Miami Dolphins In Depth

Salguero overview of Dolphins free agency

Regular readers of this blog will remember I reported last week that free agency for the Dolphins is going on hiatus for bit while the focus shifts to the draft. Yes, there are caveats in that hiatus but those are explained in the post.

Well, that means the bulk of Miami's free agency haul is over for 2013.

The Dolphins signed eight free agents, re-signed four of their own free agents, and cut or let six other starting-caliber free agents walk.

So I want to tell you what I think of all this.

I want to do it one time

I want to do it on the record.

I want to do it so that come future days when free agents boom or bust, you know how I stood on each player. (I'm doing this because fans have short memories and those that follow me here or on twitter often say I advocated something I did not or failed to stand for something that I actually did.)

I'm not saying I'm always right. Obviously not. (You read my stuff so you know that's not true). But If I'm going to be wrong, I want to do it on my own (dis)abilities and not with anybody's help.

This should also give you forum for agreeing or disagreeing with me.

Here we go:  

SIGNINGS (contract details in parenthesis)

WR Mike Wallace (5 years for $60 million with $27 million guaranteed): I stood up and advocated for this one and reported on this one to the point of being nauseating. The Dolphins had to do this. The team had no deep threat and had shown precious little ability to add a deep threat this past decade -- remember Ted Ginn and Clyde Gates -- in the draft. So Miami had to overpay. Yes, this is overpaying. But that's what people do for a Rolls Royce. Wallace has averaged 8 TDs a year for years. He's rarely injured. He has never been a problem in the locker room. The Steelers wanted him back but couldn't afford him. That all suggests he's going to be a great addition. And that's what I think he'll be. I wanted him on the Dolphins as much as anybody. I stand by that. We'll see.

LB Dannell Ellerbe (5 years for $34.75 million with $14 million gtd.): Ellerbe said it himself, he thought he was going to be the heir to the Ray Lewis middle linebacker job in Baltimore. So on the surface that seems like a great get if outstanding GM Ozzie Newsome and the Super Bowl Champion Ravens thought that highly of Ellerbe. Except, well, they didn't. They let him go. Yes, they had cap issues. But it didn't stop them from adding Elvis Dumervil. So that gave me pause. Then this: The Baltimore Sun reported that at points during his time with the Ravens, Ellerbe was late to meetings, late to practice and liked to party -- a lot. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and believe it was early on and not something he dealt with lately, because the Dolphins assured me, "we did our homework," on all the free agents before signing them and part of that was knowing how they would conduct themselves off the field and around South Florida. Miami addressed the linebackers to "get more physical" and have the defense make more plays, according to GM Jeff Ireland and head coach Joe Philbin. Me? I'm not sold. I don't see linebackers in the 4-3 being the huge playmakers in the NFL they once were. The game often creates mismatches against them. The offenses often throw right over them. So I'm not overly excited about this move.

LB Phillip Wheeler (5 years for $26 million with $13 million gtd.): If Wheeler were coming out of college, I'd look at him as a one-year wonder. Remember that two years ago, the Indianapolis Colts let him walk and he signed a one-year deal with Oakland for $700,000. Yes, the Dolphins liked him last year and wanted him on the team but he wanted to pursue a chance to start so he went elsewhere. So yes, the Dolphins saw something in Wheeler not many other teams did a year ago. But now they see something in him at a price no other team did. Can he do in 2013 as well as he did in 2012? Indeed, can he be a contributor and playmaker -- remember the Dolphins added Ellerbe and Wheeler to make plays -- the next three years or so? I have to see it.

CB Brent Grimes (1 year for $5.5 million with $3 million gtd.): I love this pickup because it adds a stable, experienced, professional, high-caliber cornerback that will be an upgrade to Miami's defense at corner if ... he's healthy. Grimes is coming off an Achiles' tendon tear. His rehab is reportedly doing well (he's doing the reporting). But in the depressed cornerback market, Grimes had to settle for a contract that forced him to prove he's returned to the Pro Bowl caliber player he was in 2011. If he does, he's a great signing. If he doesn't, he didn't break the bank. Grimes will be hungry because utlimately he wants a long-term deal. The question, again, is health. I like this signing very much.

TE Dustin Keller (1 year for $4.25 million with $2.25 million gtd.): Here's another player that was injured most of last year and had to settle for a short-term deal to re-prove his value. So the Dolphins get a hungry player in a contract year who will be playing inspired for himself and certainly for the opportunity to stick it to his former team, the New York Jets. That's not what I like most about Keller. I like that finally the Dolphins have a legitimate pass-catching threat at tight end. In that department, Keller is an upgrade over Anthony Fasano. Yes, the blocking won't be as good. But Keller is willing. That's important. And this is what I like most: Keller comes from an offense that had multiple offensive coordinators the past couple of years. He comes from an offense with a bad quarterback. And yet, he was productive when healthy. So in an offense that is more stable, with a quarterback that promises to be better than Mark Sanchez, I expect better production. This is a solid signing. I like it.

G Lance Louis (1 year for $1,603,750 with $100,000 gtd.): Bargain shopping, the Dolphins hope they strike gold here. Louis was perhaps Chicago's best offensive lineman last year before he blew out his knee. If he can return to that height by training camp, John Jerry will be out of a starting job. If he doesn't, the Dolphins can basically cut Louis with minimal risk. The middle ground is Louis provides veteran experience and can be an experienced backup on the cheap. I like the signing more than the player. The contract is the thing here. Solid job.

WR Brandon Gibson (3 years for $9.78 million with $3.75 million gtd.): Gibson reminds of a Jeff Ireland receiver. Not fast. Not quick. But big and physical. I get it. There's something to be said for that. Me? I like speed. Speed at X, Y and Z. If you're going to spend over $3 million a year I would have preferred some speed be part of the deal. My problem? I looked at the available players and the only one I would have liked was Darrius Heyward-Bey. And he's a problematic reclamation project who signed a one-year deal. The Dolphins obviously decided going with experience was more valuable than dipping into the vast pool of draft eligible receivers that come with promise but no NFL experience. I get it. But do I love this signing? Meh. Let me say this: Instead of signing Gibson, I might have added to the TE corps and solved it. I would have gotten Brandon Myers to go with Keller and drafted a wide receiver to groom. Instead, the Dolphins may end up drafting a tight end. Let's see who produces more in 2013 ... Gibson or Myers.

DT Vaughn Martin (2 years for $4 million with $750,000 gtd.): Ireland loves his defensive line. He believes it is a staple of the team. An anchor. He wants to keep it strong. But the Dolphins needed to address the tackle sport because Tony McDaniel played too high in the 4-3 and was often injured and simply didn't fulfill his role. So the club moved on from him and got Martin. This is a bargain signing. Martin is a solid player. But he will have to get used to the 4-3 because he's been a 3-4 DE the past couple of years. That means a growing period. Is this an awesome signing? No. Is this a solid addition? Probably so. Good work.

Re-signings

WR Brian Hartline (5 years for $30,775,000 with $12.5 million gtd): First off, why the extra $775,000? I know Hartline would have taken $30 million. And this deal was signed at a time the Dolphins were still bidding against themselves. So somebody cost owner Stephen Ross some money on that. Aside from that, Hartline is a good player who has already established some chemistry with quarterback Ryan Tannehill and some presence in the locker room. It's good to keep your own good players. It's bad to be a receiver needy team and let your top receiver go two consecutive years. So the Dolphins had to do this deal. Thing I like most about this? If Hartline and Wallace stay healthy, the Dolphins can put two speedy wide receivers on the field at the same time. And you know how I feel about speed, right?

DT Randy Starks (franchise tender signed for $8.45 million): This rental makes sense. Starks is very, very good at what he does but you don't want to commit four or five years to a 29-year-old interior lineman. The Dolphins approach with Paul Soliai was similar and they ended up cutting his tender in half the follwing year down to $6 million a year on a multi-year deal. Don't be surprised if Starks' price goes down next year and Miami gets him cheaper. The fact is also the Dolphins had salary cap space to fit the franchise tender under the cap so no biggie. Good job.

OL Nate Garner (3 years for $4.875 million with $700,000 gtd.): Not every signing involves a star. You have to have role players and Garner is a good one. He can play both guard and tackle in a pinch. He's cheap. He's experienced and has rarely been overwhelmed by the stage. Garner is also good people. He's good in the community and he kepts his mouth shut, which coach Joe Philbin loves. No issues with this re-signing.

S Chris Clemons (1 year for $2.75 million with $1 million gtd): Clemons wanted a longer deal after being the starter much of the past three seasons. But he's a solid player. That's the extent of it. He's not been a consistent playmaker. He's not been a major issue. Just solid. The Dolphins want to upgrade at safety but one cannot upgrade at every single position over one offseason. So the team is standing pat here this year and could upgrade in the future. Logical move. 

The "losses"

LT Jake Long to St. Louis: He went to the Rams and I shrug. Look, he's a very good player when healthy. But his health is a concern. And even when he is healthy, he's not a cornerstone that will lead any team to the Super Bowl. No left tackle is that, frankly. The best left tackles, the hot left tackles don't carry teams. They are along for the ride. The Ravens won the Super Bowl last year with Bryant McKinnie playing left tackle. McKinnie had been out of shape and out of the loop the entire season until he finally got playing time in the playoffs. So what does that tell you about left tackles? Are they valuable? Yes. Should they be at the top of your salary cap structure? Put it this way, Joe Thomas is a great left tackle and more consistent than Long. He's at the top of Cleveland's salary cap. How's that working them? Playmakers should be at the top of your cap structure. Not the grunts. And certainly not the grunts with lingering injury issues.

MLB Karlos Dansby: He was solid. But he was hired to be great. He was hired to an $8 million a year contract to make plays and disrupt offenses and change games. He didn't. He was merely solid. And if he'd been making $2 million a year instead of four times that, that would have been good enough. But he wasn't. This is a case of Dolphins cutting ties because Dansby wasn't part of the problem, but neither was he part of the solution. What does it say that Dansby still hasn't been signed by anyone?

OLB Kevin Burnett to Oakland: He was cheaper than Dansby but he wasn't cheap. He was just one grade above solid. But again, he didn't make big plays, either. He didn't cause many fumbles or step in front of passes for interceptions. He was a player other players respected. But he's 30 and he wasn't about to get any better. Interestingly, the Raiders recovered from their loss of Phillip Wheeler by signing Kevin Burnett, completing what effectively was a trade of players. The Dolphins paid a much bigger salary for the exchange. Wheeler will have to be a consistent playmaker to make it worthwhile for the Dolphins. We'll see.

TE Anthony Fasano to KC: He did a lot of little things well but did nothing extraodinarily well. He was solid. He was a 7-9 tight end. The Dolphins needed to upgrade and while their blocking at the position may be worse today, I perceive their pass-catching will be better. And, I remind, it is a passing league.

Sean Smith to KC: He wasn't a system fit in Miami. He was at his best in press situations against big, physical receivers. So he had good games against Larry Fitzgerald and A.J. Green. But he seemed lost the entire rest of the season. He gave up first downs as if that was the assignment. And he didn't make plays. Just did not. It was uncanny. The Chiefs believe he'll be great in their system and they tampered focused on Smith early to get a deal done. I believed the Dolphins made a mistake trading Vontae Davis. I don't think letting Smith walk was a mistake.

Tony McDaniel to Seattle: I'd be surprised if McDaniel makes that team.

[Update: Reggie Bush (how could I forget): He was a good player. He worked hard, played hard and was a good citizen. Nothing like what I thought when he got here. But he'll be better off in Detroit and the Dolphins will be better off without him because Lamar Miller will be just as good, if not better, if he stays healthy. And Miller will do it while earning 10 times less money. I would like the Dolphins to draft a running back on draft Saturday, however.]

Brady's doing it, but Tannehill and his WRs working also

The NFL was aflutter for about a day this week when the University of Southern California athletics department tweeted a photo of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady working out with new slot receiver Danny Amendola at the USC facilities.

Somewhere, Peyton Manning probably got to thinking about flying to see Wes Welker and matching Brady throw for throw.

Everywhere around the NFL fans were both impressed and depressed -- the first with the idea that Brady is already working on his craft four months before the start of the preseason and secondly, that their hometown QBs might not be keeping pace.

I know some Dolphins fans got worried.

I got emails from a couple.

I had some ask me on twitter if Ryan Tannehill is also working with Miami's receivers or whether he's vacationing and playing tennis as he did last week.

Well, relax.

Someone asked Tannehill about Brady putting in work and Tannehill responded:

"Been having throwing session (sic) w my wideouts for weeks now," Tannehill tweeted.

Within seconds of that tweet, one of the receivers apparently joining those sessions jumped into the fray.

"Ya! Check yo self!" Brian Hartline added in some unremarkable English.

(Just kidding, Brian).

And although I cannot tell you how many Miami receivers are involved in these sessions, or how frequent they are or whether new additions Mike Wallace, Dustin Keller and Brandon Gibson are involved, at least you can know that folks aren't just standing around watching Brady gain chemistry with his newest receiver.

By the way, Brady on Thursday did a session with Terrell Owens.

I would be surprised if the Patriots are going to sign Owens, 39 and two years out of regular-season action, to a contract. And I know the Dolphins aren't going to do it, either.

I say this because I expect those are the next questions someone is bound to ask.

Dolphins preseason schedule right here

We knew the Dolphins agreed to play five instead of four preseason games this year. Now we know their opponents in those games.

The Dolphins preseason schedule:

Date       Opponent                                      Time

Aug. 4     Dallas Cowboys (Canton, Ohio)       8 p.m.

TBD.        at Jacksonville                              TBD.

TBD.        at Houston                                    TBD.

TBD.        Tampa Bay                                    TBD.

TBD.        New Orleans                                  TBD.

Coach Joe Philbin wanted wanted to play the extra game because the Dolphins are a young team with many new players. The coach got his wish a couple of weeks ago when the Dolphins were selected to play the Dallas Cowboys in the annual Hall of Fame game Aug. 4. That game, at Fawcett Stadium in Canton, Ohio, will be televised nationally.

The extra game allows Miami more time to become cohesive and allows the coaching staff more time to evaluate players.

The Dolphins also didn't want to play regular season opponents in the preseason. That didn't quite work out.

Atlanta, who was on the preseason schedule last year, is not on this year. The Dolphins are scheduled to host the Falcons at Sun Life Stadium in the regular season. That's a win for Phibin.

But, New Orleans, who has been a Miami preseason favorite in past years, is back on this year's preseason schedule. The Dolphins will travel to New Orleans during the regular season. They'll also play Tampa Bay both in the preseason and regular season.

Carolina, a club the Dolphins played in the preseason last year, is off the schedule this year. The Dolphins will host Carolina in the regular season.

The dates and times of the game are still being finalized.

Annual free agency lull comes to the Dolphins

The Dolphins have moved onto the next step of their offseason plan and that means free agency is on hold, barring an unexpected opportunity, until after the NFL draft.

That's the message I'm getting from multiple team personnel who texted Wednesday afternoon. I asked if the club that hasn't had a free agent visit in nearly a week might be done for a while and the responses were similar across the board.

"That's probably accurate although we never say never," one team official responded.

"Unless something falls off a tree," another team official said.

"What's left worth signing anyway?" one more smart-alecky team person said.

(Just kidding dude, love you.)

Here's the deal:

The Dolphins have signed eight unrestricted free agents and have plenty of salary cap room to sign more if they wish. According to NFLPA figures released Wednesday evening the Dolphins have $8,263,667 in cap space available. That includes all their transactions through Wednesday.

And, you must remember, the Dolphins will get a $10.4 million cap savings after June 1 when the releases of both Karlos Dansby and Kevin Burnett are figured onto the cap.

So that means the Dolphins could use their entire $8.2 million in current space and have enough after June 1 to sign all their draft picks, add priority free agents after the draft, add a practice squad and also have enough for an emergency stash for the regular season.

This truly is good cap work so far by GM Jeff Ireland and Executive VP of football administration Dawn Aponte.

Nonetheless, the Dolphins aren't likely to spend that entire $8 million because, well, the up-value portion of free agency is done, the bargain hunting part of free agency is donel, and now what remains is the fill holes part of free agency that typically comes after the draft.

In case you're wondering what fill holes free agency means, its when teams take inventory after the draft and if they feel they failed to meet a need in the draft, they fill that need with an available veteran. That is usually a cheap signing.

There is, however, as you read above a caveat to the free agency silence you'll hear from the Dolphins until after the draft:

If a veteran Miami covets suddenly gets cut by another team before the draft, then free agency can kick back on. If a veteran, such as Eric Winston, suddenly has an epiphany and decides he'll play very, very cheaply for the Dolphins instead of waiting for someone to offer him better money, then Miami's interest might be rekindled.

The Dolphins' interest in Winston has otherwise waned somewhat.

[Update: The Falcons are releasing RT Tyson Clabo today, per his agent. Perhaps that is a possibility. Sounds like someone falling off a tree to me.]

The personnel department and coaching staff are grinding on draft eligible players. That's the front-burner issue now. Free agency?

Not so much. 

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Hey, folks the numbers are in from last month they show it was one of the best months in the history of this blog. Thank you. And follow me on twitter please.

Coaches sometimes hurt the personnel process

During the Bill Parcells era the Dolphins did what most teams do this time of year. The personnel department tried to mesh with the coaching staff and come to a consensus agreement on the worth of draft eligible players.

This is an interesting shotgun wedding that occurs every spring because, let's face it, it's at some level dumb to do this. Coaches are paid to coach. They are paid to develop talent that is right in front of their faces. They are paid to maximize an individual.

They're not paid to project. They're not paid to evaluate.

Indeed, most coaches are not great talent evaluators.

Yet, year after year, NFL teams ask coaches to do the very thing they are not specifically paid to do: Evaluate talent.

And it has become quite clear to me in recent days that while the Dolphins personnel department of 2008-2010 had its share of misses, that was augmented by the fact the coaching staff was generally not great at evaluating college talent.

For example:

In 2010, the Dolphins were asked to serve as one of the coaching staffs at the Senior Bowl. Me, being a dummy, assumed this would give the staff firsthand knowledge of the players they were coaching and that would be a draft-day advantage.

Wrong.

During that week of practices, both head coach Tony Sparano and offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo fell in love with a guard/tackle from Mississippi. His name is John Jerry.

They liked Jerry's aggressiveness. They liked his punch. And because they liked his awareness and intelligence so much, they tried the player who played right guard and right tackle in college on the left side because he was smart enough, they reported, to handle the move.

Moreoever, Googs also reported Jerry had no issues learning quickly.

And so on draft day 2010, the Dolphins looked at their board in the third round -- the one that had tight end Jimmy Graham from Miami still sitting there -- and picked Jerry instead.

In training camp the team tried him at left guard. He was actually the starting left guard the first day of camp. And that lasted only one day because Jerry was a disaster there. He couldn't figure out the position at all.

And later in the year when Jerry's inability to get on the field came up in a conversation with a Miami personnel man, DeGulielmo, the same coach that months earlier had said Jerry was bright and had no issues picking up the system, reported that Jerry's problem was he wasn't picking up the system.

And thus Jerry couldn't do either of the things Sparano and Googs reported to the personnel department that he would be able to do. He couldn't make the transition to left guard. And he couldn't learn seamlessly.

Coaches hurting the personnel evaluation process.

Two years earlier, the Dolphins had been searching for a quarterback. And as I've recounted to you before in this blog and in my column, the Dolphins sent out Sparano, offensive coordinator Dan Henning as well as general manager Jeff Ireland to see, meet with and work out three quarterbacks.

Matt Ryan.

Joe Flacco.

Chad Henne.

And Henning, who fancied himself something of a quarterback guru, came back convinced, CONVINCED, that Henne was and would be every bit the equal of Ryan and Flacco. CONVINCED!

And he reported this to his close friend Bill Parcells. Sparano and Ireland had some misgivings but generally went along with that opinion as well.

Obviously, in hindsight, we now know that Henne isn't the equal to the other two because despite his fine arm and great work ethic and prototype body, something just doesn't click for Henne as an NFL QB. Something inate is missing. And so he is and will always remain a backup type while Flacco carried his team in the playoffs and won the Super Bowl and Ryan is among the top 10 QBs in the league.

Coaches acting as personnel men.

Why do teams do it?

It's interesting to me that personnel men don't don whistles and go try to coach players during training camp. Why do coaches get to play personnel men in February and March?

I will say this:

Recently, on my way back from the NFL annual meeting in Phoenix, I shared a flight with ESPN insider Chris Mortensen. We chatted about a number of issues and shared and compared notes on different things and one thing he told me perked my ears.

He reported that in talking to various NFL people the word he was getting was that current Dolphins coach Joe Philbin was gaining respect as a solid talent evaluator.

One source told Mort that Philbin is the best coaching evaluator he's ever worked with.

Now, that doesn't mean Philbin is ready to take over the Miami personnel department. Indeed, he still has to prove he's a good head coach because today his career record is 7-9.

But if the opinion relayed by Mort's sources turn out to be fact, perhaps the synergy the Miami coaching staff and personnel staff are forced to share this time of year won't be a hinderance.

Not like it was in previous years.

Two meetings with potential draftees that truly interest

I'll admit it, I used to get caught up in the hype about which college players the Dolphins would meet privately or workout this time of year. I used to be interested in what players the team would bring to town in its top 30 visits or what local prospects made the cut to visit the facility.

This was a big deal back in the Jimmy Johnson era. Basically, if a player was coming to Davie to meet with the Dolphins the chances of him being drafted by the team were quite high.

Lately, the truth is a majority of the players the Dolphins bring to town don't end up getting drafted by Miami. Many are borderline guys the coaching staff needs to meet up close to gauge. Many are simply priority free agent types for after the draft.

So the process is not as interesting to me except, well, when it's interesting to me.

This is interesting to me:

This week the Dolphins are bringing in their local prospects and according to a league source, one of the players the Dolphins are expected to host is a defensive lineman named Jose Jose.

I'm not kidding. Jose Jose.

Jose is a Miami kid. He was All-Dade at Central High twice. He was recruited by Miami, Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia and Rutgers before accepting a full scholarship from the University of Central Florida.

And then things went terribly wrong.

In March 2010, one month after signing his national letter of intent, Jose was arrested in Miami-Dade for carrying a concealed firearm without a permit and aggravated assault with a firearm.

UCF cut him loose but Jose was not convicted. He was sentenced to a six-month administrative probation. So Jose went the JUCO route. The following January he was again offered a scholarship at UCF.

And for 14 months things went smoothly. Until March of 2012.

After making a transition from offensive line to defensive line and battling weight issues, Jose apparently got into a heated argument with head coach George O'Leary.

And the argument escalated.

And O'Leary kicked Jose off the team.

"Really it wasn't, well ... yeah it was an argument," Jose told the Orlando Sentinel. "I do not really want to get into what was said in the argument, and I said some things that I probably shouldn’t have said. He took action and did what he had to do and that's just kind of how it is. I can’t really take back what I said."

Indeed, Jose now is trying to get himself either drafted or picked up as a priority free agent after the draft. Because he's from Miami, the Dolphins can host him along with other local products.

I'd love to know how that conversation with Joe Philbin goes.

Among the Top 30 players scheduled to visit with the Dolphins is former Washington State wide receiver Marquess Wilson.

Wilson is a 6-4 and 198 pound receiver with good speed and solid albeit not spectacular production in college. So why does he interest me?

Wilson, if you can remember, quit the WSU football team last November and then alleged abuse by coach Mike Leach before eventually recanting the allegations. And then when all seemed settled, in February Wilson recanted the recant of the allegations while he was at the Indianapolis Combine.

Wild, right?

Wilson actually released a letter to the media claiming he was the victim of "physical, emotional and mental abuse" at the hands of Leach and the WSU coaching staff. Wilson timed the letter's release on the day WSU played a nationally ranked UCLA in a nationally telecast game.

The PAC-12 and WSU conducted an investigation and cleared the coaches.

And that left Wilson off a team and looking at expecting hard questions from NFL suitors, including the Dolphins now.

The likely questions?

Why did you quit?

Can you be expected to quit when any situation turns difficult?

Have you turned on any other people you know?

If you come here, would you do the same here that you did at WSU?

Why should we trust you to keep problems in-house?

It's an intriguing situation because Wilson was expected to be a second-round caliber receiver before he left the team. Now, nobody knows where he'll be drafted if at all.

Obviously, the Dolphins are doing their due diligence. They're seriously beating the weeds here in hopes of landing a bargain player.

Me, I'd love to be a fly on the wall on the Jose Jose and Marquess Wilson meetings with the Dolphins.

Answer to the most-asked draft question: No

Without question the player Dolphins fans ask me about the most for the coming draft is West Virginia all-purpose ankle-breaker Tavon Austin.

I suppose the reason Miami fans love this player is because he is a surge of electricity. Here now. Gone now. Lots of speed. Great vision. A one-on-one mismatch in the open field when he has the ball. He promises many dropped jaws in the stands and dropped pants by defenders.

So Miami fans want to know if the Dolphins are likely to pick Austin.

No, I do not see the Dolphins picking Tavon Austin in the coming draft -- certainly not in the first round where everyone seems to think he'll be selected.

This, I write, because I know how the Dolphins judge players. This because I know how the Dolphins value size and weight and the so-called prototype in the draft.

And Tavon Austin is all of 5-8 and 175 pounds which is as far from the NFL prototype as you can get without being in the CFL.

Understand, the Dolphins do make size exceptions. They made one for Pat White who happened to hail from the same West Virginia program as Austin. Um, maybe that's not a good example.

Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland has told me he asks himself this question when he's evaluating a player that is for whatever reason not of prototypical size or weight or speed: "Does he walk on water?"

(The phrase originates from the fact Jesus Christ walked on water on the sea of Galilee. So did Peter for a couple of steps before he got tackled by a blitzing lack of faith).

The point is most people who are not the Son of God cannot walk on water. They simply aren't so incredibly great that the field tilts in their favor when they step on it. They simply aren't so amazing that one can forget that they are too short or light or slow or whatever other failing the player may have.

Most players do not walk on water.

Barry Sanders did.

Thurman Thomas did.

Darrell Green did.

But the list of non-prototypes in my mind isn't much longer. And while looking at Austin on tape suggests he floats very well on water, and perhaps even swims like a fish in the water, he's not walking on the surface. He's not Sanders-Thomas-Green great.

Austin caught 114 passes for 1,289 yards last season. He caught 12 touchdown passes. He was also used out of the backfield and has a career 9.5 yards per carry average. His game against Oklahoma in which he gained 572 total yards was perhaps the greatest individual performance of the season by a collegian.

But ...

His 11.3 yards per reception is not suggesting NFL deep threat. He sometimes double-catches passes, perhaps a result of his smaller hands. That's not a big deal in college because the game is slower. But in the NFL, receivers who juggle and must recatch the football often get drilled between the first catch and the attempted second catch.

I watched Austin cutups and I saw him be very, very friendly with the sideline. He searches out the sideline a lot to avoid contact, which is natural and smart for a player his size but could be an issue for some coaches. 

I also saw a little high stepping a few times. Yeah, Miami coach Joe Philbin would love that. 

Don't get me wrong. Fake GM Salguero would love Tavon Austin on his team. But not at the expense of the No. 12 overall draft pick. Late in the first round? Maybe. In the second round, yes. But in the upper third of the first round, the durability concerns caused by his size, the fact he'll never be an outside receiver because he simply lacks the wingspan to help the quarterback out there, and the good but not great hands give me pause.

By the way, some folks will look at the Austin highlight tape below and believe him to be a faster Wes Welker. Don't be fooled. Wes Welker towers over Austin and outweighs him by at least 15 pounds. Welker is built much more compact and strong. Austin is lean.

That's another thing. One scout I talk to a lot told me he has questions about Austin's affinity for the weight room. The scout loves the kid's spunk and swag and all that. But he did mention the weight room issue.

So, to answer the most asked question I get: I don't believe the Dolphins will be drafting Tavon Austin at No. 12. Not unless he finds a way to walk on water between now and draft day.  

Perspective about free agency is necessary

Over the weekend the Boston Globe's Greg Bedard noted that the last three Super Bowls champions had only one unrestricted free agent starter in his first year with the team -- combined.

(I'd embed the link but the column is behind a paywall so if you want to see it, go get it. I recommend you do).

Anyway, while that is a very interesting and consequential fact that suggests Super Bowl teams typically grow a majority of their own talent and need their imported talent to adjust for more than a year before succeeding at the highest level, I can see the fact also has the potential to be misunderstood.

Just as what the Dolphins are trying to do this offseason will likely be misunderstood.

The fact suggests rightly that free agents don't immediately bring Super Bowl titles in tow when they sign. Fine. I think everyone gets that. But the next assumption -- that the Dolphins will fail miserably in 2013 because they added eight free agents so far is ridiculous.

Look, Jeff Ireland has spoken to the media multiple times this offseason. So has owner Stephen Ross. And coach Joe Philben spent an hour on the record only two weeks ago.

None have uttered the words, "We're adding free agents this offseason to win the very next Super Bowl and if we don't we're total failures."

The Dolphins aren't adding free agents to win the next Super Bowl. That's not the immediate goal. They're adding free agents to help them win. Period. It's something that hasn't been done in Miami for quite some time and the Dolphins are doing what they can to change course.

The last time the Dolphins put a winning team on the field was 2008. That's a president ago. That's a whole different economy ago. It's been a long time, folks.

And so to criticize them for trying to add talent to a team that desperately needed the infusion is akin to criticizing an athlete for practicing his craft because he might not immediately win a title as a result.

Winning a title is the ultimate goal, yes. But there are goals lower down the ladder of accomplishments the Dolphins will happily chase and consider 2013 a success if they meet -- even if they don't win a Super Bowl.

What?

How about turning in a winning season? How about making the playoffs as a wild card team? How about winning the AFC East? Relevance doesn't just come after winning the Super Bowl.

All of those are viable goals short of a Super Bowl win that would likely feel good to the fan base by the time 2013 comes to a close.

And, unlike that ominous stat about first-year starting UFAs on Super Bowl winners, I can report UFAs do indeed help their teams turn it around fairly quickly when the measure of that turnaround is not a Super Bowl win.

Drew Brees went to New Orleans as a UFA and turned that team, indeed that city, into a winner.

Michael Turner went to Atlanta in 2008 as a UFA and helped that team make multiple playoff appearances. Atlanta, by the way, has no problem adding talent by any means necessary -- trades for veterans, trade ups in the draft, unrestricted free agency, you name it.

When the Giants won the Super Bowl in February 2008, the player who caught the winning TD was UFA Plaxico Burress.

The Arizona Cardinals went to the Super Bowl in February 2009 with UFA quarterback Kurt Warner leading them there.

Jacoby Jones was released by the Houston Texans on May 1, 2012 and signed as a free agent seven days later with the Baltimore Ravens. And that was him making multiple big plays for Baltimore last postseason, including a 70-yard touchdown catch against Denver with 30 seconds to play to tie the game and a 108-yard kickoff return touchdown against San Francisco in the Super Bowl.

By the way, Denver was 13-3 last season and won the AFC West. I'd say UFA quarterback Peyton Manning had something to do with that. 

So what about those facts suggest adding free agents is a bad idea?

Oh yeah, nothing.

Dolphins add Grimes as cornerback stopgap

The Dolphins have managed to bring players they want to the team as unrestricted free agents this offseason while at the same time holding their ground on what they pay players they believe come with risk.

The latest example of this is Miami landing unrestricted free agent cornerback Brent Grimes to a one-year deal. The deal believed to be in the $4 million range is not exactly what Grimes was looking for. He wanted a long-term deal that averaged $6-$8 million. Grimes' base salary in 2013 will be $2.75 million.

But because he didn't play last year due to an Achilles' injury, because his market did not include more than three or four teams, and because the market for corners is generally been depressed, Grimes accepted the Dolphins one-year offer today.

The Dolphins have also signed TE Dustin Keller to a one-year deal. They signed guard Lance Louis to a one-year deal and they signed defensive tackle Vaughn Martin to a two-year deal. This after they paid much bigger money for receiver Mike Wallace and linebackers Phillip Wheeler and Dannell Ellerbe.  

This is a good job by general manager Jeff Ireland. He stuck to his conviction on a price for Grimes and got it done.

"We are very excited that we were able to reach an agreement with Brent,” said Dolphins General Manager Jeff Ireland. “His experience and history of play making production will add a great deal to our secondary."

Grimes is expected to be ready for the start of the season, according to an NFL source. Indeed, that may be conservative. Grimes is already running on his surgically repaired Achilles.

"I'll be straight in no time," Grimes told the South Florida media. He declined to give a specific time frame. He did say the surgeon told him 6-8 months recovery time. May would be eight months.

Grimes said he was not certain he'd participate in the coming OTAs. I would not expect it.

Grimes, 30 in July, was the Falcons franchise tag player in 2012. He played only one game in which he ruptured the Achilles. The previous three seasons he started 36 of a possible 48 games and collected 12 interceptions.

One more thing on the Grimes addition:

If he's healthy and back to his previous form he is a likely starter. And that means the Dolphins do not go into the draft with a major need for a starting cornerback high in the draft.

In other words, Ireland will have latitude as coach Joe Philbin said, to pick the best available player.

The Dolphins continue to have offensive tackle Eric Winston on the radar. He will sign with the team if the club convinces him to take a short-term (perhaps one-year) deal that is not for huge money. Winston, obviously, continues to believe he will get more somehwere.

We'll see.

Offseason conditioning dates important for Jerry

After the Dolphins 2012 season, on the day the team's players left the lockerroom (some for the last time), coaches had a chance to speak with everyone individually. Think of it as an exit interview. Think of it as a counseling session.

And in his one-on-one with multiple coaches, including head coach Joe Philbin, guard John Jerry was told this:

You can be a good player if you apply yourself and get in shape and become more professional about your body as well as your body of work.

And also this:

If you come to the offseason conditioning program sloppy fat and out of shape like last year, you'll be in trouble.

"It’ll be interesting to see," Philbin said. "I know the big thing we said to him when he left is we want to see how much you weigh when you come back for the offseason program."

Pause one moment, please...

Look, NFL players are human. They are people and as such they are imperfect and deal with issues and circumstances. Some are troubled in ways you and I are troubled. Some have bigger problems. Some seem to have it more together than most folks.

And yes, some cannot control how much they eat and allow themselves to get fat.

And yes, some aren't in love with working out and staying in good condition and they find themselves out of shape soon after the offseason begins and no one is monitoring them.

But...

Come on, man!

This is professional football. You're making a ton of money because God blessed you with physical gifts that very few people have.

And you're just going to take that body that was fearfully and wonderfully made and turn it into a food bin? You're just going to have zero discipline and eat anything you want whenever you want in quantities that normal people cannot fathom?

In short, you're going to act more like the Cookie Monster than an NFL player?

That is not professional. That is not acceptable.

(It's acceptable for a tax man to eat a lot and not work out because his thing is numbers and deductions. It's acceptable for a lawyer or judge to get floppy. It's acceptable for a journalist, ahem, because nobody is asking me him to be in great shape at work).

But an NFL player? A professional athlete?

It costs his team. It costs the player.

Jerry's inability to show multiple coaching staffs now that he can be trusted to be in shape is one reason the Dolphins feel they have a question mark at right guard. And that's probably the reason they added Lance Louis recently and still might add another guard in the draft.

The frustrating thing is Jerry can be a good player. When he stays on his feet and, you know, moves them, he is effective. Problem is he's carrying so much weight most of the time that becomes a chore.

"I do think he’s, the one thing he has to do a better job of is staying on his feet better, but he’s athletic enough to play guard," Philbin said. "There’s a lot of pictures of him showing very good quickness and explosiveness off the ball."

The coming offseason conditioning program is a big deal for the Dolphins.

Voluntary offseason workout programs are intended to provide training, teaching and physical conditioning for players.

As per Article 21 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, each club’s official, voluntary nine-week offseason program is conducted in three phases:

Phase One consists of the first two weeks of the program with activities limited to strength and conditioning and physical rehabilitation only.

Phase Two consists of the next three weeks of the program.  On-field workouts may include individual player instruction and drills as well as team practice conducted on a “separates” basis.  No live contact or team offense vs. team defense drills are permitted.

Phase Three consists of the next four weeks of the program.  Teams may conduct a total of 10 days of organized team practice activity, or "OTAs." No live contact is permitted, but 7-on-7, and 9-on-7, and 11-on-11 drills are permissible.

Article 22 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement stipulates that clubs may hold one mandatory minicamp for veteran players.  This minicamp must occur during Phase Three of the offseason program.  Head coaches hired after the end of the 2012 season are also entitled to conduct an additional voluntary veteran minicamp. That does not apply to the Dolphins this year.

Each club may hold a rookie football development program for a period of seven weeks, which in 2013 may begin on May 13. During this period, no activities may be held on weekends, with the exception of one post-NFL Draft rookie minicamp, which may be conducted on either the first or second weekend following the draft. The dates of the post-draft rookie minicamps will be circulated at a later date.

So for the Dolphins the first day of the offseason conditioning program is April 15.

Miami's OTA sessions, as provided by the NFL are May 21-23, May 29-31 and June 3-6. The mandatory veteran minicamp is tentatively scheduled for June 11-13 for the Dolphins.

John Jerry, you're under the microscope.

Make sure you fit under it.

Martin signs for 2 years, Grimes and Winston still lurking

Defensive tackle Vaughn Martin signed a two-year deal with the Dolphins today. He said he was on a plane headed to a free agent visit with Seattle when he heard he was signing with Miami.

He got off the plane and headed to the Dolphins training facility to sign.

The former San Diego 3-4 defensive end said he talked with New England, Kansas City, Detroit, New Orleans and Philadelphia aside from the Chargers before signing with Miami.

"I want to be a part of it. I want to be here in South Florida. I want to help this team win," Martin said.

Martin trains with Mike Pouncey locally in Delray Beach. Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland made it an offseason priority to add a defensive tackle -- once he decided to part ways with Tony McDaniel -- because he believes the defensive line is strong, he wants to have flexibility there, and he believe adding a tackle improves on both.

So the Martin addition is good. But the Dolphins are not done, or at least don't want to be done.

They still would like to add a cornerback. They still would like to add an offensive tackle. They'd like to do it cheaply in free agency.

Brent Grimes remains on the radar. He's being patient despite the fact the free agency market for cornerbacks was not good this year and it's even worse for a player such as him coming off Achilles' tendon surgery.

The Dolphins have some confidence they can land Grimes but they're not breaking the bank for the guy. So the sides that seemingly have each other in their sights are working slowly toward trying to make a deal happen.

The team is also keeping Eric Winston in mind but the interest there isn't quite suggesting he'll land in Miami.

Winston doesn't want a short-term deal. The Dolphins don't want to commit for four years or five years and they certainly do not intend to pay $5 million per year. Maybe half that. But not $5 million per.

So Winston is waiting.

"Obviously I have ties down in South Florida, I have a lot of friends down there from college that still live down there," Winston told the NFL Network today. "I know the area pretty well. Obviously that is an added bonus, being able to play for a franchise like the Dolphins.  Like I said, if it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out."

But ...

"Being down there is not the be all, end all," Winston continued. "I am excited about what is going to happen. It is a new chapter in my life and my family’s life. We are going to keep moving forward with this until something happens."

What's Winston looking for?

“The offense needs to fit what I have done," he said. "I have done a lot of zone-scheme in the past. Obviously a great place for a family, I have two kids and a wife, we want to be somewhere where it is nice. It is not a place where it has to be ‘this.’ Everything comes involved in it. The best situation will present itself. Unfortunately, I am still waiting for that to happen. Hopefully it will happen soon.”

 

Former Eagles owner versus the Dolphins: Bitter fight is on

You see the three images above? They represent the evidence the Dolphins say they have that Norman Braman is a "hypocrite," as Mike Dee said Wednesday.

The first two images are evidence that Braman Motors, which Braman obviously owns, received $58,000 in state tax credits for job creation. The third image shows Braman Motors applied for, and was awarded, $150,358.60 in Community Redevelopment Agency funds from the city of Miami.

What's the point?

It's all about the fight to get public dollars for the Sun Life Stadium upgrades.

Braman, the former Philadelphia Eagles owner, and Dolphins owner Stephen Ross are fighting tooth and nail over this issue. And it is getting personal.

Braman has called Dolphins CEO Mike Dee "an a--hole." Ross has said Braman is "full of sh--."

Anyway, Braman explained the purpose of these funds to me in my column. It is a valid explanation and the funds went to a good cause. And the Dolphins say they accept the explanation. But they believe that if Braman is able accept public funds for his private business, he cannot say they shouldn't do the same even though he's getting hundreds of thousands of dollars and they would get hundreds of millions for the stadium.

"We have no problem with the fact that he applied for and received government aid to create jobs – that is the whole point of those programs and we applaud him for putting people to work," Dee told me in an e-mail. "We take exception, however, when he publicly chastises us for doing the same thing. That is the hypocrisy that he is at a loss to explain."

Well, as I write here this is about to get uglier.

Remember the term "smear campaign." You'll be hearing it in the very near future.

 

Highlights: Dolphins GM, CEO talk to fans

The Dolphins put general manager Jeff Ireland and CEO Mike Dee on the phone with season ticket holders this evening. They talked for 30 minutes and for me the three most interesting things are covered below:

Ireland was asked if he could share his draft plans for the upcoming NFL draft. He gave the name of the player the team is drafting and that player is ...

Yeah, just kidding.  

"I've got a lot of ideas and I have a strong idea of what I'm going after, but I just can't tell you," he said. "Certainly as I've said before, I believe in drafting core positions ..."

That means QBs, WRs, LTs, CBs, and pass-rushers.

"I like drafting when the core position meets a need and it meets the grade," Ireland continued. "And I try not to reach for a need position if I don't have to. We don't draft vertically, we draft horizontally and that's a whole different story to explain that. But we definitely have a plan. We definitely have guys we've targetted. We definitely have a certain number of players we've targetted. But we don't put, there's 255 draft picks that will selected, but we don't put that many players on the board. We grind through this. We eliminate it down to a specific number that we feel like is the number we want to go into and then we even cut that down even further to guys we're targetting.

"So we certainly have a plan."

Ireland said the Dolphins start draft meetings Tuesday and will go 21 consecutive days in those meetings leading up to the draft that begins April 25.

"There's a lot of work being done these next 21 days," he said. "Stand by and see what we do."

Ireland was also asked about the perpetual Dolphins problem -- the offensive line. He was asked his thoughts on it, including today's addition of free agent guard Lance Louis:

"Where I'm at with the offensive line right now is we don't play until August," Ireland said. "We don't go to camp until the middle of July so it's going to look differently in July and August than it does right now. So we're still tinkering in free agency with a couple of offensive line positions. Tinkering means we may or may not [do something] for the media that is listening. And certainly we have the draft. We have five picks in the top 82."

If the Dolphins want to sign more free agent OLinemen such as Eric Winston, they can use their $15.7 million worth of space (as of March 26) which profootballtalk.com reported this afternoon they have remaining. (The team will pick up an extra $7 million of space after June 1).

"And a third idea you can trade for one ... So it's something I'm still looking at. You don't lose a player like Jake Long to free agency and not feel that so we're going to address the offensive line as a whole as we go forward and we just have to stand by and see what we do."

Dee was asked about my Tuesday story that mentioned the Dolphins are willing to sign a relocation waiver for 30 years with Miami-Dade County as part of the complex package for getting public funds to upgrade Sun Life.

The question was whether the Dolphins might consider leaving South Florida if the deal with Miami-Dade County and the Florida legislature and, yes, voters fails to finance the upgrades as the Dolphins hope.

"Steve Ross has made it clear he will never think of relocating the Dolphins on his watch," Dee said. "And win, lose or draw on this stadium effort, Steve spent a lot of his formative years in the Miami area. He loves it here, that's why he bought this team. We're not going anywhere while Steve's the owner."

Yes. And ...

"Now Steve's 73 years old and he thinks and Jeff knows this, he thinks he's going to live to be 110. But at some point in the next 30 years he'll probably not be the majority owner of the team. So we believe the right time to address the stadium issue is now while the owner is willing to significantly invest in private funds to make it happen. He's a guy that wants to lock in the franchise here for the next 30 years so that any successor that buys the team from him or at some point takes over would be unable to relocate the team. The alternative to that is if we're not able to move forward on the stadium front, Steve is at some point not the owner, you're going to be looking at the possibility of a whole new stadium for three times the cost of what we can modernize this facility for and have a facility that would serve the community for 50 years. That's unheard of.

"This isn't a situation where we're saying if this doesn't happen we're out of here. We're going to be here but we'll be hard-pressed to figure out what we do best as a long-term solution."

Dolphins logo talk PLUS Salguero mock draft pick

It's logo talk this morning.

As you may know, I confirmed Tuesday that the logo leaked via instagram on the Internet last week is no fake. It is the real deal. It is the Dolphins new logo .

And my column in today's Miami Herald gives you some insight that I gathered relative to that logo being unveiled in a month.

But here is something that wasn't in the column that I've saved for you here:

The Dolphins uniforms will be aqua and orange. That means all white sometimes. That means aqua jerseys and white pants sometimes. I suppose it can even mean white jerseys with aqua pants sometimes. But there will be no alternate jersey in 2013.

No orange.

And thankfully, no orange on orange.

By the way, I was on NFL AM this morning representing the Dolphins in the program's mock draft. (Why NFL AM couldn't get a better representative, I don't know). Anyway, this is the mock I was given as picked by experts and beat writers in the cities where the teams are located.

1.      CHIEFS – LUKE JOECKEL, OT  TEXAS A&M

2.      JAGUARS – EZEKIEL ANSAH, DE  BYU

3.      RAIDERS – SHARRIF FLOYD, DT FLORIDA

4.      EAGLES – ERIC FISHER, OT CENTRAL MICHIGAN

5.      LIONS – DEE MILLINER, CB ALABAMA

6.      BROWNS – GENO SMITH, QB WEST VIRGINIA

7.      CARDINALS  - CHANCE WARMACK, OG ALABAMA

8.      BILLS – CORDARRELLE PATTERSON, WR TENNESSEE

9.      JETS – DION JORDAN, LB/DE ORGEON

10.    TITANS –  BARKEVIOUS MINGO, DE LSU

11.    CHARGERS – LANE JOHNSON, OT  OKLAHOMA

So with the No. 12 overall pick and with no option to trade down I selected Washington CB Desmond Trufant.

Here's my logic: The Dolphins need a cornerback. They lost two three-year starters since the beginning of 2012 and have no real replacements right now. I don't buy the Dimitri Patterson talk for one minute. Cornerback is also an elite position so I don't mind upgrading with such a high pick.

Milliner is gone but I've got Xavier Rhodes and Desmond Trufant on the board.

I went with Trufant.

He's smarter. He's more instinctive. He's more fluid. He is a much, much, much superior system fit than Rhodes. Rhodes is the pick if you're wanting a press corner. The Dolphins don't want that. They want a man who can play zone, play combo, quarters, all of it. That's Trufant, who by the way, comes from football pedigree as his brother Marcus plays for Seattle.

Rhodes is bigger at 6-1 but Trufant at 5-11 5/8ths is plenty big. He's also more willing in run support. He runs very well. And he has great ball skills.

Was he the best available player (BAP)? No.

Star Lotulelei was still on the board. But the Dolphins need a cornerback of the future more than they need a defensive tackle with a heart condition that grades higher.

Mike Dee takes on Norman Braman head on

The Dolphins have been negotiating with Miami-Dade County in an effort to get $389 million worth of upgrades to Sun Life Stadium. The club is paying for 57 percent of the deal out of its own private funds and offering to refund $120 million to Miami-Dade County within 30 years, meaning it will give back the county's $120 million public investment that it is getting from a tourist tax.

But while this has played out, the club has fought an unseen battle with local car magnate and former Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Braman.

Braman has for some reason become the very vocal voice of the opposition. He has also been a major funding source for those opposed to any public funding for upgrading Sun Life.

Why is uncertain. But this much is certain:

The Dolphins don't like it much. The club has been simmering privately about Braman's lobbying of politicians against their efforts and public stance against the team in the media.

Those private sentiments leaked into public Tuesday evening when Dolphins Chief Executive Officer Mike Dee took to twitter and went after Braman.

"With the offer that is now on the table, Norman Braman is frankly irrelevant to this conversation," Dee tweeted.

"When he agrees to repay the public money he accepted for his dealership, we will be happy to acknowledge his otherwise hypocritical stance," he added.

The team says that Braman, who opposes public funding of private ventures, took public money for one of his car dealerships. That is something I will be looking into the next few days.

Finally, Dee believes that whatever Braman says, the final say belongs to voters.

"Thanks for the positive replies," Dee said on twitter. "The voters of Miami Dade County should make this decision not Norman Braman."

Yup, it's on now.

DT Vaughn Martin visits Dolphins

The Dolphins spent the day visiting with unrestricted free agent Vaughn Martin today, the team announced.

The 6-4 and 308 pound Martin fits as a five-technique defensive end but also a 4-3 defensive tackle which is where the Dolphins see value in him.

Martin is not really a pass-rusher. He three career sacks in four season -- one sack in each of the past three years.

Martin, 26, started 12 games for San Diego last year and 15 games in 2011.

Sign Brent Grimes because CB is a problem

Free agency is slowing to a crawl now. The top names are mostly off the market. The Dolphins did not report any visits Monday. Things are quiet.

The club is still flirting with RT Eric Winston. There are a couple of other one-year or two-year contract type guys out there -- specifically Brandon Moore and Lance Louis.

But, frankly, I don't believe the Dolphins can affford to be done.

The team's free agency focus now needs to be cornerback. The position is a nightmare. Brent Grimes is out there and available. The only other team talking to him, other than Miami, seems to be Cleveland.

Get it done!

Why the urgency on Grimes?

The team's stated plan in free agency in it's early stages was to fill needs and upgrade as many positions as possible so that general manager Jeff Ireland could have room to operate in any direction he wants during the draft.

That's not me saying that. Last week at the NFL annual meeting both Ireland and coach Joe Philbin talked about having "more latitude" in the draft based on Miami's free agency moves. The idea, I am being told, is to go into the draft without having to select players because of need. The idea is to select the best available player (BAP).

But look at the cornerback position. You know what you see?

Need.

Need.

Need.

It's not so much that Miami lost Sean Smith because, frankly, he was not a good player at the end of the year after a very, very hot start. Inconsistency thy name is Sean Smith. It's because the apparent loss followed the loss of Vontae Davis and the injury-riddled year of Richard Marshall.

So Miami's top three cornerbacks from one year ago are either gone from the team or coming back from major back surgery.

Who does that leave the Dolphins with at cornerback right now? Let's ask Philbin:

“I think our front seven hopefully is going to be good again," he said. "I think it’s a good group. We like what we’re going to see there. We’re really happy that we re-signed Chris Clemons as well. Again, Chris is a guy that played 1,100 plays, he might have played more plays than anybody on our football team a year ago and the guy’s tough. He keeps his mouth shut. He just comes to work. He’s physical. He’s a good football player. I’m really delighted he’s back. Kelcie McCray’s a guy that we were excited about. In a limited role that we saw him, he’s going to have a chance to get to work again. I’m excited about it. I think we’re going to have a good nucleus with a good defense. The biggest thing we said we’ve got to find a way to take the ball away. After watching all of the cutups, 1,000 or so plays on defense, we can’t survive with 16 takeaways."

Understand what just happened here. Philbin is asked about the cornerback situation and he talks about the front seven, a safety, an undrafted rookie player that was injured practically the first week of training camp last year, and the problems taking the ball away last year.

That isn't much of an endorsement of what is currently going on for the Dolphins at cornerback.

So let's have another go at it.

Coach, what are you excited about at cornerback?

"Well we have some young guys on the roster that we are excited about working with," he responds. "You know (Julian) Posey and (Deandre) Presley and those guys. We’d like to see how they come along, and the offseason program is a Godsend for those guys because they get to be in the building every day and learn and compete, so we’re excited about seeing what they are capable of doing. And then obviously there are a lot of good players still available in free agency that we may or may not pursue and then there’s 11 draft picks. So I think we’re certainly not done adding to that position and we’ll see what happens."

Oh boy. Trouble.

The Dolphins need Grimes. Or they need to get an idea and perhaps look into Tracy Porter or even DeAngelo Hall. (Porter is wildly inconsistent and Hall is not my favorite because of his attitude but both still have value as a one-year stopgap). Sheldon Brown, a solid zone defender, is also avaliable.

Barring the addition of a veteran cornerback the Dolphins are going to find themselves locked into a tough situation on draft day. They are going to find themselves drafting not one but probably two corners in the top rounds

The last time the club did that -- in 2009 with Davis and Smith -- it didn't work out very well. Yet, barring that kind of commitment to the positon, the Dolphins will be picking starting cornerbacks out of a group of players -- Marshall, Dimitri Patterson, McCray, Posey, Presley -- that raise more questions than they do deliver answers.

The Dolphins need to sign Brent Grimes, folks.

Team of free agents can win, but will they?

I watched the replay Saturday of the infamous Tuck Rule game from back in January 2002. (Yes, I have no life). Anyway, that game between the New England Patriots and Oakland Raiders which the Patriots won in overtime and used as a springboard to beating Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship and St. Louis in the Super Bowl got me thinking.

As I watched, it seemed everywhere I looked I saw players that the New England Patriots did not draft. I saw free agents all over the field. I saw a team that clearly stomped all over the theory that championship squads must be home grown via the draft.

Consider the free agents on the Patriots:

RG Joe Andruzzi: He was picked up on waivers from Green Bay in 2000. He signed with the Patrtiots. He started every game at right guard in 2001.

LG Mike Compton: He left the Lions and signed with the Patriots as an unrestricted free agent in 2001. He started all 16 games and in the playoffs. So, yes, the Patriots starting offensive line had a couple of free agent starting guards.

Linebacker Bryan Cox: Yes, that Bryan Cox. After leaving the Dolphins and the Bears, Cox spent three years with the Jets. Then the Patriots picked him up in 2001 and he started seven games and played in 11. He had three fumble recovers and two forced fumbles and he scored a TD. The guy was in decline but he always had been a playmaker.

Running back Antowain Smith: He was originally drafted by the Bills. He was added as an unrestricted free agent and led the team by rushing for 1,157 yards. He'd been considered something of an enigma in Buffalo. He was a locker room leader in New England.

Linebacker Mike Vrabel: The Pittburgh Steelers drafted him but let him go to New England as an unrestricted free agent. So much for that theory that the Steelers don't let good players go in free agency. Vrabel started 12 games and had three sacks with two interceptions in 2001. He got better later and had three Super Bowl rings with New England before he went to Kansas City in 2010.

Linebacker Roman Phifer: Originally the 31st overall pick in St. Louis in 1991, Phifer went to the Jets as a UFA and signed a three-year deal through the 2001 season. He was, however, cut after the 2000 season and the Patriots signed him to a one-year minimum salary deal. Phifer started all 16 games. He was re-signed after the season for three more years. He was a Pro Bowl alternate two of those three years.

Cornerback Terrell Buckley: The former Packer and former Dolphins joined the Broncos for one season in 2000 and then went to New England when he was cut. He played with the Patriots in 2001 and 2002. He was the team's nickel cornerback and had an interception in the AFC title game against Pittsburgh that helped New England go to the Super Bowl.

Tight end Jermaine Wiggins: Another Jets castoff, Wiggins signed as a free agent in 2000 and lasted through the 2002 season. He also had a big game in the Tuck Rule game.

Cornerback Otis Smith: He played for the Patriots in 1996 but left to join the Jets for three years. Then he returned as an unrestricted free agent in 2000. He started 15 of 16 regular season games and throughout the playoffs.

Linebacker Larry Izzo: He was an undrafted free agent who made the Dolphins in 1996 and stayed through 2000. The Patriots signed him in 2001 as an unrestricted free agent. There he became the special teams captain and won three Super Bowl rings. He recovered two fumbles in the Tuck Rule game. Two.

Wide receiver David Patten: The Cleveland Browns cut him after 2000. The Patriots picked him up in 2001 and he started 14 games. He was the club's leading receiver in the Tuck Rule game.

No, this is not a Patriots blog. But I happily use the Patriots to prove the point that a team can be brought together from other teams and turned into a cohesive, high-caliber ballclub.

And, yes, that leads me to the Dolphins.

As you know they've been doing work this offseason in free agency. No, they probably haven't done as much as I'd like. The flirtation with Elvis Dumervil which I reported last Tuesday and the Denver Post reported Friday didn't bear fruit. Dumervil signed with Baltimore Sunday and his salary cap number for 2013 is, get this, $2.5 million.

So the Dolphins still have work to do finding more pass rush, adding a cornerback and possibly a defensive tackle. The offensive line is still in need of an upgrade, too. Eric Winston is still a possibility. He'd like to play for the Dolphins, according to his agent Drew Rosenhaus, but would also like to get paid so there's that. The Dolphins may be waiting for the price on Winston to drop somewhat.

The Dolphins may add one or two more free agents.

And that brings up the question whether a team can win with a bunch of recently added veterans? Obviously, I just showed you the Patriots did it.

But I saw Don Shula not only fail to do it in 1995, it was something of a chemistry nightmare. And the following year I remember Jimmy Johnson cleaning house and telling me he didn't want veterans who learned to do things under different coaches to come to him and expect him to do what they were used to.

"I want rookies and players I draft to learn to do things the way I want them to," Johnson said. "I don't want to deal with fighting the veterans."

Well, the Dolphins have some new veterans now. And now it's up to coach Joe Philbin to get them to do things the way the Dolphins do things or he'll have to adjust to them.

Philbin isn't talking like he's the one who will be making the adjustment.

“They’ve got to get acclimated," he said. "We hopefully, in 13 months, we’ve been able to establish a culture and environment, an atmosphere of how we do business when they walk into that door. While these guys are veterans and we’re certainly looking for them to put their stamp on things and make an impact, they’ve got to kind of fit into how we do things. So I think it’s more them, at least, understand these are responsibilities, the obligations that come with being a Miami Dolphin and kind of fall in line and then let their football stuff care of itself."

It'll be interesting to see how that goes.

 

Dolphins operating by familiar script but will finale be different?

Dolphins fans are reinvigorated these days. I know this because the emails to me saying as much have tripled. The traffic on this blog has multiplied the past three weeks. I have more people following me on twitter than ever before.

The Dolphins are seeing the fruits of this excitement also in some areas.

As I write in my column in today's Miami Herald the sales of season tickets to new fans is proceeding nicely.

But ...

Yes, folks, there's seemingly always a but. The renewal sales are not doing well. Season ticket holders that spent their money last season are not so far buying in as well this offseason despite the apparent upgrades in free agency and the hope that some of the club's upcoming 11 draft picks will be contributors to turning the Dolphins into winners for the first time since 2008.

I have a theory why this is -- one I've shared with Dolphins CEO Mike Dee and others. I believe Dolphins fans who have seen much heartache and pain the past decade and have gotten their hopes up multiple times only to have them dashed aren't going to operate on sheer faith anymore.

Many want to see results before they invest in tickets again.

And here's the thing:

The Dolphins, who obviously want to make the point that things are different this time, are actually following a very familiar script this offseason in telling you why the results in 2013 will be different. It's uncanny, really.

So, bottom line, will things be different in 2013? I'm not sure. I think so.

I love the Mike Wallace acquisition. I don't know that the linebacker additions will produce as many big plays as the Dolphins hope. I believe the Dolphins will be just fine without Jake Long or Sean Smith because, frankly, neither player actually ever won a game for the Dolphins. I really would like the team to add a proven and experienced pass-rusher while one is still out there.

But I still have questions about the quarterback position. Everyone, including coach Joe Philbin, this offseason is telling me Ryan Tannehill is the real deal. He's going to be very good, they say. There are no warning signs for him failing, they say.

If that's the case, everything will be fine with the 2013 Dolphins.

But I simply am not certain that will be the case. I saw some good but some not-so-good play out of Tannehill in 2013 even as other rookie QBs were playing like Pro Bowl players. So I think the jury is still out and I'm not ready to endorse him as the real thing yet.

And if Tannehill isn't the real deal?

Suffice to say we've seen what will happen play out before.

Branden Albert available as a LT option

During the NFL annual meeting, Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland talked about how everything is on the table as far as making the team better. He mentioned free agency in all its forms, from street free agents to top-end free agents to lower-rung free agents. Obviously he mentioned the draft.

And he mentioned trades.

And so I have to throw this out there now:

The Chiefs have left tackle Branden Albert on the trade market.

The Dolphins, who are moving up after deciding Jake Long and his questionable injury history were too pricey to retain for $8.5 million per season, need a left tackle. Yes, the club has Jonathan Martin on the roster and he finished out the 2012 season at the position. But as coach Joe Philbin said "there's a lot of time between now and September. A lot of things could happen ... "

Trades are one of those things that can happen. Specifically this trade. The Dolphins will at least be investigating the possibility and likely will be interested in pursuing it.

Albert is not cheap. The Chiefs want a second round pick for him this year, according to multiple reports. There is also the likelihood another conditional pick in 2014 could be involved.

That's a steep price.

And then you have to consider the Dolphins, or any team paying that compensation, would also have to sign Albert to a long-term deal. And that deal would probably cost aroud $8 million per year.

Expensive for a player I'm not all that certain is great. I mean, he's good enough that the Chiefs put a franchise tag on him. But he's not so good that they are unwilling to trade him. He's not so good that they clearly believe a rookie left tackle in the draft would be an upgrade because that player would be younger, cheaper and, yes, possibly a better player, too.

The Dolphins have two second-round picks. They also have two third round picks.

As the Kansas City asking price is a second-rounder, I might not mind offering a third. I doubt any third-rounder Miami picks up this year would start right away as Albert would so it might be a good deal for Miami.

At any rate it deserves consideration. And I'm sure the Dolphins are considering it.