The Phins Report

With no news in the Dolphins camp till most likely the next mini camp and/or the next time something in the Jason Taylor fiasco goes down, we’ll look back to the disaster of the event in Miami Dolphins football called the 2006 NFL Draft. It was Nick Sabans second draft after having the second pick in the draft the previous year.

The year before was moderately succesful with the Pick of Ronnie Brown and Channing Crowder the rest are still unproven like Matt Roth and Travis Daniels who has had an injury prone career. And then their are the ones who contributed but are no longer on the team Kevin Vickerson and Anthony Alabi. But nothing would compare to the next years draft.

Going into the 2006 draft, The Dolphins knew they either had to get their secondary better or bolster their front 7, which led to the names of Bobby Carpenter, Antonio Cromartie, Tye Hill and Chad Greenways name to come up. But when the first pick came most were surprised in the picking of Jason Allen the FS from Tennessee. Saban knew him from his days at LSU and he tried to recruit him. He is a boom or bust player that had the tools to be a great safety but injuries will restrict him. So Far in Allens career with the Dolphins he has done nill, This year could be his break out or bust year, with Yeremiah Bell most likely going to start at SS, He will start at FS. So the judge is still out on this but it doesn’t look good.

And with the Second round pick the Dolphins selected, Oh wait… Yeah we traded that pick for an all star caliber Quarterback named Daunte Culpepper. That worked out amazingly as well, passing up for the most part on signing Drew Brees who is now a top 10 QB on the Saints. Now we all know Culpepper was an absolute bust and shows the blunder of the Saban regime.

With the 3rd rounder Saban decided to go with a sure bet catcher in Derek Hagan which has been farther than truth in which he drops about half the balls that are thrown to him. The same is true of the whole draft they all have the potential to be amazing but they never have done so, they have been underachievers so far.

Then after that comes a string of picks that were injured and/or had attitude problems and were cut. In the 4th round the Dolphins took Joe Toledo who I think was hurt the whole time he was on the Dolphins, He never played a game and for the most part was on the IR for his whole tenure.

The 5th round pick forfeited for none other than big crying Manny Wright who was picked up in the Supplemental Draft. He would never amount to anything and would be released none other to be signed by the Giants and be inactive for their whole super bowl run. Its nice to see Dolphins failures to get a ring but for none other reason than just being really big.

And the failure continued with the first of three picks in the seventh round with the pick of Fred Evans. Evans was going to be good, he was amazing in training camp but was not active for most of the season and then the next season was slated to be the starting DT, but thats when trouble arrived. I guess apparently biting a cop is not the best thing to do in the wee hours of the morning, 5 days after the incident he was released ending his tenure of a promising DT.

The jury is still out on Rodrique Wright the second pick of the seventh round, He had a rotator cuff injury that would keep him out the entire 2006 season. Wright could have been a 1st or 2nd round prospect if not for his injury. Last year Wright played in 13 games with 33 tackles and 1.5 sacks not bad for a 7th round backup who nobody expected much out of. Wright can compete for the DE job or if he bulks up more he could compete for the NT job but right now he is a backup and if he shows up and performs well at training camp his stock could go way up. Now with the last pick the Dolphins picked Devin Aromashodu who nobody really remembers because he was cut in training camp and went to the Colts and oddly enough won a super bowl with them as well.

This is however not the worst draft in Dolphins history which can be attributed to mostly any draft from 200-2004. Saban did not do a very good job drafting and now I am somewhat glad that he lied and went to Alabama so he can bring another proram to mediocrity. Hopefully somebody from this draft will actually produce and make this team better which has not been the case so far. The Receivers and secondary still need work and this draft did not help it all. Maybe with the new regime we will actually be starting to head the right direction.

There was a report on KFFL earlier in the day regarding the Dolphins signing Murphy but it was merely a sentence with not a single source. But now it is being reported by Armando Salugero in his blog.

The Dolphins will announce the signing of offensive guard Shawn Murphy in the coming hour or so. No financial terms are yet available.

Murphy, the team’s foruth-round draft pick, is expected to compete for a starting job this year along with veteran Steve McKinney and darkhorse second-year player Ikechuku Ndukwe.

Props to anyone who can tell me where Ndukwe went to school. Murphy, the son of former Atlanta slugger Dale Murphy, attended Utah State.

The Dolphins have now signed six of their nine draft picks, with second-rounders Phillip Merling and Chad Henne and third-rounder Kendall Langford still not on board.

This brings the mormon count on the Dolphins to six, Being the most in the NFL. But other than that, Murphy will be set to compete at RG with Donald Thomas and Steve McKinney. RG could be the weakest position on the line if Jake Long does do good and nobody really stands out at Guard. Training Camp will show more on how Murphy will perform this season and how he will fare against McKinney.

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Well Jason Taylor finally spoke about his situation with the Dolphins and really all you could get out of this is one paragraph of information.

“I’m under contract with the Dolphins. So again, I’m looking forward to playing some golf,” Taylor said Wednesday, according to The Associated Press, after playing in a pro-am for the Principal Charity Classic, a Champions Tour event in Des Moines, Iowa. “Football doesn’t start until July and training camp, so I’ll be all right. I’ve been in L.A. and so far removed from it. Like I said, I’ll deal with that when I get there.”

The Interview tells a little more but not much.

From the looks of it seems as if Jason Taylor will report to Training Camp, As he did say we’ll see in July. He is under contract so he is required to be on the team if he wants his pay at the beginning of the season, He does not have to show up for training camp but he will be faced with fines for not showing up but it does not look like he will be getting any. The asking price for Jason Taylor is too hefty so there is no real way JT will be out of Miami any time soon.

Now this brings up was Sparano lying? Now I don’t think so but he did do it for tactical reasons, Taylors agent must have told him about Jason most likely not attending camps and Sparano called him out on that. To which he made Jason look like a guy who is abandoning the Dolphins which he does not want to look like so he had to say he will be here in July. Likely a strategical movement but Parcells et. al to get one of the best players on the Miami Dolphins more serious about football then Hollywood. If this is true we will see in July and see if JT reports.

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Well Jason Taylor finally spoke about his situation with the Dolphins and really all you could get out of this is one paragraph of information.

“I’m under contract with the Dolphins. So again, I’m looking forward to playing some golf,” Taylor said Wednesday, according to The Associated Press, after playing in a pro-am for the Principal Charity Classic, a Champions Tour event in Des Moines, Iowa. “Football doesn’t start until July and training camp, so I’ll be all right. I’ve been in L.A. and so far removed from it. Like I said, I’ll deal with that when I get there.”

The Interview tells a little more but not much.

From the looks of it seems as if Jason Taylor will report to Training Camp, As he did say we’ll see in July. He is under contract so he is required to be on the team if he wants his pay at the beginning of the season, He does not have to show up for training camp but he will be faced with fines for not showing up but it does not look like he will be getting any. The asking price for Jason Taylor is too hefty so there is no real way JT will be out of Miami any time soon.

Now this brings up was Sparano lying? Now I don’t think so but he did do it for tactical reasons, Taylors agent must have told him about Jason most likely not attending camps and Sparano called him out on that. To which he made Jason look like a guy who is abandoning the Dolphins which he does not want to look like so he had to say he will be here in July. Likely a strategical movement but Parcells et. al to get one of the best players on the Miami Dolphins more serious about football then Hollywood. If this is true we will see in July and see if JT reports.

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No real surprise here with Tab Perry being released, for the most part he was being brought in as a special team player and I couldn’t really see him competing for a starting job at WR with Ginn, Wilford and Hagan locking up the top spots at WR. As well he was injured and If a player gets injured there is no use for him when their are more than capable replacements that are cheaper and younger.

The Miami Dolphins waived oft-injured wide receiver Tab Perry on Wednesday.

Perry, 26, signed a one-year contract with the Dolphins in March but suffered a torn Achilles’ tendon on Saturday.

The UCLA product played in 20 games in his three-year stint in Cincinnati, recording 10 catches for 109 yards and a touchdown. He has also rushed for 22 yards and a score, but has primarily been used as a special teams player.

The 6-foot-3, 208-pound wideout had a productive season as a kick returner in 2005, tallying a 24.4-yard average on 64 returns. In the two years since, however, he has attempted just 11 returns due to a severe hip injury.

As well as the release of Tab Perry an Undrafted free agent that the Dolphins signed retired citing that football was not his thing. He was a real project, but he had the size for the 3-4 defense. He could of very well made the roster if he had an amazing preseason. But if he doesn’t want to play football and has better horizons, thats better for him.

Less than a month into NFL employment, Kory Robertson apparently has decided pro football isn’t for him. The undrafted rookie defensive tackle wasn’t placed on injured reserve as originally believed, but instead has retired.

The Dolphins haven’t announced this move yet. The reason behind Robertson’s decision is uncertain. We’ll update this entry as soon as we know.

Robertson, who is 6-foot-4 and 345 pounds, was viewed as an NFL project. He was among the first wave of undrafted prospects the Dolphins signed right after the draft.

He played for Virginia Tech but didn’t start until the third game of his senior year. He registered three unassisted tackles, six assisted and zero sacks or tackles for loss in 14 games last season.

Over his college career he averaged less than a tackle per game. He recorded one sack and 2 1/2 tackles for loss.

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Well after a break from writing over the Memorial Day Weekend I am back although there is not much news to report . But this really baffles me, The Dolphins wanting a 1st for Jason Taylor. He is a great talent but really he is worth less than a 1st rounder, because he is more than likely going to decline in the next seasons. If the least offer for him is a 4th round pick, A 1st round pick would only be if Hell freezes over. But here is an excerpt from the article.

Bill Parcells likes to run things his way.

The former coach of four different NFL teams and current Miami Dolphins grand poobah doesn’t want owners, much less players, to tell him what to do.

After all, he’s the coach who once said that if he was expected to cook the meal, he should be able to buy the groceries (draft the players). So he walked out on the New England Patriots after the taking them to the Super Bowl following the 1996 season.

Now Parcells is proving that he hasn’t mellowed and is just as cantankerous as ever. Just look at his handling of the Jason Taylor situation.

Parcells is unhappy that Taylor is skipping the offseason program to, among other things, perform on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars. And even though Taylor likely will retire before the Dolphins become a contender, Parcells won’t trade him unless he receives a first-round pick.

It would be more succesful to go and look for a player for player deal rather than the picks since as concluded before nobody will give up that much for an aging player that they don’t know if his head is in the game still or not. If this is truely the asking price for Taylor expect him to be on the Dolphins come this season. He will more than likely have to play if he wants to earn his check. And If he doesn’t expect him to retire.

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Alright, Its been about a month since the draft and well since most of them are signing, It would be nice to finally see some of their college highlights. I had posted Jayson Fosters in another post but none other but here are some of the ones I could find.

Lex Hilliard

Jalen Parmele

Jake Long Vs. The #9 Pick Derrick Harvey

Chad Henne at the Capital One Bowl

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uygjoeTs9rw&hl=en]

No other real good ones for Dotson, Murphy, Merling and Thomas. So for now this all we got hope it gets you ready for the season.

The Dolphins today continued their proactive approach to signing their draft picks by striking a deal with guard Donald Thomas.

The Dolphins have signed five of their nine draft picks. They locked up No. 1 pick Jake Long before the draft and on Monday signed running backs Jalen Parmele and Lex Hilliard and defensive end Lionel Dotson.

Still left to sign are defensive end Phillip Merling, quarterback Chad Henne, defensive end Kendall Langford and guard Shawn Murphy.

Around the rest of the NFL, meanwhile, only Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan has been signed.

Thomas, taken with the 195th selection out of Connecticut, was the second of Miami’s three sixth-round draft picks. He is listed at 6-foot-4 and 305 pounds.

Thomas is viewed as a project. He joined Connecticut as a walk-on after being discovered in a pickup basketball game on campus and didn’t become a regular starter until his senior season.

His chances of cracking the lineup were lessened last week, when Miami acquired veteran free agent Steve McKinney.

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Current Miami Dolphin (DE) Jason Taylor wants to be a Baltimore Raven and everything is pointing towards the fact that he will become one soon. I was contacted earlier today by a local source who stated to me that “you really need to look into the Jason Taylor situation; a number of Ravens are trying to talk him into coming to Baltimore and he has told a few of them that he will push Miami for a trade and would love to be in Baltimore” the source also noted “official talks between the Dolphins and Ravens have already taken place on a possible deal” & ” the Ravens really think he will be a good fit here in Baltimore”.

I looked into this information earlier this afternoon/evening.  I contacted one local media source, one national media source, one Miami area media source and one league source. I received a call-back tonight by two of those sources and both saying basically the same thing; independently of each other. Here is what I can share:

“Taylor and his reps have made it clear that he wants out; he’s ticked off about being pawned and scapegoated in a backdoor fashion by Parcells and the new regime in Miami”; “the news is already hitting ESPN and some of the .com sites”; “Taylor has talked to some folks on other teams in the league, he is saying he expects to be dealt away”.

I believe that the Ravens are seriously in the mix for Jason Taylor and look for the deal to be structured as follows: Miami gets a (2009) 3rd round draft pick with the pot possibly being sweetened to a 2nd round pick; the Ravens get Jason Taylor; Taylor signs a 2-3 year contract extension that is cap friendly for the Ravens.

If this trade happens, look for news to break that Cam Cameron and a number of current/ former Ravens players helped to sway Taylor towards Baltimore. Also, look for Taylor to play the pure rush-end position which will give the Ravens insurance against any downtime for an aging Trevor Pryce also giving them continued flexibility in how they use Terrell Suggs. Also, look for the Ravens to play more of a pure 4/3 if they can land Taylor -  in a 4/3 base look for the box to have (DE) Pryce (DT) Ngata (DT) Gregg (DE) Taylor with (MLB) Lewis, (SAM) Scott, (WIL) Suggs/Johnson…etc.

My opinion is that this is a win-win for everybody. Great deal at this point for Miami, great addition for the Ravens; tremendous spot for Taylor to land.

Well I don’t know how reliable it is coming from a site that the titles name is Dog Droppings but it looks as if he did his work in contacting his sources. A deal for a 2nd and a 3rd would be a great deal for the Dolphins because by the looks of it, it looks like as well as the Dolphins, the Ravens will be horrible. Only way they win is if they get that offense together with lord knows who the QB will be at the helm, Joe Flacco, Kyle Boller or Troy Smith? who knows. But as for the story, You would think he would want to be closer to Hollywood but this is not much closer, so I guess he really does not like management and that forced him out.

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Edit: After 10 minutes of searching it turns out this rumor is untrue, God damn you Dog Droppings.

Almost as quickly as they pop up, Jason Taylor trade rumors are getting blasted to smithereens.

In a blog earlier today, I provided a roundup of the latest rumors (click here to read the entry I will continue to update).

The most detailed report came from Baltimore sports radio station ESPN 1300. Reporter Damon “Bulldog” Yaffe outlined a potentially imminent deal in which Taylor would go to the Ravens for a third-round pick and then have his contract restructured to be more cap friendly.

But that trade is a long shot to happen for several reasons, according to a well-placed NFL source.

The Ravens already have an aging pass rusher in Trevor Pryce, also in his 12th season. He had 13 sacks two years ago and is coming off an injury but is healthy and ready to go.

They also drafted Florida International pass-rush specialist in the fourth round and are expecting big things.

The Ravens have to pay outside linebacker Terrell Suggs at least $8.5 million as their franchise designee, and that’s in addition to the big bucks they’re giving Ray Lewis, Chris McAlister, Ed Reed, Samari Rolle, Haloti Ngata and Pryce.

And Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome isn’t even around this weekend. He’s out of town, and it’s tough to hammer out the framework of a deal like this without a huddle at headquarters.

Besides, the Ravens aren’t exactly one move away from the Super Bowl.

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