(David Grotefend) The Bloodfest is over, the initial surge as the most coveted free agents are courted by their prospective new employers. Now teams glean over the remaining talent pool, adding an element here or there, but sort of in a holding ‘wait and see’ mode. Of course, as a Dolphin fan I wanted to grade them all ‘F’s, but that wouldn’t be true or fair.

Buffalo has not been a big player so far, with only the signing away from Oakland of OT Cornell Green (an 11th year veteran who has only started 46 games in ten seasons). They did resign Bryan Scott for 3-yr, 9M and kept TE Klopfenstein (their RFA). They lost Jonathon Scott, a 4th yr OT to Pittsburgh, to a 1-yr deal no less.

A couple semi-notable names dot their FA board, but there’s not a whole lot to pick through. Josh Reed, Ryan Denney…

Analysis: Ho-hum, really. Scott is a solid depth player when he’s in there, but he’s only been able to start 18 games…in the last three seasons combined. There’s more interest in if T.O. is going to Cincy than the rest of the Bills FA follies combined. Gailey is a decent enough coach, but he’s going to need more than FA backups and journeymen…The Jill’s offense was 30th in yards, 30th in passing, 16th in rushing and 28th in scoring. Their defense was better, but still 30th against the run. Their pass defense was an over-inflated 2nd because in part other teams simply pummelled them on the ground. Without a franchise QB who can get the job done, they are going to struggle; without the addition of better overall talent they are going to struggle mightily. D, because they got little, and lost some of what little they had.

New England, on the other hand, has been busy. They moved quickly with a number of their players, resigning Banta-Cain, Bodden, Faulk, Neal and slapped the franchise tag on Wilfork. They did lose Chris Baker to Seattle (TE), Jarvis Green to Denver (DE), and Ben Watson to Cleveland (TE). The team has obviously taken a stand against others raiding their depth, but the state of the Patriots is easily determined by looking at one thing…Junior Seau is still on their FA board, apparently available for hire. They have not, conversely, gone after other teams’ players, with only the backup DE Marques Murrell being garnered from the Jets, which probably has more ego chest-beating value in the Boston-NYC feud than it ever will on the field.

Analysis: Wilfork is a beast, and his Hurricane lineage had me salivating at the prospect of bringing him home to be our monster in the middle. However, the Dark Lord has apparently closed the doors of Citadel Pestilence, allowing no raiding of the cupboard. Derrick Burgess appears to be the best of the remaining pickings, unless you count Gostkowski and Hanson, their Placekicker and Punter. B, though I am loathe to admit it. They kept a lot of their depth, which will be critical for an aging team.

New York is a rare case: they will continue to do things over and over again as a franchise though it has failed in every attempt. They passed on Pennington last season, shipping him out in favor of an aging veteran who turned into Mr. Interception and kept them away from the playoffs. Pennington had his best season and beat them in their house to rub salt in the wound. They passed on Jonathan Vilma, sending him to New Orleans and bringing in Calvin Pace. Vilma in ‘08-’09, 242 Tackles, 3 Sacks, 14 PDs, 4 Ints, 2 FFs and 3 FRs. Yeah, he was washed up.

This time, the Jets cut Thomas Jones, who is coming off a career year and FIVE consecutive 1000 yd seasons. They bring in the aging veteran LT to replace him, coming off his worst year. They stand to lose Leon Washington, because there will be someone take a shot at him: he won’t be looking for premium top-dollar coming off an injury. They will be counting on a promising Rookie (Shon Greene), an erratic Rookie (Mark Sanchez) and an aging star near the end of the line (LT).

Their splash has been defensively, as they bring in disgruntled problem child AC, and Cromartie paired with Revis has the already-bandwagon Jet faithful frothing at the mouth.

Analysis: Tannenbaum will continue to convince Woody that he knows what he’s doing. With the circus clown act their new coach has already made that position, it seems somehow inevitable that this Keystone Kops aspect gets exposed. The switch from Jones to Tomlinson is an upgrade? The Jets, though they played well in the Postseason, were an afterthought that got gifted into the Playoffs by their final opponents resting their players. Now they send away their best offensive weapon. Braylon Edwards wasn’t immediately resigned, either…they’re letting him test the waters, apparently. C-; as erratic as Sanchez was, why on earth wouldn’t you keep the part of the machine that WAS functioning properly (#1 rushing game) alone???

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(J.P. Correia) Watching the Saints win the Super Bowl in Dolph….err….Land Sh….err….Sun Life Stadium, was actually enjoyable. I think I speak for everyone when I say I was happy to see the city of New Orleans get that victory. And yes, while it was somewhat painful to see Drew Brees hoist that Super Bowl trophy in our house…coulda, shoulda, woulda… that was not what I was thinking about today. What will it take for us to get to that pinacle? Is year 3 the year we make the big leap?

Obviously personnel wise, Miami is not there quite yet. Can they get there with one more off season? Who knows. Never under-estimate Bill Parcells, however, it would take one heck of a draft and a couple of very good FA pick-ups, (not necessarily Shawne Merrimen or Vince Wilfork, but a couple of solid football players who can contribute). But there is more than just how talented your group of 53 is. To me, there are 4 things that your organization needs in order to win it all.

1) Leadership. Your team needs leadership in the locker room, and also upstairs. I think we have one-half of this. There is no greater presence in the NFL than Bill Parcells’ watchful eye keeping tabs on the team. I think that we have a very solid front office, and very solid leadership within our front office. Do we have the leadership in the locker room though? Sure, you’ve got guys like Jason Ferguson, Jason Taylor, Chad Pennington, etc. And while a lot of those types of players could be gone next season, I do think we have guys who can step in and fill that role. But do we have the leadership from the coaches and the Head Coach himself? This whole Joey Porter situation illustrates my point pretty well. Not only did we allow for one of the faces of the franchise to ignore coaches during games, and create a rift in the locker room, but we also allowed him to take it public, and get teammates to defend him … publicly. I’m worried.

2) Coaching. This past Sunday was one of the best displays of coaching I have ever seen. If it didn’t work, I’d probably be writing about how foolish some of Sean Payton’s decisions were, but I’m not. One of the biggest things I have with this coaching staff is not what they do Monday-Friday, because clearly these players are prepared and they do get taught well by their coaches on the game they play, but what they, or he, do/does on Sunday. Coach Sparano is unfortunately one of the most conservative coaches in the NFL, yet he also makes very odd and bone head on-the-spot decisions sometimes. Whether it is when to bring in the Pat White package, or when to use his timeouts, he seems to have lost it at times. I think a lot of these things will come with experience; after all, this is his first Head Coaching gig in the NFL. But he needs to become less conservative, and that comes with learning how to trust his players and how to send them a message while on the field saying, “I trust you to win this game for us.” Sean Payton sent this message to his team Sunday with such confidence, that I think it was the deciding factor in them winning. Coach, I love you, but you need to put some bigger pants on, on Sunday’s.

3) Experience. While I do think that ‘experience’ is a little overrated when it comes to the Post Season, I do think it does play a minor factor. But this is not the experience I am talking about. This kind of goes along with leadership, however, you need guys on that team, on that field, in that locker room who have been there - done that. You need veterans who know how to get out of a slump, how to slow their team down after a big win, how to pick their team out of a tough divisional loss, and a player out of a bad play or game. You look at the Saints; yes they have youth, but they’ve got great leadership and experience on the field, and it just makes it easier on the young guys. From Sharper, to Vilma, to Brees, or Shockey, they have guys who can take young guys under their wings, and guide them through a very strenuous NFL season. I think we have this, but we cannot afford to let guys like JT, Ferguson, or Pennington go if possible to bring them back.

4) Passion/Heart. Bill Parcells is all about passion, and that is what his football teams have always been about. This team played with a lot of passion in 2008. Enough to carry them to a division title. I did not see that same passion last season. Was it because of injuries to so many key players? Was it because of the locker room “rift”? I don’t know what it was, but there was no passion. Passionate teams do not give up the most 4th quarter points of any team in the NFL. Passionate teams do not lose their last 3 games with the playoffs on the line. Passionate teams do not start the season 0-3. I am not sure where it stemmed from, but the passion needs to be placed back into Miami Dolphin football in 2010.

Right now, Miami is a young team still trying to find the right mix in the locker room, and with a Coach still trying to get comfortable calling the shots on Sunday. It’s a team that needs to add a little more passion, a little more leadership, and a little more experience to the roster. I’m not saying it needs to get older, just more experienced; there is a difference.

Can this all be done this off season? Like I said, never under estimate the Tuna.

Well….here we go. The season is officially over, and the 10 year long off season has arrived. The Draft countdown has officially begun. Just 2 and a half more months!!

Ugh…

GO PHINS!!!

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