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.

First off, I just want to apologize to all who tried logging onto this site over the past few hours.  There were some major technical issues all across SB Nation.  Hopefully, they are all behind us now.  A big shout out to Trei and his team for working behind the scenes here until all the issues were (hopefully) resolved.

Now before we get into the meat of this post, I just wanted to say that the transition to the new site has been generally pretty smooth.  And that's thanks in large part to the great job being done by Trei and his team.  Kudos to those guys!

Also, two things I wanted to highlight about the new site.  First of all, I want to point out the new "recommend" feature.  I think this feature is going to be very valuable, especially in regards to the FanPosts (formerly known as "diaries").  I want to really encourage you all to make use of the "recommend" feature for FanPosts because once a very informative/well-written FanPost gets a certain number of recs, it moves to the top where it says "Recommended FanPosts."  This allows the best and most well written/thought-provoking posts by you guys to remain at the top and not get lost in the shuffle.  So I encourage you all to simply click the "recommend" button when you are reading a FanPost that you like very much and that could spark some great discussion.

The other thing I wanted to point out is that we will be doing a live blog on Saturday (for most, if not all of the first 2 rounds) and for at least the early part of day 2 on Sunday.  It'll be a good test run for the auto-refreshing comments, which I really think you will all love.  So be sure to check in early and often on Saturday, as the excitement builds towards our two 2nd round picks as well as the potential trade of Jason Taylor.

OT vs DE

Now onto the main purpose of this post.  Some people have already touched on this, but I don't think they really highlighted it enough.  Therefore, I just wanted to quickly address this issue of taking an offensive tackle in the top 5 as opposed to taking a defensive end.  As has been pointed out, these were the two positions the Dolphins were looking to address with that #1 overall pick.

Going back to 1990, 8 offensive tackles have been drafted in the top 5.  Of those 8, only 2 can be considered busts.  Those two are Mike Williams, drafted by Buffalo in 2002, and Robert Gallery, drafted by Oakland in 2004.  And Gallery, despite being a bust at tackle, seems to have found his niche as a guard.  However, you don't take guards in the top 5, so he is still a bust.  The jury is still out on two other players, Levi Brown and D'Brickashaw Ferguson.  So the bust rate since 1990 for tackles is 25%.  But keep in mind that those 8 players have combined for 18 pro bowl appearances, which is quite impressive.

Moving along to defensive end, there have been 12 drafted in the top 5 since 1990.  Of those 12, six have been busts (Keith McCants, Steve Emtman, John Copeland, Cedric Jones, Andre Wadsworth, and Courtney Brown).  And I've left off Darrell Russell, who could be considered a bust despite his two pro bowl appearances.  The jury remains out on Gaines Adams, too, but I got a feeling he might end up being a bust as well.  But for arguments sake, we'll say that just 6 have been busts, putting the bust rate for top 5 defensive ends at 50% since 1990.  And combined, these 12 players have combined to reach just 8 pro bowls.

So for the sake of comparison, offensive tackle has a pro bowl rate of 2.25 (18 appearances among 8 players) while defensive end has a pro bowl rate of 0.66 (8 appearances among 12 players).  When you take into consideration Jake Long's specific talent, skill set, work ethic, and demeanor, then it's easy to understand exactly why Jake was the safest pick for the Dolphins.

Why I Like the Pick

I've said on here a lot since the news broke of the signing if Jake Long, but I haven't really explained why I'm a big fan of the pick.  And it's not just because he's the safest pick for the Dolphins, though I do feel that he is.  And I like the fact that if things don't work out for Jake on the left side, he could definitely slide over to the right side and be a perennial pro bowl player.  But with that said, I'm confident in this regime (especially Tony Sparano since his background is as an OL coach) that they will get Jake to play at a high level on the left side and that he will be that Richmond Webb type of player for this franchise.

Another thing about this pick is that Jake will come in here and instantly make an impact.  Even if he struggles early on in pass protection on the left side, he's going to be a simply dominant run blocker, meaning Ronnie, Ricky, and LoBo are going to have some big lanes to run through.  This will allow the Dolphins to keep the ball on the ground and chew up the clock, helping keep the defense fresh and taking pressure off of whoever the QB ends up being.  So while this pick was on the offensive side of the ball, it also helps out the Dolphins' defense.

But perhaps the biggest reason I like this pick is because of the tone it sets for this new era of Dolphins football.  Jake Long embodies everything that this new regime preaches: smart, tough, and disciplined football.  He's a dedicated, hard working player who will eventually be a leader in the locker room.  His work ethic is likely going to rub off on all of his teammates and his mean streak on the field will set the tone on gamedays.  This pick also shows that the Dolphins will be committed to hard-nose, physical football that begins and ends in the trenches.  In a day and age where deep passes and flashy players seem to dominate the highlight shows, this new regime in Miami is letting everyone know that they are going to play football the way it was meant to be played.

Now I just can't wait to see what this new regime has planned for the rest of the draft and the rest of the offseason.  Surely, things will only get better and more exciting from here.

Thoughts below...

I'm sure there will come a point in time where we are all tired of reading and hearing about Jake Long.  After all, there's a lot of time between now and the first time he hits the practice field as a Miami Dolphin.  So with that said, allow me to pile it on some more.

I've enlisted the help of Sean Yullie, who is the head blogger over at Pride of Detroit , SBN's Lions blog.  Why Sean?  Well, he's also a huge Michigan football fan and runs a Michigan blog called Michigan Sports Center.  And as a big time Michigan fan, he's probably seen most, if not all, of Long's snaps throughout his 4 year career.  Below are Sean's thoughts on the kind of player, and the kind of person, Jake Long is:

On the field... Jake Long is a workhorse. You've probably all heard the stats before. He allowed only two sacks (one of which was to potential top 5 draft pick Vernon Gholston) in four years of playing at Michigan and only had two penalties as well.  Long is someone that you can trust to protect your quarterback, but at the same time will demolish anyone in his path when acting as a lead blocker for Ronnie Brown or anyone else running out of the backfield. 

What's great about Long is that he knows the game of football so well.  He has the size to be an All-Pro offensive lineman, but he also has the technique and smarts to accomplish that feat.  Long openly admitted during the combine that he holds all the time.  The catch, though, is that he is able to hide it well enough to prevent flags being thrown in his direction.  On top of that, Long is one of the best run blockers I have ever seen.  He was the lead blocker for Michigan's all-time leading rusher, Mike Hart, and played a huge role in that record being broken this past season.  Hart was a great player himself, but without Long I highly doubt that any records would have been broken.

Off the field... With all of the talk now-a-days about the character of NFL players, it has to be nice to know that someone like Jake Long will never be a worry when not on the football field.  He comes from a great family and is very down to earth, and I'm guessing he won't be making it rain in a strip club anytime soon.  To go along with that, Long has a work ethic that is bar none.  In the last few seasons the Michigan football program has taken on a soft attitude, and that happened in part because the little things like voluntary offseason workouts featured very low attendance.  One person that you could always count on to be there, though, was Jake Long.  He worked hard to get to where he is today, and his work ethic is one of his best attributes.

Perhaps the best thing Long brings to the table is his leadership.  He was a two-year captain of the Michigan football team, which is a very rare accomplishment.  On top of that, he was the player that really held the team together after the debacle that started last season.  After a shocking loss to Appalachian State and a blowout loss to Oregon, Long remained strong and kept his teammates' spirits up.  Although his goal of winning a national title was already out the window, Long helped get his team focused.  Michigan went on to win 8 straight games after that and eventually capped off the season with a win over Florida.  Had Long not had the leadership to stay strong during the worst start to a season in Michigan football history, that team definitely would not have ended up winning as many games as they did.

A big thanks to Sean for taking the time to do this.

As always, thoughts below...

I wanted just to highlight a couple of quotes from yesterday's Jake Long press conference.  Of course, you can watch the entire press conference at miamidolphins.com.

First, here are Jake Long's first words to the media as a Miami Dolphin:

And here is some more of Jake Long, in his own words.

Jake talks about the honor of being the #1 pick:

Jake talks about the responsibility of being the #1 pick:

And about the stress, Jake said:

Jake talks about himself as a player:

Jake talks about his demeanor on and off the field:

After the jump, there are some good quotes from Jeff Ireland and Tony Sparano.

Continue reading this post »

ESPN's Chris Mortensen is reporting that the Dolphins have reached a contract agreement with Michigan OT Jake Long to be the team's #1 overall pick in Saturday's draft:

And if you head over to miamidolphins.com, you'll see on their homepage that they have a press conference scheduled for 1:45 pm for live broadcast on the site. The NFL Network will also carry the press conference, according to their bottom line ticker.

**UPDATE 1:10 pm** FOX Sports' Jay Glazer is reporting the deal is a 5 year deal:

**UPDATE 1:14 pm** The Sun-Sentinel is reporting that there is a press conference and it's to "likely" announce the signing of Jake Long. [end update]

**UPDATE 1:19 om** Incase you are wondering the money involved in this 5 year deal, here it is: It's a 5 year, $57.5 million deal that includes $30 million in guaranteed money according to NFL Network's bottom line ticker. That's more per year than JaMarcus Russell got, but is less in guaranteed money. I suppose the concession that the Dolphins had to make in order to get Jake signed to a deal that was worth less in total value than Russell's was to give him one fewer year, allowing him to hit free agency one year earlier. It seems like a fair deal for both parties. [end update]

**UPDATE 1:26 pm** For those that are wondering, Joe Thomas signed a 5 year, $42 million deal with Cleveland last year, including $23 million in guaranteed money. So it's quite an increase over Thomas' deal, but keep in mind that he was the 3rd pick, not the first. [end update]

**UPDATE 1:28 pm** Is anybody else wondering if Jeff Ireland is going to address his "slip up" from last Thursday's press conference? If I was him, I'd make some kind of joke about it. But that's just me.

Also, it seems the Miami Herald, who is continually late to these kinds of parties, has finally also posted a story about Jake's signing. [end update]

**UPDATE 2:07 pm** Two most interesting tidbits from the press conference are as follows. Jeff Ireland said that the deal is signed and he's a Miami Dolphin. The other was that Tony Sparano said that he views Jake Long as a left tackle and that's what he's going to play for this team. So that means Vernon Carey will be moving back to right tackle, where he could really be a superstar. I have to say I'm quite excited about our two bookends now! [end update]

**UPDATE 2:16 pm** Asked about his slip up and if things changed or if he's that good of an actor, Jeff Ireland responded, "That's for me to know, for you to guess about." [end update

**UPDATE 2:20 pm** Ireland was also asked if the Dolphins spoke with any other agents about the #1 pick, and Ireland said they did not. Clearly, Jake Long was "their guy" all along. [end update]

More on this as I hear it.