My thoughts on the 53 man roster...

Ok, so I know we have done every single subject on this site more times than I am willing to count.  But to be honest, the next step is for the coaches to trim down that roster during training camp and the preseason to that magical number -- 53.

OFFENSE(total 27)

**I think our gameplan is to control the clock on offense so we want to be a little bit heavier here in numbers.  I think we got caught not being deep enough at O-line last year and we don't let that happen again.

QB - Chad Henne, Pat White, Tyler Thigpen 

Total Players at this point in the post= 3

Chad Pennington on PUP list for the first 6 weeks.  In that time we will see Pat White and we will determine if he can play or not.  He will either show us something that he didn't show last year once the pads come on, or we will cut him.  The other option if he is still not game ready is to trade Thigpen if some team loses a QB and is willing to part with a better draft pick than we initially paid for him.  He is after all only a #3 QB behind Henny and Penny, and this is still assuming that Pat White doesn't COMPLETELY IMPLODE... in which case we would hold on unless we get 3rd round or better for Thigpen(don't see it).

RB- Ronnie Brown, Ricky Williams, Lex Hilliard, Kory Sheets (Patrick Cobbs on PUP)

Total Players at this point in the post= 7

I think Hilliard and Sheets are the future for the Dolphins running game.  I think if players fall to us next year in the draft we pick them up, but there is no need to solve a problem, as much as we need to add depth.  I still think if we get a good deal for Brown, Cobbs, Hilliard or Sheets we make the move because it is not hard to find a RB that can produce behind the offensive line that we have built.  I don't see any team jumping at the chance to get Ricky WIlliams because he is retiring after this year, he already said it and he is the polar opposite of Favre.

FB- Lousaka Polite

Total Players at this point in the post= 8

No explanation needed.  The guy is one of my favorite guys on the team because he just goes out and levels people.  

WR- Brandon Marshall, Brian Hartline, Davone Bess, Greg Camarillo, Ryan Grice-Mullen, Patrick Turner

Total Players at this point in the post= 14

Ok, so here are my thoughts.  I am hoping that Patrick Turner recovers from the injuries that have been hampering him and he actually starts producing like we thought he would when we drafted him.   I also think that Brandon Marshall being around might help him develop into the type of WR that he has the potential of being.  If not he doesn't last through training camp.  I will say for now, he makes it and we carry 6 receivers.

If you made the case that Julius Pruitt, Taurus Johnson, Brennan Marion, Marlon Moore, or Roberto Wallace would make the team and Turner would be cut I would not disagree that could happen.  I am basing my thoughts on what I think that the front office is trying to do.  I think they go with the bigger WR.  It is too early to cut their 3rd round pick from last year and I don't think it happens if he can get healthy(that is the big question). 

TE- Anthony Fasano, Joey Haynos, Kory Sperry(then again .. they could go with John Nalbone if they value blocking over a receiving TE)

Total Players at this point in the post= 17

I also think we might even go with just 2 TEs if Turner shows himself to be fully recovered and starts learning from Brandon Marshall quickly and makes plays.  We would then have 2 receivers who have the ability to be physical(whether or not Turner is is another story, but he has the potential to be) and we would be using more multiple receiver sets.  If we got to that point, we are one of the few teams in the league that could run 4 receiver sets and make teams still respect our run.  That could be very dangerous.

O-Line: This is going to be the most interesting part for me because I really don't know who the backups or even the interior starters are going to be in any case lets run through them all at once...

starters: Jake Long(LT), Donald Thomas(LG), Jake Grove(C), Richie Incognito(RG), Vernon Carey(RT) 

Nate Garner, John Jerry, Joe Berger, Cory Procter, Dimitri Tsoumpas

Total Players at this point in the post= 27

You could make the case for Lydon Murtha, Andrew Hartline or Andrew Gardner in place of Dimitri Tsoumpas.  I think John Jerry is the eventual replacement for Vernon Carey.  Carey is a solid RT, but I have seen him take plays off and let defenders go completely untouched to the QB.  You can't have that.  Jerry looks to be much more athletic for the RT position and still can move people on running plays.    Add to that that Carey is due a big jump in salary next year I believe.  Not sure how that salary stuff works out and it could be just because of the guaranteed money that he received, but if someone can shed some light on how it actually works that would be good.

DEFENSE(total 22)

LE- Kendall Langford, Phillip Merling (backup)

Total Players at this point in the post= 29

NT- Randy Starks, Ryan Baker, (SUSPENSION) Jason Ferguson

Total Players at this point in the post= 31

     I still hold to the possibly insane belief that we were thinking that Cody would drop to round 3.  Call me crazy but  I really think that we decided we had so many holes that we needed to go after 3 down players over a 2 down player.   We needed to get better in the front seven so we took Odrick, and we needed a complete OLB(as opposed to a strictly pass rushing OLB) so we picked Misi. I think we felt all the other teams we that needed a NT had already picked one.  I think the Ravens surprised us, by grabbing a NT.  We saw Ngata as a NT and so we didn't think they needed another.  However, Ngata is probably just as good if not better suited as a DE. 

The main reason for my insane belief is that we were not really saying how we were going to address the NT position after day 1.  Ireland mentioned that we might go back and address NT(I think).  He said that Odrick could play either NT or DE, in the typical manner that we have all come to know and love(it makes you wonder if he is capable of telling the truth almost).  So at the end of day 2, he suddenly announces that the plan all along was to move Randy Starks to NT and have Odrick replace him at DE.  Really?  So why did you wait until day 2 to say that?  Did something change drastically from day 1 to day 2?  Were you trying to make teams think you might pick another NT... or did you just miscalculate?  I think they are good at picking good players, but not neccesarily the best at deciding who is going to be available to them at what point in the draft.

Jeff Ireland Day 1 interview

Jeff Ireland Day 2 interview

RE Jared Odrick, Tony McDaniel(backup)

Total Players at this point in the post= 33

     Now you can move the RE and LE around if you want, but the main point is we will have those 4 when all is said and done.  I think we need to keep 4 to run the hybrid 3-4/4-3.

LB- Koa Misi(SOLB), Karlos Dansby("Mike" LB), Channing Crowder( "Mo" LB), Cameron Wake(WOLB)

Tim Dobbins, A.J. Edds, Chris McCoy, and Austin Spitler

Total Players at this point in the post= 41

OK, so we are hoping that all these rookies pan out, but if they don't we let whoever doesn't goes to the practice squad and we instead hold on to Charlie Anderson as a backup.  I could also possibly even see him as the starter at WOLB with Wake coming in on purely passing downs.  I don't think that is Mike Nolan's style though and I think he would be more inclined to just bring Wake on every play.  You could at the very least move him around and make defenses worry about what hole he is coming through, but if we could get him to be able to work in coverage it opens so much more for our defense because then we could either bring him and drop Misi, or bring Misi and drop him into coverage.  We could even bring both of them and drop either Dansby, Dobbins or Edds into coverage, and that is the beauty of the whole thing.  No more plain vanilla.

P.S. I love that they are both MLBs ... not ILBs... love the names... 

CB- Sean Smith, Vontae Davis

backups: Will Allen, Nolan Carroll

Total Players at this point in the post= 45

This is assuming of course that Will Allen will make a full recovery.  If not we might go with Jason Allen and put Will Allen on the PUP for the first 6 weeks of the season.  I think Jason Allen has been an excellent special teams player and I don't think the guy has been as awful as people think.  I actually saw him cover Randy Moss back when Randy Moss was good.  I think his is a case of missed opportunities, slow learning and flipping back and forth from safety to CB and back again...  As good as he is as a special teams player I have heard Sparano say that he has to have a vision for a player as more than a special teams player.  So does anyone see him suddenly being able to unseat Will Allen or the rookie Nolan Caroll as a nickel CB?  No?  Me neither... Thank you again Nick Saban. 

FS- Chris Clemons, Jonathan Amaya(backup)

SS- Yeremiah Bell, Reshad Jones(backup)

Total Players at this point in the post= 49

     I think we have our eventual replacement for Bell in Reshad Jones.  Hopefully, he gets opportunities at FS and SS this year as a backup.  Then he works his way into the starting role.  I think Bell is a great ballplayer, and he is a great leader in the back of the defense.  I just don't know how much longer he can hang with younger talent in the secondary as they are developing.  I do believe that Chris Clemons is the answer we were begging for last year at FS.  I think the fact that we will be attacking instead of waiting back in coverage this year will make all of our coverage problems last year totally disapear this year.

SPECIAL TEAMS(total 3)

K- Dan Carpenter (aka DC$)

P- Brandon Fields (although they might find a Australian league punter that can beat him out this year....lol)

LS- John Denney

Total Players at this point in the post= 52

I like that they try to bring in competition for these guys every year, but we all know they are going to win.  I did really like the idea when they were playing with the idea of JT backing up Denney as a long snapper.  If he comes crawling back to the Dolphins next year and he wants to extend his career a few years we can bring him in as a long snapper/team captain.  Nah ... let him retire ... I would rather have the guy that NEVER gets his name called, because he doesn't mess it up.

HMM.... I actually came up one short.... I guess then we would have to add one extra DE since we are pretty solid along the offensive line and everywhere else.  I think if we run a 3-4/4-3 we would want lots of fresh defensive linemen coming into the game.  I would guess Ikaika Alama-Francis as the 53rd man. When Ferguson comes back we cut him, assuming that all the young guys haven't proven that we don't need him.  If Starks shows what he can do and Baker has proven he can be a solid backup, Ferg will be sent packing.

Again... I have nothing better to do than talk about what might happen... but then again ... at least it isn't another Jets post ... so....

Let me know if I made any mistakes, or miscalculated... or if you think that my roster is too thin in one area or another.  Or if you disagree with anything.. maybe there is a former practice squad player that you think will be the next ...ummm.. whoever... lets talk about it.