronnie Brown. The web site RipOffReport.com says Cordon was evicted from a Miami condo owned by one NFL player this year, and that she recently got "out of a really bad relationship with another player." It's not clear whether either of those players are Vick or Brown.