2008 AFC EAST – The Miami Dolphins

Well, Bill Parcells couldn’t stay out of retirement long. He managed to find his way to a warm weather city where he may just finish his NFL career at GM. Sad thing (at least for this season) is he moved to Miami and now heads up the front office for the Miami Dolphins.

Parcells will need all the help he can get to make a winner out of the Dolphins in his first season. I’m not sure anyone is actually expecting that though. Besides Parcells return to football, there have been two other major stories involving the Dolphins this offseason. We’ve had the off-field drama involving Parcells and DE Jason Taylor (aka Mr. Hollywood starring in “Dancing with the Stars”) this past winter and the sudden return of Ricky Williams at RB following yet another suspension from the NFL.

However, the 2008 season could depend solely on the arm or arms of the Miami quarterbacks. On the roster are Josh McKown, John Beck (2nd year, BYU) and Chad Henne (rookie, Michigan). The media and many Dolphin fans have labeled McKown as the man to start off the year at quarterback, but he’s had injuries in his past journeyman stints in Oakland and Arizona. So the real question should be ‘who will finish the year at QB?’ Beck played horrible last season when called upon, but was that moreso because he had no weapons around him or because he’s just that bad? Guess we’ll see this year at some point. Many also think Henne may be the QB of the future (I can insert the fact that I am a Buckeye fan here and note that if Henne ever starts in the NFL, I hope it’s vs. the NY Jets and he gets sacked mercilessly by Vernon Gholston – AGAIN! – but I digress…)

Ronnie Brown looks to return from his disastrous knee injury last year to work with Williams out of the backfield. Brown, if healthy, and Williams, if sober, could pose one of the most ominous threats in the NFL this year. Brown was having a potential record-breaking year for the Dolphins last year prior to injury, and we all know when Ricky was healthy and doing what he was supposed to, he was a top five NFL back a couple years ago.

Wide receiver may turn out to be a huge deficit for the Dolphins though, which could completely counteract any offense Miami gets from its studs at RB. Here’s the four WRs on the roster: Ted Ginn Jr. (2nd year, OSU), Derek Hagan (3rd year, Arizona State), David Kircus (4th year, Grand Valley St.) and the veteran of the group Ernest Wilford (5th year, Va. Tech). Wilford comes in as a free agent and automatically assumes the role of leader of the receiving corps, which may or may not be a good thing. He had his spurts of quality moments in Jacksonville, but never broke out with a great year. Marty Booker who left in free agency would have been the veteran at WR, but his time came and went in Miami without much of a bang. Long story short, Ginn and Hagan will have to step up bigtime especially with the potential of having a second year (Beck) or first year (Henne) QB at the reigns some point this season.

Along with Booker, Miami also lost LB Zach Thomas and RB Jesse Chatman to free agency. Chatman saw greener pastures elsewhere but could have helped with depth in case Brown’s knee doesn’t heal up properly. Thomas though has lost his status as a starter in the NFL and to me is simply a role player now.

The Dolphins did pick up Jake Long (number one overall draft pick, Michigan) to help on the offensive line, but he was not even close to the best player in the draft. Parcells went with an immediate need which may pay off in years to come, but could you imagine in Darren McFadden was on this team along with Williams and Brown. You could even put McFadden in the slot or really anywhere on the field and it would pose so much more of a threat that what this team will at any point in ‘08.

Well, I’ve gone on long enough. This won’t be another 1-15 season. However, it almost pains me to pick more than five wins, but I’m going with a 6-10 record for this year’s Dolphins.