Again, I apologize for the very long downtime today.  As you can guess, more issues reared their ugly heads.  However, thanks to the hard work of our truly amazing tech team, the worst is (hopefully) behind us and we can move on to the more important issues at hand.  And I hope everyone will come on back to our little community.  The past 24 hours have been disappointing because of the tech issues, but better times lie ahead!

CLAYTON THINKS TAYLOR TO REMAIN A DOLPHIN

In his latest blog , ESPN’s John Clayton writes that it’s unlikely that the Dolphins will indeed trade Jason Taylor during draft weekend.  Why?  He believes that Bill Parcells and company won’t get the kind of offer they are looking for:

Jason Taylor is dancing with the stars, but odds still favor him playing for the Dolphins this season. Bill Parcells would be willing to part with Taylor but for a No. 1 pick -- something it seems unlikely many teams would give up. A second-round pick is also a long shot. If you're Parcells, why would you give up the potential for 10 sacks for a third-round pick? Financially, the Dolphins can afford him. Despite being very active in the early parts of free agency, the Dolphins payroll is $104 million, not including the cost of signing the rookies. They have $18.5 million of cap room.

First off, it’s great to hear how much cap room the Dolphins still have, though a good chunk of that $18 million will go to Miami’s draft picks, Jake Long in particular.  It’ll be interesting to see how his cap hit is spread out.

As for Taylor, we’ve been hearing for a while now that the Dolphins are standing firm in terms of their asking price for Taylor.  But like many are saying, it’s highly unlikely the Fins get a 1^st rounder in return.  If the Dolphins don’t soften their stance, Jason will be back in Miami in 2008.

LONG DENIES ANTI-DOLPHINS COMMENT

You’ll remember a while back that there was a story on FOX Sports which featured a blurb that claimed Jake Long did not want to play for the Dolphins.  On Thursday, Long fired back , stating that report was untrue:

“Someone called me up and said they saw (the report).  I don’t know how anybody got that because I never said that. I never had those feelings.”

“I said from Day One that it would be an honor to play for the Dolphins and be a No. 1 pick. I don’t know who came up with that, but none of it was true.”

This isn’t surprising, as it was believed by most that Long wouldn’t ever come out and say that, potentially losing millions of dollars by falling a few picks in the draft.  Like I said when the original story came out, I bet this rumor that Long didn’t want to come to Miami was started by a team drafting after the Dolphins that had an interest in Jake.  Regardless, though, he’s here now (or will “officially” be on Saturday) and that’s all that matters.

DOLPHINS CUT 8 PLAYERS

The Dolphins announced on Thursday othat they have cut 8 players.  One of them is Cameron Worrell (thankfully).  Worrell was constantly beat in the secondary and lost his value as a solid special teams player when this new regime brought in special teamers by the boatload.

Also cut were QB Casey Bramlet, WR Kerry Reed, WR Chandler Williams, LB Marcello Church, LB Mark Washington, CB Jereme Perry, and S Tuff Harris.

I’m a bit disappointed in the release of Reed, who I thought could have eventually developed into a decent 4^th or 5^th receiver.  But I guess it shouldn’t be much of a surprise considering the players that the Dolphins brought in, including Ernest Wilford, David Kircus, and Tab Perry.

I’ll be back in the morning with a post looking at players and positions the Dolphins might be considering in rounds 2 and 3.