Guest Article: son of a son of a shula

How it all began: My Dolphin Story

By John D. aka son of a son of a shula

I was 7 years old. The only real thing I knew about football was that my three older brothers would clobber me when I had one in my hands. Growing up in Connecticut, just outside of New York, the Giants were the team always on TV and the team most cheered for. Suddenly out of nowhere there was a loud noise across the football landscape, there was a team threatening to be undefeated. A team that was new and wore far different color uniforms than that of which we’d become accustomed to. They had players that no one had heard of, they had a real young coach, with a distinctive jaw, and they just kept winning. They even had some “old” guy playing quarterback. My older brothers became enthralled so, me, as the kid brother followed along. The Dolphins were turning the football world on its ear and we loved it.

Mid-Week in Miami

Hey Folks - I notice there's some unrest out there in the Dolphins discussion arena.  Not missing that stuff at all. 

I noticed Miami signed a new linebacker and a new wide receiver this week.  I guess with the delay in getting football started this year, teams are allowed to have more players on the roster for longer, and they are no doubt taking advantage of that.

I also noticed for the first time that former Dolphin psychopath, Bryan Cox, is back coaching the pass rushers.  I saw a photo of Cox coaching up the rookie, Jason Taylor on how to get to the quarterback and yes, I did spit my coffee all over my keyboard!  

Dawn of The Dead

Nothing is less exciting than the first pre-season game after a lockout on a team that lacks a lot of depth in many areas.  Yes, I've looked at the roster/depth chart, and there are so many holes on the Dolphins I can't bring myself to be hopeful just yet.  Granted, I started the previous 3 seasons very optimistically and they didn't end well, so maybe starting off with lower expectations will result in greater rewards from a personal standpoint.

Letter from the Manager

Hey everyone, 

Sorry I have not been checking back in the comments at all but just randomly clicked on this one in my e-mail. In a way, my absence from the site has actually had a bizarre effect in that comments have remained relatively strong, hits are still coming, and the site's facebook following has practically doubled since i stopped updating it.

2011 Live Draft Of Possible Pointlessness

Tin Bits - January 26th, 2011

Here's today's update while I deal with technical issues in getting the Tins Fins Top Ten QB list up and running.

Tin Bits - January 25th - 2011 All Star Bowls Kickoff

Here we go folks, the College All-Star Games are in full swing, leaving a cloud of dust and a lot of NFL scouts scampering to collect as many numbers on as many players as they can.  

Of course, last week was the East-West Shrine Game, and it wasn't as packed with interesting players this year or that interesting of a game, as a few commenters mentioned in a previous blog post.  But that was partly due to several players pulling out of this week's Senior Bowl, which means the EWSG was poached from to fill out the Senior Bowl roster.

In addition to these two games, the Inaugural 'Eastham Energy College All-Star Game' took place over the weekend...or did it?  Why go through the process of organizing such a big event and not bother to release any information about it?

Dolphins Coaching Staff Still Not Completed...But Getting There

The Miami Dolphins aren't quite ready to start the 2011 NFL Off-Season, but are making progress after signing intern, Dan Campbell, to coach the tight-ends.  

Campbell is a former NFL tight-end who played for the New York Giants, the Dallas Cowboys, and the New Orleans Saints.  He was on each team for 3 seasons and was essentially the blocking tight-end behind Jeremy Shockey, Jason Witten, and whoever Detroit had before drafting Brandon Pettigrew in 2009.  

The big question of course is who Campbell will have to work with.  Hopefully the Dolphins can upgrade the position though it's likely a point of contention between Tony Sparano and new Offensive Coordinator, Brian Daboll.  Daboll isn't a big 2 TE guy, whereas Sparano is.  With Dan Henning gone I would expect Sparano to go back to the power-run scheme that the Dolphins gradually waned during the past 3 seasons.  Of course, with Dabol and Stephen Ross involved (with input from Brandon Marshall, Davone Bess, and others) they may go completely the other way.

The New Dolphins coaches are OC Brian Daboll, RBs Jeff Nixon, TEs Dan Campbell.  They replace Dan Henning, James Saxon, and George DeLeone, respectively.  The Dolphins are currently without a Quarterbacks Coach, after David Lee left to become the offensive coordinator at Ole Miss.  Lee was actually hired as Ole Miss OC back in late 2007 but left that job when the Dolphins came-a-calling.  Obviously now he's realized it was in his best interest to go back to Mississippi.

 

 

The 2011 Draft Season Begins

Sure there are sites that have been mocking the draft since the last one ended (some even before that), but realistically, none of these preliminary projections mean anything until:

Daboll Sh** is Official

Brian Daboll (pronounced Day-Bull....honestly, could it get any easier for bloggers like me?) has officially been introduced as the new Offensive Coordinator of the Miami Dolphins.