Miami Dolphins In Depth

Dolphins get day at the movies -- UPDATED

Tony Sparano has a big heart. No, really.

Rather than put his team through another day of practice today, the Dolphins coach took his players to the movies. They went to see GI Joe.

"A lot of popcorn, big smiles and rested bodies," Sparano said. "The reason I do that is first of all, so the guys get to know I have a heart. But second of all is you appreciate what those guys have done right now. Yesterday was a very hard practice, a good practice, a lot of energy. So it's a way for me to say thank you and give those guys a chance to bond a little bit.

Last year Sparano took his player to see Express, which was about football.

GI Joe, as you can see in the clip, is mostly about, well, explosions and wars and rumors of wars and a babe or two -- Academy Award material for sure. At least one player wasn't thrilled with the choice of the move.

"Just saw GI Joe," cornerback Sean Smith said on his twitter account. "Top 5 worst movies ever! It's so predictable, and [just] horrible. Glad I didn't pay for it."

The Dolphins did conduct a walkthru practice, but otherwise it was a slow day out at camp.

On the New Orleans front, coach Sean Payton said today that Reggie Bush is expected to play against Miami, at least for a couple of series. 

A look at the Dolphins' curious QB situation

The Dolphins quarterback spot puzzles me a little bit.

Think about it: The team has a Pro Bowl caliber veteran in Chad Pennington that is unsigned beyond this year and no effort has been made to get the guy a new contract.

Well, that makes sense because the Dolphins want to transfer to Chad Henne by next season, you might say.

Problem is Henne is terribly unproven and even as he's had more work this offseason and preseason than any other QB on the team, he's been sometimes good (versus Carolina) sometimes bad (versus Tampa Bay), sometimes somewhere in between (versus Jacksonville). There's a word for that: Inconsistent.

The Tampa game in which Henne had a 16.1 quarterback rating was eye-opening. And coach Tony Sparano believes much of the problem is on Henne.

“Well, I mean, if you overthrow a ball, I think it’s on you, you know, as a quarterback," Sparano said. "No way around that. There were maybe one or two read things I think that could have been done differently, and then there was some other help, you know. So, meaning: other guys not doing maybe what they should be doing on a play that, that the quarterback takes either the fault for or gets credit for, one way or the other. So, I would say that in that game, you know, Chad was responsible for some of that, and some of the other people were. I mean, that’s an honest answer.”

As to Pat White, well, don't even get me started on Pat White. White is simply not an NFL game-caliber QB right now. He has trouble getting the center snap, he has trouble exploding on his drop back, he's thinking too much about his footwork -- whether it's a three or five-step drop. And we haven't even started to discuss him recognizing coverages, setting up protections and then, finally, throwing an accurate pass downfield.

Let me put it this way: If the Dolphins suffer injuries to their No. 1 and No. 2 QB in the regular-season opener that would force them to play another QB in week 2, they would have to sign a veteran QB and that guy, after one week, would have as much a chance of succeeding as White in the next game.

I am not saying Pat White is a bust, so don't put words in my mouth. I am not saying Pat White cannot improve. I'm simply making the point that Pat White has a looooong way to go and much work to do.

That is the reason the Dolphins have been reticent about using White in the wildcat package. They're so busy trying to bring him up to speed on being able to play quarterback in the base offense, they don't want to overload him with extra stuff.

So where does this leave us?

It leaves the Dolphins in the very good hands of Chad Pennington. It leaves the Dolphins hoping Pennington stays healthy. It leaves them needing to do more things -- in practice and perhaps even in regular-season games -- to get Henne to play.

It leaves the grand plans for WildPat on the shelf for the time being. Oh, the Dolphins will use Wildcat, no doubt about that. But Ronnie Brown remains the triggerman for that package right now, with two weeks left before the start of the regular season.

Jake Long struggles as challenging season awaits

Even as Mel Kiper continues to believe the Dolphins made a mistake in picking Jake Long over Matt Ryan, the Dolphins seem pleased they picked the anchor left tackle. That was especially true after Long was a Pro Bowl alternate and earned a trip to the game by starting all 16 games last season.

Well, this preseason Long has had some struggles this preseason. He gave up a sack to Everette Brown during the Carolina game. He lost his footing and his leverage on the dirt infield in the Jacksonville game, allowing the defender he was blocking to tackle Ricky Williams for a loss. Long also yielded a quarterback hurry to Quentin Grove in that game.

Long was also flagged on a false start against Jacksonville and a holding call against Tampa Bay.

And all that comes as talk about Long struggling against speed rushers persists outside the Dolphins organization.

“Jake didn’t give up many plays last year; he didn’t give up many sacks," coach Tony Sparano said Sunday. " So, I don’t know if that was a problem or a perception. But from my end, I felt the guy played pretty well against some pretty good people during the course of the season last year.

"Now, in the preseason right now, he’s gotten beat a couple times out there, and, you know, I think he’ll get that, Jake will get that fixed. Every week he goes in, he’s [a] pretty good pro, for just being a young guy. He goes in, he watches the film, he’s critical of himself and wants, and is very curious to get problems fixed. So, I think that any of those things that have happened right now with Jake, you know, he’ll get some of those things fixed.”

That is necessary because Long faces some talented rushers this season that perhaps he didn't see last season. Every week will be a challenge for Long.

John Abraham, he of the 16 1/2 sacks a season ago, is the first challenge in the regular-season opener.

And then there's Dwight Freeney  and Robert Mathis, Julius Peppers and Everette Brown, Adalius Thomas and Derrick Burgess, Shawne Merriman and Larry English, Calvin Pace, Mario Williams, and of course, James Harrison, the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year in 2008.

Abraham, Freeney, Mathis, Peppers, Williams and Harrison all had double-digit sacks last season.

What answers do YOU have - with cool update

Maybe you know the answers.

Maybe you have seen things this preseason that have you convinced you are about to know what will happen in the coming regular-season. Me? I'm still waiting for certain answers.

In my Sunday Dolphins column I give several examples of areas where the Dolphins had questions when they opened training camp ... and still have those very questions as it draws to a close.

I mean, are we really convinced the secondary -- with a rookie starting right cornerback and less than stellar work against less than stellar competition this preseason -- will play like it has been truly upgraded? Or will we wish the team would have jumped into the unrestricted free agent cornerback market a lot earlier than the late signing of Eric Green?

Have the Dolphins found the playmaker that will get the offense "chunk yards," as Tony Sparano likes to say? Feel free to indentify him in the comments section.

Has Chad Henne convinced everyone that he ready to become a good starting quarterback and all he needs is the opportunity?

Has Ted Ginn Jr. shown you everything you need to see to feel confident 2009 will be breakout time?

Follow the improvements or lack thereof of these and other situations in the column. Then please tell me if the answers are apparent. And what those answers are. 

UPDATE:

I've been doing some research and some numbers crunching. This is what I've come up with:

The Dolphins starting offense has gotten 4 1/2 quarters of work so far this preseason. During that work, the unit has gotten three field goals and two touchdowns. That's 23 points, which is good.

Chad Pennington has had a very good preseason so far. I mean, very, very good. I would argue he's had the best preseason of any player on the team.

His completion percentage of 61.8 is down for last season's 67.4 but that doesn't really worry me because the tradeoff has been that he's been looking downfield a bit more than last season.

His yards per attempt is at 8.0 while last year it was 7.67. His TD percentage is at 5.9 while last year it was 4.0. And while he's completing more passes downfield, he's making fewer mistakes in that he has not thrown an interception. That makes his interception percentage 0.0, which is an improbable but welcome improvement from last season's outstanding 1.5 percent.

By the way, those downfield passes have brought the Dolphins hidden yardage also. Because Pennington went deep to Ted Ginn in the preseason opener, the Dolphins picked up a 34-yard pass interference penalty against Jacksonville.

Ever the perfectionist, Pennington today said, "I fell like I've been about a foot off with some of my passes." He added that he thought he could have completed 13 instead of 9 of 16 passes against the Bucs Friday. But that's not how coach Tony Sparano sees things.

The coach today called Pennington, "regular-season ready."

It has been a much slower go for Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams. Brown is averaging 3.5 yards per carry, all behind the first-team offensive line. Williams is averaging 3.9 yards on his 18 carries, with 16 of those coming behind the first-team OL.

The Dolphins have averaged 3.5 yards per rush behind their first-team offensive line so far this preseason. Not terrible. Not good, either.

The defense?

They've seemingly adopted a bend-but-don't break personality. Although the unit has yielded significant yardage, it has allowed only 16 points in 4 1/2 quarters of work this preseason. Opponents have scored only one TD and three FGs versus Miami's starters.

The unit does have work to do. I have counted 8 missed tackles so far this preseason -- or more than two per quarter of work.

The starters have three sacks -- from Jason Ferguson, Nathan Jones, and Kendall Langford. Yes, Jones is a starter in the dime package. Obviously, this mean neither Joey Porter nor Jason Taylor have a sack yet in 4 1/2 quarters of work. Nothing to get alarmed about -- yet. Taylor has been credit with three quarterback hurries this preseason but those are unofficial stats.

The starting defense has zero interceptions. Yes, Sean Smith has one interception this preseason and, yes, he is a starter now. But when he got his interception versus Jacksonville, he was playing with the backups against Jacksonville's backups.

By the way, it was funny to me that Tampa Bay named Byron Leftwich the starting QB Saturday. Watching that game again, I counted four passes, including a potential TD, that Leftwich blew with wildly inaccurate throws. Receivers were running wide open, but the plays resulted in incomplete passes because Leftwich was, as Bob Uecker would say, "juuust a bit outside."

That's good news for the Dolphins in the statistics column because the passes go down as incompletions. But Miami has to tighten up that coverage by the regular season because good NFL QBs such as Peyton Manning, Phillip Rivers, Tom Brady, Matt Ryan, Drew Brees and others likely won't throw four passes that totally miss the mark in the span of two quarters.

The words directly from Tony Sparano's mouth

MIAMI DOLPHINS COACH QUOTES

Saturday, August 29, 2009

 

Head Coach Tony Sparano

 

(On if the game on film was as bad he thought it was when he initial watched it) – “No. Never as good, never as bad. It sounds like a copout answer, but it’s not. When you are watching the film and evaluating however many guys that played; 60-65 guys played and you see some individual performances that were good and see some performances that weren’t so good. From a scheme standpoint, you really do the same thing. What we did out there in Tampa Bay certainly wasn’t a game plan. It has been the same stuff we have been running for the last couple of weeks, but we certainly didn’t execute it the way we wanted to.”

 

(On if adds stress to prepare players for New Orleans knowing that he has roster moves to make) – “I think it add some (stress). You have been with these guys for a quite a while now and having to get guys ready for this New Orleans game and having an idea that some guys won’t be with you. There are still some guys on the bubble that we have to make sure that we see a pretty good amount of. There is a little bit of strain and a little bit of stress there, but nothing out of the usual. I think right now that every coach in the league is about ready to get to the 53-man squad and start to work that squad.”

 

(On if it changes what he can do because he has to only has to cut five players) – “It’s not too many people. Our numbers are down.  I don’t think it changes a whole lot. You have to be conscious of who is playing where and why. It’s like Lou(saka) Polite going into this game. We only have fullback on the roster. What you can do with him in this ballgame and how long you can do it. You may be in one-back stuff to get you through the ballgame, but still compete in this game. We don’t go any place to be in second place. That’s not what we are trying to do here.”

 

(On if any position jumps out as being the toughest to cut with outside linebacker and offensive line) – “The most? No. there are a few different positions right now I think…I would say you are hovering around it.”

 

(On what Quentin Moses and Erik Walden have to show to make this team) – “Continued growth on special teams. Continued growth, continued improvement over the next couple of days. Some of these guys…I will sit down with Bono (special teams coordinator John Bonamego) as the week goes on and we’ll figure out what ghosts they should have on special teams. Some guys will get a lot and some guys won’t get so many. This week we tried to get a few guys that we thought were core guys a lot of work on teams. Next week we’ll probably pare it down a little bit and make sure we see that. I also think getting those guys in those ballgames and challenging them with some things defensively that maybe from a coverage standpoint…these outside linebackers in coverage I think those are some of the things you want to see.”

 

(On what Moses has shown him) – “I like what Quentin has done right now. I think he has done a good job from a physical standpoint in the game. It’s all relative to the number of snaps played. Guys like Moses, (Cameron) Wake and Walden have a lot of snaps right now. A lot more snaps than let’s say Joey Porter. In relativity to the number of snaps that were played and maybe who they were played against, he is probably one of our most productive players in this training camp.”

 

(On the possibilities of the wide receiver rotation) – “I think that there are a lot of different things that we can do, you can play four wide receivers if you have them, some people do that, spread the field a little bit and do some of that and help yourself in the run game. I think there are a bunch of possibilities, what happens is to have those possibilities you have to have players that have position flexibility. It’s not as easy as, hey because you play on the right side you can go line up on the left side and play that really isn’t that easy.  Playing ‘X’ or playing ‘Z’ and what we see with an ‘X’ and those characteristics having to be and a ‘Z’ and so on little bit different, we have a couple players in that group that you just mentioned that can play all the positions. They can play ‘X’, they can play ‘Z’, they can play ‘Y’ in three wide, so they can play all the positions and that helps us to be able to put different combinations out there in a game.”

 

(On if he would like to see Ted Ginn have more receptions during this preseason) – “No, I told you guys last week that you were going to ask that question eventually, so I mean Ted Ginn right now has a lot more receptions now than he did last year at this time.  I would say to you, well the game really didn’t dictate that last week, we threw him one or two balls maybe his way. Nah, I’m fine with where he is in the game right now.”

 

(On the defense being upset about missed tackles) – “They should (be upset), they should beat themselves up over missed tackles, that’s part of the business. You’re a defensive player, you’ve been born usually a defensive player, you need to tackle and get them on the ground.”

 

(On Kendall Langford taking the next step in his game and his expectations of Langford) – “Well Kendall in this training camp has been pretty productive in there which is really what you just said, I think from a next step stand point you would like very much, I think the guy’s getting pretty good at the line of scrimmage with the run game, I really do. He’s playing behind the line of scrimmage, he’s a factor in minus plays right now, a factor now in minus plays. But what he is doing, I think as well is, he is starting to provide some pass rush in there in the base stuff. If you can get some pass rush in the base stuff and get people in long yardage we got a chance to get off the field and I think that’s what this game is about, getting off the field.”

 

(On where he thinks his two starting safeties are at in terms of feeling comfortable with each other) – “I am comfortable with it right now, I think that they are getting better and better at it, thin you just need more ‘at-bats’ in game situations. Where you have some issues is when you get to some of the bunch stuff and those types of things and you have to be in games to really see a lot of that stuff. In practice it doesn’t happen so fast, we work on some of that today in there but it’s just a little bit slower. In the games I think that stuff’s a little bit faster, so I think the communication will help us that way.”

 

(On how he decides who is the nickel corner and if it’s usually the third cornerback) – “No it’s not the third cornerback, in fact not everybody can play the position. The nickel position is a hard position to play because he has to have great quickness inside, because usually he is paired up with the (Wes) Welker’s and these kind of people, the quick receivers that this other team may have, and at the same time, he has got to be a guy that can tackle, can eventually get in the box a little bit and can pressure, that guy is involved a lot in pressure. So going in there sometimes when you’re a defensive back, not every defensive back wants to be down in the box when there is a lot of noise and traffic in there, and not every defensive back wants to come on pressures and do those things. Some might say they do, but they really don’t.”

 

(On what the punt coverage has to do to become efficient) – “Well first, you have to get all the players out there, at one time, that you are going to play. I think at one time… which we have not done yet. There is really… we don’t have that need right now. You are trying to see a lot of people do a lot of things. I think also the punt; it helps you a little bit. I’ll give you an example and I am not saying anything that I shouldn’t say here, but the other night – to you guys - our punter punted a 65-yard punt at one point. Nice punt, nice job [Brandon] Fields.  But that is not, in some situations is really, isn’t helpful from a coverage standpoint. Brandon knows that. Sometimes, it just happens that way. He hit the ball and he hit it good. He did a great job hitting the ball like that, but you can outkick your coverage sort of speak. Some of you have heard that before. So that can happen a little bit. That is a scenario there. In games last year as you would start to get better, we [were] actually coaching Brandon on 40, 38, 40, 41 [yards] and high, high as we could get it. Well that is not where we are right now. We need to see these guys cover and who can cover so we are not really worried about that at this time. Now, does the group have to improve? Sure it does. We want to get better in every phrase of our special teams. We made little improvements right now along the way. We blocked a punt the other night. Now that is the strangest scenario I have ever – I have never seen anything like it (laughter.) But I am going to tell you, we practiced that situation; we blocked it and you are just in a game and you are trying to make a play, but that is a blocked punt in the special teams. That is a big play in the course of a ballgame for us. We have had a few of these. We had a few good returns early on in the preseason. Early on, 10 days ago right, however many days ago. So we have made some good plays in those areas; coverage, getting people on the ground, lane discipline, those things need to continue to improve in that area.”

 

(On if Matt Roth can be moved from the non-football injury list to the physically unable to perform list) -“Hypothetically you can.”

 

(On how long he would remain on the physically unable to perform list) – “If you’re on PUP, it is a six week deal.  At some point during that six weeks you have a short window where you can bring him out there, you can practice him. Get a chance to prepared to play and if you cannot get him prepared to play at that point, and then you have a decision to make.”

 

(On if he has to make that decision this coming Saturday) – “Pretty soon. Not that far away. But pretty soon we have to make a decision. Not, I would say, this coming Saturday I would say no.”

 

(On if he has decided who will start at WR opposite Ted Ginn Jr.)- “Not yet. Not yet, Jeff [Darlington]. I think we are going to play both [Hartline and Camarillo] again this week. I have no real time table for people playing this week. We are going to go and we are going to play until we see what we need to see. So I am going to play them both, Hartline [and] Camarillo. I am going to play [Davone] Bess. We will see what falls out of that. Obviously, both players did some good things in the game the other night. Even Greg [Camarillo] only had one opportunity in the game; he made the most of that opportunity. He blocked really well. His routes were crisper in that ball game. There was some good stuff I thought.”

 

(On what he is looking for out of the WR spot opposite Ted Ginn Jr.) – “Well, I mean, Teddy he got the long range speed; he has all those things. So you think that is where your homerun is. But we have to get more chunks on offense. So I am looking for a guy that can gobble up yards out there. That is a little bit opposite of him. If you can get a guy to make some bigger plays there on that other side, I think that helps you.”

(On Joey Porter’s comments that he feels the team knows when it is playing bad this year compared to last year when it was not as clear to them) - “Well, I think that is true, what Joey said. I think last year at this time we were just trying to figure out what we were and we weren’t really sure at this time last year. I think we were maybe 1-2 going into this last game in the preseason. We weren’t sure if we were playing good and everyone else wasn’t or playing bad and... we just really didn’t know. I think right now, as a football team, the expectations are little bit different. I think these guys really understand how to win and lose. I think that been perfectly clear to them, how you go about winning and losing. Example, three turnovers, you won’t win many games. In fact, in the last 5 years, there has only been 25 wins with three turnovers. Those kind of things they understand clearly. They know they didn’t play well, I believe that.”

 

(On Joey Porter as a player and his personality) – “As far as what Joey has done right now, what I like about Joey we know he can rush the passer, I think we understand that, but he has made some improvements in the run game right now . He had some plays the other night – again this is what you guys don’t see that I get a chance to see several times –he made some plays in the run game the other night with his hands and at the point of attack that I thought were pretty impressive. Playing much stronger, much stouter, doing a good job with his hands; those are improvements a veteran player like that makes. That means he is buying in. He figured out that there is something there that [outside linebackers coach] Jim Reid and [defensive coordinator] Paul Pasqualoni are telling him that he can use, that he can put in his toolbox. So I think that is a positive thing and as far what Joey is from a personality [standpoint], what my relationship with him, I think every team needs one of those guys on the team. In other words, Joey is an upbeat, high tempo guy that you like to have in your corner and I am glad he is in my corner and not playing against him.”

Dolphins need to get a scent for nose tackles

While the most obvious conclusion to draw from today's four roster moves -- the waiving of K Connor Barth, WR Anthony Armstrong, NT Louis Ellis, and the waiving injured of FB Joe Kowalewski -- is to understand that Dan Carpenter has won the kicking competition, I'm thinking slightly different thoughts.

I'm thinking the Dolphins are now officially thin at NT.

Yes, Carpenter is the kicker, having fought off Barth's two-week challenge.

But with Ellis gone, the Dolphins have only two nose tackles on the roster -- starter Jason Ferguson, who is 34 years old, and reserve Paul Soliai.

And unlike last year when reserve end Randy Starks could be called up to play nose tackle in a pinch as he was against Baltimore in the regular season, this year Starks is a starter at right end. So if you need him to move over, you're now playing with a backup at two positions, not just one.

It must be said that Soliai has had an excellent camp. He has also played well in the preseason. So from that perspective the position has been strengthened, assuming Soliai doesn't have a brain lock as he's been previously been known to do. Remember he was suspended for a game last year for being late to a team event.

But having only two NTs on the roster tells me the Dolphins will be looking in the coming days for a player to plug in for the practice squad at minimum. Keep in mind Ellis might be brought back for practice squad purposes. Also, Anthony Toribio, who was in camp last year, might be such a candidate if he's cut by Green Bay.

[BLOG NOTE: Tony Sparano will talk to the media soon so check back for the update.]

Game review: Miami Dolphins 10, Bucs 6

The good: Brian Hartline earned a starting WR job. Well, he wasn't actually annointed by the coaching staff, but trust me, he's going to be a starter in the regular-season opener at Atlanta in two weeks.

The kick return team also did a fairly good job, averaging 30.3 yards on three returns.

The bad: A much, much longer list for the Dolphins during Thursday night's 10-6 victory over Tampa Bay. 

"I would assess it this way," coach Tony Sparano said. "Our defense was on the field too long and our offense wasn't on the field long enough."

You think, coach? The Dolphins, ineffective on offense much of the first half, ran a total of 54 plays. The Bucs, relying on an offense that looked good-not-great while Byron Leftwich was in the game, ran 74 plays and was electrifying by comparison.

During the time Leftwich was in there, the Miami defense looked terrible. Miami defenders mounted precious little pressure on the quarterback. And the secondary blew a couple of coverages some times, while failing to make plays at other times even as defenders were draped around receivers. Luckily Leftwich is a mediocre QB so he didn't make the Dolphins pay for their problems.

"They converted too many third downs," Sparano said. "I have to watch the film and reserve judgment on that. But I thought they missed a few receivers at times during the course of that thing. I thought our guys battled hard and kind of bent but didn't break. We came up with a few good rushes and hit the quarterback a couple of times in certain situations in the course of the game."

This is where I remind you the Bucs did not play their two starting receivers. Antonio Bryant is recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery. Michael Clayton is recovering from a hamstring injury. Some dude named Stovall torched the Miami secondary for 73 yards on six catches in the first half. 

"We have to get off the field on third down," strong safety Yeremiah Bell said. "A completion is a completion no matter who you're against, no matter who's in the game. Like I said, the concepts stay the same, it's just that the first guys are normally better receivers. At the same time we have to make the plays and get off the field."

The ugly: Chad Henne may indeed become the starter at some point this year and more likely in 2010. But he's not ready for that baton to be passed quite yet -- not if this game was an indicator. Henne completed 2 of 8 passes for 55 yards with one interception.

Let me give you some perspective on Henne's night. His passer rating was 16.1. He completed only one more pass to his teammates than to players on the other team. It was a struggle.

"I wasn't excited about how we threw the ball as a whole tonight," Sparano said when asked specifically about Henne.

The Miami defense was disappointing in that it seems a step slow a lot. The rush gets there just after the passer releases the ball. The cornerbacks stick a hand in just after the receiver pulls in the pass. And there was too much shoddy tackling.

One more thing on the ugly. Lex Hilliard did a lot of things well the last seven months to earn a spot on the Dolphins' 53 man roster. And he might still earn that spot. But Thursday night did not help. He was ineffective running the ball, gaining only 32 yards on 11 carries for a 2.9 yard per carry average. He also fumbled, which is a transgression Sparano detests.

Did I mention Brian Hartline played well? I'm telling you he's the starter after he caught three passes for 79 yards. I asked Sparano if Hartline is the starter, because it sounds better coming from the head coach than a goofy columnist. But the coach wouldn't give up the money quote. 

"I got to watch the film," Sparano cliched. "I like what he did, OK? He did make some big plays, which is critical. One of the things we have to do a better job of on offense is we can't take 15 plays to score every touchdown. We have to get some chunk yards and Hartline was able to make some chunk yards tonight. [Greg] Camarillo was able to make a catch out there one time, too, but Hartline was able to get down the field that way, so that was positive."

Well, the head coach didn't give me what I wanted to hear. So I asked Hartline if he has adjusted his goals from simply making the club to winning himself the starting job. And ... bingo!

"Absolutely," he told me. "There's no reason why I can't ... I'm going to try to set goals to maybe so high I can't reach them. I have high goals and I'm always readjusting my goals. But as you saw tonight, we have a lot of good receivers on this team and any rotation or how we're going to use them, that's going to be the coach's thoughts. But I'm changing goals. Probably daily.

"There's a lot of things I know I'm going to learn from this film going against guys like ronde and other guys. There's stuff that I see that maybe you guys might not that when I get a chance to watch the film, I can correct and do better on."

Can I throw this out at you guys without starting an insurrection? Miami's two most productive receivers now, today, as you read this, are Brian Hartline and Greg Camarillo. Camarillo is still not at the level he reached just prior to his ACL injury last season. But he's progressing and he finds a way to make a play almost every game.

Ted Ginn Jr.? Almost invisible for the second consecutive game. He had one catch for 19 yards.

"The coverage was dictating where the ball was going and [Hartline] was able to make some plays for us and the ball was going his way quite a bit," quarterback Chad Pennington said. "We're just working on trying to get better. We got some things we have to clean up, polish up and get a little bit better which is disappointing. We've been doing pretty well on third down, made that an emphasis and tonight we didn't do a good job. And that's how you keep your defense off the field and how you keep drives going and create some momentum so we have to do a better job there."

Pennington started painfully slow, missing on five of his first nine passes, which is like a personal disaster for a guy who completed 67.4 percent of his passes last season. But Pennington recovered nicely and finished the night 9 of 16 for 128 yards and one TD. His passer rating was 103.1.

Finally, I've been hearing a lot this morning about how the Dolphins are excused for looking bad in the areas where they struggled because, well, they didn't prepare for the game. They didn't game plan. They didn't have much time between games.

Fair. But ...

They played an opponent that didn't prepare for the game, that didn't game plan, and didn't have much time between games.

Live blog -- too bad no Tampa WRs will show

Joey Galloway is playing for New England and neither Antonio Bryant nor Michael Clayton, Tampa Bay's starting wide receivers, are playing for the Buccaneers tonight.

So the Dolphins rookie cornerbacks may have to wait until the regular season for their first serious NFL test.

(Yes, I know New Orleans is a great passing team and Miami finishes the preseason there next week. But let's face it, the Saints aren't going to let their starters play too long in the final preseason game.)

So this is bad news. But it is also good news.

At minimum, both Sean Smith and Vontae Davis are getting broken in sloooowly. Remember that last week the Panthers kept both Steve Smith and Muhsin Muhammad -- their starters -- on the bench.

Anyway, the live blog starts in the comments section below. Let's get to it.

Live blog of regular-season dress rehearsal here

The Dolphins will be on national television tonight so I don't want any excuses out of you. You should be watching -- barring family commitments or illness. Or you should be on this blog -- barring family commitments or illness.

Come to think of it, you should be on the blog and watching on TV at the same time. It's the optimal experience and that way, we can all share opinion and analysis of what we're seeing during the live blog rather than regurgitating play-by-play. So the live blog begins at 8 p.m. and probably a little earlier and it would be great if you can be here.

All the other blogs and stories (bless their hearts) are talking about the three key things you should be looking for or the seven major points of interest tonight. Most of those have already been covered here earlier this week and so I'm not going to nitpick them now.

This, on the other hand, is big picture we should see tonight:

The Dolphins offense should get the better of Tampa Bay's defense while the starters are in the game. The Dolphins defense should get the better of Tampa Bay's offense while the starters are in the game. And Miami's special teams should have its act together and that doesn't mean punts hitting players in the facemask.

Period.

Asking a lot? Sure. But the truth is we're asking a lot of this Miami team this year. We don't want a step-back year. We don't want a team that buckles under the weight of the NFL's most difficult schedule.

We want a team that is more talented than last year's team and plays like it. And seeing as that this is the closest thing to regular-season football you'll see from the Dolphins in the preseason, seeing as that Tampa Bay wasn't a playoff team last season and is in full-fledged rebuilding mode this season, the Dolphins should show their dominance tonight.

That doesn't mean the Dolphins should be unveiling any secrets. Don't misunderstand. But they should be correcting the problems we've seen the previous two preseason games.

I don't want to see Chad Pennington underthrowing Patrick Cobbs and turning what should be a TD into a FG. I don't want to see poor tackling turning 4-yard runs into 24-yard TD runs by the opponent. I don't want to see inconsistent receiver play and inconsistent play-calling. I don't want to see turnovers on special teams. I don't want to see a deep secondary that struggles to cover TEs.

I want to see a solid, fundamentally sound performance. I want to see a team that continues to improve as the regular-season draws near.

Let's check it out together starting at 8 p.m.

Dolphins: Trades, trades, come our way

Around this time last year the Dolphins shipped cornerback Travis Daniels to Cleveland and quarterback Josh McCown to Carolina. Earlier this week the team successfully shopped and shipped Andy Alleman and Ikechuku Ndukwe to Kansas City.

An NFL source has told me the team also tried to trade Ernest Wilford before terminating his contract but no one was interested. And the Dolphins are not averse to conducting further business both on the giving and receiving end of a trade if the player and the price is right.

In fact, GM Jeff Ireland has been working the phones with over a dozen teams in the past 10 days, I'm told.

What does this mean? The Dolphins are trying to dump players they have no plans of keeping and perhaps get a draft pick for that player. And they're trying to pick up the right player at whatever position the braintrust has identified as needing help.

And where do the Dolphins need help?

A dynamic kick returner would be nice. Now that the Chris Williams experiment is over, the Dolphins are back to last year's plan. They're looking at Davone Bess as the likely punt returner and Ted Ginn or Patrick Cobbs or perhaps Lex Hilliard as the kickoff returner.

That is not optimal anywhere you turn.

Bess is quick but by no means fast. He lacks the elite speed to turn a 7-yard punt return into a 70-yard punt return. That's the reason Williams was attractive until punts starting hitting him in the facemask.

On kickoffs, the Dolphins aren't thrilled about using Ginn as the returner knowing he's going to be working in most receiver packages. Cobbs is OK and Hilliard is both unproven and not exactly fast. So Miami covets someone who can tilt the field in its favor either on punts, or kicks, and preferably on both.

Where else could the Dolphins use an upgrade?

The team still would like a sold run-stopping strongside linebacker. I know, I know, Jason Taylor is starting there. And yes, Jason, you've made the team, dude so now it's time to find something else to drive you a bit.

But remember the plan was originally to let Taylor be Taylor on passing downs so he wouldn't risk injury, so he wouldn't fade late in the season, so the Dolphins could assure themselves of getting every available ounce of what Taylor has done best -- chase quarterbacks.

Of course, Matt Roth's mysterious groin issue changed that plan. But what if the Dolphins can find someone else to play strong at the point of attack and hold the edge and give Taylor the luxury of bringing it on with his pass rushes? If Roth were to return to his expected role, we might find ourselves looking at the original plan again. But Roth now seems as likely to be somehow off the roster as on so it would be wrong to count on him.

I don't know if the Dolphins feel a need to trade for help on offense. Not that they don't need it. If you've read this blog, you know the receiver corps lacks a playmaker. But those aren't likely to be available now unless they are named Brandon Marshall and that deal seems unlikely for Miami.

The Dolphins might add backup OL help or maybe try to upgrade the TE corps by picking up a player cut from other teams. But I don't see them giving away draft picks for those players at this point. I still think it would have been nice to add Brian Waters of KC but that doesn't seem likely, either.

So what about the other side of the proverbial coin?

Where are the Dolphins seemingly strong enough to deal away a player another team might want?

Look no further than DE. The Dolphins have Kendall Langford, Randy Starks, Phillip Merling, Tony McDaniel, Lionel Dotson, Rodrique Wright and Ryan Baker on the squad right now. All seven of those guys are not going to make the roster.

Maybe Rodrique Wright has value somewhere. Maybe somebody gives up a seventh-round pick for Ryan Baker. Maybe some needy 3-4 team gets a crazy notion that Dotson can be a starter and offers a fifth-round pick for the guy. Who knows? The point is anything can happen.

And this is the time in the preseason when something often does.

Ronnie Brown's contract plus Sparano's words

It had been widely reported that Ronnie Brown is a free agent after this season, but I kept looking at numbers sent to me by a source that insisted the Dolphins running back had originally signed a six-year and not a five-year contract.

So today I decided to go straight to the source and end the little mystery. And now we have an interesting (at least to me) answer.

It turns out Brown signed a contract that was for five years plus an option year when he was the second-overall selection in the draft in 2005. And according to Brown himself, the option is tied to whether the NFL and players reach a new collective bargaining agreement prior to the 2010 season. Currently, the CBA is scheduled to expire after the 2010 season with that season being an uncapped year.

"The way it works," Brown told me, "is if they reach a new agreement, this is my last season under contract and I become a free agent. If they don't come to an agreement for 2010, I'm under contract to the Dolphins for another year. I have to play another year under the old contract because it becomes a six-year contract."

So if the players' union and the NFL do not reach a new collective bargaining agreement, Brown's option kicks in and he is scheduled to make a $5 million base salary in 2010. Brown is scheduled to make $3.608 million this season.

And once again, if the union and league work out a new CBA, Brown becomes a free agent able to sign with any team he wants, he said. So I asked Brown if he's been keeping abreast of the news of the labor negotiations because the stuff directly impacts his status?

"I haven't thought about it a lot for the most part," Brown said. "I worry more about things I can control. I mean, I'd obviously like to stay here. I like it here. The way I see things is if I continue to care of business, everything else will take care of itself."

Brown's status is unique because he might or might not be in a contract year. That affects talks between his agent and the team -- which obviously are not very heated right now. And it might affect the manner in which some players are motivated.

"A lot of time that's where guys put a lot of pressure on themselves," Brown admitted. "I just want to go out and improve on a daily basis and I think the main goal is to stay healthy for the whole season. If you're healthy and you can go out and improve each week, everything else will take care of itself."

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Today marked the final day before Thursday's nationally telecast preseason game that coach Tony Sparano talked to the local media. 

Sparano said Chad Pennington will start the game against Tampa Bay and play through midway in the third quarter. Backup Chad Henne would play about one-and-a-half quarters to finish the game. The starting offensive line, Sparano said, will play three quarters. Pat White is apparently not scheduled to play.

Sparano confirmed the Dolphins have still not settled on a starting receiver opposite Ted Ginn Jr. "It's still uncertain to me right now," he said. "It's starting to clear up a little more for me, but it will take a little more time."

Well, the clarity is apparently coming from rookie Brian Hartline, who started the Carolina game. Hartline has continued working with the first unit in base offense and with the first unit in the three-wide package that also includes Davone Bess and Ginn.

Sparano said the fourth and fifth receiver on the roster "have to be special teams players." Obviously, Patrick Turner, Brandon London, and Hartline have been playing special teams. Greg Camarillo, by the way, cut his teeth on special teams before earning playing time.

Speaking of special teams, Sparano said you will probably see Bess, Ginn and Hartline returning punts against the Buccaneers. Ginn, Cobbs and perhaps Lex Hilliard will be returning kicks.

Hilliard will work on special teams regardless of whether he returns kicks or not. It is the way he either makes this team or not. So far, Hilliard has carved a roster spot for himself. That can change. But in game one against Jacksonville, Hilliard did a "tremendous job on special teams," according to Sparano. In game two against Carolina, Hilliard "did a nice job. He kind of made a few mistakes but it was a million miles an hour."

Still speaking of Hilliard, Sparano said coaches will "put a bunch on his plate," with the starting special teams units this week so they can see him against Tampa Bay's starting special teams unit. And, of course, Hilliard's likely to get some carries also.

Hilliard is clearly more in than out as far as a roster spot goes. How he plays Thursday determines if he stays that way.  

The target should be on Ted Ginn Jr.' back

Thursday night is big for Ted Ginn Jr.

Yes, we'll still be watching a preseason game that will fade in our memory about two seconds after it ends. But the third preseason game is supposed to be something of a dress rehearsal for what we're likely to see from the Dolphins in the regular-season.

And as it pertains to Ginn, I hope the Dolphins find a way to feature him during the game. Because, so far this season, I'm not thrilled with what I've seen -- not necessarily from him, but with the use of him.

The Dolphins have thrown Ginn the football four times so far in the preseason, which means in about one full game's worth of work he's had four opportunities to make a play. Ginn caught two of those passes, was interfered with on another for a long gain, and dropped the fourth pass.

My problem? Three of the passes were thrown to him the first game. Only one was thrown to him versus Carolina.

And that worries me.

It worries me because, Ginn is not an established receiver. It worries me because the Dolphins coaches want to establish Ginn. It worries me because those same coaches aren't doing enough to establish Ginn and give him the opportunity to become, well, established.

While it was pleasing to see the Dolphins come out in the preseason-opener and try to establish Ginn, look for Ginn, throw to Ginn as the primary target, they simply forgot about him in the second game. What's that about?

The coaching staff that demands consistency has to show some consistency of their own and call plays for Ginn, look to feed Ginn, so he can have enough opportunities to provide some big plays.

I can hear the whining now: "Oh, Mando, it's only preseason. They'll throw to him plenty in the regular season."

Really?

Then that would be a change from last year. The bottom line is Ginn led the team in receptions all by himself only three times in 16 games last year. He tied for the team lead one other game. But he led the team in being targetted only once last year -- that in the Oct. 26 game versus Buffalo.

Throughout the season, targetting Ginn was a hit and miss proposition. The Dolphins barely threw to him the first couple of games, found him there for a stretch, then lost him again in three of the final four weeks of the season.

So how does Ginn become consistent if he's not consistently targetted?

The Dolphins might say, "Well, we feature all of our receivers so we target them all to spread the ball around and not be so predictable."

Bunk!

You think if Andre Johnson or Larry Fitzgerald or someone of that ilk was on the team coaches would be trying to spread the wealth?

Spreading the wealth is a euphimism for, "We don't have a No. 1 receiver."

But you can't have a No. 1 receiver until you decide somebody is going to get most of the passes thrown his way and then throw him the ball. The Dolphins haven't done that. Ginn bears some responsibility for that. But Miami quarterbacks and coaches also must answer for that.

We are all hoping for Ginn to have a breakout year. Miami's coaches and quarterbacks would love nothing better. But those same coaches have to give Ginn enough chances to accomplish the feat. Those same quarterback have to feed Ginn the football.

Throwing to him three times in one half of play and then forgetting about him in the next half simply isn't consistent enough. It simply isn't good enough. It toys with the young player's confidence. It leads to inconsistent performance.

Of course, it's on Ginn to get open every play regardless of whether the pass is supposed to come to him or not. But deferring to him in the preseason to build up that confidence and his expectations seems like a smart thing to do.

If the Dolphins keep talking about wanting  a No. 1 receiver but aren't going to go out and get one, they should at least give the most likely in-house candidate the chance to become that No.1 guy.

That guy is Ted Ginn Jr.

And the Dolphins should be throwing him the football more than they throw it to anyone else.

The world according to Tony Sparano

Tony Sparano spent some time today talking with enigmatic outside linebacker Matt Roth. The coach said he wasn't cutting Roth on the spot, or trading him on the spot, or begging him to come back to practice.

"I like to get a feel for how he's feeling after these conditioners we have and that stuff," Sparano said. "It's just getting feedback. I'm constantly trying to get feedback of where he is and how he feels."

Sparano was asked if the Dolphins are closing in on the moment when they have to make a decision on Roth's roster status -- either trading him, or cutting him, or placing him on either the injured reserve or physically unable to perform list, or just getting him on the field and working.

"We'll see," Sparano said.

That answer should raise red flags. The last time Sparano said, "We'll see," the Dolphins cut Eric Green. The time before that when he said, "We'll see," the team signed Connor Barth to compete with Dan Carpenter.

We'll see translates to something is about to happen.

So what is about to happen?

The Dolphins will not be cutting Roth. No team simply releases a player that has worth and is that young unless the player has other "issues."

Moving him off the roster? It is still early to make a decision that would sideline Roth for a significant time, as Miami is not hurting for a roster spot. So putting him on injured reserve, which sidelines Roth for the season, or placing him on PUP, which sidelines him until after the sixth week of the season at the earliest, is probably not something the team must do now.

A trade? That is possible.

The Dolphins can envision a time that Matt Roth is not in their plans. That time is right now, in fact.

"The truth is, and I don't mean this in a bad way because I care about all my players, but you have to worry about the guys that are out there," Sparano said. "You have to go thinking what if [the situation] doesn't get ... I don't know. We'll see where this thing is. I have to worry about at this time, Jason Taylor, Quentin Moses, and the guys that are out there playing."

Sounds like Roth is gone. But it's hard to believe another NFL team will be giving up what Roth is worth at a time he's injured or hurt or whatever he is. It is also hard to believe the Dolphins would jettison Roth in a bargain sale.  So the timing for a trade -- right now, at least -- simply doesn't feel right.

That leaves the possibility of Roth returning to practice in the near future. It would not be surprising to see Roth back on the field in the next week or so. If he fails to make it back by Sept. 5 when the team must finalize its 53-man roster, then all the other options, except for cutting him outright, open up.

But right now? We'll see.

As for the rest of the stuff surrounding the Dolphins, Sparano called it "business as usual."

On cutting Ernest Wilford: "I mentioned this a hundred times if I mentioned it once. When you play this many games in this few a days, you have to eventually get your team ready that you think will be your team."

On trading Andy Alleman and Ikechuku Ndukwe to Kansas City: "You're not trading away guys not feeling comfortable with some of the pieces you have here," Sparano said. "Now there are still some things that have to unfold over the next 10 days in that group. But I'm starting to feel more comfortable with that group and where we are and what I think the final vision might be."

On Greg Camarillo playing only 13 plays vs. Carolina while Patrick Turner got 20 meaning something: "We're planning on trying to get him involved a little more this week ... We have five guys, six guys, seven guys that we've been rolling through there. We're trying to get reps for [Anthony] Armstrong. We're trying to get [James] Robinson in the game. It's not an indictment on anybody right now. the the nice thing is some of these people we do have history with, we do know what they can do. So whether [Camarillo] gets 10 plays or 15 plays, it's not relevant to me. It really isn't. I see him out here getting a ton of plays in practice. He's coming along nicely."

On how Vontae Davis played vs. Carolina: "I was pleased with what Vontae did in the game. I liked his look, I said that after the game. Sometimes you can see a player in pregame and see his focus and I thought the kid was pretty focused. He went over and played on the other side which was a good benefit for us. I thought he was active in the game. He had several situations where he made one-on-one tackles and he closed the deal on most of those. And I thought when you watch the film in some of our man stuff, he was in good position most of the time. Now he did make a couple of mistakes in the course of the game that go unseen to the naked eye that we have to make sure we clean up."

On Miami's atrocious special teams play that included allowing a 58-yard punt return and suffering a 15-yard penalty on a kickoff: "We seen some guys get bumped out of their lanes a few times so lane discipline hurt us. [We had] guys not finishing, meaning they're getting to the play but they're not finishing, not tackling, not breaking down properly, a lot of fundamental stuff. It certainly wasn't scheme stuff."

The Dolphins worked on correcting their special teams problems in practice today.

Monday practice report from the Bubble

The Dolphins are back at work today, this time inside the Nick Saban Memorial Bubble (NSMB), and here is what's going on:

The Dolphins have confirmed the trade of offensive linemen Andy Alleman and Ikechuku Ndukwe to the Kansas City Chiefs for an "undisclosed" 2010 draft choice. As I said earlier, it's absolutely a second-day pick.It is also higher than a seventh-round selection as the Chiefs already traded their 2010 seventh-rounder to Miami last April.

This trade, regardless of the compensation, is good business for Miami. Neither Alleman nor Ndukwe were going to make the Dolphins'  53-man roster. Both players were running with the second unit, Alleman at left guard and Ndukwe at right tackle. So the Dolphins get something for players they were going to cut.

The trade also speaks to the team's commitment to Shawn Murphy and his improvement in the past year. Remember that last year, even as Murphy's rookie season advanced, both Ndukwe and Alleman played ahead of the fourth-round pick. But Murphy got in the weight room, changed his body, as Tony Sparano likes to say, and moved ahead of both rivals.

Murphy has assured himself of a roster spot on the team. His role as a backup at either guard spot is solid. Brandon Frye's chances of making the team also increase today.

Sean Smith and Jason Allen, both of whom missed the Carolina preseason game after being tested for swin flu, are back at practice. Smith will be working with the first-team defense at right cornerback, according to a source.

That means Smith didn't lose his starting job while being away and Vontae Davis played well against the Panthers in his place.

Finally, Matt Roth, who missed all of training camp with a mysterious groin injury, is still not practicing.

I remind you that today is the first day practices are closed to the media with the exception of the first 30 minutes. That means there will be no play-by-play of what's happening. But here's a clue: The Dolphins will be installing their newer version of Wildcat in the coming weeks, behind closed gates.

[BLOG NOTE: Players and coach Tony Sparano will be available to the media after practice. Check back here later for their words of wisdom. Also, follow me on twitter for the real-time updates.] 

Dolphins waive five, trade two, terminate one

It was a dark day for a a handful of now former Dolphins.

Aside from the termination of Ernest Wilford (see post below), the Dolphins are announcing they have cut RB Anthony Kimble, LBs Tearrius George and Orion Martin, NT Joe Cohen and WR-Return specialist Chris Williams.

I have also confirmed via an NFL source that guard Andy Alleman has been traded to Kansas City for an undisclosed late-round pick in 2010. He is part of an offensive line exchange to the Chiefs. The Alleman story was first reported by Scouts.com.

The rest of the exchange? Jeff Darlington is reporting that Ikechuku Ndukwe went in the same package to the Chiefs as Alleman. Ndukwe started 15 games at right guard last year but was moved to right tackle this year and was languishing on third team during camp. 

Williams was waived injured as he actually injured his wrist and hand during that fateful punt that hit him in the facemask and he fumbled Saturday night. That play sealed the Williams experiment in Miami.

I'd like to tell you any of these cuts are significant because that would warrant an explanation on how they affect other roster decisions.

But the truth is all of these players were long-shots to make the team -- even Wilford -- and have no significant impact on future roster decisions.

The only sliver of impact out of all this is that, with only three nose tackles on the roster following Cohen's departure, the possibility the Dolphins keep Louis Ellis improves -- even if it is as a practice squad type player.

The Dolphins now have 70 players on their roster, including Matt Roth, who is on the Non-Football Injury list. It will be interesting to see if Miami adds anyone in the coming days as the team is already below the 75-man limit it must reach by Sept. 1. The 53-man roster must be established by Sept. 5.

Check out the post below to get the explanation on what Wilford's termination means to the salary cap. A hint: It's not great news.

Agent: Dolphins release Ernest Wilford

It was a failure from the beginning and no amount of experimenting at H-back this training camp could change that.

So the Dolphins have released receiver-tight end Ernest Wilford, according to agent Drew Rosenhaus. Rosenhaus confirmed the release on his twitter account.

It is an expensive proposition for the Dolphins to erase perhaps their greatest free agency mistake since Bill Parcells and Jeff Ireland started handling that department. How expensive?

Wilford will cost the Dolphins $4.5 million against the cap while playing for some other team or simply sitting at home.

Why?

As I first explained on Feb. 10 (click on the archives, if you like) NFL accounting rules have changed this year and that means teams, including Miami, must immediately account for the salary cap consequences of the moves they make. The fact there is no scheduled salary cap in 2010 has forced the NFL to change rules and one rule change is that teams can no longer defer the cap hit for a player into next year by releasing the player after June 1.

If a team releases a player this offseason, be it before, on, or after June 1, the entire amount of prorated guaranteed money comes due immediately.

So what does that mean to Miami as it pertains to Wilford?

Well, believe it or not, it costs the Dolphins more money to cut Wilford in 2009 than it would have to keep him on the roster.

Wilford signed a four-year, $13 million contract in February 2008 that included $6 million in guaranteed signing bonus. Wilford, who caught only three passes all of 2008, was due $1.5 million in 2009 base salary. Add the $1.5 million he costs the team in prorated bonus -- $6 million divided by 4 years = $1.5 million per year -- and his 2009 salary cap number if he stays with the team would have been $3 million.

But because the new rules force the Dolphins to absorb the entire proration for all three remaining years of Wilford's contract if he is cut, he will cost the team $4.5 million against the cap for simply getting rid of him. That figure is the yearly $1.5 million prorated portion of his bonus multiplied by the deal's three remaining years.

Is that crazy? The Dolphins actually cost themselves $1.5 million in cap space by cutting Wilford versus keeping him, an empty space costing more than one occupied by Wilford.

It is unclear if the Dolphins tried to trade Wilford to save themselves the cap hit. Obviously, if they made the effort, it failed.

Much like everything connected to Wilford's days in Miami. As you know he didn't practice or play well enough at the wide receiver spot to merit keeping him there. The Dolphins decided to experiment with him as a last, desperate way of trying to salvage Wilford's days in Miami.

So the team converted him to H-Back in the offseason. One problem: Just because Wilford was an enormous wide receiver, it didn't mean he'd be a good H-Back. He wasn't any faster than Miami's other H-Backs and, at 232 pounds, he was considerably lighter.

And he didn't block as well. For a team that builds everything it does offensively around running the football, the experiment was not going to succeed. And it did not.

Game rewind: Give me a starting WR

Just watched the Dolphins game against Carolina for the third time. The Dolphins won all three times so that speaks well of their consistency.

Here are the talking points I believe will become important this week as the team prepares for the all-important third preseason game. Remember the third preseason game is the dress rehersal for the regular season. Starters play longer. Coaches want their lineups pretty much set by this game. It doesn't count, but it gives you an idea of what to expect in the regular season.

Coming out of the victory over Carolina and heading to Tampa Bay, I believe the Dolphins have resolved their right guard situation. Donald Thomas and Shawn Murphy again split series during Saturday night's game but Thomas was clearly the better player.

Thomas threw a great block on the game's second running play, a 10-yard gain by Ronnie Brown on which Thomas and Justin Smiley both pulled right and created a seam that a truck could have fit through. Thomas threw a nice block on Lex Hilliard's 39-yard touchdown run. I couldn't find any block that Thomas missed.

Murphy had a nice night also, but he got trucked on one passing situation and it resulted in Chad Henne getting plowed under on a pass attempt that fell incomplete. Murphy is working toward becoming asolid  backup. Thomas is working on solidifying himself as the starter.

With the perennial right guard problem on the way to being resolved, I need to tell you about two other problems the Dolphins have that need similar quality resolution.

The special teams continues to hurt the Dolphins. And the Dolphins passing game, particularly as it pertains to the receiver corps, is worrisome.

Special teams: I hope you read my column regarding Chris Williams. Look, I like the idea of a cruise missle returning punts and kicks for the Dolphins as much as anyone. But Williams doesn't handle kicks cleanly. I watched the game (again and again) and he didn't handle any punt cleanly. He caught every punt at least twice in that it would hit his hands and bounce and then he'd latch on. And, of course, he had no idea on the punt that hit his facemask and turned into a fumble that led to a Carolina TD.

So, as I wrote, his opportunity has come and very likely gone.

But special teams has other issues. There was the 58-yard punt return by Captain Munnerlyn, there was the illegal block in the back on a punt return that would have been hurtful had Williams not offered a higher degree of pain with his fumble on the same play. There was also a 15-yard personal foul call on Brandon London for plowing the wedge on a kickoff, and there was the generally unspectacular return play by any Miami returner.

The Dolphins are currently averaging 3.7 yards per punt return in the preseason -- that's 27th in the NFL.

It wasn't all horrible on special teams, mind you. Adopted son focus player Chris Clemons had a recovery of a fumbled punt at the Carolina 14 in the fourth quarter. Yeah, he's earned a roster spot already.

The other concern I have following these first two preseason games is the inconsistent nature of Miami's passing game. It is a passing game that has some basic, troubling tendencies.

First, it is a passing game where running backs are generally the most effective weapons, which is terrible in today's big-play NFL. To date, Ronnie Brown and Patrick Cobbs are the most explosive pass-catchers on the offense. Brown had a 28-yard TD grab vs. Carolina while Cobbs had a 35-yard grab.

For the preseason, Brown leads the team with a 14.3 yards per catch average among players with more than one reception while Cobbs is tied with Brian Hartline for second at 14 yards per reception for players that have more than one catch. What does that mean?

It means The Dolphins do a lot of check-down passing and short-range passing. It means the wide receivers aren't getting open quick enough to become the primary targets of a majority of throws. It means the quarterbacks for now are more comfortable throwing to the backs than the receivers.

I was pleased that Ted Ginn Jr. had a solid outing in the preseason-opener, in that he only caught two passes but was targetted five times, with one of those resulting in a pass interference. If Ginn is to have tht breakout season everyone keeps talking about, he has to become the focus of the passing game. But rather than build on that last game, the Dolphins practically ignored Ginn vs. Carolina.

He was thrown one pass on a receiver quick screen and he dropped it. And he didn't have a catch all game. The leading receiver for the game? Cobbs -- a running back. He caught four passes.

Despite being practically invisible we all know Ginn will be a starter this season. So my question is who is the other starting receiver?

Davone Bess? Greg Camarillo? Brian Hartline? Patrick Turner?

The point I'm making is it is wide open and unresolved. Everyone expected Camarillo or Bess to be the other starter by virtue of their superior experience. But that superior experience has been unspectacular in the preseason.

Bess caught one pass and dropped one pass against Carolina. The week before he had two catches and two more drops. Dropping as many passes as one catches is not the way to win a starting job.

Camarillo played only four plays in the preseason opener, which has nothing to do with anything he's doing wrong. The coaching staff is being cautious as their receiver returns from last year's knee surgery. Camarillo got lots more action Saturday night. He was targetted twice and caught both passes The net gain of those two catches? Four yards.

Brian Hartline actually started vs. Carolina. That of itself should tell you the coaches are searching for a candidate to pair with Ginn as the starter and have not found that person yet. Hartline is a smart, mature kid. He doesn't act like a rookie. But he also doesn't act like Jerry Rice. He caught only one pass for 8 yards.

I am told coaches are not as high on Turner as the media. They don't see as much desire as they wish to see. They don't see nearly the consistency they want to see. And that showed against Carolina as he Turner would at times seem to have more urgency than others, and consequently sometimes get separation while getting none at other times.

The inconsistent play netted three receptions for 25 yards. But Turner was thrown to five times and he failed to make what would have been an excellent diving catch along the sideline.

So who is the starter opposite Ginn? We will have to wait for someone to step forward. Because no one really has.

Dolphins beat Panthers 27-17: The reactions

Let me get to the most important thing first: The old Miami Dolphins' Fight Song is light years better than the T-Pain version the new ownership tried to thrust upon everyone in the preseason-opener. Tonight, the old, faithful version was played in the stadium and I was one of the throngs that decided it was better.

Yes, I come down on the side of the banjo over autotunes. I'm sure Mr. Pain, who has more recording success than most lately, will understand this traditionalist is not in his corner.

Go old school!

On to the game: The Dolphins improved their preseason record to 2-0. They did it behind some excellent rush offense from the first to the third units. The Dolphins rushed 28 times for 141 yards, which is a 5.0 yard per carry average.

Lex Hilliard led the charge with 52 yards on nine carries. It was an important night for Hilliard because he's in a tough spot. He is the fourth running back on a team that might only keep three. And you know Ronnie Brown, Ricky Williams and Patrick Cobbs are making this team.

So Hilliard made the point he can be an option on the roster if coaches decide he's too valuable to expose to practice squad while adding him as a special teams performer. And it seems special teams is how Hilliard must make it.

"Lex is a big back that runs like a big back," coach Tony Sparano said. "But we have to look at the film to see how he did on special teams."

I do not want to be a party pooper but I have to be honest with you. The Panthers are not a good run defense. They are desperately searching for defensive tackle help. It did factor into how successful Miami was as much as Jacksonville's stout middle factored into how poorly the Dolphins ran the ball last week.

The Dolphins ran five Wildcat package plays. They netted, in order, 3, 0, 11, 4, and 35 yards. The 35-yarder was on a flea-flicker in which Ronnie Brown flips the ball to Chad Pennington, who throws downfield to Patrick Cobbs. It was the same play the Dolphins ran against the Houston Texans last year.

In fact, all the plays were the same the Dolphins ran out of Wildcat last year. And that's exactly what the Dolphins wanted to show.

"We ran the same four plays that every NFL team has about 95 cut-up plays of us," Sparano said. "It's the same four plays we ran all last year so there are no secrets there. But it is a good homework for us. We put the same four plays out there and you get a chance to see what people have been studying their whole offseason and how they want to defend us a little bit. it gives us a good chance to find some things out."

So running the old Wildcat plays shows Miami's opponents nothing, but it shows Miami how opponents are adjusting. As I've written over and over, expect not one Wildcat or WildPat or Wildcat 2.0 play this preseason. That won't be unveiled until the regular season.

All of Miami's QBs had good nights. Chad Pennington had a rating of 132.8 which is excellent. He completed 8 of 11 passes for 105 yards with 1 touchdown. Chad Henne's rating was 94.5 as he completed 10 of 16 passes for 75 yards with one TD. Pat White got very limited second-quarter play as was the plan, Sparano said. White completed 2 of 3 passes for 4 yards, but he seemed to get out from under center quicker this week than last week -- an improvement.

Donald Thomas, who passed Shawn Murphy for the starting RG job last week, played well as far as the naked eye can tell. He played into the second half.

"I need all the plays I can get," Thomas said. "If they told me, 'Play the whole game,' I would have been fine with that. I feel good. Once we go back Monday and look at the film, I'm sure it will say I still have a lot of stuff to clean up. Tonight was a learning tool."

If you are a diligent reader of this blog, you know the Dolphins are emphasizing third down efficiency this year. Third down is the money down. Third down is when big-time players must step up to make big-time plays.

The Miami offense converted 6 of 14 third down situations for an excellent 43 percent. The Panthers converted only 2 of 11 for 18 percent, which translates to great work by the defense.

The Miami defense had only one sack. But it had plenty of pressure.

"We were both out there trying to get some real rushes in," Joey Porter said of his attack of the QB along with Jason Taylor. "I think our young guys showed up and made some big plays. Cameron Wake got to the quarterback. Q. Moses got to the quarterback. All those guys got some good playes in there, so I think it was a good evaluation for everybody to show that our dropoff isn't that bad no matter who is in the game."

Speaking of pass-rush pressure, the Panthers got one sack. That came when rookie Everette Brown beat Jake Long for a sack.

Bigtime Julius Peppers put that sack in perspective, however, when he was asked about his personal matchup with Long.

"All this is practice with a time and a score," Peppers said. "It's not like we are game-planning for each other or trying to make any statements right now."

The special teams, particularly the starting special teams, is a concern. They gave up a 58-yard punt return by Captain Munnerlyn, which set up a field goal attempt.

Live blog starts here at 7:30 p.m.

This is where it's going to happen.

The live blog will begin here from Land Shark Stadium at 7:30 p.m. as the Dolphins meet the Carolina Panthers.

As you know, Jason Allen and Sean Smith have the sniffles so they are not playing.

Brian Hartline will start tonight for Davone Bess. Bess is not among the sick players as he is dressed. Vontae Davis will start for Sean Smith and Dolphins Thomas is starting at right guard for Shawn Murphy, who started last week and lost his starting job.

Swine flu hits Dolphins [with update on Smith]

As you can read here, The Miami Herald's Jeff Darlington is reporting at least two players are suspected of testing positive for swine flu and will not be allowed to attend tonight's preseason game against the Carolina Panthers.

The Dolphins are confirming two players are sick. The teams says the players have undergone tests. Results of the tests are not back but team personnel have already told players two are believed to have the flu, according to a source. 

When the team does get the results, it will not release the personal health information publicly.

The two players expected to miss the game with an illness are cornerbacks Jason Allen and Sean Smith.

The Dolphins, meanwhile, are saying they have been aggressive in trying to keep swine flu from breaking out in the locker room.

"Upon reporting to taining camp all members of the team and staff were educated regarding the presence of swine flu [in the community] and the steps available to reduce it's spread," said Dolphins spokesman Harvey Greene upon receiving a memo from the team's medical staff. "Disinfectant wipes were placed in all team meetings rooms. Signs to remind players to wash their hands frequently were placed in all bathroom facilities, and the Miaimi Dolphins medical staff in conjunction with the league enacted a plan to asses and treat the illness."

An NFL spokesman has not answered an e-mail requesting comment. But the story says players were told of the positive test.

Although Smith is suspected of being one of the players tested for the flu, and he is not expected to play tonight, a source tells Darlington it has nothing to do with swine flu. He's just got some other sickness, the source says.

Sounds dubious.

The fact Smith is missing this game and could miss practice time next week is not good news even if he doesn't have swine flu. He needs the work. He needs to continue to get better as the regular-season opener draws closer.

I would expect Vontae Davis would start for Smith but that is a guess. I would doubt the team would start Nathan Jones or Joey Thomas.

So here are the questions:

Is it safe to attend the game? Have you been among the throngs of fans that after each open practice interact with the Dolphins while they sign autographs, shake hands and generally show appreciation for the fan support?

Is it possible the time has come for ending those sessions given the possibility the players not only might have spread the flu to those fans, but also might have contracted the flu from one of those fans?

Live blog plus is Chad P's arm good enough?

Seems I've started something of a controversy on the other side of The Herald website by writing that I want to see more points, more production out of the Dolphins offense this season.

I didn't think anyone would not want that.

And yet there are foofs readers commenting below the column saying really stupid illogical things like, "all I want is no-mistake offense and great defense," or "The Dolphins didn't win the Super Bowl with a great offense," which is patently false because the offense that won back-to-back Super Bowls for Miami included five Hall of Famers.

I think there's also somebody below the column saying, "It's no sin to punt." The guy's name is Dave W., I think. Anyway ...

The fact is the Dolphins do have a tougher schedule this year and must be better on offense to meet that schedule's challenges. How can you not agree with me on that?

I spoke privately with Coach Tony Sparano as part of my legwork for this column. (Yeah, some columnists actually talk to people before they write.) And yes, the subject of the quarterback came up. And yes, the subject of the quarterback's arm strength came up.

And no, I wasn't able to fit the Sparano's thoughts on the subject into the column for space limitations reasons as the column also went in the newspaper. But here on my blog, there is no space crunch, haven't you heard? So let me share with you what Sparano said when I asked if the complaints about Chad Pennington's limited arm strength are legitimate? 

"It don't think it's legitimate. I really don't," Sparano replied. "The throws we need our quarterback to make, Chad Pennington can make every one of them. I mean, he can throw the deep ball. He's done that in ballgames for us. He's done it out here on the practice field. The intermediate stuff, the 18- to 22-yard stuff, he can throw. And he throws the ball up and down the seam as well as any quarterback in this league. And that's where you're finding yards in those areas of the field. I feel like that guy that can throw it the length of the field sometimes, that might be kind of overrated."

So what do you have to say about that? What is your opinion? Post it here.

One more thing: The Dolphins play tonight. The game begins at 7:30 p.m. That means the live game blog also begins at 7:30 p.m. Please come back for the fun.

JT back with team; live chat at 6 p.m.

Strong side linebacker Jason Taylor, who missed practice Thursday to attend to an illness in his family, is back with the team today, according to team spokesman Harvey Greene.

Greene does not know if Taylor will play Saturday versus the Carolina Panthers but another source said Friday afternoon Taylor is scheduled to start in Miami's second preseason game of the season.

Right guard Donald Thomas, who took over the starting job this week for the first time since training camp opened, is also scheduled to start for the Dolphins. It would mark the first game Thomas starts since he suffered a foot injury in the regular-season opener in 2008.

I have written an advance column for Saturday's preseason game versus Carolina. The column is about the Miami offense. In it, coach Tony Sparano tells you his vision of Miami's 2009 offense. Let's be honest, guys, the Dolphins cannot win 11 games this year, with this schedule, riding last year's offensive production.

It's like entering a goat in the Kentucky Derby.

I trust everyone agrees with me on that. 

One more thing: Live blog chat at 6 p.m. tonight.

Yeah, I'm calling all Dolfans to convene here and discuss what they're expecting from the team Saturday night, what they've seen so far, and whatever else is on their minds. I will be here at least 1 hour to answer your questions and take your abuse exchange ideas.

So be here at 6 p.m.

If you cannot be here then, feel free to leave your comments now and I'll get to them first when I come back for the live blog.

Clearing out the notebook and '94 Moment

Tony Sparano downplayed the fact receiver Greg Camarillo played only four snaps in Monday night's preseason-opener earlier this week. It was, the coach said, partially due to a decision to use Camarillo in half-packages, it was partially a result of not wanting to risk getting him injured in the slop of the second-half downpour.

But now all eyes will be on the coach and the receiver to see exactly how much work Camarillo gets in Saturday's preseason game against Carolina. And it will be interesting to see where Camarillo gets that work, also.

That's because even as Camarillo is practicing without a brace on his surgically repaired knee and is working every day, he has obviously been passed by Davone Bess in the competition for the starting job opposite Ted Ginn Jr.

And there have been practices where the Dolphins have experimented with using Brian Hartline, Patrick Turner and even Brandon London as the third receiver in some packages, ahead of Camarillo.

Maybe the Dolphins are conserving Camarillo. Maybe coaches have noticed Camarillo still has not regained the quickness he had before the injury. Maybe I'm just freaking imagining things.

But Camarillo is still intent on winning back the starting job he had before the injury and to do that he needs to play Saturday and he needs to play well.

"I feel good," he told me. "I'm just trying to get better on the field. My knee is not stopping me from doing anything. I'm just trying to work on my receiving skills."

And what about playing only four plays in the opener?

"The coaches made the rotation," he said. "They put me in, I go in. They keep me out, I stay out. It was just the rotation of the offense. I'm still trying to develop a role for myself. Personally, I would like to get back to the role I had last year -- starting, being consistent. But, you know, all I can do is come out here and practice the best I can every day and everything will develop from there."

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I reported to you in the posting prior to this one that running back Ronnie Brown was favoring his left leg during Thursday's evening practice. And he was. Asked after practice about my observation, Brown said it was that his left toes kept hitting the front of his cleats because he was wearing turf shoes.

"And besides," Brown said with a straight face, "it was my right [surgically repaired] knee."

Pause.

"Had you worried, didn't I?" he added breaking into laughter.

Yeah, hilarious.

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Very good reporting by The Herald's Jeff Darlington in looking into the mysterious Matt Roth injury situation. In doing his legwork, Darlington reports Roth visited a groin specialist in Philadelphia to have his injury checked out.

The specialist, the story says, found no significant issue with Roth's groin.

But here is the amazing thing. Even as Roth continues to miss practice because of that groin injury the specialist said he really doesn't have, the control-obsessed Dolphins seem to have no real idea what is really going on.

Sparano was unhappy with Roth when the player lied to him about feeling ill as the excuse for failing his conditioning test. General Manager Jeff Ireland has been frustrated by the fact he's gotten no straight answers about Roth's prognosis because it seems only Roth can determine that.

And you just have to know that Bill Parcells is sincerely intent on showing understanding and patience with this issue, particular after a doctor said it wasn't an issue, because, well, Parcells doesn't really mind players being injured, and not contributing, and not dealing straight with the head coach. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Here is my humble take: The Dolphins have to show patience, painful as that may be for them to do. There is a chance Roth will practice sometime next week -- perhaps as early as Monday -- based on the steady progression of his conditioning drills this week. There is a chance if he gets back on the field, he can again become a contributor, although in a diminished capacity, by the time the regular season begins.

But if Roth misses next week, including the all-important third preseason game, we're looking at injured reserve becoming a more viable option because roster spots become important once cuts start getting made.

I do not see Roth getting cut. At least not at this point. Regardless of this strange episode, he has value and despite his being out of contract next year, he will not be able to leave via unrestricted free agency if no new collective bargaining agreement is reached. But who knows what Roth is thinking or doing ... and how the Dolphins might react.

--------------------------

The final Classic Training Camp Moment of the preseason takes us back to the summer of 1994. That year, Tim Bowens was a rookie and something of an enigma because he refused to sing or take part in any of the stupid typical rookie hazing that happens during camp.

It got to the point where Bowens was so bent on not being hazed that one day he started packing his gear and getting ready to leave training camp. He was headed back to his hometown of Okolona, Mississippi because he just was not going to be hazed darnit!

This was a fairly typical reaction from Bowens, who was always his own man. Bowens had skipped the NFL Scouting Combine that year because he had gotten aboard a plane to Indianiapolis, and upon seeing a worker de-icing the plane in stormy weather, he decided not to take the trip. He simply got off and went home.

He later worked out for scouts privately at Okolona High, which had a field where some farm animals used for grazing. Bowens had worn cut-off jeans and converse high tops to the workout.

The interesting thing is that, back then, the Dolphins handed their rookies questionnaires that gave players the opportunity to tell about themselves. It asked about family. It asked about hobbies. It asked about hometowns and places of birth and marital status.

And it asked about favorite college moment or highlight.

Well, Bowens recounted one time while he was playing for Itawamba Community College, a fight broke out between his team and its opponents. Bowens told of how he grabbed a down marker from the sideline and began to go to town against all comers.

He swung the marker, forming something of a circle about himself. Anyone trying to penetrate the dreaded down marker circle of pain got summarily knocked the heck out. Well, this story recounted by Bowens started making the rounds in the locker room.

The story was apparently a lot more impressive to teammates than the story about Bowens being stabbed three times in the back with a hunting knife by an older kid when Bowens was a high school junior. Bowens didn't press charges, but later landed in jail for kicking the living daylights out of that older dude, presumably without using a first-down marker.

Not surprisingly, as the stories became more widely known the attempts to haze Tim Bowens soon ceased. And he decided to stay with the Dolphins.

Special teams the emphasis on Thurs. evening

The Dolphins worked a ton of special teams this afternoon. Field goals. Kickoffs. Kick returns.

You should know that Chris Williams will be handling all the kicks versus Carolina Saturday evening. "For me, right now, I would say there's a pretty good chance of that," coach Tony Sparano said. "I'm not 100 percent, but there's a pretty good chance of that."

The intriguing thing about Williams, so fast, so necessary if the team is to give Ted Ginn Jr. and Davone Bess some rest from special teams, is that he doesn't necessarily have to make the team as a receiver.

"It would be a nice luxury down the road if you are making that choice," Sparano said. "In other words, if we make that choice that down the road Chris would be on the tea for special teams purposes, we would hope that he would also be able to play receiver in ball games and help that way.

"That would be a good luxury to have, but not a necessity to whether or not he makes the team."

The kicking duel between incumbent Dan Carpenter and challenger Connor Barth was heated today.

Carpenter connected from 32 yards. Barth connected from 34 yards.

Capenter from 41 yards. Bang. It's good. Barth from 41 yards. Bang. Good.

Carpenter from 34 yards. Goot! Barth from 36 yards. Goot!

Carpenter from 42 yards. Good. Barth from 42 yards. Good.

Moving to the right hash, Carpenter from 42 yards. It's good.

Moving to the right hash, Barth from 42 yards. Yup, it is good.

Joey Porter, who missed the moring practice with a sore toe, was back for the afternoon work. Honestly, though, players were in shells for this practice so there wasn't a lot of physical work. Jason Taylor, still excused attending to an illness in his family, was replaced in the starting base look by Charlie Anderson. In the nickel and dime package, Quentin Moses got a lot of snaps with the starters where Taylor typically plays.

I noticed running back Ronnie Brown favoring his left leg at times during the practice, but he did all his work. It is likely nothing, but I'm just reporting what I'm seeing.

Today was the final day of open training camp practices. Training camp is over, as far as I'm am concerned. Yes, the team has only one more two-a-day practice -- that on Tuesday -- but it will not be open to anyone, including the media.

As a result, there is but one more Classic Training Camp moment left. I will add that to this post later this evening. Come back for that, if you would.

Thursday morning doings at Dolphins camp

Three outside linebackers did not practice today as the Dolphins practiced in front of fans for the final time this season.

Yes, Matt Roth missed again so his agent Drew Rosenhaus's stated hopes Roth would return to practice this week seem dashed. Yes, I know, the Dolphins practice again this afternoon but I just don't see him strapping it up for that work if he missed work only hours earlier. A groin, Roth's mysterious injury, does not heal that quickly. Anyway, more on him in a moment.

Joey Porter missed practice today. He rode the bike most of practice because of what coach Tony Sparano called a sore toe. "He's really fine," Sparano said. "It's just sore."

Sparano would not predict if Porter would return to work this afternoon. "We'll see what he does this afternoon," the coach said.

Jason Taylor was excused from the morning workout for personal reasons related to a family illness. Sparano said he didn't know if Taylor would be back this afternoon or tomorrow or what. He said he believed Taylor would be available for the Carolina preseason game. A text message to Taylor's agent Gary Wichard has not been returned.

So that left Cameron Wake and Quentin Moses and Charlie Anderson getting a ton of snaps in practice today. Anderson and Moses got the first-team snaps. Wake worked with the second team. It's good. They need the work.

Left guard Justin Smiley missed practice Wednesday with what Sparano said was a sore ankle on his surgically repaired leg from last season. But he was back today and was none the worse for wear.

Sparano addressed the decision to terminate CB Eric Green's contract. He said there simply was "not enough separation between the veteran player and the young players. To me, let's see the young players. Let the young players play."

That is a good philosophy, but the fact also is Green's problems involved too much separation. Too much separation between him and wide receivers he was supposed to be covering.

Sparano pretty much dismissed the idea of bringing in a replacement for Green to fill the roster spot. Instead he said, the void will allow younger players such as Vontae Davis and Will Billingsley and Joey Thomas and Jason Allen to get more practice repetitions.

Speaking of playing time, Sparano said Will Allen will be scheduled to play much more Saturday versus Carolina than he did in the preseason-opener versus Jacksonville. Jason Allen, who played almost exclusively as a nickel cornerback versus Jacksonville, is expected to get more work in practice and perhaps in the game as a corner in the base defense.

Back to Roth for a moment. It is increasingly clear that the Dolphins are approaching the drop dead moment when they are moving on without him. In other words, it seems unlikely that even if Roth came back next week, he could wrestle the starting strong side outside linebacker job back from Taylor.

That job belonged to Roth when training camp opened. It clearly does not belong to him now. And, as I'm telling you, it is fast-approaching the moment when Roth will not be able to make up for the time he's lost.

"I have to be honest, in my mind mentally, right now when I'm out here, I mean 27, 28 practices have gone by," Sparano said. "Obviously, you're hoping on one hand. But from the other standpoint, I have to keep going on. I don't know when this thing is going to get right, so I have to go on like it ain't going to get right at this time and try to prepare the team accordingly.

"Whenever this things gets right, then I'll adjust. But right now, I can't."

The Dolphins evening doings -- with '99 moment

The news first: The Dolphins dumped Eric Green after Wednesday's morning practice. If you are surprised he's gone, you haven't been paying attention because he struggled in the Jacksonville preseason game, struggled in training camp practices before that, and struggled in offseason work before that.

Green's short Dolphins career can best be described as a struggle. He starts a new career with San Francisco on Thursday because he has agreed to terms with that team on a new contract.

I have also confirmed that Venus and Serena Williams will be two of the three new minority owners announced by the Dolphins next Tuesday. That's all I got to say about that.

Now let me give you some perspective.

The Dolphins didn't get rid of a cornerback to simply keep an open roster spot. They probably looked at the landscape and identified a player, likely another corner, who they believe will be an upgrade. I do not currently know the identity of that player.

But the list of available cornerbacks is fairly large. There is Mike McKenzie, Ty Law, Lewis Sanders, Daven Holly, David Irons, Aaron Glenn, David Macklin, and of course, Patrick Surtain and Sam Madison for the nostalgic Dolfans among you.

So Green becomes a free agent now. And Nathan Jones is now running with the second team at right cornerback. This Green termination improves Jones' chances of making the team, although he seemed fairly assured of that already as he's starting in the dime package. The move also helps Jason Allen move closer to making the team, assuming he doesn't play awful the next few weeks.

Allen did get beat by Davone Bess out of the slot in 7 on 7 drills in the afternoon practice. Allen whiffed at the line of scrimmage while playing press coverage and then never caught up as Bess ran a post. This is disappointing because one would expect Allen to try and show out in a practice after the door for him to make the roster is opened by the cutting of another player.

On the more news front, left guard Justin Smiley is hurting with some undisclosed injury-discomfort. It doesn't look serious, whatever it is because Smiley dressed out for practice today and was then held out when the team went into team periods.

Andy Alleman took one repetition at left guard in the team run period and then Brandon Frye took over every snap of every period after that. Smiley declined to discuss why he rode the bike for most of practice, but again, it doesn't seem serious.

He actually asked back into drills during the team period and was waved off by offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo.

It was a tough practice for Brandon London. He dropped two passes on consecutive plays, one when he clearly lost concentration on a post pattern because the safety was coming at him.

This Classic Training Camp moment is to celebrate the fact yahoosports.com's Jason Cole was at camp today. Cole and I worked with and against each other for many years and although that isn't true anymore, we are still friends.

In August of 1999, that friendship was tested a little because I somehow got caught in a swirling vortex of curse words, threats and anger that Jimmy Johnson directed at Cole.

On the day The Miami Herald's annual football section came out that year, I got a call very early in the morning from a Dolphins official demanding I be at camp that day. "Of course, I'll be there," I said. "That's my job."

"Well," the official responded, "be ready for what's coming because Jimmy Johnson is [peeved] -- not at you, but at Jason Cole. And he wants to talk to both of you when you come out."

I called Cole and told him to be ready for a lecture. New to the Herald that year after covering the team for the Sun-Sentinel for many years, Cole was advised to simply say nothing if Johnson got angry or yelled at him. We didn't need Johnson hitting Cole or anything like that.

Anyway, I arrived at the Dolphins' facility to find the team in the middle of a morning practice. I was there maybe one minute -- no exaggeration -- when I saw Johnson jogging toward me from the far practice field.

He was there in an instant and Dolphins PR man Harvey Greene summoned Cole and myself into the player lounge that used to look out onto the practice field. Once inside, Johnson pulled out a Cole article that was crumpled in the back pocket of his shorts, one that appeared in the football section and he had highlighted and written notes on.

And then he began to viciously lambaste Cole.

By lambaste, I mean it sounded something like this: "What the [bleep] are you doing writing this piece of [crap] you [bleeperbleeper]," Johnson said to Cole.

For perspective you must remember that I wrote a story after the 1998 season about Johnson quitting as Miami's coach for 36 hours, going so far as to pack his belongings in a moving box and celebrating with friends over beers that his days in coaching were done.

Johnson was feeling burned out and emotionally spent and that led to his decision.

I also wrote that owner Wayne Huizenga was not going to accept Johnson simply quitting and would try to change his mind. And yes, incredibly, I later found out Huizenga offered to let Johnson coach only home games and let Dave Wannstedt coach the team on the road, if that meant Johnson would stay.

Anyway, following that offseason episode, Cole wrote a story for the football section saying that Johnson was taking things easier for the start of 1999. He wasn't making certain trips -- such as the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala. -- and he was generally not driven as hard as he had been previously.

And that made Johnson livid.

"You [bleeperbleeper] you've made it seem like I don't give a [crap] anymore," Johnson told Cole. "You've made it seem like I've quit on my [bleeperbleeping] team. What kind of [bleeperbleeping] position do you think that puts me in with my [bleeperbleeping] team you [bleeperbleeper]?

This excoration went on for about two solid minutes. During that time, Johnson referred to the highlighted portions of the article, categorically denying what was written was true or accurate. I stopped counting the times Johnson called Cole a word that begins with "mother" and ends with "ucker" at 13. There were more, but after the 13th, Johnson turned to me and threatened me.

"You talk to this [bleeperbleeper] and set him straight or I'm going to stop talking to you," Johnson told me. "I'll go to your publisher and get you both fired, you hear me. I'm not having this [bleeperbleeping] year ruined by you two [bleepers]."

Well, the year was not ruined by Cole or me. Johnson and the Dolphins did that all by themselves. Johnson and Dan Marino feuded all year long. And it ended with a 62-7 playoff debacle in Jacksonville that sent both men into retirement.

It was, shall we say, interesting.

Tony Sparano's take on game, practices

The Dolphins have two games in the next six practice days (not counting walk-thru and off days) so days such as today's double sessions are vital.

This is what the current schedule means:

Players have very little time to correct mistakes they make in preseason games. The preseason games become vital in the evaluation of players. And, conversely, players that have a certain status on the team now, are likely to keep that status barring significant change in the way they are peforming.

In other words, if a player is on first-team now, he's likely to stay there unless he totally melts down. If a player is not on first-team now, it's going to be increasingly difficult for him to make the climb unless he delivers an incredible performance in a preseason game.

"Time is not on our side," Sparano told the media and the players on separate occasions after practice. "You have to make the most of your opportunity."

Having said that, let me serve as your humble translator to what this all means. Donald Thomas, who seems to have a grasp on the starting right guard spot following a solid effort Monday night and today's practice, is not likely to lose that job. Barring injury or a total performance meltdown, he will be the starting right guard.

At the cornerback position, it is becoming clear that Eric Green not only will not win the starting job he had when training camp began, he's struggling to earn a roster spot. Sean Smith, meanwhile, working with the first team, would have to struggle mightily to squander his opportunity to start.

During his press conference moments ago, Sparano defended first-round draft pick Vontae Davis. The coach said Davis made "poor decisions in a few areas" and had "three minus plays on defense," with one of those being the pass interference penalty he drew.

But Sparano then added, "I don't, for one minute, want Vontae judged on those three plays," Sparano said, adding that the cornerback played a lot on defense.

Here's the problem: Sparano was unhappy that his team yielded between 125 and 130 yards of hidden yardage in the game. And Davis accounted for 55 yards of hidden yardage on his three penalties. Sooo, on the one hand Sparano is upset with his team about hidden yardage but doesn't want Davis judged on three minus plays plus the 55 yards of hidden yardage Davis accounted for?

Look, Davis will likely become a good player. But he did have a rough night against Jacksonville.

Just saying ...

On the positive side, the Dolphins have been emphasizing third down efficiency and in that department, the starting offense was at 50 percent while the starting defense held Jacksonville to only 29 percent.

The coach was not happy the Jags completed, according to him, 63 percent of their passes on the starting defense and the Dolphins yielded 123 passing yards in the first half.

On the other hand, the offense did put together drives of 10 and 14 plays so that speaks to ball control.

Tale of trenches from the Salguero DVR

By now you watched the preseason opener from the stands, on television at home in South Florida, or on the NFL Network replay. So you know what the Dolphins receivers and quarterbacks and running backs did. If that's all you're interested in, you are dismissed.

This post is about football in the trenches.

This post is a critical look at how the Miami offensive and defensive fronts fared against the Jacksonville Jaguars Monday night. A word of caution: The Jaguars are a physical team along their defensive front. Conversely, their offensive line has had issues dating back to last season and is probably among the bottom third units in the NFL.

So working with those facts for perspective, let's get to the breakdown of what happened.

Start with this truth: Randy Starks played very well Monday night. He was undoubtedly the most active defensive lineman of any that played with the first or second team. But I'm not just going to tell you. Let me show you.

On Jacksonville's first possession of the game, the Jaguars are in shotgun on third-and-13. Charging from his defensive end spot, Starks hits quarterback David Garrard just as he throws the ball. It's a bad throw because that's what happens when a 300-pound man hits you in the gut. It's an incompletion, and the Jags have to punt. Thank you, Randy.

On Jacksonville's second possession, Garrard has no tangible pressure on a first down completion. On second down, there is great coverage by Channing Crowder and Sean Smith and Garrard pulls the ball down instead of throwing it. It results in coverage sack, officially credited to Jason Ferguson.

And on third-and-7 from their own 24, Garrard throws another incomplete pass that forces a punt. The reason for the incompletion? Randy Starks hits the quarterback again as he is throwing, and the ball falls short of an open receiver.

Jacksonville's coaches adjust. The next two series, the Jaguars double-team Starks. Jason Taylor and Joey Porter and Phillip Merling are rushing, but the Jags try to stop Starks with two blockers. And that leaves Nathan Jones unblocked on the blitz to force another errant throw by Garrard.

It's more of the same in the next Jacksonville possession. Brad Meester and Vince Manuwai double Starks on a play that results in a pass completion to Jarett Dillard. Next play, Manuwai is blocking Starks and a back chips him coming out of the backfield.

No other player on the Dolphins defensive front draws as much attention from the Jags. Starks is done for the night after this series. Good work.

But that's not all the good work on D.

Crowder played very well. He was very active. He had the tight coverage I mentioned earlier. He blitzed three times, never getting there but applying good pressure. He also blew up a screen pass that gained only 2 yards, making the tackle but getting no credit for it. In fact, the game book gives neither Starks nor Crowder any tackles. Talk about misleading.

So who else was active on the defensive front?

Ferguson had excellent penetration on a short completion to Torry Holt. Jones, as I mentioned, came free on a blitz. Jason Taylor had supporting pressure on two pass plays -- meaning he didn't get to Garrard first, but he was there as well, which is a good thing against a 236-pound quarterback.

Joey Porter was mostly quiet and Phillip Merling, who played a lot, didn't have any play that stood out to me.

On the Dolphins offensive side of the equation, I am fascinated by how coaches handled the right guard platoon. Starter Shawn Murphy and backup Donald Thomas alternated first-team snaps every other possession. But here's the interesting thing:

Thomas only played with the starters. When the starters came out after halftime, Thomas was done. Murphy, meanwhile, got snaps with the subs in the third quarter.

So which of the two played better? You must understand that I do not know the Dolphins' blocking schemes nor do I pretend to know what technique Miami coaches want used in certain situations. Having said that, it seemed to me the offensive line was more cohesive when Thomas was in the game.

Murphy had one bad moment when he missed a blitzing Justin Durant up the middle on the first Miami possession of the game. The whiff forced a bad throw by Chad Pennington. Muprhy also used terrible technique when I saw him bear hugging Derrick Harvey once to prevent the defensive end from going through him on a Ronnie Brown run.

But Murphy had a couple of good moments, also. He had a great peel block that wiped out CB Brian Williams on Ted Ginn's end around. He also had a nice second-level block on linebacker Darryl Smith later on.

I noticed something that we all probably take for granted but should be said anyway about Jake Long. In his second season, the Dolphins are obviously expecting him to be something of a horse and leader of the offensive line. Maybe that's the reason I saw him get blocking help from Justin Smiley only once on passing plays.

It was otherwise Long out on an island the entire game against Jacksonville defensive ends or blitzing linebackers. The only time he was soundly beaten was when Long found himself with one knee on the ground, trying to stop a charging Durant from getting past. The play resulted in a 1-yard loss for Ricky Williams.

Right tackle Vernon Carey also gets very little help in pass-rush situations, and that was not a great idea on one play in which he blocked no one as two blitzers zipped past, forcing an incomplete pass to Davone Bess. Carey was otherwise solid.

So, you should be asking now, how did new center Jake Grove do this game against John Henderson, Rob Meier and Atiyyah Ellison? I would say Grove more than held his own. I would say if he can win as many as he loses against Henderson, the Dolphins are going to be fine at center this season.

Grove got the better of Henderson in a one-on-one situation on the drag route Ginn caught in the first quarter. Grove then had a beautiful cut block on Durant on the 11-yard run Williams had with 6:57 left in the first quarter.

I am not saying the offensive line dominated. Absolutely not. They were barely efficient. But what I am saying is there is individual talent here. Once these guys find some cohesion, I would expect the overall picture will improve. Inserting Thomas in the starting lineup this week would speed that up.

And I believe that is what the Dolphins will do.

  

Stephen Ross: 'We are a better team'

One day after the Dolphins had their first dry run of their 2009 fan experience at Land Shark Stadium, owner Stephen Ross spent over an hour with The Miami Herald to discuss his vision for the future of the team on and off the field.

Ross, who bought the team for $1.1 billion earlier this year, said he will announce three more minority owners Aug. 25. In keeping with his desire to have the Dolphins represent the ethnic and racial makeup of their community, at least one of those new minority owners is black, said Ross who declined to divulge names.

The Dolphins have minority Hispanic owners in Emilio and Gloria Estefan, as well as Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony.

Ross shared his vision for the experience that awaits fans when they attend games at Land Shark -- including a celebrity orange carpet arrival by stars and VIP guests and tailgate concerts throughout the season. One of those concerts is expected to include Dolphins fan Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas.

More on that in a bit. Most importantly, however, Ross recognizes that regardless of the upgrades to the fan experience and the stadium in which the team plays (Land Shark has undergone concession improvements and will soon be painted), the most important aspect of his ownership is winning.

Winning, winning, winning.

"It's the most important thing," Ross said. "That's what fans want to hear. I bought the team because I'm a fan and I want a winner and anything less than that is unacceptable. And I'm going to do everything in my power to make that happen."

And what are Ross's expectations for his Dolphins in a season that culminates with Super Bowl 44 and the Pro Bowl being played in Miami?

"The fact the Super Bowl is here and the Pro Bowl is here has nothing to do with the expectations for the football team," Ross said. "Bill Parcells, I think, is the finest football mind in America. He is making those decisions. You don't micro-manage somebody who knows something a lot better than you do. I've rested my faith in what he's doing in running that football team and not interfering with him.

"When you don't micro-manage people who are the best, you're going to have better results ... I know we're going to be competitive. We're going to enter every game believing we can win it. We're going to win our share of games. Miami is going to be happy with the results.

"This is a better team than last year's team. Will it have a better record? I don't know. Because there's a lot of luck involved in that. The ball is shaped the way it is because you don't know how it's going to bounce. But I got news for you: We are a better team. And hopefully, we'll have a better record."

Obviously, Dolphins management hopes local fans will be drawn to that better team. That hasn't necessarily happened yet, as season ticket sales are not where the Dolphins want.

Club Chief Executive Officer Mike Dee said season ticket sales are at the 49,000 level currently. Dee said the team wants to have between 62,000 to 65,000 season ticket holders, "to have the stability we aspire to have."

And that is why the Dolphins a making the push to make game day the Sunday must-attend event throughout South Florida. Certainly it goes to making money. But it also has a lot to do with that primary focus.

Winning, winning, winning.

"I asked Jeff Ireland last night about the things we're doing," Ross said. "They want to play to a stadium that's filled up. It brings excitement. It keeps the interest going. it's good for the team. It's good for the community. We recognize the most important thing is winning. Everything else is always on the margin. But it all creates it. And the players want to see those fans and those seats filled and they will play better when they are. And coaches want it."

The Jacksonville roundup before film study

Tony Sparano talked about looking at the game film at least four times during his post-game press conference but that's not happening until Tuesday morning. Tonight, this is how it looks without the benefit of film study:

*The Dolphins threw three passes to Ted Ginn in the span of one quarter. He caught two of those passes for 26 yards. But the attempts are more important because it showed a desire to find him that I didn't see last year. If Ginn is to have the breakout year everyone wants, he needs opportunities. It was good to see the Dolphins, particularly Chad Pennington who seemed to be looking for him, are willing to give him those opportunities. Ginn also had an end-around for 14 yards.

And yes, he noticed the ball came his way more than usual. "They took some chances, they threw some balls at me," Ginn said. "I just tried to come down with every ball that came my way."

*Eric Green struggled. He gave up three completions, including a 25-yard pass from Todd Bouman to former first-round bust Troy Williamson.

*Sean Smith was pretty good. Yes, he gave up a couple of short gains on slants. But he also had an interception in the end zone that showed when the football is in the air and it's him or the WR, pick him. The Dolphins have an open job at right cornerback. And Smith might not have won the job Monday night. But as I wrote in my column, he made the most impressive reach of all the contenders to snatch that job.

"As a cornerback, whenever that ball is in the air, you definitely want to come down with it, and to come down with my first NFL pick in the my first preseason game was pretty good," Smith said.

Smith has an infectious personality. I joked with him after the game, saying, "Well you have one game and one interception. That the way you see things going for you in your career?"

"Yeah," Smith said without missing a beat, "I figure I'll have an interception in every game I play ... except some games I'll have two interceptions because I have to make up for the bye weeks."

*The Red Zone offense was atrocious. "We have Red Zone rules," coach Tony Sparano said. "No sacks, no turnovers, no penalties. Those are our rules."

The Dolphins broke several of those rules. Jake Grove was called for a false start on third-and-goal from the Jacksonville 3 yard line. Ricky Williams was called for holding on first-and-10 from the Jacksonville 17.

*The Dolphins want to see more from Chad Henne. They want him to push Chad Pennington. Well, he had a better game although he had many more opportunities. Henne's 83.1 QB rating was the best of any QB in the game. He connected on a 33-yard TD to Ernest Wilford. He threw an interception also. "That one's on me," Henne said. "Just a poor decision by myself. You know, I kind of threw it blind. I was trying to throw it in the hole. I didn't really see the throw after I got hit."

And overall?

"I thought I did pretty good. I mean, like I said before, there's mistakes out there and I'll fix them and just keep getting better. But I think overall, I did pretty well. Managed the team, got some points on the board and that's what we need." 

*Miami's third-string quarterback Pat White was not terrible in his NFL preseason debut. But he wasn't good and that is being kind. Never mind the interception on his statistics line because that happened when a good pass hit a RB in the hands and bounded into a defender's arms. But he skipped two passes that should have been completed. And the most troubling thing is he continues to struggle getting out from under center.

I've written on this blog how White is clearly more comfortable out of the shotgun than under center. But I didn't realize how uncomfortable he really is under center until I watched him at game speed. He takes forever to get out from under center. For a player who relies on quickness, it's terrible to be slow on his dropbacks and setups because he's taking too long pulling out from the center. This must be addressed.

*Ernest Wilford did have that one catch for 33 yards and a touchdown. He made a defender miss along the home sideline to spring himself for the score. And then he capped it with an emphatic spike.

"There was a lot of frustration behind that spike," Wilford said.

*Finally, I was not pleased with the first-team offensive line. The fact is the Dolphins averaged only 2.6 yards per carry when the first line was in the game. The Jacksonville front won at the point of attack to the point where coach Jack Del Rio declared his team "extremely physical."

"Not well enough, point blank," guard Justin Smiley said. "We want to be known as an offense that can run between the tackles. You have to tip your hat to their defense. They did a really good job."

Please realize all this is said and done off the surface view of the game. I will bury myself in film study part of Tuesday and report back to you more in depth analysis when I'm done. That's why the blog is called, in part, in depth.

Dolphins-Jags live blog starts here and now

I don't know about you, but I've been waiting for this moment since the clock ran out on that playoff game against Baltimore last January.

Yeah, I know it's only preseason. But it's our preseason darnit!

By the way, Davone Bess is in the starting lineup ahead of Greg Camarillo. Shawn Murphy will open at RG. Rookie Sean Smith will open at RCB. and Jason Ferguson, who may only get a series or two, is expected to start nonetheless. Randy Starks starts at RDE for the Dolphins.

Matt Roth is the only scratch for Miami. WR Mike Walker, WR Maurice Dupree, DB Don Carey, FB Montell Owens, CB Scott Starks, WR Mike Thomas and DT Jonathan Lewis are scratches for Jacksonville.

The Dolphins are wearing their aqua tops and white pants. The Jags are going with their white tops and black pants.

And all the noise you've heard about JLo and Marc Anthony and Gloria Estefan and Jimmy Buffett this offseason? Haven't seen any of them on the field prior to the game.

Live blog of tonight's preseason-opener at 7:30

Cue the NFL Films music. Cue the hitting. Cue the cheerleaders. Cue the baseball dirt infield.

Preseason football returns to Land Shark Stadium this evening when the Dolphins host the Jacksonville Jaguars. And you will get a chance be in a community of fellow fans tonight -- even if you do not get Ch.  4 (WFOR) or Ch. 34. (WTVX). 

Yes, the game will be on local TV because the Dolphins have guaranteed a sellout.

But if you don't get local TV, this blog will be on live and in living color starting at kickoff. So as in past years, you will be able to gather here, with other Dolphins fans, and talk about the game as it happens. 

You can join the live blog from your computer ... or, if you have an iPhone and have purchased the Dolphins app, you can follow and participate in the live blog from wherever you are -- including the stands, if you so desire.

As thousands of iPhone Dolphins Apps have been sold so far, chances are good we'll have some live blog participants in the stands tonight and during every home game this year. Think about it, how cool is watching the game from the stands, and commenting on what you see on the live blog in real time?

A couple of things you should know:

The first-team offensive line is expected to play an extended period of time in front of quarterbacks Chad Pennington and Chad Henne.

Coach Tony Sparano said last week he saw no reason to hold out Donald Thomas from the game so, if that holds, I would think he'll get some snaps with the starters even though Shawn Murphy is expected to start.

I'm eager to see how Sean Smith does in his NFL debut as a starting CB. I'll also be watching Vontae Davis and his fellow rookies, Pat White, Patrick Turner, and Brian Hartline.

 So see you here at 7:30 p.m. You are obviously here now, so tell me what you want and need to see out of this game. What players need to step up in the battles to earn roster spots. What players intrigue you. Give your predictions, too.

It's football season!

Agent: Roth will hopefully practice this week

Matt Roth has missed 21 practices this training and that's a bad thing because the Dolphins have practiced only 21 times since training camp began. Tonight Roth, nursing a groin injury he had when training camp began, will miss the 7 p.m. preseason opener versus the Jacksonville Jaguars.

But agent Drew Rosenhaus, who represents Roth, said during his regular Sunday evening segment on Ch. 7's Sunday Sports Xtra that he is "hopeful" Roth would begin practicing this week.

"Don't hold me to it," Rosenhaus added.

Rosenhaus is to be taken with the proverbial grain of salt when he says things on the show. Sometimes he's dead on. Sometimes, not so much.

He "reported" before the draft the Dolphins would "absolutely" select a receiver in the first round.

They didn't take a receiver in the first round. Or the second.

So we'll see what happens with Roth.

On the confirmed information front, you might have missed the column I wrote for Sunday's Miami Herald. In it coach Tony Sparano confirms he has a couple of players that don't meet his requirements for practicing hard all the time because they don't practice as hard as they play.

Then I confirmed Phillip Merling is one of those players. Please read the column and see how Sparano handles such players and how Merling is reacting to what coaches are yelling at talking to him about. 

Which Dolphins need to play better in practice?

The Dolphins have completed 21 practices since the start of training camp, not counting Sunday's walk-thru practice. The team will play its first preseason game Monday night against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

And while every player will, no doubt, give all he has in the coming games, Tony Sparano says in my Sunday Dolphins column that not every player on his team gives his all during every practice.

Sparano tells me in the column what he does about those players.

I also speak to a player who admits coaches have confronted him and want him to practice harder. Read the column to learn who the player is. This player has great potential and Miami coaches are doing all they can to milk every ounce of effort from him in practice.

So why is getting the most out of players in practice so important to Sparano?

"How we practice really does affect how we play," Sparano told me. "Some guys have the abitlity to not practice well all the time and play well. But most guys, it goes the other way."

Well, what's the big deal with practice, you might ask, as long as the player is a gamer?

"And people say to me, what do you prefer?" Sparano said. "You prefer the way who plays on Sunday, right? Sure, you prefer the guy who plays on Sunday. But that guy could be a distraction. That guy that doesn't practice well enough during the course of the week becomes a bit of a distraction sometimes.

"My job is to eliminate distractions and that's where I go to confront."

By the way, the column identifies one player that needs to practice better. Can you identify others?

Saturday by the sub

I'm just a Neal, yes, I'm only a Neal, and I'm sitting in for A. Salguero...

Armando should be back tomorrow. He'll definitely be back Monday. Whatever, you're stuck with David J. Neal today.

In the afternoon practice, during red zone team drills, Chad Pennington got the first team into the end zone in two plays. A diving Davone Bess collected the TD pass on a seam route. Chad Henne found Brian Hartline on a post ahead of Jason Allen, then hit his next three passes. Pat White went six for 11 in the earlier team drills, but later threw two interceptions to Courtney Bryan and a few near interceptions while running the scout team. White and Henne took most of the reps today in preparation for doing the same Monday.

Both Akin Ayodele and Channing Crowder had sacks in the morning practice. For those obsessed with Ted Ginn Jr., one way or the other, today was another tribute to Ralph Ellison -- he was The Invisible Man.

In both practices, Shawn Murphy and Donald Thomas rotated at right guard with the first team. Both will play Monday as Sparano wants to see the offensive line together and wants to settle the right guard position "yesterday," as he put it Saturday. Thomas said he's behind where he thought he would be right now. Be that as it may, it's clear the coaches love Thomas' strength and superior athleticism (compared to Murphy) and want him in that spot if it's at all a close call.

Earlier, Dolphins coach Tony Sparano's daily press conference was called by rain, a first that I've seen in over 20 years in this business. Sparano does his daily media thing during training camp in a big covered porch-like area north of the practice field. As we started, the rain came down slanted toward the west. Then ,the wind shifted so the rain began shooting over the media's shoulder and into the face of Sparano. Sparano didn't seem to care about facing the media in the wet and the wind. Even as we crowded in around the lectern to yell our questions above the wind, Sparano was trying to listen to the Palm Beach Post's Edgar Thompson holler a Pat White question when The Herald's Jeff Darlington stepped in like Richard Steele to deliver an RSC -- Rain Stops Contest.

Before that, Sparano said he thought Ernest Wilford's improvement the last few days could be credited to getting more opportunities. Not with practice snaps, but with balls thrown to him on those practice snaps. Saturday, Wilford had a nice fingertip catch, a one-hander on ball thrown behind him, a nice high grab. He called his blocking "a work in progress" and "fundamentally, there's some things that certainly he doesn't know as well as some of those other tight ends that he's catching up on."

Wilford got behind rookie safety Chris Clemons on one downfield pattern in the morning practice. That's Clemons, who has some giddyap, with Wilford, The Six Million Dollar Man who moves like the slow motion shots of Steve Austin at bionic speed. Anthony Armstrong got well behind Vontae Davis on another team drills deep pattern, and Will Allen on still another. I asked if both sides were going full speed.

"Why, because the offense looked decent today?" Sparano replied with a bit o' bile. "Every player's being evaluated out there, so I would say, yes, they were going full speed."

If that's so, it's a little disconcerting when third team and practice squad level wide receivers are dusting the Dolphins top defensive backs.

White's been more accurate both in seven-on-seven drills and team drills, but it would be nice if Mark Lewis would give him a shotgun snap that didn't dribble back to White or threaten to missile over his head.

Sparano confirmed that, yes, if Connor Barth outkicks Dan Carpenter -- and he hopes both will kick Monday against Jacksonville -- Carpenter's out of a job. And, like last year's Carpenter-Jay Feely competition, it could be decided early in camp. For a team that doesn't get cheap points, plays close games and has trouble in the red zone, partially because they don't yet have a dependable big receiver, a kicker's dependability takes on greater importance than with most teams.

"Missed a couple of kicks," Sparano said of Carpenter. "He's missed a few, the other guy's made 'em. I've seen the asme thing you guys have seen. So, that's it. Eventually, those have to go through. I told them both, the entire team, time is not on our side right now. This is not one of those deals where you say, "We'll get it tomorrow, we'll get it tomorrow, we'll get it tomorrow." These things have to start happening, soon."

By the way, Barth's demeanor and look resemble Shaggy from Scooby-Doo. Wonder if there's a Scooby Snack bonus in his contract.

Everybody was there in both pads-and-shorts practices. Matt Roth was still in the baseball hat. The morning practice, originally scheduled to be outside and open to the public, was moved inside the Nick Saban Memorial Bubble when lightning was spotted somewhere in the area. Dolphins football czar Bill Parcells spent most of that practice happily talking with Marlins second baseman Dan Uggla. Also in the bubble house was the Dolphins first Hall of Fame quarterback, Bob Griese, and former Dolphins fullback Rob Konrad.

Special teams worked on downing punts inside the 10, especially the speed guys getting downfield to just catch the ball instead of playing the often-capricious bounce.

The Dolphins are off tomorrow, aside from a walk-through. Monday, 7:30, vs. Jacksonville at the largest structure in Miami Gardens.

I'm headed home for caffeine, dinner, Powerball, Lotto and jazz. Good night, folks.

Classic Training Camp Moment from 1995

In August 1995 I was looking for an advance story for the Dolphins' trip to Orlando to play the Tampa Bay Bucs in the preseaon finale. It occurred to me that Miami fans might be interested to learn what it's like to be on the road with the team, so I decided to do some digging and share what I learned.

Part of my research for the story included finding out just how well coach Don Shula was treated. And yes, the winningest coach of all time had it pretty good when the team went on the road.

I found out Shula typically got the nicest room in whatever hotel the team was staying, and usually that was a suite in a very high and security-guarded floor.

I also asked Dolphins media relations man Harvey Greene if there were any luxuries Shula typically got in his room. Well, I found out Shula got flowers, and candies, and sandwiches, and in the suite's refrigerator, he wanted beer.

Not just any beer -- Beck's beer.

And not just a couple of cans of beer but a case of beer, which by most definitions is 24 cans of beer.

So I wrote the story and thought nothing else about it -- until I arrived at the Orlando hotel where the team was staying. When I walked in the lobby entrance, I was immediately intercepted by Greene, who told me that I was probably directly responsible for his being fired.

Seems Shula had read my article and had freaked out become disturbed about the unwritten conclusion everyone must have reached after finishing the story, namely, that I was saying Shula was an alcoholic. Shula asked Greene how I came to find out he had so many beers in his suite every road trip and Greene told him he had told me.

So Shula chewed on poor Harvey's butt for the entire bus trip from the Orlando airport to the hotel, leaving the team's public relations man visibly and understandably rocked. 

Anyway, the following day came and Greene was still employed. And today he remains employed by the Dolphins as their senior vice president-media relatons. He is one of the best in the business, if not the best.

So I figured the episode was over.

And I figured wrong.

A few days later, I showed up alone to the training facility and sat down on a bench that used to be stationed just outside the locker room. After going for his routine noon run on the adjacent practice field, Shula would usually come over and sit with me on the bench and talk to me. And today was no different in that he came over and sat next to me.

It was usually a pleasant talk between us. Not this time. Not when Shula's first words to me this day were, "What the [bleep] were you doing by writing that [bleep] about me drinking beer?" Shula asked angrily.

Coach, I never wrote you drank all that beer. I wrote the beer was stocked in your fridge.

"You [bleep]. Everyone out there thinks I'm a drunk now," Shula said. "You made me look like a horse's ass. I don't drink all that beer, most of the times I don't even have one. I have that beer in there in case I have guests or if the assistants come up to the room.

"But you made it sound like I'm a [bleeping] drunk every time the team goes on the road. People are probably thinking I'm staggering around the team hotel drunk the night before games. It's not like I'm a kid anymore, I can't drink all that beer. Maybe when I was younger, but not anymore. But you made me sound like a [bleeping] drunk, you [bleep]."

It was the most anger Shula ever directed at me. It was actually the only time Shula was mad at me at all, which is saying something considering I covered him from 1990-95.

But the moment served me well. It gave me a glimpse of the venom Shula could direct at people when he was angry at them. It was an education.

And I learned something else very valuable about Shula that day. He could explode in anger one moment and move on as if nothing had happened soon afterward.

The next day, I came out to the training facility around lunch time and sat on the bench as I usually did, this time expecting the worst. And after his routine lunch time jog, Shula came over to the bench and talked with me.

As if nothing had happened.

Friday eve. practice is short, not so sweet

The open portion of today's afternoon practice only lasted about an hour. It was short.

And also short on highlights.

It's not a good thing when I'm going to tell you about the kicker competition first.

In that competition, incumbent Dan Carpenter is looking good. He connected on four of five kicks in kick drills. He missed a 36-yarder to start the kicking drills, but then connected from 40, 41, and 45 yards.

The first team offense didn't do Carpenter any favors in the two-minute drill. Working via mostly dink and dunk checkdown passes, the first-team O put Carpenter in range for a 53 yard winning FG. He missed it as it is obviously at the edge of his range.

Connor Barth, meanwhile, made all his kicks in the kick drills -- from 36, 40, 41 and 45 yards. But at the end of the two-minute drill, after the third-teamers had gotten him a chance at a winning 43-yard FG, Barth hit the left upright and the ball bounced back onto the field. No good.

By the way, the only reason the third-team offense got down the field is because the tipped pass that resulted in a Tyrone Culver interception and TD return the first play they ran in the two-minute drill was seemingly overlooked and the unit continued working.

Pat White then connected on three consecutive passes to Chris Williams and Anthony Kimble to set Barth up for his makeable but ultimately failed field goal.

I would say this practice was interesting in spurts only. The first-team offense scored on a goal line situation when Chad Pennington scrambled and connected with rookie John Nalbone in the back of the end zone for the TD.

The second-team offense also scored in the goal line situation when Ricky Williams rumbled over from 2 yards out.

So let's see if you've been paying attention. Are you not wondering why Barth had to take his shot at a game-winning FG with the third-team offense? Well, that's because the second-team offense was ineffective in the two-minute drills.

How ineffective? First down pass from Chad Henne to Patrick Turner is ruled out of bounds and therefore incomplete. Second down pass from Henne falls incomplete. Then the sack on third down. Then another incompletion on fourth down, which was the good news because Courtney Bryan might have intercepted the pass had he held on to it.

There's no big injury update to give you at this time. Matt Roth ... never mind. And everyone else, including Donald Thomas, Will Allen and Chad Pennington are taking all of their repetitions. Good news.

[BLOG NOTE: Come back later for the Classic Training Camp Moment. It's a Don Shula classic.]

Tony Sparano: Thomas likely to play vs. Jags

Tony Sparano just ended his daily meet with the media -- both in English and Spanish -- and here are some nuggets from those 20 minutes of exchange:

The coach said while it's not absolutely certain how much time Donald Thomas would get in the preseason-opener against Jacksonville Monday night, he added, "I don't see any reason why I would hold him [out] right now."

So that's good news for a player that is being brought along slowly but surely since the opening of camp. It's also good news for a right guard competition that begs an alternative to current starter Shawn Murphy.

If Thomas plays -- and that decision will be finalized Sunday -- coaches will have a game-speed contrast they can draw between Thomas and Murphy.

Speaking of contrast, quarterback Pat White is getting better of late. That's a contrast to the obvious struggles he had in the offseason and the first week or so of training camp.

"Pat's been getting better and better," Sparano said. "I think he's been doing some really nice things. Last night we were talking about this as a staff. He threw some really nice balls the past couple of days. I think he's starting to become a little more familiar with what it is we're asking him to do and a little more comfortable."

Sparano is seeing growth in White's management of third-down situation. He also appreciates White's  ability to "create yards on his own," which is code for running and using his feet to move the chains.

By the way, as to the Dolphins desire to win preseason games and what they mean as the coaches continue trying to change the culture they inherited from Cam Cameron:

"Everytime they keep score and every time you get a chance to compete out there we want to win," Sparano said. "That''s all part of changing the culture. We're not there. Regardless of what happened a year ago, we're not where we want to be from a full cultural change [standpoint]."

Finally, you should know that miamidolphins.com will premiere Saturday. Part of the new redesign of the website include Spanish-language content. And Sparano is doing his bit to help provide that content.

After he did his English-language press conference, el tecnico, did an interview in Spanish in which the team's Spanish broadcasting crew of Roly Martin and Raul Striker, asked him questions in Spanish and Sparano answered them in English.

The biggest nugget out of that exchange is that Sparano is pleased with the fact he's got more linebackers and defensive backs on the roster this year so he expects Miami's special teams to be better and more effective.

No, Sparano doesn't speak Spanish. But it seems that way on the website. It's pretty seamless the way he took the questions in Spanish, looked at the cue card with the translation, and answered in English. Check it out Saturday. 

[Twitter update: About 1,700 of you are following me on twitter. If you're not already doing so and want realtime updates from practice or when I update this blog, follow me now.]

Brady return not great news for Dolphins

Tony Sparano has a saying about watching the goings-on in the rest of the AFC East: "I've got my own fields to plow," meaning he's worried about his own team and not the Jets, Pats, Bills or any other one-syllabled rival.

But I'm not Sparano and neither are you. So we should be aware of the happenings around the AFC East as, you know, what the other teams do affects the Dolphins.

Well, while the Bills and Jets have issues, the Pats seriously concern me. And after watching them play last night against Philadelphia, a game that featured lots of talk about Michael Vick's signing with the Eagles, I mostly worried about the other QB in the spotlight.

Tom Brady.

And my worry?

He's still freakin' good. As you can see here, Brady doesn't seem to have any lingering problems following his yearlong hiatus from the league due to a blown out knee. The guy still is accurate as anyone in the NFL, perhaps moreso, and he still has great vision and an above average arm.

And one more thing: He throws a great, great deep pass.

Brady threw a 46-yard pass to Randy Moss down the right sideline in his second series of work against the Eagles that told the story. Moving to his left he launched the ball over 40 yards and although the ball was in the receiver's hands, Moss dropped it. But the play was still a big gainer because pass interference was called on the play.

Four plays later, Brady pitched a four-yard TD to new toy weapon Chris Baker, who caught both of Brady's two scoring passes for the evening. If you look at Brady's stats for the night -- 10 of 15 for 100 yards with 2 TDs and 1 INT -- you might not think them so grand.

Except that Brady's interception came on a play where Moss had a chance to catch the ball over Sheldon Brown and didn't. And also didn't knock the ball away. And So Brown came up with an interception. And that made Brady's stats seem less impressive.

But having watched the game on NFLN, I can tell you he was impressive. He moved well in the pocket and he has a ton of receivers to pick from.

Even if you're a Dolphins fan and you're not worried, you definitely should be aware. Tom Brady is back. 

Thursday practice notes and '78 Classic Moment

The Dolphins just finished one of the most competitive practices I've seen them conduct since camp opened.

The reason this practice was so competitive is because there were team drills throughout the practice. There were two-minute team drills. Firsts against Firsts team drill. Third down team drill.

It was very interesting. And, yes, competitive.

In the two-minute drill, Chad Henne got the opportunity to run the starting offense. The situation is that 1:32 is left in the game and the offense has one time out. Oh, and you have to get in the end zone because a field goal doesn't help.

So Henne misses on his first two passes, including one in which Davone Bess is open against Vontae Davis but the ball is too high. Henne comes right back to Bess on the next play and completes the pass against Davis.

Then he's incomplete again, then he completes one to Greg Camarillo who beats Jason Allen. Then it gets tough. Incomplete. Incomplete. Incomplete. And incomplete when a blitz forces a quick throw and Chris Clemons knocks away the pass to Anthony Fasano.

One thing about this period that I noticed is that with the exception of the blitz, the defense got zero pressure on Henne. That's as it should be because it is the first team OL vs the second-team defense. But it would have been nice if Cameron Wake had mounted some pressure at some point.

In the third down work, Donald Thomas got significant snaps with the first team offense. And Chad Pennington put on a clinic.

Third and 8 completion to Bess. Third and seven completion to Camarillo. Third and five completion to Bess. Pennington tripped and was sacked on the next play. And then on third and second he completed another to Ricky Williams.

That's an 80 percent conversion percentage.

The Henne-led second teamers converted two of five.

Speaking of conversions, it was a solid day for Connor Barth and Brandon Fields. It was a tough afternoon for Dan Carpenter.

Fields converted an extra point obviously meant to show he can do it in an emergency. Then Barth connected on field goals of 42 and 46 yards. Carpenter missed both his tries from 42 and 46 yards and then was given a 61-yard attempt -- which he also missed.

As far as the obligatory Pat White update goes: He practiced, he missed half his throws, he connected on half his throws, he didn't fumble, he didn't trip, he seemed to have more velocity on the ball today than I've seen from him. He was neither great nor terrible.

And now this Classic Training Camp moment from 1978 ...

In '78 the Dolphins began to enjoy the fruits of having lost Larry Csonka after the 1974 season. The New York Giants had sent Miami third-round picks in both 1978 and '79 for the rights to sign Csonka after the World Football League folded.

And so in the '78 draft the Dolphins used that third-round pick to select defensive tackle Lyman Smith out of Duke. The Dolphins had great hopes for Smith because he was 6-5 and 250 pounds and smart as they come.

But maybe Smith was too smart for his own good. And definitely he was smarter than he was athletically gifted. Both caused problems.

Seems that during rookie hazing, Smith balked at the idea of having to sing in front of the team, or buy veterans their breakfast every morning, or carry their pads off the field after practice. He just would not join in the reindeer games like the other rookies.

And so the veterans made Smith pay a price. They grabbed him and did what any band of grown men whose sensitivities have been upset would do. They tied Smith to a tree. And left him there. And didn't go back to untie him.

I don't know how Smith got free, but when he did, he found himself facing another more depressing issue: He really wasn't that good. Smith struggled and disappointed and clearly was not destined for an NFL career.

"The guy was a terrible player and he was something of a [jerk] about not participating in the normal treatment of rookies," one player from that 1978 training camp told me Thursday. "He could have saved himself if he had been a very talented player but been a [jerk] otherwise. It would have even been fine if he wasn't that talented but wasn't a [jerk], either. But he was a [jerk] and a terrible player. He was the total package for all the wrong reasons."

And so Smith, drafted 64th overall, was cut. Can you imagine such a thing today? A third-round pick cut without making it out of training camp?

Smith was picked up by the Vikings and lasted one year with them before being cut. And that's just as well because football really wasn't his calling. But don't fret. Lyman Smith is today Dr. Lyman Smith, a board certified orthopedic surgeon.

Plan for preseason opener starts coming to light

As I told you in a previous blog, the Dolphins coaching staff has still not met to determine playing time in Monday night's preseason opener against Jacksonville. Coach Tony Sparano confirmed that this morning.

But ..

He is definitely giving strong hints about his intentions for what kind of playing time certain players or units will get. It is pretty clear that Chad Pennington will play against the Jags and probably be in there maybe a quarter. Chad Henne will follow and he very likely will play much of the second quarter and parts, if not all, of the third quarter.

Pat White should get work sometime in the fourth quarter.

"Chad Henne will get a good chunk of time in the deal, which is what I've said before," Sparano said moments ago.

It is a fair assumption that Pennington and Henne will get a chance to play behind the starting offensive line. The line, in Sparano's opinion, needs to play together and play a good bit. And his opinion is the only one that counts.

"I have no interest in my line going out there and playing only one quarter," Sparano said. "They need to go out there and play."

While the offensive linemen are going to get a good looksee, there are other players who will be on a short pitch count. Jason Ferguson is not going to play beyond a quarter and perhaps less -- a series or two.

I have to draw the comparison between Sparano to Cam Cameron here. Cameron was of the belief that you save certain players, mostly his veterans. I remember he had some vets, such as Zach Thomas and Jason Taylor and even Joey Porter not play at all during some games in the preseason.

Taylor, for example, played six plays in the 2007 preseason. Cameron didn't want to get his proven players injured.

Sparano wants his stars and grunts to mesh as a tough team. He believes games are meant to be played not watched. "My feeling is you need to get ready to play together and come out of that tunnel together and all that good stuff," Sparano said.

But even if some of Miami's starters -- particularly the offensive linemen -- will get work, Sparano will try to strike a balance in that he must see the bottom of the roster guys perform.

"You want to walk off the field Monday night and have a pretty fair evaluation on how these people participated in the game," Sparano said. "At least as many of them as we can get."

On another matter, you guys have asked a lot lately about the possibility the Dolphins trade or cut Jason Allen. I don't see that right now and I get the feeling the Dolphins are not leaning in that direction unless someone blows them away with an offer -- which is not likely to happen.

Fact is Allen is a core special teams player. Fact is he's a big cornerback on a team that covets big corners. Fact is he's actually doing things that are making coaches think he's getting better.

"I've started to see things slow down for him and you're starting to see his athleticism," Sparano said. "He's reacting faster to the ball in the air, particularly in the last two or three practices I've seen him flash that way."

Wed. evening practice update plus '01 Moment

The Dolphins did their vampire thing, coming out after dark tonight for the first time this training camp.

But aside from the timing of the night practice, it seemed pretty routine to this reporter's eyes. Chad Pennington and Will Allen were present and accounted for, despite reports earlier in the day they were nursing boo-boos. Both took all their repetitions.

The Dolphins showed their local fans the Wildcat package a few times, always with Ronnie Brown at the trigger.

There were a couple of blown coverages on defense.

And Pat White continued to struggle on offense.

Of greatest interest to me was the Dolphins' willingness to show off more than just glimpses of Wildcat. The first-team offense ran it four times, which is more than any practice I've attended this camp. On three of those Wildcat snaps, Brown ran the ball.

On the other, we saw the same play the Dolphins ran against the Houston Texans in which Brown passed to Pennington who passed to Patrick Cobbs for 53 yards and a score. Unlike the Houston game, this time Pennington had no one to pivot the ball to because no one was open downfield.

Pennington threw an incompletion along the sideline.

And this is where this reporter reminds you of two things: Wildcat is a gimmick offense in the NFL. And it is bordering on ineffective because most teams now the Dolphins have it and they are ready for it. So it is incumbent upon the Miami coaching staff to come up with something else for Wildcat to work.

Defenses will be ready for the stuff the Dolphins did in Wildcat last year. They cannot be ready for the new stuff. And I've been told there is new spread formation stuff coming. But it is unlikely you will see much, of any of it, in training camp or the preseason.

But I digress. Back to practice.

The loudest reaction from the 2,000 or so fans watching practice came when WR Chris Williams pancaked Will Billingsley in the receiver blocking drills. Put Billingsley on his keyster, Williams did.

There was also fan approval when Pennington completed a 15-yard pass to Ted Ginn Jr. Rookie Sean Smith got his feet tangled in coverage and that resulted in the completion. There was a blown coverage in the middle of the field when Pennington found TD Anthony Fasano for what might have been a 50-yard pass and run (mostly run) up the seam of the defense. There was simply no one around to cover Fasano, who is a hard dude to lose.

And that brings me to White. He threw an interception when Nathan Jones stepped in front of a pass that should never have been thrown. The pass along the sideline went into a crowd where two receivers and two defenders had gathered.

White also tripped over an offensive lineman's feet on his dropback one pass play. Sack. And I cannot share with you one head-turning completion that I noted White making. Oh well, Thursday is another day.

OK, drumroll please.

I've been skirting around this Classic Training Camp Moment from 2001 for nearly a week now because I was desperately trying to nail down the facts and I was angry at myself for not remembering the incident.

But I have the facts now. And here they are:

During Miami's 2001 training camp, the Dolphins were a team in transition (what else is new) because some of Jimmy Johnson's players were starting to age and some of Dave Wannstedt's players needed to step up.

Well, one of Johnson's leftovers was mammoth defensive tackle Daryl Gardener, who was forever known as a man of many muscles and moods. You never knew where you stood with Daryl Mr. Gardener because he could be joking with you one minute and looking like he was going to crack you in two the next.

Gardener also had an issue with his health and his stamina in that his back was a problem for him and he always seemed to be trying to get in the right physical condition despite looking like he was cut from a marble boulder.

During one training camp practice, Gardener was feeling spent and so right there, during the middle of a two-minute drill against the first-team offense, he pulled himself out of the lineup. And that didn't sit too well with WR O.J. McDuffie.

McDuffie is the player Dan Marino once told me was the toughest player he ever played with. McDuffie was the player who went on the field with a foot injury so severe it would end his career, but he just shot it up with pain killer and played anyway.

McDuffie is also the guy who this day called out Gardener for asking out of the two-minute drill before it was over.

"This is the time to win or lose a game, this is the make-or-break time in a game, and you're heading to the sideline," McDuffie said loudly enough that everyone on the field, including Gardener, could hear.

That didn't sit too well with Gardener, who then started cursing McDuffie and, yes, said something about McDuffie's mother.

McDuffie, a very articulate man, went on to articulate his displeasure and disgust with Gardener in no uncertain terms using language that would have made his mother blush despite the fact he was using that language in her defense.

And so 6-6, 330-pound Daryl Gardener decided he couldn't compete on a verbal level with his McDuffie but could separate McDuffie from his spine if he wanted. So he tried. He grabbed McDuffie by the throat and choke-slammed the 5-10, 194-pound McDuffie to the ground.

Well, McDuffie went down hard, but got up and tried to fight back before the two were separated by teammates. Gardener obviously got the better of the physical exchange. And that didn't sit so well with McDuffie. So he left the practice field and headed for players' parking lot.

McDuffie was headed to his car but he wasn't going there to leave. Although it cannot be proven, it became widely accepted around the team that McDuffie kept his gun in his car. Thankfully, linebacker Derrick Rodgers intervened and convinced McDuffie to cool down and not do anything rash -- like, perhaps, shoot his unarmed teammate.

And how, you ask, could I have possibly forgotten this story? Well, I wasn't there. I didn't cover the Dolphins from July 2001 to July 2003.

Got plans tonight? Let's do a live blog chat at 7

The Dolphins will go into the twilight for Wednesday's second practice so that calls for some sort of celebration.

Bartender, a live blog chat for everybody!

As I will be at the 8 p.m. practice to tell you what is going on, as I will be at camp at least one hour before that practice, as I have no life today, it seems like a solid opportunity to have a live blog at 7 p.m.

If you cannot be here at 7 p.m. because you're stuck in traffic or having dinner with the family, you certainly are welcome to leave your question or comment now and I'll it at the top of the chat.

I really do hope some of you will come here live, though, as otherwise it wouldn't be a live blog chat.

No doubt, some of you might decide to come to the Dolphins training facility and watch the practice. It is not a scrimmage despite the fact it's happening in prime time. It's a practice. And yes, it is six hours after Miami's first practice of the day.

Why?

"Sleep," Coach Tony Sparanao said. "Honestly, it's the reason I did it. One of the reasons I did it was to get out of the heat a little bit and throw a little curve ball to them and see how it went. I'm not sure what the crowd will be like, but I think it'll be good. So that's nice. And it gets them under the lights one time before we play a game.

"And I'm interested to see these receivers under the lights and some of these punt returners under the lights."

Players don't have to report back to camp until 6:15 to get taped and dressed for practice. After working late tonight, they'll have the opportunity to sleep in as reporting time Thursday will be 10:30 a.m. instead of the usual 6:30 a.m.

Classic '96 moment plus Wed. morning notes

The Olympics were in Atlanta in 1996 and The Herald offered me a chance to skip the heat and endless hours of the first three weeks of Dolphins training camp in exchange for the heat and endless hours of covering the Games -- while not having the opportunity to go home in the evenings, of course.

So I missed the first two weeks of Jimmy Johnson's first training camp.

When I finally got back, I took a couple of days off and then eventually got back to covering the team. After my first practice back was over, I greeted special teams coach Mike Westhoff, one of the few holdovers from the Don Shula staff. Assistant coaches were allowed to speak to the writers without state department permission back then because the Iron Curtain of Parcells and Belichick had not yet descended on the NFL.

So I asked Westhoff about his special teams and he said what he always said, that they would be fine because, well, he's a freakin' great coach. And he is.

He went on to tell me he already had his first special teams headhunter. His name? Larry Izzo.

Who?

"Larry Izzo," Westhoff said. "He's going to be good on teams. He's fearless. And he's on the team."

I didn't pretend to know everything about Johnson's new team but I knew Izzo wasn't a draft pick. And I knew he wasn't a star. And I knew there was no way he could be guaranteed a roster spot when Westhoff reminded me he was an undrafted college free agent from Rice of all places.

So I asked Westhoff, how it was that Izzo was on the team. "That, you have to talk to the head coach about," he answered. "That's not my department."

Well, I started snooping around but before that got very far, Johnson came over to me out of the blue and said he heard I was asking around about Izzo. "Before this gets written all wrong I want you to know what really happened," Johnson said.

(That's pretty cool, too. A head coach wanting the correct facts out there instead of letting misinformation about his team fester.)

Anyway, Johnson proceeded to tell me the famous Larry Izzo story.

Seems during the first preseason game (which I missed because I was covering something like Field Hockey or something) Izzo had blown up the wedge on a kickoff. And that explosion showed up clearly on the tape Johnson graded and then went over with his players in a team meeting.

And so in that meeting, Johnson showed the play, then showed the play again, and then stopped the show. "That is what I expect from a Miami Dolphins player," Johnson told his team. "That is the kind of play and the kind of player the Miami Dolphins are going to be about. And so if you want to be part of the Miami Dolphins, that's how you're going to play.

"And if you play like that, you will be on the Miami Dolphins. I'm looking for 53 guys that can give me that kind of play. I have two so far. Dan Marino is the first," Johnson said. "And Larry Izzo is the second. He's on this team."

Johnson had announced to his team that an undrafted rookie from Rice, a kid that looked more like the paper boy than someone about to be in the paper, was the second player to earn a roster spot behind Dan Marino. And all this after one preseason game.

"I was pretty surprised," an unassuming Izzo told me in an interview room adjacent the Dolphins media room that day. "I believe him, but I'm not going to assume anything. I'm going to play hard every day and see what happens."

What happened is that Johnson was true to his word and Izzo made the team. And he not only made the team, but prospered. Izzo played all 16 games his rookie year and was second on the team with 10 special teams tackles. He had one blocked punt and deflected three others against Seattle, Indianapolis and Houston.

That Houston game was particularly memorable because Izzo was basically celebrating a homecoming and he also had a 26-yard gain on a fake punt that helped the Dolphins win the game. He was voted a special teams Pro Bowl alternate that season.

It's now 13 years later and Larry Izzo has three Pro Bowl trips under his belt, he has three Super Bowl rings on his fingers, and was a team captain on all of those Super Bowl winning teams in New England. This offseason Izzo left the Patriots and signed with the New York Jets.

His special teams coach will again be Mike Westhoff. 

Some Wednesday morning training camp notes:

Shawn Murphy continues to get the snaps with the first-team offense while on defense, Sean Smith and Randy Starks are working with the first unit.

Davone Bess is getting his chance the past couple of practices to work with the first-team offense ahead of Greg Camarillo. I'll be watching Camarillo closely this evening because I've noticed a bit of a dropoff from him in recent days. I don't know if this is knee-related.

The Dolphins did nearly an hour of special teams work in the morning practice. There should be no excuse for poor teams play this year. If the Dolphins are devoting this much time to special teams work this camp, more so than they did last year, it stands to reason coach Tony Sparano will invest some roster spots for special teams play.

That is the reason one cannot dismiss the chances special teams starters such as Jason Allen, Brandon London and Nathan Jones will make the team. Cutting such players comes with a price -- it affects depth, yes, but also affects quality on special teams.

Anyway, Donald Thomas continues to work with the second-team offensive line. The plan, even though Sparano said there wasn't one, is to let Thomas work his way on second-team until next week. Then the competition with Shawn Murphy for the starting RG job begins in earnest.

That gives Thomas two weeks to either beat out Murphy or not. If Murphy falters, he loses the job. As Sparano accurately noted earlier, it's Murphy's job to lose.

By the way, it was a tough morning for Pat White: Threw an interception, fumbled a snap for the third consecutive practice and he took a sack by Lionel Dotson and two buzzer sacks -- sacks where the timing buzzer the coaches have installed to make sure the QBs get the ball off on time goes off before the throw.

Tuesday update and a maddening prediction

Before I tell you about Tuesday's practice, I want to share some media scuttlebutt. During training camp, national writers and bloggers come to town to survey the local landscape and write for their publications or websites.

A couple of days ago, Thomas George of  NFL.com was here. Jarrett Bell of USA Today was present the past couple of days as was Tim Graham of ESPN.com. Today, Pete Prisco of CBSSports.com was in town.

Prisco is a friend. And he hates the Dolphins chances in 2009.

"They're a 7-win team," Prisco told me.

They'll beat Atlanta in the opener, I responded.

"No way," he retorted. "Atlanta is a 10 or 11-win team. Take that to the bank. And they have a quarterback."

The Dolphins have a quarterback in Chad Pennington and a backup in Chad Henne, I told him.

"Pennington has a lollypop arm," Prisco said. "The Dolphins should just bench him and put Henne in and get it over with. I like Chad. He's a nice guy. But he can only get them to a certain level. They need to go with Henne."

Prisco is no fan of the Wildcat offense, either.

"You know the definition of the Wildcat?" he asked before answering his own question, "You have no quarterback."

Alrightie then. Good to get the national perspective on the Dolphins. Don't complain to me, by the way. I'm just the messenger. If you think Prisco is a nimrod, leave your comment in the comments section, but e-mail him right here. You are also encouraged to discuss the matter if you agree with the guy.

Now, about practice ...

The Team Run period was highlighted by some sweet blocking by the left side of the offensive line. The Dolphins need to become a left-handed team eventually because their two best run-blockers are on the left. Interestingly, they were more right-handed last year.

Running left there was a a nice crease between Jake Long and Justin Smiley that Ricky Williams scooted through for a run to the second level. Williams added a 5-yard run to the left two plays later.

Running right, Ronnie Brown got only 2 yards on a play where Channing Crowder filled the hole quickly. Brown also was stuffed for no gain on a run right later on.

Pat White fumbled a snap during the third-team Team Run period.

In Team Pass, Chad Pennington and rookie Patrick Turner hooked up for the nicest pass play I've seen this entire camp. Pennington threw to Turner's back shoulder down the left sideline and Turner stopped and jumped over fellow rookie Sean Smith for the grab and a 24-yard gain. Smith had good coverage, don't get me wrong, but sometimes the other guy just makes a better play.

Smith did have a PD in the overall team period. Turner also had a deep sideline catch over Eric Green in the team period. After being relatively quiet the past couple of days, he was impressive today.

Fellow rookie cornerback Vontae Davis, working with the second-team, jumped a wheel route by Ricky Williams for an interception he could have taken for a TD were it in an actual game. Akin Ayodele also had a sack in the competition among first-teamers.

It was a tough practice for guard Mark Lewis. He lost his technique and yielded a sack during the third-team pass period. There was also a short but unspectacular flare-up between Joe Berger and Ryan Baker.

Other quick hits:

Donald Thomas worked in with the first-team in the team period ... J.D. Folsom did good work with a couple of sacks on blitzes. He also had a tackle for loss on a tight end screen ... Rookie John Nalbone, improving by the day, had a couple of nice catches ... Ernest Wilford did not have a catch today ... Phillip Merling had a batted pass working with the second-team during the team period.

[BLOG NOTE: Come back later for the Classic Training Camp moment.]

Sparano press conference update right here

Tony Sparano just announced no one quit the team in the last 12 hours!

"No Knight Rider last night," he said, employing his dry sense of humor.

Cool.

Cooler is this statistical nuggett for all the know-it-alls that continue say Chad Henne is having a poor training camp. According to Sparano, Miami's No. 2 quarterback is completing 66 percent of his passes this training camp. Furthermore, his third-down conversion percentage is 61 percent.

I asked where that puts Henne relationally to Chad Pennington and Pat White and Sparano said that which we all should expect.

"Chad Pennington is higher," he said, "and Pat is below that."

So it makes sense Pennington is Miami's starter, Henne is the backup and White is the No. 3. It's good when statistics prove what we think we know.

The passing percentage and conversion rate was drawn from every team period but not the 7 on 7 drills.

I asked Sparano about my new adopted son focus player Chris Clemons. He always seems to be around the ball and the coach confirmed what my eyes have seen.

"The ball seems to find him," Sparano said. "In scimmages situations and even in offseason work, that was the case a lot. He's starting to figure things out from a fundamental standpoint. That's a hard position from a mental standpoint. He's got to stay in his notebook. But he is around the ball. I'm curious to see if that translates to games."

Sparano explained the reason the team brought in kicker Connor Barth to compete with Dan Carpenter is because, "nothing is written in stone out here," meaning no one's job is totally secure and no one can assume anything.

Translation: If you're renting, don't buy until you are officially on the roster.

But perhaps the more salient reason young Carpenter now has competition after not having any most the offseason and the first week of camp is that he's better when he's got someone pushing him.

"He likes competion," Sparano said. "So we brought competion in to fuel the fire a little bit."

On the subject of Donald Thomas, the coach said he has "no plan" for using the player beyond today. Who believes that? Who believes Sparano, who knows how many repetitions every player gets -- Thomas got 18 in Monday's morning practice and 24 in the afternoon -- doesn't have a plan for the foreseeable future?

Anyway, Thomas is being brought along slowly as he recovers from the injuries that has kept him mostly sidelined the past year. The Dolphins continue to be quite cautious, as they should be. But he did get some extended second-team work on Monday with no ill effects.

"Yesterday was a good day," Sparano said.

Good news.

Speaking of news, the Dolphins have signed FB Joe Kowalewski, who played 13 games with the Jets in 2006.

First official depth chart plus Classic Moment

Below is the depth chart the Dolphins released Monday evening in advance of their preseason opener against Jacksonville. Look at the depth chart, study it, memorize if you wish.

Then consider the fact it is already obsolete.

True enough, the depth chart below is meant to meet NFL guidelines concerning the release of a depth chart. That's it. Coaches aren't even paying it any mind. It is not even how the Dolphins are truly lining up these days in practice.

Consider that Sean Smith moved ahead of Eric Green for Monday's drills. Consider that Randy Starks and not Phillip Merling is getting first-team snaps at RDE. Also consider I believe that was done to send Merling a message because he's a gamer but not, shall we say, a practicer -- a player who excels during practice.

Consider that Cameron Wake is buried on fourth team when, in fact, he's getting some second team repetitions in practice these days.

Also consider that Brandon Frye is getting snaps at offensive tackle. And that Donald Thomas is expected to shoot up the depth chart starting by next week when the next one is released. (That's me predicting that based on what I've been told.)

So is this depth chart a waste of valuable Internet space? Am I filling up the Internet with Dolphins propaganda?

Not completely.

Check out where Ernest Wilford finds himself today. He's fifth among five tight ends. Now you tell me, what chances you think he has of climbing out of that hole?

Check out Ikechuku Ndukwe mired at right tackle despite the fact he was a guard all of last year. Ndukwe better play like a man these next three weeks or something tells me he'll be job hunting in early September.

Finally, you see how Courtney Bryan is ahead of rookie Chris Clemons at SS. Don't pay attention to that. Clemons is making this team and, as I wrote in the previous blog, he's got a chance to push for a starting job in the dime package.

So have fun with the "official" but very tentative depth chart.

OFFENSE

 WR 19 Ted Ginn, 82 Brian Hartline, 11 Anthony Armstrong, 87 Chris Williams, 14 James Robinson

 LT 77 Jake Long, 63 Andrew Gardner

 LG 65 Justin Smiley, 76 Brandon Frye, 60 Mark Lewis

 C 64 Jake Grove, 67 Joe Berger

 RG 61 Shawn Murphy, 57 Andy Alleman, 66 Donald Thomas

 RT 72 Vernon Carey, 68 Ike Ndukwe, 75 Nate Garner

 TE 80 Anthony Fasano, 88 David Martin ,81 Joey Haynos, 86 John Nalbone, 18 Ernest Wilford

 WR 15 Davone Bess, 83 Greg Camarillo, 17 Brandon London, 84 Patrick Turner

 QB 10 Chad Pennington, 7 Chad Henne, 6 Pat White

 FB 36 Lousaka Polite

 RB 23 Ronnie Brown, 34 Ricky Williams, 38 Patrick Cobbs, 26 Lex Hilliard, 45 Anthony Kimble

 

DEFENSE

 LE 70 Kendall Langford, 94 Randy Starks, 90 Rodrique Wright, 79 Ryan Baker

 NT 95 Jason Ferguson, 96 Paul Soliai, 93 Louis Ellis, 62 Joe Cohen

 RE 97 Phillip Merling, 78 Tony McDaniel, 71 Lionel Dotson

 SLB 99 Jason Taylor ,74 Quentin Moses, 49 Tearrius George, 98 Matt Roth

 ILB 52 Channing Crowder, 53 Reggie Torbor, 48 Orion Martin

 ILB 51 Akin Ayodele, 58 William Kershaw, 59 J.D. Folsom

 WLB 55 Joey Porter, 56 Charlie Anderson, 50 Erik Walden, 91 Cameron Wake

 LCB 25 Will Allen, 24 Vontae Davis, 32 Jason Allen, 22 Joey Thomas

 RCB 21 Eric Green, 31Sean Smith 33, Nate Jones, 27 Will Billingsley

 FS 28 Gibril Wilson, 29 Tyrone Culver

 SS 37 Yeremiah Bell, 47 Courtney Bryan, 30 Chris Clemons

 

SPECIALISTS

 P 2 Brandon Fields

 K 5 Dan Carpenter

 KO 5 Dan Carpenter, 3 Connor Barth

 H 2 Brandon Fields

 KOR 19 Ted Ginn, 87 Chris Williams

 PR 15 Davone Bess, 87 Chris Williams

 LS 92 John Denney

 

Today's Classic Training Camp Moment is more about a former Dolphins player than about the Dolphins themselves. Guard John Bock played gritty, sometimes ornery dude who was undersized but endowed with a big heart. He played with the Dolphins from 1996-2000.

 But he didn't start his career in Miami. Fact is, it started with the Buffalo Bills 15 years ago. Well, I asked him for a Classic Moment and he sent me the following e-mail on Monday:

 "15 years ago [Sunday] I was playing in my first NFL game for Buffalo on Monday night. Late in the 3rd quarter Marv Levy called for me. He let me know that my wife had just gone to the hospital and was in labor. He asked me if I wanted to play or go right to the hospital. I told him it wouldn't do my daughter any good if I didn't have a job. He put me in and I played really well. After the game one of the equipment people gave me his old pickup truck and I received a police escort to the hospital. The officers were going so fast that I couldn't even keep up with them.

 "Long story short, I got to the hospital on time to witness the birth of my daughter, Ashley. My wife was beside herself because 15 players showed up and all the nurses were out getting autographs while the guys ate wings and pizza in the waiting room."

The life of an NFL player ... amazing.

Mon. evening practice in the books

On the day cornerback Sean Smith was given the opportunity to practice with the first-team secondary, ahead of Eric Green, it was fellow rookie Chris Clemons that made me take notice with his evening practice performance.

Clemons, working with the second-team as a safety, had two interceptions during this practice and it would have been three had he not dropped a seemingly sure interception when he jumped a route by Ricky Williams along the sideline. Yeah, the would-be pick would have resulted in an touchdown return.

Clemons made all his highlight plays while Chad Henne was at quarterback.

Look, we all know Clemons is not going to displace either Gibril Wilson or Yeremiah Bell in the base defense. But ....

If he continues to be around the football in practice after practice, as he has been, and he shows the coaching staff that it translates to preseason games, do not be surprised if Clemons begins to push for playing time in Miami's starting dime package.

In that dime package, Nathan Jones can be had while Tyrone Culver is solid but not spectacular. Clemons has simply been a revelation because there hasn't been a practice he hasn't been around the football.

The rest of the Miami secondary?

Smith, promoted to first team earlier in the day, had a pretty uneventful practice save the little pushing he got into with Ronnie Brown when he brought Brown to the ground on one team drill play.

Fellow rookie Vontae Davis continues to puzzle me. Coach Tony Sparano refuses to say it, but Davis is clearly the least impressive of Miami's rookie DBs. Don't get me wrong, he's never burned in an ugly-got-no-talent sort of way. But neither does he actually make the big play.

He almost ripped the ball out of Patrick Cobbs' hands after a catch ... but didn't. He almost had good coverage on Greg Camarillo in the seven-on-seven drills, but Camarillo still got the reception. Then Brandon London put a nasty double-move on Davis and got easily behind him for a 20 yard reception.

This just in: Vontae Davis needs much work.

The Dolphins defense was stout up front this afternoon in the manner it chased quarterbacks. There must have been half a dozen sacks out there. Channing Crowder had two sacks. Quentin Moses had two sacks.  Erik Walden had a sack. Lionel Dotson had a sack. Jason Taylor had a sack.

There were a couple of offensive highlights today. Rookie Brian Hartline had a gorgeous one-hand catch on the move on a post pattern. But for every nice play, the offense offered a disappointment.

Anthony Armstrong dropped a pass on the same pattern Hartline caught his pass. And Ted Ginn dropped a sideline throw from Chad Pennington.

A couple of special teams notes: Newly signed kicker Connor Barth connected on 3 of 4 FGs, missing from 46 yards. Dan Carpenter connected on 4 of 4.

The Dolphins also worked on having their wedge blockers catch kickoffs. Aside from it looking awkward, it showed me something about this coaching staff. I've covered hundreds of Miami practices and never seen this drill. It tells you this staff prepares for every eventuality -- including the chance a kickoff is short and comes down to a wedge blocker.

The Dolphins have released their first depth chart of the season. Nothing major but here are the higlights:

Offense -- Davone Bess is listed as a starter ahead of Greg Camarillo at WR. Donald Thomas is listed as a third-string RG. Shawn Murphy is listed as the starter at RG.

Defense -- Phillip Merling is listed as the starter at RE with Tony McDaniel at second team. Randy Starks is listed second team at LE. Eric Green is listed as the starting RCB. Jason Taylor is obviously the starter at SOLB.

Having said all that, this depth chart means nothing. It's changing by the practice. And it has little bearing on what the lineups will look like come the regular-season opener. A lot can change between now and then.

[BLOG NOTE: I'll add the Classic Training Camp Moment and the entire depth chart later tonight. Check back.]

CB shuffle, other notes from morning practice

 

A new practice week has begun and the Dolphins and The Herald (see photo by David Agudelo of CBS-4) are back to work.

It's starting off as a good week for Sean Smith, Randy Starks, Quentin Moses and Cameron Wake.

It's not starting off as well for Eric Green and Phillip Merling.

As I reported earlier this morning on my Twitter account, Smith has parlayed some good work the first week of camp plus the only turnover of the entire scrimmage Saturday, an interception, into a chance to work with the first-team defense.

Two things: I'm certain Tony Sparano will praise Smith during his press conference in the next 90 minutes. I'm fairly certain he'll underplay the fact Smith is on first-team because, as you must know, the coaching staff wants to see different guys playing with the firsts and eventually Vontae Davis may get his chance also.

[Update: "We wanted to shuffled the deck at the end of the first week," Sparano said during his press conference. "We wanted to mix some things up and see some people against different people."]

But ...

The fact remains that even to this naked-eyed reporter who never played the game, Smith simply looks better than either Green or Davis at the moment. He's around the ball more. He's a very imposing looking figure, a combination of Joe Lavender (look him up) with a little Sean Taylor (far as ball skills are concerned) in one very raw, very young, but potential-filled package.

Smith showed some of that promise during one-on-one drills as he ran step-for-step with Ted Ginn Jr. on a 9 route and batted the ball away harmlessly.

On the other hand, Green, the starter much of the offseason and the first week of practice, showed why he's opened the door to losing his starting job. He was soundly beaten by Greg Camarillo on a 9 route and he was easily a step behind.

So what up with Vontae Davis? He is the first-round pick, after all. Well, he's not struggling by any means. But neither is he surging to the front of his class.

"He's a young guy and he's done some young guy things," Sparano said. "He got double-moved out here the other day in the scrimmage. Really, got double-moved twice during the course of the scrimmage. [But] he's very physical. Has good catch-up speed and is not afraid. he's got a pretty short memory out there which is good for a cornerback.

"There are some fundamental things we have to work on. He's got to get his eyes out of the backfield. that's a natural thing for young guys. He's just got to get his eyes out of the backfield and concentrate on some fundamental. But I like the way he's coming. He's not afraid to compete."

At the open competion for the starting right defensive end job, Randy Starks is getting his chance with the starting unit now. The Dolphins have a plan. They definitely will give everyone an equal, fair opportunity to win that job and Starks has seen his time come.

Phillip Merling, who the Dolphins expected would win that job after a fine offseason, has lagged the first week of camp and after watching Tony McDaniel get more first-team reps than him last week, now he's seeing Starks being given a chance.

Merling is working with the second team but that is not permanent. He can still wake up and turn the tide. But the Dolphins are a team in motion. So Merling can either plow ahead or get left behind as he currently seems to be.

"It's nothing against Phil one way or the other," Sparano said. "I thought, actually, Phil was pretty productive out here the other day in the scrimmage. But it goes by the whole week's worth of work and maybe who you want to see play up a little bit. And one guy that had not had that opportunity yet was Randy.

"And Randy is a guy that every time we sit down and make an evaluation, his evaluation is pretty good. So let's see Randy against some good people as well while we can." 

I told you earlier that Wake and Moses are also having good days today. The truth is both started to "flash," as Sparano likes to say, late last week. And then both had a productive scrimmage.

The reward for that production is a greater opportunity to open the coaching staff's eyes. They've been trusted with small things and now the staff is seeing if they can be trusted with bigger things.

That's why Wake got a few snaps with the first-team defense while Joey Porter rested on a couple today. No, Wake is not about to replace Porter. But the staff wants to see how he does against better competiton. Some guys play up to the competiton while others demure. We'll see what Wake does.

Moses, who has been very active, has proven a great frustration to quarterbacks at times. It's not so much that he's getting great push all the time. It's not that he gets to the QB all the time. It's just that he has this incredible knack for batting balls down at the line of scrimmage. He had one today and one in the scrimmage.

So Moses, working almost exclusively with the third-team defense last week, got a lot of repetitions with Wake on second team this morning. We'll see if he can stand the prosperity.

Two more play-by-play tidbits from practice: Yeremiah Bell, solid and better in coverage since this camp started than I've ever seen, had an interception of Chad Pennington during practice. Will Billingsley, who is not making this team but is fighting for a practice squad spot, also had an interception.

The Dolphins announced the signing of WR James Robinson, of Fort Lauderdale, to the squad. A product of Westminister Academy, Robinson won four state medals in track and field. No doubt. Sparano said he impressed the team with his speed in the tryout. He is, however, a developmental type of player.

If you are in South Florida and planned to attend this evening's 5 p.m. practice, go do something else instead. The Dolphins announced at noon that the afternoon practice will be held inside the Nick Saban Memorial Bubble (NSMB) and will not be open to the public.

The Dolphins apologize profusely. Not really, but I thought I'd throw that in there on their behalf.

[Update at 4:50: The Dolphins have signed K Connor Barth to a two-year contract. Barth was with KC last year and was cut July 28. He will compete with Dan Carpenter. Nobody gets a free ride around here. Nobody!]

Tackling the Dolphins QBs - with '07 moment

Of the reams of emails I get, the three subjects most often covered in those cybernotes are on the Dolphins quarterbacks, on Jason Taylor, and on how much I stink at this, that or the other thing.

The topic here excuses the latter two topics from the conversation and takes a marksman's aim at the quarterbacks.

Firstly, Dolphins quarterbacks have been pretty inconsistent during this training camp. What did you expect? Midseason form?

I would say the Dolphins have the right idea in that Chad Pennington is the starter, as he's been the most effective QB in camp, while Chad Henne is clearly miles ahead of Pat White, so they come in at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.

But here are some notes I've jotted that I want to share:

Although the Dolphins talk about these guys continuing to compete, the competition is over. Anyone with eyes can see that. Looking at how the staff has broken down practice repetitions, I find it hard to believe Henne can surpass Pennington or White can surpass Henne. The fact is, in team-related drills, Pennington has gotten practically all the work with the starters, Henne gets all of the work with the reserves and about 5 percent with starters, and White has gotten practically all the remaining work with the bottom-of-the roster guys.

Yes, Henne is likely to get as much, if not more, playing time in the preseason. But we all know that's to get him ready in case Pennington gets hurt. As for White, he's going to be involved in a package of plays the team will set for him for the regular season. Pass Henne as Jeff Ireland originally suggested he's be allowed to do? Not happening.

Secondly, there has been much criticism of White this offseason and again early in camp because he obviously does not have the strongest arm or most impressive build in the world. The Dolphins talk of changing the bodies of players. They need to change White's body because he resembles my 12-year-old nephew, all scrawny and wiry and looking like a 220-pound safety could tackle him into next week if given the chance.

Having said all that, White, I believe he is already better than John Beck.

Let me repeat that. White is already better than John Beck.

He has better control of the huddle. He is more mobile than Beck. And, seemingly, more courageous than Beck in that he attacks the defense rather than letting the defense attack him. White is more apt to throw down the field than Beck, who became frustratingly timid with checkdown passes.

Yes, Beck has a better arm and probably always will. But what good is a strong arm if you only use it for 5-yard dump passes? Yes, Beck is built bigger and stronger than White. But what good is a bigger body, if Beck rarely put that body in motion by leaving the pocket.?

I would say there is a 60-40 chance White earns playing time in some Pat Package this year. And I'd say he will be more effective in that package than Beck ever was in his rookie year. That package will include passes but also be a lot about running the football, and if you don't believe that check out the video.

Finally, there is no doubt that Henne has a much better arm than Pennington. Everyone says it because, well, it's true. But Pennington's experience, vision and almost obssessive devotion to learning the defense, learning his receivers, and recognizing situations keeps him ahead of Henne.

And the gap isn't likely to narrow because while Henne works hard, Pennington works hard longer. And for now, that's good enough to keep the gap between them a noticeable one. By the way, check out my column on Pennington in today's Miami Herald. It shows you why the Dolphins can put Pennington in his current uncomfortable situation and he doesn't wilt.

Today's Classic Training Camp Moment takes us back to the bad ol' days of 2007. On Aug. 31, 2007 the Dolphins gave us a clear indication what life was going to be like under new coach Cam Cameron.

That evening, the Dolphins wrapped up their final preseason game but, in his infinite wisdom, Cameron made the decision not to coach his team against the Saints only days before the start of the regular-season.

Before the game, Cameron decided it might be a good idea to hand the team over to defensive coordinator Dom Capers so he could work as the head coach and be ready to step in should Cameron somehow need to be absent at some future time. Tight end coach Mike Mularkey was called up o call plays as the offensive coordinator and linebacker coach George Edwards was told to run the defense as the defensive coordinator.

Cameron's role would be to merely observe and grade his players and coaches as well as give his team a good run-through in case he ever was unavailable.

“It gives me a chance not only to watch our staff, but also gives me a chance to evaluate these guys tonight,” Cameron said during a halftime television interview.

A couple of problems: A coach can't evaluate by using tape of the game?

Also, Capers, who served stints as a head coach in Carolina and Houston, didn't really need to practice being a head coach. In fact, it was Cameron who desperately needed the training.

Mularkey had been a play-caller in several NFL stops, including Miami, and really didn't need the work, either.

And, to top it all off, after telling his staff, players, media department and a TV reporter at halftime that he wasn't coaching, he denied it in his post-game press conference! Despite not wearing a headset the entire game and not being the man who talked with the refs about calls (Capers did that), Cameron tried to act like the media was crazy to believe he had not coached the team.

"Everyone knows I'm the head coach of the Miami Dolphins," he insisted. "Tonight, last night, tomorrow."

Cameron was no longer the head coach six months later.