The Breakdown: Vol. 1

Hey everyone, welcome to "The Breakdown: Vol.1" I've been reading alot of fanposts recently and I realized that there's a lot of dvision and talk and so forth about what this team is and what it needs.

So here I am to the rescue.

In this series of posts Im going to be breaking down what where we are and what we need in terms of upgrading. Ill be doing position by position, but each post will contain several positions so that I can get in an edition each week by the time free agency rolls around. Basically Ill be looking at this statistically and trying to keep my own opinions out in order to be objective as possible. The point here is to show, statistically, who is performing and worth their keep and who is not.

*NOTE* Im not going to include players who spent most of the season on the practice squad. They will be looked at like free agents and draft picks; guys who may or may not have the potential to upgrade a position on the roster

For this edition Ill be focusing on qaurterbacks and running backs. Lets start with QB's cuz itll be short and sweet.

Quarterbacks

Who we have: Chad Pennington, Chad Henne, Tyler Thigpen, Pat White

What we know: Henne will most likely be our starter with Thiggy on back up duties. White likely will be number 2 though so we can use him in the game and Penny is likely on his way out

Analysis: Lets start with Henne:

-Wonder why he deserves to be the starter and probably will be (even if Penny wants to compete and is healthy enough to do so)? CP10 is 33 years old and has an injury riddled history. Henne is a baby in comparison at 24. While some may argue that CP10 deserves a chance to win the top job I just dont see it playing out that way. Penny fell into this regimes lap and was signed to hold the team together and to be a teacher to Henne. Well CP10 got hurt and Henne was given the reigns, even if that wasnt the plan. Why on earth would a regime pass on Ryan and Flacco (who were more higly touted than Henne) and draft Henne to obviously groom him, and then allow him to worry about winning his starting job back after he preformed admirably this past season? It wouldnt make sense, and based on what weve seen out of this regime they are focused on the future and the future is Henne. God bless CP10 for all he did for us and I would love for him to stay as a backup but Henne deserves to be the "guy" now. Plain and simple. And a similar  argument can be made for Henne vs. Thigpen. Just incase my reasoning wasn't enough compare these stats from this season:

-Henne finished the season with completion percentage of 60.8. Not bad eh? And better than the likes of Matt Ryan, Jay Cutler, Donavan Mcnabb, and Carson Palmer. Keep in mind though that Henne didnt play in 2 games, but considering the weapons the others I listed had and the experience (minus Ryan), that looks pretty damn good.

-Henne also finished 22nd in yards per pass attempt with 6.38, but just a yard separates him from Kurt Warner, who finished 12th. Not bad, not bad.

-The knock is that he finished with more interceptions (14, good for 11th in the league) than td's (12, good for 24th and tied with Sanchez) but he did finish with a 75.2 qb passer rating good for 22nd in the league, which was within 10 points of Jason Cambell, who finished in the 15th.

-The point here is that while Henne definitly had his ups and downs during his first season of starting, he pushed on through and we watched him grow every weak. He even had several nice comeback drives, showed great poise in the pocket at times, and displayed good footwork along with that canon arm. Give him time. He's done enough to deserve it.

The rest:

-There's really not to say about the rest because we all know that Thiggy will be nothing more than a backup (and a damn good one too which is great for us), White will continue to grow in many ways (and who knows what plans this regime has in store for him) and that we would all love CP10 back but its not likely. He's a gamer and he wants to start. To play him against Henne, will only hurt Henne IMO and he would probably win out anyway as he just as a much higher ceiling at this point. This is Henne's team now, and if I were willing to bet, I think Penny knows that too and will try to find work elsewhere if he thinks he can start.

Conclusion: Were set at this position for quite some time it seems. No additions are needed.

Running Backs

Who we have: Ronnie Brown, Ricky Williams, Lou Polite, Patrick Cobbs, Lex Hilliard

What we know: Polite is not very polite, Williams apparently will be done after this year, Brown should be ready and good to go when camp starts, Same for Cobbs, and Lexy is definitly sexy

Analysis: Polite:

-He got robbed. End of story. Tim Graham can do you know what to my you know what for his comments that Polite, while great this season, didnt deserve a pro bowl bid. Im not even going to touch that one. Today's been a good day and I dont want to ruin it.

Cobbs:

-We love him. The coaches love him. His teammates love him. One way or another Cobbsy will be back and causing damage in some form or another, whether its crushing peeps on special teams or giving defenses headaches because we have "one more effing guy" that they cant seem to stop.

Hilliard:

-Oh sexy lexy (best nickname ever?). How are hearts were warmed during that preseason game against the Panthers. and then again when you finished the season with 3.9 yards a carry, scored a td, and got us 5 first downs. Sure you didnt play much till the end and even that was limited, but hey you were a sixth round pick from Montana and yet you still punished defenses on every one of your 23 carries this season. I hope to see your role expanded next season because I want see just how much punishment you can ram down opposing defenses throats.

Williams:

-Williams without pot; great, Williams with pot; aimless wonderer of Austrailian deserts, a.k.a not so great. Williams is quite the story isn't he? But for all his shortcomings in the past, you have to simply admire a guy who is 32 years old, split carries with Brown for half the season and yet still finished with 1121 yards on the ground, good for tenth in the league, and averaged 4.7 yrds per carry. Very, very impressive. Sure he had butterfingers sometimes (sometimes meaning in the worse time possible), but hey, when was the last time a 32 year old back was able to put together a season like his? The downside here is that he's not getting any younger (though he will still be highly productive, assuming Brown and Cobbs are at full strenght all season and it wont be his load to carry) and that aparently he's riding off into the sun after next year. Will he stay after next year? If were close to making a run,I believe he just might.

Brown:

-Ronnie Brown. Arguably the most talented back to ever wear a dolphins uni (defintly one of the best in terms of talent). Will he be back? Will he get hurt again? Just like Matty pointed out in his post on which injured players will return or not next season, we all want him back because honestly, we all know what a beast he is and what he means to the wildcat. Im of the opinion, like most of you Im sure that, when healthy, he's a top 5 back in this league hands down. So I wont sit and spew out stats because honestly we dont need them (however it is of note that he was averaging 4.4 yrds per carry before his injury). He is indeed a question mark and alot of it depends on the CBA which may or may not get a facelift so to speak. Ill go on the assumption that it wont be fixed and that he'll be a RFA. Which means hell be here for 5 mil. Do  Ihope we keep him and sign him to a long contract? Hell yes I do. He has injuries yes, but not a lot of mileage and lets be real here, running backs get hurt all over the place so is it so crazy to ignore his injury prone past? I dont. Especially when two of those injuries were freak accidents and his new knee didnt seem to be a problem for him at all. But who knows what will happen so I guess we'll wait and see

Conclusion: While Id love to see what Kory Sheets can do (practice squader) he most likely wont be the one to replace Brown if we lose him after next year or trade him/cut him. Or Williams either for that matter. The point is, after 2010 we will most likely need a new young back of potential elite talent to compliement whoever is still left or be the leading man. Id love to get C.J. Spiller in Aqua and Orange but I just dont see it happening unless we lose out on who were targeting and trade down. Jonathan Dwyer from Georgia Tech is another pipe dream but unlikely to land here. Personally I think Dexter McCluster out of Ole Miss would be a phenomal addition and, as of right now, would be available later on, say the third round or so, but again that could change. Here are some videos of the top backs in the draft who I think would fit in great here if we were to land them somehow:

First Rounders (projected):

C.J. Spiller

Jonathan Dwyer

Second Rounders (projected):

Jahvid Best

Toby Gerhart

Third and Fourth Rounders (projected):

Anthony Dixon

Dexter McCluster (chris johnson anyone?)

Ben Tate

-Hope yall enjoyed the videos. I would love to have any one of those guys honestly and I would say its a good bet one of them wears aqua and orange this season. With Brown in limbo and Ricky on his way out after this season apparently, i think it's higly likely (and needed) that we take a potentially explosive back in this draft

Well that concludes Volume 1 of the "Breakdown". Hope yall enjoyed the insight (not much I know) I have to offer and can use this post and the ones to follow (and Ill be sure to link them all together) to help in your evaluations of the players we have and some of the prospects that we might end up with. Let me know what yall like and dont like and Ill work in improvements for the Vol. 2.