The good news for the Dolphins is that rookies Daniel Thomas and Charles Clay both practiced full, without limitations today, according to the injury report.
Barring setbacks in the coming couple of practices, both will play against the Houston Texans Sunday.
"I'm hoping," coach Tony Sparano said. "Daniel practiced today. We'll see what happens. We've got a couple of days to go before the game. If no setbacks, then the depth is better."
If neither suffer a setback from their hamstring injuries, both will make their regular-season debuts.
The Dolphins have, as I told you on my twitter this morning, Will Allen has signed back with the Dolphins. He was a starting CB with the team from 2006-2009 but his role has shifted. It's a safe bet to expect to see Allen used primarily as a nickel (slot) CB from now on even though Sparano says he can definitely play outside as well.
"At the end of the day where we were evaluating Will the most prior to the cutdown is whether or not he could play inside," Sparano said. "The competition was really amongst the two players we just had this deal with here."
Sparano was talking about Benny Sapp, who made the team ahead of Allen the first week of the season but was cut Tuesday in favor of Allen after giving up two TDs versus New England.
Sparano went on to say Allen gives him the luxury of deciding to put him inside or outside with someone else inside. But why would the Dolphins use Allen outside if they were evaluating him inside and the competition he has now won against Sapp was inside?
Also, why would the Dolphins ask Vontae Davis and Sean Smith to work inside when they've never really done that?
Will Allen is a slot CB for the immediate future.
When Sparano addressed his team Wednesday his message was clear: Put the New England loss in the rear view mirror and concentrate on Houston. He told the players to think about Houston, talk about Houston and not discuss New England any further -- particularly with the media.
This according to two players.
And the locker room fell into line. Players declined to take any more questions about New England. Hey, as long as they learned from the Patriots loss, why should they continue to relive it? I agree with the approach.
The focus on Houston also has a practical reason for existing. Houston is the next game. The Dolphins cannot beat the Patriots now by thinking about them. And the Texans are not up ahead, the coach sees them as being ahead of his team in prep work.
"That was the message," Sparano confirmed. "Absolutely, because it's Wednesday. Those guys have two days on us right now. "
Oh, by the way, I recognize the Dolphins are on to the Texans. That's team policy. I'm a free agent and I can be onto anything I want. So:
The NFL stats say Miami is ranked No. 4 in pass offense and No. 2 in overall offense based on its performance verssus New England. The defense, however, isn't rated well for obvious reasons.
The Miami defense is No. 32 in the NFL in total defense -- 20th against the run and dead last (32) against the pass. Obviously, the ratings are based off just one week.
"We have 15 more games to go," outside linebacker Cameron Wake said. "We'll see where we are at the end of the season."
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