RE-CAP: New England vs Miami - Sort Of (with roster move)

Well, NFL.com certainly didn't make it easy for me to re-watch the Dolphins narrow victory over the creme de la creme of the AFC East.  First I was locked out of NFL Rewind thanks to Monday Night Football, then last night I had to deal with really poor quality and stop and start streaming.  I will not be paying for that next year, that's for sure.

Anyway, I decided to watch Manchester United instead, so I go into this re-cap without any real evidence of what I'm talking about, but since most of my readers have stopped reading by now (this IS the second paragraph after all), I don't suppose it matters that much. Not much to say on the game itself other than that's why they show up to the games right?  The bigger news was that we entered the playoff race officially, and that Tom Brady dissed his fellow team-mates on the radio, and today he and Giselle Bundchen had a baby boy today.  Here is a photo of the happy father and son:

I had a little back and forth between both Omar Kelly (Sun-Sentinel) and Armando Salguero (Miami Herald) this past week as they both brought up the fact that only 1 New England draftee from 2007 was still on their roster whereas Miami had a handful.  Seemed a pointless argument since New England traded away half their draft in 2007 to get Randy Moss and Wes Welker, both of whom are impact players the like of which Miami doesn't have now, nor did they pick up in 2007.  In fact, we lost Welker in 2007, so doing the simplest math there, they topped us twice in that regard.  Add the fact they got Meriweather, by far their defensive MVP this year, along with their now 3rd year punter, and three other players who have started games this year, including Sammy Morris, Adalius Thomas (whom Salguero called a 'bust'), and one of their O-linesmen, who was a backup but is currently starting (forget his name).  Anyway, obviously if you have 6 or 7 starters from a draft 3 years prior, you can't act like they bombed in the draft.  They both disagreed with me, but Salguero was the only one who thought I was nuts. 

But I bring this up because it makes one wonder again about how we will be thinking of the drafts/free agent moves of the current regime in 2 or 3 years' time.  And it made me take a step back from all the praise of several players lately including Chad Henne, Randy Starks, etc.  Because there's no way to tell how a player will be from year to year.  At this time last year, Matt Roth was cementing his status as a long-term fixture for the Dolphins.  Philip Merling was starting to get his second wind and looked like a steal in the draft.  Don't get me started on Shawn Murphy (first he was a project, then he was a bust, then he was potential starter, then he was a bust - there was no real sliding up and down there, he was either starting or not good enough to be on the team).  I definitely am not going to heap praise on Davone Bess after one great game.  He's been subpar to awful all year long and started the Patriots game with an easy drop.  Even Ted Ginn made more impressive catches than him in the game.  And all the talk of Bess being the next Welker...I thought it particularly funny when Phil Simms got excited on the play where Bess caught a short out on a Patriots blitz and rookie CB Darius Butler found himself on an island with him and made a fingertip tackle.  Simms pro-nounced that it 'was a close one', insinuating that had Butler not held on to make the tackle, that Bess would sprint free and untouched for a 60 yard TD.  Let's not kid ourselves, Bess has not shown the ability to get any YAC, and it would've shocked me had he gained more than 4 or 5 extra yards before the safety caught up to him.

Most of us fans know that players/teams/management cannot be judged on one game alone, and that often a season can only be fully understood once it is over and significant time has passed.  And I think most of us would rather have 11 consistently 'good' players than 11 up and down ones on the field at any time.  

Who do you folks think has been consistent in the last two years?  Other than Jason Allen on special teams and Randy Starks on Defense, I can't name anybody.  I do think Tony McDaniel and Cameron Wake have been consistent THIS year, but I prefer to take a larger sample game-wise for my analysis.  For example, Jake Long was very consistent LAST year, but has been a bit off this year at times.

Let me know what you think, and then ponder this - the Dolphins took TE David Martin off of injured reserve and then released him yesterday.  That means he is free to play for any team immediately as long as he passes a physical.  Do you think the resurgence of Anthony Fasano had anything to do with it?  Keep in mind, Martin was going to be a free agent at the end of the year anyway, but he could have been resigned for low-end money.