Just wanted to get in my two cents like everyone else -before it was too late- about what's shaping up to be THE most important Dolphins draft since the 1967 draft that produced my childhood mentor-by-example, the 1966 Heisman Trophy runner-up to Steve Spurrier, Purdue's Bob Griese, once the subject of a forty-page paper I wrote while at Fulford Elementary in North Miami Beach, circa 1971, complete down to having his PAT stats while at Purdue.
[I'll have much more on my Griese connection in the future, including one of the highlights of my childhood, scoring a TD after intercepting a pass of his in a flag football game, while up at the sports camp he operated in the early 70's with then-Dolphins wide receiverand former Iowa Hawkeye and holder for Garo's kicks, Karl Noonan, in Boca Raton at St. Andrew's School, site of the the Dolphins' first training camp.
(One of my counselors was a young Roy Firestone, the future 7-time Emmy winner, but then just a very smart and funny University of Miami student who also did some work at the then-Channel 4, WTVJ.)
I returned it the equivalent of about 70 yards for a TD, twice faking him out so bad that the last time, he wound up rolling on the ground, something I was somewhat used to since I was usually the fastest kid by far on any team I played on.
Afterwards, while standing in the end zone being congratulated by my teammates -which for that game, included one of my counselors/instructors, Dave Elliott, the University of Michigan DB and son of University of Miami head coach and future Pro Football Hall of Fame Director, Pete Elliott- still somewhat stunned by what I'd done, Griese walked over to me and yanked HARD on my flags to make sure that I hadn't cheated by tieing each side within itself, thereby making them shorter, then, after seeing them come off, said, "The touchdown is good."
Then, he turned towards me and said "Congratulations, but how did you know to roll from one side of the field to another, the weak side to the strong side?" or words to that effect.
I told him that the moment I saw the pattern he'd given the receiver I was covering, I recognized it as a pass play he'd often employed successfully to Paul Warfield, whereby Griese looked hard at the CB to make him bite and commit, and then open up his body and throw in the opposite direction towards the outside, where the CB thinks he has a play but is almost always beaten by the wide receiver."
As a devout Dolphin fan who'd had season tickets starting with the perfect 17-0 season of '72, and who'd only missed two home games -whether exhibition, regular season or playoff - from 1971-78, I knew their plays like the back of my hand.
After listening to my explanation, Griese smiled and laughed and said that I'd been 100% right.
Later that week, I was with him the moment he first learned thru the newspaper that the NFL had decided to outlaw his favorite means of drawing a defense offsides by bobbing his head, which had resulted in so many favorable penalties extending drives over the years.
The play I described to Griese is sort of like the play that QB1, Jason Street demonstrated to Matt Saracen in Dillon Panther Stadium at midnight with "Smash" Williams and Tim Riggins in one of the best scenes of the year of Friday Night Lights, one of my favorite TV shows from Day One. http://www.nbc.com/Friday_Night_Lights/ ]
I came late to this Sun-Sentinel QB story after having already read most of Armando Salguero's Herald QB stories, and having made copious notes in my legal pads about various players that WQAM radio hosts Orlando Alzugary,
http://www.wqam.com/index.php?page=328 , Jim Mandich,
http://www.wqam.com/index.php?page=332 and "The Hammer," Hank Goldberg, http://www.wqam.com/index.php?page=329 have discussed at length over the past few weeks on their respective shows, especially after the NFL player workouts in Indy.
I thought I'd share some thoughts about whom I think the Dolphins should draft, QB-wise -in the second round- of this weekend's NFL Draft, but first, I feel the need to go over this particular Sun-Sentinel story with a red pencil.
First, for information purposes, keeping with the intent of this blog's name, Michigan State's Drew Stanton, consistently mentioned as being part of the second-tier QB group who'll be available to the Dolphins with their second pick on Saturday, is, according to numerous local media reports, now living just down the street from me over the county line in Aventura, the so-called "City of Excellence," so he can train in a climate and atmosphere more conducive to his getting maximum potential out of his natural talent, and give him a chance to work out in person for Cam Cameron.
(That "Excellence" moniker can't be said for the city's email system, which marked as "spam" an email I sent to the Aventura mayor and the city manager recently to alert them to a water leak on the sidewalk off Biscayne Blvd., after the SFWMD and the media were bombarding us with info about calling in any water leaks you spotted on account of the new water restrictions and the longstanding drought conditions at Lake Okechobee, http://www.sfwmd.gov/site/index.php?id=16 )
Also, curiously, reference is made in the story to the "radio comments" of Giants' Hall of Famer and CBS NFL analyst Phil Simms without any specific show be credited. Just for the record, Phil has been making his comments on Hank Goldberg's program of late, just as he does during the NFL season.
Yours truly has originally planned to write down Phil's prescient comments just as quickly as possible, while taping the program, to share his insightful comments with you here, but that plan was too hopeful and not accomplished with the exceptions of a few notes below.
For more of Phil, see the Sun-Sentinel's usually prescient Ethan Skolnick's interview:
http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports_football_dolphins/2007/04/simms_sizes_up_.html
More than any other current NFL TV analyst, I tend to agree with Phil's intuition close to 100% of the time, which is saying something.
Sort of like the NFL version of Slate's Mickey Kaus,
http://www.slate.com/?id=3944&cp=2065132 whom I used to talk to occasionally when I lived in DC and he was still toiling at The New Republic, while yours truly worked his second job at the Border's Books on 18th & L Street, which was the bookstore that most of DC's media flocked to at lunch or after work due to its great location, near the DC bureaus of ABC News, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Baltimore Sun, et al.
WQAM's NFL draft programming starts Saturday with pre-draft material starting at
10am Kenny, Bo and Alex Marvez 12pm QAM's NFL Draft Coverage and then settles in for the afternoon at noon 'till the 6:30 Marlins coverage.
You might want to avail yourself of the info package they've assembled on the station's draft page, http://www.wqam.com/index.php?page=412, which, conveniently, includes the Phil interviews as well as ones Hank and Jim have conducted with other guests on various draft prospects.
Stanton is not Phil's "type of quarterback," per se, and while describing Toby Karotti as "not a great thrower," he did say that he'd heard that he was the second-best thrower at the Indy workout, while lumping Ohio State's Troy Smith and the gators Chris Leak as "projects," doubting they'll ever get a real chance to start at QB in the NFL.
Phil also described Sooner RB Adrian Peterson in two words, "take him!" He's "as dynamic
an RB as I've watched since paying attention to the NFL Draft. Incredible physical talent."
"Can't miss." High praise indeed!
Though the internet's the answer to an NFL Draftnik's prayers, despite the many sites that are out there passing along info that ranges from prescient to slander, I've found that in the weeks leading up to this weekend's draft extravaganza that besides the NFL's own site, http://www.nfl.com/ , which most of you probably already have bookmarked -or should-
http://nfldraftscout.com/ , another site has filled in a lot of the black holes for me.
People down here, esp. initial skeptics of Culpepper trade, like me, are VERY disappointed that we only heard two weeks ago about extent of the Culpepper injury timeline, and while nearly everyone wishes that Culpepper works out okay, the Dolphins are deep behind the eight-ball with their current crop of QBs, since without mobility, Culpepper is useless and even more fumble-prone with the offensive line the Dolphins have currently.
I like Cleo Lemon and Dolphins head coach Cam Cameron, the subject of an upcoming posting, had Lemon while out in San Diego while he was Chargers' offensive coordinator
and likes his athleticism and his command of the huddle.
The other players really seem to like him and try hard for him, which I can't say was always the case for the last few Dolphin QBs, for whatever reason.
(I should mention here that, for the benefit of those of you who aren't in the South Florida area, lots of callers to local sports radio shows are opining that Nick Saban, aka the Devil, with his "only one voice" top-down management style, intentionally left this injury situation below the surface as his ultimate screw-you to South Florida on his way out.
Word is that even the more partisan sports writers and TV reporters who cover Alabama, the ones who thought this area was "unfair" to Saban, are now starting to see that all the things they were told by South Florida media folks about Saban only a few months ago, really are TRUE.)
Due to the above news, it looks more and more likely that former Hoosier and Redskin Trent Green will be coming here after this weekend's draft, since he has already indicated to the beleaguered Browns that he wants no part of them.
At this point, it's just a question of whether the Dolphins will blink and give in to the Chiefs' draft pick demands, or whether the Dolphins will hold firm.
Personally, after reading what I could about all the potential QB candidates, I'd like to see the Dolphins draft Stanford QB Trent Edwards
(see http://gostanford.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/edwards_trent00.html
and http://www.mymockdraft.com/725/PlayerDetail.aspx ) in the 2nd round, since Green is, even under the best of circumstances, a two-year option -though I'm open to the idea of being proven wrong.
Though the knock on him is that he is a "system" QB, I was VERY impressed with Houston's Kevin Kobb in his game against the Hurricanes last year down here.
I'll be going to the Dolphins' training facility in Davie on Saturday, catching the fan over-analysis over there "up- close and personal," while also touring the facilities and checking the new crop of Dolphin cheerleaders, and will try to post some photographs in the days to follow.
This will mark my first trip to the Davie facility, though I was a regular for the Dolphins' training camp at the then-Biscayne College in the early 70's, the outside sauna, which is where I first became a charter subscriber to Dolphin Digest, back in the day before those sorts of niche sports publications exploded on the scene.
For whatever reason, I've never had any urge to go up to their "new" place in Davie.
Here's hoping that Mueller & Cameron really do stick to their guns and pick ONLY smart talented players for a change!
A good start would be getting Penn State's Levi Brown with the 9th pick and nabbing Trent Edwards in the second round.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-spdrqbs24apr24,0,5910968.story?coll=sfla-sports-front
Dolphins' Cameron, Mueller feeling own QB pressure
By Harvey Fialkov
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
April 24, 2007
More than a year after seemingly solving their quarterback problems with the acquisition of three-time Pro Bowl selection Daunte Culpepper, the Dolphins find themselves back at the drawing board as draft day approaches.
And a drawing board is exactly what Dolphins coach Cam Cameron wanted from former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn during a February interview at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.
Cameron told Quinn he had seven minutes to diagram every run and pass formation, as well as each pass protection scheme, in the Notre Dame playbook, according to a report on Sports Illustrated's Web site. A former college quarterback at Indiana, Cameron recently explained why he wanted Quinn to perform such a harrowing mental exercise.
"Guys need to be able to think to play the position," Cameron said. "I want to try to find out, `Can they think fast?' ... Then the ultimate test is, `Can they think fast under pressure?'
Cameron and General Manager Randy Mueller are facing pressure to fix the quarterback situation for a team that has gone five seasons without a playoff appearance. Whether the still-gimpy Culpepper or imminent acquisition Trent Green is this season's starter, Mueller has made it clear that he wants a young quarterback to develop.
Most draft analysts believe that Quinn and Louisiana State's JaMarcus Russell will be gone by the Dolphins' turn at No. 9. Russell seems destined for the quarterback-starved Oakland Raiders at No. 1, while the Lions (No. 2) and Browns (No. 3) would be hard-pressed to pass up Quinn, who seems most NFL-ready after playing for former New England Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis the past two seasons.
The Dolphins could trade up for Quinn and draft a quarterback in the first round for the first time since taking Dan Marino at No. 27 in 1983. More likely, the Dolphins will use one of their two second-round picks to snare a second-tier quarterback such as Stanford's Trent Edwards, Michigan State's Drew Stanton or Brigham Young's John Beck.
All have question marks.
Edwards has durability issues, with the most recent injury being a broken right foot that ended his senior season after the Cardinal's 0-7 start.
At 6 feet 3 and 226 pounds, Stanton is a classic pocket passer. Stanton recently moved to South Florida and has worked out several times for Cameron.
NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock said Stanton lacks consistency, while ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. questioned his arm strength. Former New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms also recently said during a radio interview that Stanton is "not a good enough pocket thrower."
Cameron made a trip to Provo, Utah, to visit Beck, who finished his BYU career as the school's second-most prolific quarterback (11,021 yards). But because Beck served a two-year church mission in Portugal, he will be a 26-year-old NFL rookie.
"His size, arm strength and mobility are all better than advertised," according to Rob Rang of nfldraftscout.com.
Mueller, a former NAIA Division II quarterback who drafted Marc Bulger and the unheralded J.T. O'Sullivan during three New Orleans Saints drafts from 2000-02, realizes that drafting a quarterback early isn't always a recipe for success.
"Most of the time they're thrown out there and have to carry a team, a franchise and a city right away, and that's a lot," Mueller said. "Ask David Carr [Houston's underachieving top pick of 2002, now with Carolina] and some of these other guys, and I think you can evaluate for days and weeks and months and you won't know the answer to that question."
But at least it's a start for a team that hasn't drafted a quarterback since Josh Heupel in 2001.
Harvey Fialkov can be reached at hfialkov@sun-sentinel.com.
Copyright © 2007, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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http://www.miamiherald.com/616/story/84456.html
Miami Herald
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Draft might provide Fins QB of future
By ARMANDO SALGUERO
Lost in the Trent Green trade speculation and the intrigue about Daunte Culpepper's soon-to-follow trade or release is the fact the Dolphins still will be looking for their future quarterback even after the two dramas finally play out.
And that's where this weekend's NFL Draft serves as the climax to Miami's offseason quarterback search.
Because the Dolphins aren't just searching for one starting-caliber quarterback, but rather, they're trying to find two. The first player is expected to be a veteran to serve as steward over the 2007 season, the short-term fix to Miami's long-standing and long-term quarterback woes.
The second is supposed to be the heir to Miami's passing game. That rookie, drafted sometime Saturday, will be asked to carry Miami's quarterback hopes into the next decade.
''That's something that coach [Cam Cameron] and I have spent a lot of time on,'' Dolphins general manager Randy Mueller said. ``It's no secret we'd like to make the right choice, if a quarterback is in the future for us. Again, we don't know because I can't tell you what else is going to be there and what our other choices will be.
``But I do know this: All of the guys, and there are five or six guys who are probably first-day worthy, all have ability to play in this league. I think the hardest part is sorting out the intangibles and we've spent a lot of time on that.''
THE BIG RIDDLE
In fact, the Dolphins have spent more time trying to solve the quarterback riddle than they have spent on practically any other position.
Mueller and Cameron traveled to South Bend, Ind., to meet and work out Notre Dame's Brady Quinn. They traveled to Baton Rouge, La., for an on-campus workout of Louisiana State's JaMarcus Russell. But realizing both those players likely will be out of reach barring a Saturday trade-up scenario, the Miami brain trust also has done homework on likely second-round picks.
The Dolphins have two second-round picks and one of those could be used on Brigham Young's John Beck, Stanford's Trent Edwards or Michigan State's Drew Stanton. All have met with Cameron, Mueller or both at least twice in recent weeks. East Carolina's James Pinkney is a later-round possibility.
Mueller and Cameron are conducting a wide-ranging search while looking for a focused set of skills, with the ability to think quickly among the most important of those.
''I think guys need to be able to think to play the position,'' Cameron said. 'But, it's a lot more than that and that's kind of why guys tend to think, `Well, I'm a smart guy, I can play quarterback in the NFL.' Then you try to find out if they can think fast.''
Cameron has tested the mental speed of the quarterbacks he has talked to this offseason by simply asking them to diagram their passing schemes -- under pressure of a time limit.
''What I like to try to do -- usually we'll have it down to the group of guys that we think can think at the level that we need to run this system, but then I want to try find out, can they think fast? That is kind of the next step,'' Cameron said. ``Then the ultimate test is, can they think fast under pressure?
``Take anything we think we know and decrease the time element, it's amazing what happens to people. We are looking for that guy that when there is five seconds on that 40-second clock or five seconds in the game, that's like two days to him, the game is in slow motion. We've all seen those guys operate and that's the guy we're looking for. I would say the guys that have a tough time thinking fast under pressure are going to struggle in this business.''
The Dolphins don't think Quinn is one of those that will struggle. People within the organization say Quinn is the quarterback most likely to succeed in a system similar to the one Miami runs and that is why the Dolphins covet Quinn.
That does not cast aspersions on Russell's potential and great athletic skill. But the Dolphins simply think Quinn is a quicker thinker.
And Quinn, not surprisingly, agrees.
THE TOP CHOICE?
Although he is not nearly as gifted as Russell physically or athletically, Quinn thinks he should be the first quarterback chosen, something the Dolphins are frankly rooting against.
''I'm a competitor and as a competitor I want to be the best, I want to be first,'' Quinn said. ``The best player in the draft is the one that gets picked first. That's why I want to get picked first. Nothing against any of the other guys, but that's how I'm thinking.''
Draft experts have criticized Quinn for not playing well in big games although he has never thrown more interceptions than touchdowns in a game against a winning team. They've also criticized his ability to throw on the move and throw long passes with accuracy.
But Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis, who mentored Tom Brady during his days as New England's offensive coordinator, believes the team that gets Quinn is getting a star.
''They're going to get a combination of Tommy and Peyton [Manning],'' Weis said. ``I've heard from at least 20 teams that have talked to Brady [Quinn] and say this is the closest interview they've seen to Peyton.''
© 2007 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.http://www.miamiherald.com
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