One Source....Good Enough!

While the media is strapped by convention and ethics, I am not.

While they get paid for printing the news, rumours, and editorials, I do not.

While certain media stories surrounding the Dolphins have been pulled this week due to lack of the elusive "second source", I would only pull a blog entry off of here if we actually draft Brian Cushing and I want to attend a game.

So while it's not huge news in Fins-Land, I have secured a second source, as in 'insider' here at Tin's Fins. Straight from the [S]orse's mouth:

"Sparano was high on him. But we’ve recently learned [Al Johnson] had two major surgeries on his knee. When I asked that same agent where he sees Johnson down the line, he said, “Unemployed.”"

So, Mr Bungle, time to adjust your O-line analysis.

I think it's fair to say that Miami will be going after a big name Center in free agency and probably a competitor in the Draft.

So you're probably thinking, hmm, the Trifecta seems to be targeting Center, Guard, and Linebacker thus far. What about the secondary? What about the DL? What about a RT since the media believes Carey is gone?

Well, personally I believe the 3 free agents in the secondary will be re-signed. I believe Vonnie Holliday will be retained on a re-worked contract. He really has no choice. No one is going to pursue him at this point in his career. He is stuck with us, so he will re-work his cap-worth. I believe guys like Cohen and Soliai will be given exactly ONE more shot through pre-season. If they do not cut it, I believe they will be offloaded and replaced by either a big trade or guys off of waivers. I do not think the Trifecta will buy more than two big name free agents (Center being one) and I don't think DL will be addressed during that period.

2009 Offseason Trifecta Focus

While most fans were panicking over the offensive line, I was pacing in circles over the state of the Dolphins' linebacking corps. I think it's fair to say the Trifecta were worried about it as well. They only signed two new players in 2009 thus far, and they are both linebackers, were both standouts in the CFL, and once in uniform they could easily be mistaken for one another. Cameron Wake and Tearrius George are both big, fast for their size, and are known for getting to the quarterback. While Wake was having a career year in Canada, George had already made it to the NFL, first as a practice squad grunt, but eventually got on to Dallas' 53 man roster by the end of the season. Add these two to the 3 or 4 virtually unknowns that were added throughout 2008, plus the returning starters and reserves, and it looks like Miami will go into workouts with a LOT of linebackers, many of whom could end up on the team this year.

There IS a pattern to the new guys. They are all virtually the same size. BIG. And they can't all be vying for the same positions. So here's the 'speculation' which I consider more of a mildly educated guess. They are planning on building a core of LBs that can rotate into any position, or at least into multiple positions. This will allow them to show twice as many 'looks' to the opponent. If it sounds familiar, it's something that Baltimore does, Pittsburgh too, but not as much. I have a feeling this group of guys, which will also include a couple of draftees, will be the hardest worked group in the offseason.

There is a Season...churn, churn, churn...

Bill Parcells was on Sirius radio (is it just me or has Parcells suddenly got a case of the talksies?) saying that he told Huizenga he would stay for at least two drafts (which means he could still leave before training camp), and that he expected to have about 18 new faces on the roster in 2009. I can't find my comment but this lines up pretty much with what I said a couple of weeks ago. I think I said about 15 new faces. Maybe I'll do a breakdown later. Maybe Mr Bungle will do it for me. ;)

NY Jets want Pennington Back. Favre puts pen to paper.

We can talk about the pen to paper stuff in 4 months when the ink has dried, but here's a tasty morsel backing up my claims from two days ago that the Jets want Pennington back.

It should be noted that this is the point in the break-up of any relationship where one party has second thoughts, especially when they see their ex 'moving on' with someone new.

My translation of the player quote:

"Why did [I] get rid of Chad in the first place?" one player asked, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "[I] treated him like a [dog] from Day1. It was a bad decision from top to bottom, from beginning to end. Now [I'm] paying for it. [I] put [myself] in this situation. [Please come back Chad, I miss you. I can change]"

Kibbles and Bits...and bits!

WEDNESDAY:

• We so could've had this guy on our roster.

• 2009 Cap Numbers provided by ProFootballTalk. The Dolphins are a very healthy $23 Million under. That means they can afford to re-sign all their free agents. So we know if anyone doesn't get re-signed, it's not because of money.
  

• The NY Jets brass will be announcing their quarterback plans at noon Eastern. At this point they will then attempt to trade for Chad Pennington. [update: In about 4 months I will announce that Brett Favre announced his retirement on February 11th.]
  

TUESDAY:

• Samson Satele gets put on the butcher's block by ESPN's Tim Graham. Graham used to be a Dolphins beat writer, and now he's got some distance between him and the team, he can be more brutal about the situation than the big 3 locals.

• The Dolphins waived LB Kelvin Smith and G Matt McChesney.
  

• Matt McGuire of Walterfootball.com told me that his source at the Senior Bowl regarding the Dolphins position on Vernon Carey was in fact a Dolphins beat writer. He would not name names, just occupations. So I pose the same question...has any of the 'big 3' mentioned any of this in any of their blogs? Not according to my memory.
  

• Detroit defensive tackle Shaun Cody may be another guy on the way out of the Motor City. It doesn't make sense to me that Detroit would let Cody go when they're apparently also going to let DT Chuck Darby go. It looks like Detroit is planning on churning 95% of their roster in 2009. I hereby predict two wins in 2009 for Detroit.

• Making it to the Super Bowl doesn't improve your job security. The Cardinals are firing coaches left and right.

• The Sun-Sentinel must be desperate for clicks on their website, placing a buxom half naked woman on the front of their sports page. Normally I'd call them out on it, but she is really REALLY hot! Reminds me of when I used to live in Europe.

• Some more crap about Bill Parcell's contract. I'm sick of talking about this (a main reason I've been staying away from the Miami blogs of late) but here Armando Salguero claims a source told him that Parcells had decided to leave and e-mails were sent, etc. So go read that and then come back and we'll never discuss it again.

• Are you like me and can't be bothered by halftime entertainment shows? Not the studio shows but the actual on-field performances that they put on while everyone is in line at the bathroom. A lot of work, blood, sweat and probably diva tears go into making these 10 minute long extravaganzas that no one wants to watch, and if they do watch, immediately wish they had the last 10 minutes of their lives back. Well, even if you don't like Springsteen or Janet Jackson, it could be worse. You could've been at Super Bowl XIX watching your beloved Miami Dolphins getting crushed by the 49ers. Then, down 28-16 at the half, you probably were excited to see what wonderful entertainment your expensive tickets got you for relief from the stomping. That's when you probably regretted spending a month's salary on a ticket:
  

Caption Me.

My attempt: "You had me at, "Hello!"

Welcome Back, Squatters!

The Dolphins welcomed back Greg Camarillo, Justin Smiley, Matt McChesney, Aaron Halterman, and the legendary Donald Thomas yesterday. They were officially removed from the injured reserve list. This is just a technicality that all the teams do on this week, but it's nice to have them back anyway, even if they're not healed up yet.

As far as I can remember these are their injuries:

Camarillo - torn ACL. Typically 6 months to a year recovery post-surgery.

Smiley - broken leg. He should be fine by now and rehabbing.

McChesney - unknown knee injury. He was placed on IR just one week after being activated from the practice squad. Since he never got on the field, he must've been injured during practice.

Halterman - undisclosed back injury. He was actually waived injured at the beginning of the '08 season, thus he's not on the roster anymore (or won't be whenever they update it).

Thomas - Lisfranc fracture. Since he was injured and had surgery back in September, he should be ready to go in June/July.

Still no word on Tab Perry and why he hasn't been released from IR. He should be a free agent by now, but it is possible the Dolphins plan on keeping him on IR and resigning him later...it's more possible that they just haven't updated the IR list yet.
Update: ProFootballTalk.com put out their full lists of free agents and they have Perry listed as UFA under wide receivers.

Time to get your ass out of bed!

• Today is the day that all those injured guys on IR last season get cleared to re-join the roster, stretch their legs, and start to get back into the mind-set of football. So far, 15 teams have cleared their infirmaries, but the Dolphins made no announcements today. It was also the first day that players could be waived. Again, the Dolphins made no announcements. Yep, that means Ernest Wilford is still a Miami Dolphin.

• Leigh Bodden was cut by the Lions today, as part of their efforts to clear $35 million in cap room. I didn't see Bodden play last year since he was a Lion, but he was spectacular in 2007. If he doesn't have any personality issues, I suspect the Trifecta is already working him out.
  

• Dolphins win the Super Bowl...in Miami...game still isn't a sell-out....Ah how sweet it would be - "[Lee Roy] Selmon: All right, I'll give you a shot in the dark. How about Miami vs. Green Bay [in Super Bowl 44]? A cold- weather team against a warm-weather team." Dan Reeves also picked Miami as the dark horse to make it to the big game.
  

Free Agency Preview - Updated 11:24am

We don't really know what the Trifecta is thinking other than they want "more players" (Parcells), "more players" (Ireland) and "more players" (Sparano). It's as if they're on the same page, however lacking in sentences that page may be. Now, we fans know that you can only have so many bodies on the team, so they must mean more "playmakers", or players who make a bigger impact on the game. And for that reason we look initially to free agency, because we know what these players can do. There will be "players" in the draft but we don't know them, or how they will pan out. We DO know that the big name free agents are big name free agents because of what they can do.

And for over a month now, the biggest buzz in free agency has been the Baltimore Ravens' linebacking corp. It should be noted that things do not look well for the Ravens in 2009. They have a much worse free agent situation than Miami, because their free agents are significantly better than our free agents. Worse than that, they are older on defense than we are, and are likely to have to sort of start halfway from scratch in replacing half their secondary, and possibly 4 or 5 starters. I know you're thinking that we're in the same boat, but the truth is, it's unlikely we lose more than two of our free agents, and the other guys on defense are pretty much locks at starting in 2009 (but anything's possible).



The Ravens have a banged up, aging group especially in the secondary. If that area becomes a major reconstruction, how can they focus on the linebackers? Ray Lewis is GOING to be a Dallas Cowboy in 2009. I'd put good money on that, but not as much as Jerry Jones is going to pay Ray. You'd think that would leave enough money for the Ravens to re-sign Scott and Suggs in an effort to keep as much of their starting D intact. But what good are those guys without Lewis in the middle? And how good would Suggs' pass rush be without a guy like Samari Rolle locking down in coverage? The Ravens are going to be crippled by poor planning for their future and cannot afford to shore up all their areas of need. They also need help on the o-line and at wide receiver.

I think the Dolphins can take an aggressive but not desperate stand in acquiring valuable free agents in 2009. I believe the Ravens may have to do the reverse.

Your thoughts?

ps. things are so bad in Baltimore, they still haven't done a blog post at the Baltimore Sun since they lost their playoff vs the Steelers. Three weeks and counting...

Update - Well I can't even have a blog up for an hour without someone contradicting me. In this case it's the actual Baltimore Ravens.

Guest Article - Mr Bungle's Assessment of the Offensive Line

The Dolphins O-line heading into 2009

These are the O-linemen listed on the official Miami Dolphins website roster. The starters I listed was the starting lineup on opening day last season.

Starters:

C/G Satele 6-3 300

LG Smiley 6-3 310 - season ending broken leg injury/minor shoulder surgery?

RG Thomas 6-4 310 - season ending foot injury?

LT Long 6-7 315

RT Carey 6-5 350 - free agency?


Backups:

C/G Alleman 6-4 310

C/G Johnson 6-5 305

G/T Ikechuku 6-4 325

G/T Frye 6-4 305

OG Murphy 6-4 315

OT Garner 6-7 320


What needs to be done with the O-line? Who stays and what positions need to be upgraded?

Who do we target in free agency and what position do we draft on the O-line?

C/G Satele 6-3 300 - it sounds like we'll move him to guard because he's athletic.

LG Smiley 6-3 310 - we need him back healthy.

RG Thomas 6-4 310 - let's hope he returns to the path he was on before he went down.

LT Long 6-7 315 - a stud

RT Carey 6-5 350 - we should probably franchise him for 09.

C/G Alleman 6-4 310 - he might stick around as a backup.

C/G Johnson 6-5 305 - Sparano really likes him but he's had trouble staying healthy.

G/T Ikechuku 6-4 325 - he's versatile but may not have any upside as a full-time starter.

G/T Frye 6-4 305 - not sure how much upside he has and at what position?

OG Murphy 6-4 315 - his technique was raw and needs to get stronger.

OT Garner 6-7 320 - a big body but I'm not sure how much upside he has.


I tend to agree with a lot of fans who want to see us go after Ravens Center Jason Brown. Brown fits the size and age parameters for the trifecta, he's 6-3 320 and he'll be only 26 in May. He's a physical lineman who did a good job in the run game and protecting the rookie QB Joe Flacco.

If we signed Brown and solidified the Center position, we would have some more options at guard with who we already have. Then maybe we could draft a OT for depth and a future starting RT.

Signing Jason Brown could be the key to upgrading the OL sooner than later. Opinions?