Dolphins Pull A Fast One

The Dolphins today waived WR Taurus Johnson, a day after he received high praise from Head Coach Tony Sparano.  It was one of the few times in the last two months that the coach mentioned Taurus by name.  Johnson ran a 4.42 40 in the 2009 combine, making him arguably the fastest WR in camp this year.

Despite being lost on the depth chart, Johnson seemed to me to be a likely candidate for the 5th WR spot along with Patrick Turner, Julius Pruitt and Ryan Grice-Mullen.  In fact, the more I thought about it yesterday, I couldn't help but feel that he could beat out those three based on his versatility and play-making ability.

Alas I must have jinxed him because just a day later he's gone.

Sparano said Johnson was a "4 team guy" meaning he could play kick return, punt return, kick coverage as well as offense for the Dolphins.  He said Pruitt was a "3 team guy".  He didn't say this out loud, but I'm sure he knows that Patrick Turner is a '1 team guy' and even that is debatable, but he was a 3rd round draft pick a year ago.  Grice-Mullen sparkled in early OTAs but has since been outshined by those mentioned above. 

Meanwhile, the Dolphins have signed CB Kevin Hobbs to replace the injured Evan Oglesby and re-signed G Ray Feinga.  As far as I know, Oglesby has not been waived injured, suggesting that the Dolphins could have waived Johnson just to make space for Hobbs until a decision is made on Oglesby.  Both Oglesby and Will Allen were present but not practicing this morning.

UPDATE:  Oglesby has been placed on IR and Will Allen has made an unscheduled trip to the doctor to check out his knee issues.

Training Camp Tin Bits - August 11th, 2010

In the past I did daily updates from Camp, but this year's been too hectic and full of off-blog issues for me to be able to keep up with the other guys, so I decided not to do it this year.  However, today I would like to do a few ones as we lead in to the first Pre-Season game just to see where things stand as the selection process begins for the team that will take the field on Opening Day.

Brian Cushing - Why Can't You Just Go Away?

Honestly, I don't understand the pure level of narcissism that Cushing displayed yesterday and throughout his football career really. Yesterday's talk with the media was the biggest line of BS I've seen since the Miami media suggested that there was no way Ernest Wilford wasn't going to make the Dolphins roster in 2009.

I'm not going to dwell on it because Cushing has probably got more mention on this blog than almost all the Miami players and he plays in Houston - or I should say, he'll be sitting in the stands in Houston.  But I can't help but feel, through what little accumulated wisdom that I do have, that Cushing's best possible move would've been to lay low, stay quiet, accept your punishment, and focus on football.  Everyone knows that in the Sports/Entertainment business you're only big news until the next big news comes along, and everyone had already forgotten about his failed drug test until he brought it up again with his cockamamie defense of 'Over-trained Athlete Syndrome'.

Football Begins, No One Notices

Well, probably not 'no one', but I for one, walked into a restaurant with my family last night, and while waiting for a table (in a two-thirds empty restaurant, and we were one of about ten parties waiting, what's that all about?), I noticed that the Bengals and Cowboys were playing on the TV in the corner.  I literally said out loud to my wife, "Has football started?" and she just as literally said back, "I don't care!"

Contradicting Reports and Reporting Agendas

This happens every year during Training Camp so it should be of no surprise and proves the old adage to take something with a grain of salt.

Once again we're getting three different spins on the goings on in Training Camp. I won't go into all of them, but here's some examples of things I've read that make you go "hmmm":

Jason Allen is struggling, unlikely to make the team. -or- “Jason Allen has got his hands on more footballs than anybody out there right now,” Sparano said. “So Jason Allen deserves the opportunity to move up and to see if he can do that against the best people.”

Guest Report - Fang at Training Camp

I love waking up to find a full report from training camp in my inbox, this one's courtesy of Fang:

I have no idea at this time what others have said, it's about 1 o'clock in the morning and we just returned home.  From what I saw today was mixed bag.  First lets start off with the ugly.

Where Are They Now?

Too soon to post updates on the Class of 2010?  I think not.  Every year I keep an eye on not only Dolphin rookies, but the few players I had on my Draft Board for that year...partly because I've sort of been following them already and want to see how they get on, but also because I want to know if I was right in touting on the individual players.  To date I think I'm well over 50%, but obviously that stat means nothing because it doesn't take into consideration the players I didn't have on the board and whether or not they outperformed the ones I did.  So it's not about is the player the best in the NFL rather than is he living up to expectations or not.

New Dolphin - Micah Johnson, ILB

You may recall that in January I posted several Top Ten lists, broken down by position, in preparation for the then upcoming NFL Draft.

In this Top Ten inside linebackers list, I rated Kentucky Wildcat, Micah Johnson, as the 4th best ILB in the draft. I also had him listed on my draft board in the later rounds, when I thought Miami would focus on ILB. They of course went LB crazy and didn't draft Johnson.

Well, today, my draft came a little bit more accurate as the Dolphins signed Johnson to fill the vacant roster spot left by AJ Edds.

Edds All Over Before It Began

Well now we've lost Jason Ferguson to retirement, Philip Merling to injury, Brian Johnston to injury, and finally, rookie linebacker, AJ Edds, also to injury.  

On The Line

Please note that I was not on vacation last week - I was on a relocation mission.  I am officially and finally getting out of California and heading back to my adopted hometown of Portland, OR (technically I'll be in Beaverton, a suburb of the Rose City).  I am now back in Cali to pack up and finish up the project I've been working on for the last 4 years.  In two weeks, my family and I will hit the road in our moving truck and say good-bye to the Sacramento Valley for good.  The good news is that since this blog is based in the ethernet, nothing will change here - in fact, it may actually get better since I'll be upgrading my internet services just in time for the season.

Speaking of football, boy did I miss a lot of stories while I was gone.  I regret not keeping up to date but I have now updated the transactions page and caught up on the puff pieces over at MiamiDolphins.com. The next major task is to update the roster, but that will have to wait until my lunch break.