Antrel Rolle loves idea of joining the Dolphins

The Pro Bowl squads have finished their walk-thru before tomorrow's game and I had the opportunity to catch up with a player who has his eyes set on playing for the Dolphins:

Free safety Antrel Rolle.

Rolle, a former University of Miami star in the Pro Bowl for the first time, is in a sort of limbo right now because the Cardinals are scheduled to pay him $12.1 million in salary and a bonus in 2010. The idea behind having such a whopping figure in the final year of Rolle's contract is to force both sides to renegotiate a new deal or simply cut ties.

And while Rolle insists he loves the Cardinals, he also loves the idea of playing for the Dolphins in South Florida, where he grew up, played at South Dade High and The U.

"That would be nice," Rolle told me. "You know what I mean. I would love to take some of the burden off of mom and dad seeing as they travel to every game. Miami is home for me. I haven't played here in five years, but hey, we can make it happen."

Rolle repeated that his parent fly across country to every game he plays. That's 16 weeks of travel and he'd like to lighten their burden by giving them eight home games in Miami.

"I'm still a Cardinal right now, you know," he said. "I don't know what's going to happen. But I love the Cardinals and their organization. I've been good to them and they've been great to me also. Let's just see what plays out.

"I don't know what's going to play out. They haven't given me any indication. I know they want to keep me there. We're trying to keep our franchise together, but I don't know what they're thinking right now."

What Rolle is thinking is that if the Cardinals decide not to pay him his $12 million and release him he will be on the open market. And the first place he will look is Miami. It is important enough a topic to him that he has studied Miami's personnel situation at free safety and is aware Gibril Wilson was something of a bust last year and could be cut when the league year begins anew in March.

"I'm more than aware," Rolle told me.

This season Rolle had 72 tackles, four interceptions, eight passes defensed, one forced fumble and 1.5 sacks. Wilson had 91 tackles, eight passes defensed and one sack. He had no interceptions and caused no other turnovers. 

Rolle, who lives in Homestead in the offseason, is not completely disconnected from the Cardinals yet. He said Kurt Warner's retirement was "bittersweet."

"I'm happy for him," Rolle said, "But he's defintely going to be missed. He's one of the persons that has been my inspiration and one of the leaders I've looked to."

Matt Leinart is expected to take over for Warner.

"Leinert, I think his time is up right now," Rolle said. "It's time for him to produce and be the player that Matt knows he can be and the player we all know he can be. We're going to be behind him 100 percent of the way and I think he'll do a good job there."

Assuming Rolle is there with Leinert. Big assumption.

Comments

[Cfphinfan]

Hampton has played in a good system at pitt... Would be worth picking up at the right price

[34 in Toronto Till Broken Leg]

Boo Hooo.

NJ realizes he's not winning argument & can't bully us into hating on Rolle, so he goes home.

Guess he's gotta rest up for his "Live Blog"

Tool!! Watch him respond---he's still lurking, he just can't stand that some of us are not worried about Ross & his billions.

[I AM ALWAYS...]

godolphins, stats can be very misleading. You can't let them tell the story for you. You have to trust your eyes as well. For instance, statistically speaking I was by far the best FS in the league last year. Percentage-wise teams completed less than 2.5% of passes thrown my way and I gave up 0 TDs.

We all saw Wilson time and again miss tackles (which was supposed to be his strength), give terrible help coverage over the top and routinely get beat by the TE position (as did Bell).

We must get a new FS, ILB and hopefully OLB and NT help as well. (I put NT a little lower on the list because I believe we have a viable option with Ferg and even if we take one in the draft as we all hope NT normally takes a couple of years to groom.)

[Aloco]

34 in toronto sound like somebody we know. please no cry

[34 in toronto till broken leg]

fake 34 in toronto till broken leg at 1:46 pm

[ALoco]

NJ JUST ANSWERED 34 IN TORONT AND SIGNED MY NAME .THANK YOU NJ .

[Aloco]

FAKE ALOCO AT 2:01 PM.

[ALoco]

NJ IS A CREEP OF THIS BLOG . HE SIGNS W/MANY NAMES .

[CJ]

----"It won't cost in cap space but you would still have top pay wilson his guaranteed money if you cut wilson."

----"The point is wilson get 8 mil in guarantees and rolle will command at least 6 mil."

Posted by: NJ PHIN FAN
--------------------------------------------------------------------

NJ, you're an idiot. the "8 million guaranteed" to Gibril Wilson has already been paid. There's no more money going out the door to him if he gets cut. The only question is that for salary cap purposes the bonus money that was already paid ($5M in signing bonus, $2M in roster bonus) is pro rated across the length of the contract, and would be accelerated into the current year if he were to be cut. That's a moot point if it's an uncapped year. Learn how the system works before you shoot your mouth off.

[ALoco]

NJ IS A DONKEY.

[perspective]

Have the Dolphins already cut Clemons? He'd be the obvious choice if Wilson is let go, wouldn't he? I can't imagine cutting Wilson, and signing another player to big bonus money, and watch that fail to. They'll draft a safety somewhere from rds.3-5. But Clemons would seem to get first shot at the job.

[ALoco]

NO, I CHANGED MY MIND .NJ IS A MONKEY .

[FLPD]

OMG, somebody actually had the audicity to say Wilson is better than Rolle?

Wilson has been discarded by two teams in two years and he's about to get dumped by the third team, Miami.

Some rankings are for geeks and losers and this is perfect proof.

Rolle rocks and is a huge upgrade.

[carlito from golfito]

Hello Aloco. Do you have your meatballs ready for the senior bowl?

[ALoco]

HELLO CARLITO.

[mackie]

Probably not a fan favorite idea... but stat wise Gibril had a better season than bell.. put Gibril back to strong safety- where he's comfortable- cut bell who's getting up there in age, and sign rolle as a fa and if there's a steal for safety in the draft draft him otherwise focus on lb, dt, wr, and possibly hb

[TnFinFan]

Rolle I think is better than Wilson but I agree that using the money on several young players through the draft may be the better way to go.

[TnFinFan]

I wouldn't cut Bell. He came on toward the end of the season. What he needs is a FS behind him. There will be options at safety in the draft. I don't care what they do to Wilson, burn him at the stake for all I care (lol)

[Josh]

How old is Rolle, and i dont think the Cards will want to poney it up. He would prob sign for alot less to play for his fav team, and is a slight upgrade over Wilson. Worth it, he is starter material if he is UNDER 30.

[Nc fin fan]

Mackie you are going to cut sombody that just made the PRO POWL.AND keep Wilson ARE YOU CRAZY.Wilson has been cut by the RAIDERS. And hope fully will be cut by Miami. BILL PARCELLS will never do that if he does FIRE him he has lost his mind.

[Mark in Toronto]

Marco, Cheers! I am insane in love with the Dolphins. Dan Marino got me hooked and I haven't given up since or ever will. I was even a season ticket holder in 2004 and flew down a few times. Hope to become a season ticket holder again. Hopefully in 2010 but more likely in 2011.

I believe it was Chris who asked about Hampton? Personally I would love Hampton. He's 31 and not the youngest option but might give the team 2 or 3 very good years. He's crazy strong and those of us over 35 that strength stays and even improves as we age (to a certain extent).

[Mark in Toronto]

Antrel Rolle is 27 - physical peak years with many left.

[the truth]

CJ, you are correct, Wison has already been paid. Miami doesn't owe him anything.

There are some good safeties but unfortunately, few are available. The braintrust has been average maybe a little above average in the draft. But horrible in other transactions. They need to get better fast.

Fans (the ones who go to the games) will not put up with another year like this one.

[Mark in Toronto]

SteveO, the free agent crop is not one of the strongest in recent memory thanks to the CBA situation but relatively speaking the FS crop (compared to the others) offers some options.

I'm not saying I would sign any or all of these guys but free agent safeties include:

Darren Sharper
Will Allen (the other one)
Tyrone Carter
Ryan Clark
Sean Jones
Mark Roman
Roy Williams

and will include a bunch more that will be cut from their current contracts. Kerry Rhodes and Antrel Rolle have already been mentioned. These 2 are probably the best 2 available out there mentioned.

For the Dolphins purposes the best case scenario would be for them to feel like they can go with Chris Clemons and Tyrone Culver since they are already on the roster and are cheap. Therefore you could use the free agent dollars and draft picks elsewhere.

[Chris]

Safety is the playmaker position. A great one will win you one or two games a year. Not necessarily saying Rolle is that guy but having watched every second of every Dolphin game last year I'm pretty sure Wilson isn't. Still can't get that picture out of my head of Wilson riding Jeremy Shockey's back for 40 yards and unfortunately that wasn't an isolated incident.

[Mark in Toronto]

NC fin fan, I think Mackie makes a good point. Bell is closer to the end of his career than the beginning and the Dolphins need to find a replacement/successor no later than 2011. We'll be lucky to get another good year out of him. Gebril is a good SS and has already been paid the bulk of his contract - just saying.

[TnFinFan]

Mark in Toronto. Mackie's point is taken but his reasoning may be bit flawed. Bell has battled back from injury and now playing well. Remember he saved a TD against Carolina by running down the RB. I would say he has 2 - 3 more good years left that would go a long way to helping a young guy taken in the draft

[r u kidding]

i notice stop the madness came in and nj left and haven't been back since but now all these supposed fake post are popping up. nj never never never logs out! who does he think he's kidding

[Mark in Toronto]

TnFinFan, I do like Y. Bell a lot and admire his rise from part time plant worker to NFL millionaire. However, nobody beats father time. Going into a season wit a 32 yr old starting SS is starting to play with fire. Ideally, I wouldn't want any starters over 30 unless they're perennial pro bowlers. but that's just me.

[TnFinFan]

Mark in Toronto. Maybe so. But the starting job would be his to lose next season, maybe not so in 2011, but he could be that veteran leadership for some young guys.

[Mark in Toronto]

Agreed, TnFinFan, I think that's the way it will go.

[NJ PHIN FAN]

Ok guys , just got in with not a minute to spare. It's senior bowl time !! Lets talk draft and the players in this game .

[TnFinFan]

Game on. Enjoy

[NJ PHIN FAN]

Cj , i know you're little slow but my point went right over your head . The point is yeah miami paid wilson and he got his money , now you want to throw more big money at that same position and take a chance of another bust free agent for big money, Do me favoer , get a f'n clue before you open your mouth IDIOT !!!

[nc fin fan]

Bell was running down players all year,yes he is gettin older but if he can still rundown RB inthis league,I never saw Wilson run any body down from behind like that,Bell can still play.The trick is not to get to young to fast or you loose experiance, kinda like we did the last 3 games this year, you need a vet, presence to bring the new kids along.

[Mark in Toronto]

Those ribs looked NICE!

[stop the madness]

who cares what you think we can get out own info. for those of you who dont have nfl channel can watch game at channel surfing.net. you dont need nj reporting nothing. oh yea this the fake stop the madness. ps he might go log in under a blue name but its all the same= nj

[NJ PHIN FAN]

Mccluster is scary !!

[Po White Trash]

Cooper dropping ball as usual

[NJ PHIN FAN]

LOL @ po . yeah you see that ?? what's up po ??

[Po White Trash]

What up NJ,

I'm a Gator and saw that to much this year.

[NJ PHIN FAN]

mays got blown up and missed the tackle !!!

[Po White Trash]

Anyone gotta web site with the roster on in it?

[NJ PHIN FAN]

Po , he dropped a few during practices this week.

[Mark in Toronto]

Sloppy tackling Sharpton

[Po White Trash]

Hope we don't draft him....

[NJ PHIN FAN]

Yeah mark , it was sloppy. perrish cox had a good week.

[Po White Trash]

We got Ginn ta drop balls.

[NJ PHIN FAN]

oooh iupati. he had a great week .

[NJ PHIN FAN]

LOL @ po

[Mark in Toronto]

Anyone else surprised how well the north is running considering both Cody and Dan Williams are in there?

[NJ PHIN FAN]

yeah mark . me . the south is much more talented but it's a all star game.

[Mark in Toronto]

Thought Dan Williams battled back strong against Iaupati after a slow start.

Pike can really be a good Qb but he needs to start eating. Very smart and makes all the throws.

Sure it is an all star game but these guys have to go all out. Millions of dollars at stake.

[Fake Bangin big booty at 4:10]

CJ was RIGHT!!!! Get over yourself.

[NJ PHIN FAN]

I told you guys sparano loves mccluster, yeah mark i agree on pike. if gets bigger and stronger he can be a good one.

[Mark in Toronto]

Witherspoon showing nice pursuit. This guy has really got my attention.

[The Seer]

Instant Nickname: Perrish "The Thought" Cox

[NJ PHIN FAN]

mark they've only been together a week , it take teams a whole preseason to build team chemistry.

[NJ PHIN FAN]

there goes sparano celebrating a fg. we've seen that before . LOL !!

[Bootang25]

Weatherspoon was great in the pregame huddle firing up the team, and as tebow was going off the field, weatherspoon did the gator chomp. I like his feistiness.