I hope you all had a good weekend and a nice Mother's Day. Not too much going on right now. But that will change in about a week and a half when OTAs kick off in Davie.
Meanwhile, here's what you may have missed from this past weekend:
VETS ON THE BUBBLE
The Palm Beach Post's Tim Graham took a look at which veteran players might be cut prior to September. His full blog post can be read here. I just wanted to talk a little bit about the defensive names on this list because we haven't really touched on them yet like we did on the offensive side of the ball. Also note that Graham defines "veteran" as a player that is entering at least their 3rd year in the league.
One of the first names on this list is Travis Daniels. And he'll likely be a big topic of discussion once camp rolls around. He's a guy who showed a ton of promise in his rookie season, but has tailed off since then due to a lack of speed and some nagging injuries. Graham says about Daniels and his situation:
With six safeties on the roster (seven, counting Jason Allen), Daniels will need to stand tall in camp.
And therein lies the problem for Travis. What does this new regime view him as? You'll remember about a month ago that it was said by Tony Sparano that they would actually take a look at Travis as a cornerback rather than a safety, at least at this point. So that means Daniels won't be in competition with all the safeties (and there are quite a few), but rather will the corners that are in camp. Will Allen is all but set as a starter. So Daniels will battle guys like Michael Lehan, Andre Goodman, Nate Jones, Joey Thomas, Scorpio Babers, and Will Billingsley. Not exactly a great group. So Travis should have every opportunity to fight for a roster spot.
If you ask me, I'd say that the 4 most likely to make the team are Allen, Lehan, Goodman, and Jones. That leaves Daniels to battle with Babers, Billingsley, and Thomas. With the experience advantage, I think Daniels has a good shot if he can stay healthy.
Another interesting player on Graham's list is kicker Jay Feely. Feely had an exceptional season last year in terms of field goals, but struggled with his distance on kickoffs. The Dolphins have brought in Dave Rayner (who is 41 for 57 in his career) and Dan Carpenter, a rookie out of Montana (read about him here). For now, though, I think that Feely is simply to reliable of a field goal kicker for the Dolphins to just dump him. But I'll talk some more about the kicker situation in a future post (hopefully this week).
DIERDORF'S TAKE ON PARCELLS VS TAYLOR
CBS Sports commentator Dan Dierdorf recently gave us his take on the Bill Parcells/Jason Taylor soap opera that the media has been (and continues to) play itself out this Spring. Dierdorf, as a guest on the radio, had this to say:
Bill Parcells is the most blue-collar guy there is. And there's nothing "Hollywood" about Bill Parcells. And I'm sure the mere thought of Jason Taylor missing workouts, and because he's dancing, drives Bill Parcells up the wall. But I still believe Jason Taylor is an impact football player and any football team is better off having there.
Not exactly any earth-shattering news there, but I think that it's further proof that once Taylor arrives in Miami and does begin acting like a part of the team, then Bill will be satisfied. And Jason will prove many (including myself) wrong by (hopefully) showing up in "football mode" and having another great season. Like Dan says, I think it's just the fact that Bill's "face of the franchise" isn't around and isn't taking part in his important offseason workout program, but rather is dancing, that is eating away at Parcells. Once Taylor gets into Davie, we'll all be happy.
Of course, whether he remains a Dolphin for all of 2008 is an all together different topic for discussion.
Thoughts on any thing below...