One of the hot topics following the Dolphins' collapse on Sunday against the Saints has been centered on receiver Ted Ginn. We all know that he's been a huge disappointment this season and it has all finally come to a head after another poor display by Ginn on Sunday - which featured a couple more dropped balls, one of which was plucked out of the air by a defender and returned for a touchdown.
Since then, I've noticed a new website, TedGinnSucks.com, and a petition by Dolphin fans to have Ginn cut from the team - which, as of this posting currently has close to 100 signees already.
But the "real news" comes courtesy of Chris Mortensen, who said on ESPN during their pre-game show on Monday night that Ginn will begin to see less action on gamedays:
Per ESPN's Chris Mortensen (who likely still has a pipeline to his former ESPN colleague, Bill Parcells), Ginn will see reduced playing time going forward.
Mort also said that, if the trade deadline were tomorrow instead of last Tuesday, the Dolphins would be dialing up the Ravens and offering Ginn to the team whose offensive coordinator, Cam Cameron, drafted Ginn in 2007 with the ninth overall pick.
First off, it's probably true that Mortensen is more "dialed into" the Dolphins front office than most other reporters because of his relationship with Bill Parcells. And I'm not surprised at all that Ginn will start to see less playing time. That's what he deserves. But I get the feeling that the idea Miami would be "dialing up the Ravens and offering Ginn" is pure speculation by Mortensen. I doubt this front office would ever let that information out to anyone, let alone a reporter who will just turn around and announce it to the world. What would the Dolphins even get by trading Ginn? Does he really have any value at all at this point?
More importantly, though, while most of you probably will jump over to the petition and sign it and then proceed to talk about how much Ginn sucks, I did want to just bring up one thing that I haven't seen talked about much in regards to Ted. Yes, he's been a huge disappointment this season - there's no debating that. And yes, in a perfect world, the Dolphins could just cut him. But can we get real for a moment? What alternatives do the Dolphins currently have?
Like most of you, I do like guys like Davone Bess and Greg Camarillo. Both seem to be ideal complimentary wide receivers. Brian Hartline has also looked pretty good in his limited playing time - and I expect he'll be the beneficiary of Ginn's lost playing time. And yes, it might be time to start getting some looks at the team's other rookie receiver, Patrick Turner. But the fact is that none of these guys are deep threats. None of them possess the speed needed to keep an opposing defense honest. And without Ginn on the roster, opposing defenses wouldn't even have to prepare for any kind of deep threats.
Quite frankly, the Dolphins need to keep Ginn for the rest of this year just as a decoy, if nothing else. After all, the Dolphins can't trade him now that we've passed the deadline and cutting him seems rather useless without any clear-cut upgrade on the roster.
I'm also not in favor of just making him a weekly gameday inactive. While this would give a guy like Patrick Turner an opportunity to play, I just don't think this is the solution. Ginn needs to at least get some snaps in three and four receiver sets for no other reason than forcing opposing defenses to respect the threat of the deep ball. The Dolphins have absolutely no other options. Is Kory Sheets, a speedy running back the Dolphins signed last week to take the roster spot of the injured Patrick Cobbs, going to suddenly convert to receiver? He's the only other offensive player on this roster with any kind of speed that can stretch the defense. But let's be serious - he isn't the solution.
The fact of the matter is there is no solution right now. We just have to suck it up for the rest of the season, keep Ginn on the active roster but reduce his number of snaps, and hope that when he does get behind the defense that he actually hauls in the Chad Henne deep ball like he did against the Jets. Then, once the offseason comes, we all know what one of this team's top priorities will be - finding a receiver.