Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 - The day Brian Cushing took his top off.

The day is finally here, folks! The USC Pro Day is getting under way today and you better believe I will be following it and reporting any cup-size developments here in Tin Bit fashion. All USC news will be in red and all Dolphin's bits will be in dark aqua:

Jason Taylor continues to shuffle between Miami and New England, though I suspect he's just trying to drive up the offer from New England, who has already made an offer to him.

USC has had more first round picks than any other school in history and they might increase that lead by 3 this month. Miami is second on the list, and it's possible they might not have a player drafted at all this year.

The Dolphins have been looking at a lot of cornerbacks lately. I won't bore you with the whole list as it's nearing a total of 20 so far. But it includes every tier possible, including first round talent (Sean Smith, Darius Butler, Vontae Davis, Malcolm Jenkins) all the way down to 7th round and undrafted free agent prospects like Don Carey and Greg Toler. This suggests they are open to not just securing a starting quality corner, but also bolstering the depth where players like Joey Thomas and Scorpio Babers reside. Let's not forget Will Billingsley, who left/rejoined the practice squad at least 7 times last year.

There are now decidely two separate camps in regard to who the top QB in the draft is. Despite Stafford's impressive pro day and private workouts, Mark Sanchez has skyrocketed lately (for no apparent reason) and is now being shown on several mocks/lists as being taken over Stafford. Now, there is a scenario that Detroit takes Stafford #1, and Seattle takes Sanchez #4. The Jets would take Freeman at #17. If 3 QBs are taken in the first round, players like Aaron Curry, Jason Smith, and Michael Crabtree would slide a spot or two or three, which would make everyone else slide as well. This is all theoretical of course, and no one can predict accurately what will happen but if that scenario unfolded, we might find ourselves with a 'gift' pick at #25.

The video below from NFL Network's Path to the Draft shows some USC action in regard to the linebackers. For once I think I actually agreed with Mike Mayock. First time for everything, I guess. The extension on that interception by Matthews was something I was unaware he could do, he always looked stuck to the ground in the USC games I watched last year. I still prefer the versatility of Barwin over Matthews, but as a true linebacker, you could do worse. I definitely like him better than Cushing or Maualuga. I was disappointed in Cushing's 'moob' size, but Maualuga could develop quite nicely as age catches up to him.

Despite it being the 'place to be', none of the Trifecta attended the USC pro day. That doesn't mean they aren't interested in any of the above linebackers. I seem to recall they had a few private workouts scheduled yesterday.

New Orleans newspaper The Times-Picayune reports that Miami, Phoenix and New Orleans all submitted bids for the 2013 Super Bowl ahead of today’s NFL-mandated deadline, according to league officials.

Friday's Update ( I know, very clever title)

Pro days continue today with the most notable being Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon State and South Florida.

Ohio State has James Laurinitis, Brian Robiskie, Donald Washington, Nader Abdallah, Marcus Freeman, Alex Boone, and even Malcolm Jenkins all of whom could be getting looks from the Dolphins. Surely they'll have someone in attendance!

Michigan is not as packed but maybe Terrance Taylor and Morgan Trent could garner some interest.

Oregon State has Keenan Lewis, previously noted as a potential future Dolphin. They also have Andy Levitre! Remember him? A couple of months ago he was heralded by Miami fans and media as a MUST HAVE. Amazing how quickly the buzz wears off.

Oh, and then there's my beloved USF Bulls. At the Combine, Sun Sentinel reporter, Omar Kelly, asked LB Tyrone McKenzie what he thought of perhaps being the highest picked Bull ever. While it was nice to get some video of Tyrone on the SS page, Omar didn't do his homework, as just last year (2008) USF's Mike Jenkins was chosen 25th overall. Kawika Mitchell went 47th overall in 2003. The next highest were Kenyatta Jones (96th), Anthony Henry (97th) and Bill Gramatica (98th - seriously? who drafts a kicker that high) which is probably where McKenzie projects at right now.

Pro Day could change all that of course, but I don't see Mckenzie being able to leapfrog Jenkins' status. Other USF notables working out today: Cedric Hill (FB/TE), Danny Verpaele (S), Carlton Williams (S), Taurus Johnson (WR), the entire offensive line for the past 3 years, and the absolutely incredible Benjamin Williams. Williams is 5'7", 200lbs, and can squat 660 lbs and bench 430. I can do that too (not!).

I will update this post throughout the day with available results and Dolphin spottings so check back for more info.

Updates:

8:36 AM - Miami did not attend Troy's second pro day yesterday. This generally means they saw what they needed to see the first time around. As far as I know, they did invite Sherrod Martin for a private workout at the first one.

11:46 AM - Well it happened. I finally made an oopsie. I gotta tell you, getting info about the pro days as just a simple fan is possibly harder than finding out what the President reads in the bathroom. And so it was that yesterday I reported/mentioned that Nebraska's pro day had much Dolphins activity and that they were watching fullbacks. It turns out that where I read "Nebraska FB [insert name of virtually unknown football player here]" I automatically assumed, as most people would, that the 'FB' was referring to the position of the player mentioned. It turns out the 'FB' stood simply for FOOTBALL. So it had nothing to do with the player mentioned other than the fact that he played football for Nebraska. Seriously people, whoever did the captioning for them should be fired. To make matters worse, I discovered that I could blow up the image of the photo several times and discovered it wasn't James Saxon in the photos. It actually looked to be Kacy Rodgers, the defensive line coach (the same guy who worked one-on-one with Michael Johnson the other day). I don't know who he was there to see since Nebraska's beast DT, Suh, decided to stay in school. Sometimes underclassmen work out a year before they come out just to get on the radar for the folowing year. Who knows at this point.

1:30 PM - I have to be honest, when I was looking for an update on Jason Williams' personal workout, the last thing I thought I'd do was paste a link to a Dolphins blog, but I got a good eye-roll going from reading this eloquent write-up and thought I'd share.

3:30 PM - Remember that talk we had about the NT Tree? Well, at USF's pro day today, former NOSE TACKLE Richard Clebert showed up. He was shown in photos working out, but was not listed in the actual results or in the program. Why do I make a deal of this? Because for one, he graduated LAST year, was not on the team in 2008, and I also always wondered whatever happened to him. For those of you who don't know who the hell I'm talking about, Clebert is 6'1", 320lbs, played in a hybrid 4-3/3-4 formation (which they ended up dropping because he graduated and they didn't have a nose to take over) and is most famous for this video:

Though I counted 41 reps on the video, his official best is 43, and according to the video he has done 50 (though it cannot be confirmed). 43 is the combine record, BTW. Clebert's 43 was not at the combine but at a testing day at USF.

Oh, the guy can play football too even if he has the body of a pumpkin. Number 76.:

Nebraska Wins!! (and other pro day tidbits)

I remember when Nebraska as a college football powerhouse full of murderers, rapists and pretty good football players. Then they got rid of the murderers and rapists and ended up realizing that there was some overflow of categories and thus they had less good football players and spiraled into suck-dom.

Well they can hold their head up high today as not one but TWO Dolphins coaches attended their pro-day. And it's not what you might think. Offensive Line coach, Dave Googley-Eye-Elmo, and Running Backs coach James Saxon were both shown paying particular attention to the workouts of a couple of FULLBACKS!

If that wasn't crazy enough, there was a notable absence of both Miami and New England coaches at the Boston College pro day. Raji worked out for Detroit, NY Jets and Cleveland as did Ron Brace.

I already mentioned in my previous entry that they also look to have skipped the West Virginia event as well.

They DID attend the Oklahoma pro-day to look at Phil Loadholt and Duke Robinson. Seems like Googly is on a tour of tornado alley.

And word is that Miami has invited some guy named Rhyan Anderson for a private workout. Anderson was a virtual no show at the University of Miami, then transferred to New Mexico State, and barely posted any stats while there. It's a bit odd the Dolphins would use up one of their invites on him, but at 6'4" 262lbs and running in the 4.7 range they're willing to give him a shot.

Still waiting for the latest Jason Williams news...

All Quiet On The Front Office...er...Front! [UPDATED]

I have to say, things feel a little uneasy right now as far as Miami Dolphin-dom is concerned. Nothing serious like a critical illness or anything like that, but at a time when a lot of teams are making a lot of noise in free agency, staff changes, and pro-day visits, the Dolphins have quietly stepped out of the spotlight.

I cannot say this for sure, mind you, but it seems like the Dolphins took a couple of days off from the pro-days. I can always confirm when they WERE there, but it's a bit harder to confirm if they WEREN'T. Still, it seems like they've skipped out on the bulk of the most recent events. Of course this put a bit of a grinder in the works that was to be my ongoing updating of the Draft Board on the sidebar. That's right, if they're not actively watching the players in public at the pro-days, I cannot add any names to the list.

It seems that out of the 20+ pro days yesterday, the Dolphins could only be confirmed to be at 2 of them. That's not a huge deal considering most of them were small schools without any notable prospects, but the percentage from the day before was not much better. And one of the events they may have skipped was Maryland's pro-day, featuring Darrius Heyward-Bey.

Some of the events where I use the word 'skipped' may have been attended by a lower level scout, but I confirmed at least ten of them were not attended at all by the Dolphins.

They also haven't brought in any work-out free agents, or signed anyone in a week. Things are eerily quiet for this time of the year. Maybe they are having their annual Sexual Harassment training?

Still, today there are a few I'm sure will be well attended - West Virginia, Oregon, Boston College and Texas Tech are the big names, but expect more than one Miami official to be at the Troy pro day as well.

The Dolphins did NOT attend the WVU pro day. Very unlikely then that they're going to draft Pat White.

The Dolphins signed free agent CB, Eric Green, thus showing that they WERE up to something. The quiet must've been the lawyers and agents hard at work.