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Fins Hoping To Sign Rest of Draft Picks

As reported by Miami Herald’s Armando Salguero, the Dolphins are currently in contract negotiations with their top two draft picks, Jared Odrick and Koa Misi.

Odrick’s agent Drew Rosenhaus has said that there should be no complications that would bar Odrick from holding out from camp, and reports say the same goes for Misi.

Salguero says that the team has submitted offers to the players agents, and that the Fins are also not waiting for other players drafted around the same time as Odrick and Misi, to get signed, according to his source.

The Dolphins do not want a holdout on their hands, but looking at the Trifecta’s track record, a holdout would be a shock to me, seeing as how the Fins got deals done with all of their picks in the last two years before camp started.

Jerry And Dolphins Agree To Terms

According to the National Football Post, the Miami Dolphins and offensive lineman John Jerry have agreed to a contract earlier today.

The deal is worth $2.64 million with a $858,000 signing bonus included. The agreement will span over four years.

Jerry is expected to compete for a starting spot on the offensive line this year in training camp, and will see considerable time all season long at both guard and tackle.

I expect Jerry to contribute the most at guard early on in his career, and maybe make the switch to right tackle after Vernon Carey is gone.

The Dolphins now have only two more draft picks to ink, Jared Odrick, their first round pick, and Koa Misi, their second round pick.

Dolphins Schedule Rundown: Weeks 1&2

The Miami Dolphins have a history of getting out to slow starts early on in the season this decade. In the last three years in the first three games, the Dolphins have started out a combined 1-8!

This year the Fins look to get out to a much hotter start, and make the stretch run that much easier by picking up as many wins as they can in the month of September, which has not treated the team nicely throughout the decade.

The first two weeks of the season, the Dolphins play the Buffalo Bills in Week 1, and the Minnesota Vikings in Week 2. Here are my expectations for the first two weeks of the season, as we start our first segment, in a series of schedule rundowns.

Week 1- Buffalo Bills:

The Dolphins will open up the season against their division rivals in what should be an easy win for the team, and a tuneup for the Week 2 matchup against the tougher Minnesota Vikings.

The Fins will look to air it out against the Bills young secondary, and rough up the Bills on the ground as well, with both Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams getting what should be extensive touches.

The Bills really have no answer for the Fins at all, on offense or defense. The Bills have weaknesses at seemingly every position, and really should be double-digit underdogs in this game.

X-Factor: Pat White- While White may not even see any gametime in this game at all, seeing as how this could very well be over by the end of the first half, White could show all of his hard work that he has put in this off-season, and fine tune his accuracy against starting defenses against the Bills. I also expect to see some Wild-Pat action as well. White is simply too good of an athlete to keep under wraps any longer. The time is now for the Fins to see what he can do early in the season, and often. Opening Day is just the right game to see potentially what they may see the rest of the season.

Prediction: Dolphins win, 27-10 in a blowout win, and the fans getting to see some of the backups during the 4th quarter.

Week 2-Minnesota Vikings:

After what should be an easy win for the Fins in Week 1 against the Buffalo Bills, the team faces a much tougher opponent in the Minnesota Vikings.

Not only do the Vikings have a high scoring offense, with a high powered run game and a dangerous passing game, but they have a stifling run defense and capable pass defense as well.

The Dolphins will look to expose their weakness and age through the air, and win the game that way, but it will be the run game that will get this team the win, along with keeping Adrian Peterson out of the endzone. The key for the Fins will be to make this team one dimensional early, so the defense can focus in on shutting down the Vikes offense all around. Brett Favre, the Vikings aging quarterback will look to pass when he can, but has been known to force the issue over his career. The Dolphins will need to make some plays off of Favre’s mistakes if they wish to win the game.

X-Factor-Randy Starks: The Dolphins will have to stop Peterson at some point, or else he will run all over the Fins all game long. Starks will have to step up in this game and help the front seven stuff the run early and often, thus forcing Favre to force the issue via the aerial attack. Starks is relatively new to playing the nose tackle position for the majority of the game, and has little experience against a top running back. It will be up to him to set the pace of the game, and not allow Peterson to get to the second level, where he can break tackles and use his elusiveness.

Prediction: Vikings win, 24-21. The Vikings simply have too many options for the Dolphins defense. The Dolphins will not be able to get a consistent pass rush against the more than viable Vikings offensive line, which will allow Favre to stand in the pocket and make enough plays to get his team the win, despite the game being close throughout.

Announcement From Nowhere: Ferg Retires

This week, one of the Dolphins locker room leaders, nose tackle Jason Ferguson, announced his retirement from the NFL.

The news was a shock to all that heard, even the players. Only days after Ferguson joined Twitter, and showed his excitement for the oncoming season, Ferg then went on to announce his retirement, which shocked even the players.

Despite conspiracy theories that thought Ferguson retired because of yet another failed drug test, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello says otherwise.  “No, there was no further violation.”

Ferguson had this to say about his retirement.

“You get what you put into this game. I would like to thank my family, the fans and the organizations that I have been a part of for their continued support throughout my career, it’s been an absolute blessing to play this long. I have built a lot of relationships, you develop an extended family playing this game; I would like to thank that extended family, the teammates, the coaches, the support staffs that have all played a part of a great ride.”

The retirement of Big Ferg is yet another blow to the locker room. The Dolphins have lost three past captains this off-season (Joey Porter, Jason Taylor, and now Ferguson), and it is now left up to some of the other guys to pick up the slack and step up to the task.

Ferguson leaving is a huge blow to the teams depth at defensive tackle.

Because Ferguson was suspended for the first eight games of the season for violating the league’s PED policy, the Fins had to switch defensive end Randy Starks over to nose tackle.

Starks served some time at the position last year in short stints, but being the full time guy is a whole different story. Personally, I was looking forward to Ferguson coming back from the suspension fresh, and providing somewhat of a sparkplug for the team in the home stretch of the schedule.

But with the retirement comes a changing of the guard, and perhaps this allows Starks to have the job for the full season without having to look over his shoulder once Ferguson comes back from his suspension.

Starks will have his hands full in his first season as the starting nose tackle, and without Ferguson, our run defense just took a big blow, but it is nothing our front seven, and Mike Nolan cannot handle.

Rookie Safety Reshad Jones Inks Deal

On Friday, the Miami Dolphins and rookie free safety Reshad Jones came to agreement on a four year deal, reportedly worth $1.95 million.

Jones will receive a signing bonus worth $160,300.

Jones will be in the midst of a competition for a starting job at free safety during training camp along with second year man Chris Clemons, and veteran Tyrone Culver.

The Fins now have three remaining rookies unsigned, all of which were drafted within the first three rounds.

The True Meaning Of A Legacy: Marino’s Always Better Than JT’s

Without a doubt, over the past 27 years, all of the Dolphins fans worldwide have witnessed greatness on the field, both on offense, and defense. But while all of these legends over the years (Dan Marino, Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas to name a few) there is one thing that seperates all three of these guys, their legacy that they left after they retired.

Two retired peacefully, with the team that drafted them. One signed with a rival amid much controversy. These guys took three different roads in the later stages of their NFL careers. I am not here to bash them, I am here to examine them, and compare them in ways, and point out some of the main points that went into each players decision.

Let’s first start with Zach Thomas. The man gave his all for the Dolphins. Suffered injuries, and numerous concussions (which actually ended his career) and mentored young players year in and year out. It’s safe to say that this man was a true Miami Dolphin through and through.

He also set numerous records throughout his tenure in Miami. But after suffering an injury filled last couple of seasons in Miami, and a new regime came in in the form of Bill Parcells and the rest of the Trifecta, Thomas got the boot. He was simply getting too old, and too injury prone.

Zach understood, and went on to play another season with the Dallas Cowboys, where he put up generous numbers, and then went on to go through training camp with the Kansas City Chiefs, before getting cut due to lingering issues from his previous concussions.

Thomas then came back to the Dolphins for one day, on a contract that was only a dollar (ironically I think that this guy would have played for free his whole career.) and retired as a Dolphin, quietly. He had a press conference, and then it was over. Everyone was over the Thomas retirement within the week.

Quite the contrary to our next lab rat, Dan Marino is known as undoubtedly the best player in this franchises history.

He set numerous passing records and defined the way of passing, so that players like Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees could now play the game and get paid like they do. If it was not for Marino throwing like he did over his career, their would not likely be as many prolific passers in the league, and the league would not have made the transition from a run first league, to suddenly a high scoring, glitzy, aerial onslaught.

Marino’s career is not in question right now, or his legacy. He is one of the best, if not the best player to never win a Super Bowl, and is one of the top ten quarterbacks of all time, if not top five.

While Marino’s retirement process required a little longer to get over (try 10 years and counting) he did it the right way. He retired with dignity, and on his terms. he said no to another season because he felt his body could not handle it. He was not forced to quit, he did it his way. He felt he could have thrown with the best of the best in the league for one more year, but his legs were just not up to the brutal beating that they had taken for years and years.

In the end, Marino said no to all of the other offers before he retired.

So Dan retired, amid many rumors that he was fielding offers from the Minnesota Vikings, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and his hometown Pittsburgh Steelers.

Marino later admitted that although he had retired, that he was seriously considering playing for the Vikings, and that playing in his hometown would have been interesting.

But Marino also said that he was glad that he only played in one town, for one team. And that he was proud to be a Dolphin his whole career.

Now, in a discussion with Sun-Sentinel’s Omar Kelly, Marino says that he would never had considered playing for a rival like the New York Jets.

So, in a way, Marino’s career ended in a way that fans can feel a sense of gratitude for him. I mean, sure, it would have been nice if his last game in a Fins uniform was a not playoff blowout to the Jacksonville Jaguars, but hey, what can you do? He did not have any offense at that point in his career, and his front office was not committed to building an offense around Marino.

Now we face our last example. Jason Taylor. The man who could not wait less than a week to see if the Dolphins would like to re-sign him after the draft. The same man who went to the division rival New York Jets because he “had no other offers”.  The same man who later went on to say that the New York and Miami organizations “are as different as night and day”.

This was the same man who was beloved in Miami for more than a decade, and after getting traded to the Washington Redskins for a year, came back home for a sendoff party it seemed. At the time, I thought that JT would finish his career in Miami, and he would stay for at least two more years.

JT then proceeded to decline an offer from the Dolphins during the season that likely would have kept Taylor in Miami until he retired. The Fins then told Jason to wait until after the draft to see what the Dolphins got before they gave him a new contract.

Taylor did not like this idea, and promptly left the fine and glamorous city of Miami for the hated city of New York.

Questions then suddenly arose about whether JT’s legacy would be tarnished at all, and whether he will still be considered a Dolphins great after all is said and done.

While, it is not a great idea to compare Marino and Taylor together, I think that since both were great players for the Fins for an extended period of time, and set records, it is safe to conduct in this case.

Marino, like I mentioned above, turned down offers to play one more year. JT took another offer from a team when he could have waited a couple of days and found out if his original team would re-sign him or not.

JT turned down Miami pretty much. When he said that there were no other offers on the table, well, while that may be true, all he had to do was wait, like the rest of the free agents, to garner some offers. The Dolphins would likely have offered him something, and the Jets would have certainly still offered him a contract a couple of days later if JT insisted on waiting.

But instead he took the other route, and simply signed on with the Jets.

He was, and still is hated by some, and also he is still beloved by fans. But it seems like there is no in between, and some think he has tarnished his legacy as an all time great.

You cannot really compare Zach and Jason because they were in different situations. We all knew that the Dolphins wanted no part of Thomas, and we all understood that. But we are still unsure whether the Dolphins would have eventually, after the draft, worked out a deal for JT.

The same deal flies for Marino. The Dolphins wanted to rebuild, and wanted no part of Marino, and were not really interested in building around him since Jimmy Johsnon arrived in the mid-90′s.

But Marino still had a choice like Taylor did. Should he retire a Dolphin, or in Taylor’s case, wait for his team to make an offer, or go elsewhere? Or should Marino take the other offers that he received from other teams? Marino chose retirement because he wanted to stay with one franchise his whole career. That meant something special to him, and while it did mean something to Taylor as well, it didn’t mean as much.

That is one of the reasons that Marino is, and most likely always will be the best Fin ever. Because not only did he set the standard for on the field, but when retirement came knocking, and he had the decision of going somewhere else, or retiring a Fin forever, he chose the latter.

JT will always be a fan favorite of mine, but Marino will always be numero uno in my heart because he went that extra mile to uphold his legacy as a Dolphin. And that is the difference between the two. JT is in New York, and Marino is still in Miami.

Dan “The Man” will always be remembered for being a Dolphin. JT will be remembered as a Fin/Skin/Jet. What kind of a legacy is that if you end your career playing for a team that you strived to beat your whole career?

This is how I will remember JT, unfortunately.

Dan didn’t want that, and neither do I. Sorry JT, but your just the enemy now, and while you do have some great history in Miami, and have a lot of memories, you will always be remembered by me as the guy who finished up his career as a Jet, a member of our bitter rivals.