Memo to Management: Trade for Vilma

This is simple, trade Jason Taylor for Jonathan Vilma, straight up. We are most likely going to trade JT anyway, so why not acquire an established player, rather than a draft pick who we may or may not hit on. Jonathan Vilma was the defensive rookie of the year in 2004 and a pro bowler in 2005. He had a productive 2006 and was on his way to a nice 2007 before a season ending knee injury. He would fill in nicely and make up for the loss of Zach Thomas. He is better than any of our current options at middle linebacker. I can already hear people arguing that Channing Crowder is. Well, I don't think so. I like Crowder on the outside. And if we run a 3-4, we can play him and Vilma in the middle. Also Vilma grew up in Miami and went to the University of Miami, so there is no question that he would want to play here. Also, a lot of the Dolphins supporters who are also 'Canes fans would love to finally have a great player from The 'U' on our team. He would be a fan favorite. This is a no brainer, make it happen.

Chris Long Owns The Combine

The title says it all. Chris Long had a great morning in Indianapolis. I could list all his numbers from the different drills and while they are very impressive, they don't do justice to how good he looked. He looked like a super athletic, highly motivated, smooth football player. He had great speed in the 40 yard dash, but to be honest, when is he ever going to run 40 yards in a straight line. What I liked was his change of direction in the position specific drills. It was smooth and effortless while still being extremely quick and agile. Simply put, you can tell he has the genes of a football player. I think today's performance solidifies him as a top five pick and will make it even more likely that Miami would select him number one overall. Still, the best case scenario for the Dolphins is to trade an acquire at least another pick, but with the likelihood of trading seemingly becoming less and less, I would be 100% happy with Chris Long in a Dolphins uniform rushing the passer (perhaps along side Jason Taylor, how sick would that be?) Below are some NFL.com video links.

Chris Long: NFL Scouting Combine Highlights

Chris Long: Game Film and Analysis by Mike Mayock

Update: Yet Again, I Was MIA

Well I'll be honest, I have been way too busy to be updating here. What I will try to do for the next several weeks is to do one mega post one the weekend which will include all the news from the previous week, and a few things to look for in the upcoming week. For now, let me recap things that have happened since my last post.

Dolphins Make Roster Cuts

On February 11th, Miami cut several players including regular starters Trent Green, Marty Booker, LJ Shelton, and Keith Traylor. Green and Traylor were no surprise as their age and injury concerns obviously don't belong in this rebuilding process. Booker hasn't been terrible but also has never really elevated his game and he drops a lot of balls. Shelton was a Nick Saban guy who just never really took off either. Bottom line is, when the team goes 1-15, no one can make a real argument for why they should still have a roster spot.

Another Cut, Zach Thomas

On February 14th the 'Phins cut Zach Thomas. As a fan, it was obviously a sad day. Zach was the face of the defense for his twelve years and the face of the team since Marino retired. Even though we all knew this was coming, when it actually happened it was still upsetting. Unfortunately, from a business perspective, his age, condition, and output, just don't match the type of money he was due to make. By cutting him, we also give him an opportunity to go to any team that wants him so he can try to make the playoffs and perhaps win a ring as the final chapter of his NFL career. I wish him the best of luck, as long as he isn't wearing a Patriots uniform.

Michael Lehan Resigned

This was a little surprising to me. For our CB situation for next year, I was thinking we would use an early (probably second) round draft pick on one. This years pool of corners are very deep and we can get great value with either our 32nd, 57th, or even 64th overall pick. Then we would probably play Will Allen with the draft pick as our starters with Lehan or somebody else playing as the backup and nickel corner. The money Lehan will make however, is significant and it looks like he will be a starter. I still believe it is a need though, and we should grab one of the young studs to either split time, or be a backup for the first year.

Huizenga Sells 50% of Team

This news came out yesterday. Miami Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga has sold half of the team and the stadium to New York real estate big shot Stephen Ross. The idea was not surprising but the timing is. Huizenga had hinted about a possible sale but it seemed like it was a ways away. The right offer came though and now Ross owns half the team. Huizenga will still be the primary owner and the managing general partner who will have the final say in everything. This is more like owner in training for the time being. Things really shouldn't be much different.

Draft News

There are so many rumors and little nuggets of information flying around these days it make my head spin. Something that is of a little importance to Miami was the coin flip for picks 3-5 yesterday. Atlanta won and will select third. I'm not quite sure if that hurts or helps in our effort to trade the #1 pick. They are closer to us and it will cost them less to trade up, but now it's really only between us and them. If they don't believe we will take Matt Ryan, then there is no reason to trade.

Rumor has it that Miami is in love with Chris Long, and why not? He might as well walk around with a shirt that declares him a "Bill Parcells Football Player." I believe he is the number one sought after target of Miami and if no trade happens, he could be the #1 pick.

Site Plugs

You may have seen some of the links on the right to other Dolphins sites. I recommend going to the following ones during the week to get Dolphins news and opinions

Phin Phanatic - The lead blogger Brian Miller knows his stuff and is always on top of the latest news and rumors.

Miami Dolphins Spotlight - Chris Nelson covers all roster moves and transaction and does very informative videos to go along with his posts.