Miami Dolphins Training Camp: Positions to Watch

With Dolphins training camp under way in Miami, now is a great time to look at those positions which have the biggest questions surrounding them for the coming season.

Note that this list of critical units includes only one defensive position. That should give Dolphins fans a big hint as to which side of the ball needs the most work—as if they needed any clue.

Cornerbacks

The defense is Miami's best asset, but the secondary —particularly the cornerback spot—is a weakness.

The Dolphins lack a true shutdown corner, and their lack of depth is cause for concern. The team's ability to hold up against opposing aerial attacks, especially those of Miami's AFC East rivals, will be tested early and often in 2007.

There's no shortage of elite receivers in the East: The Jets have Laveranues Coles, the Bills boast Lee Evans, and the Patriots are endowed with the duo of Randy Moss and Dont' Stallworth.

Here's how the Miami secondary fared against Coles and Evans in 2006:

• Coles, Week 6: 5 catches, 106 yards (long of 58), 2 TDs
• Coles, Week 16: 2 catches, 9 yards
• Evans, Week 2: 2 catches, 19 yards
• Evans, Week 15: 3 catches, 67 yards, 1 TD

Those numbers indicate that the Dolphins have the potential to stifle big-play wideouts, but they haven't been able to do it consistently—and they'll certainly struggle to hang with the Patriots new two-headed attack. 

A list of other receivers the Dolphins will face in 2007 includes Santana Moss, Terrell Owens, Terry Glenn, Andre Johnson, Braylon Edwards, Plaxico Burress, Hines Ward, and Chad Johnson.

Suffice it to say that the secondary has its work cut out for it. Miami's stellar pass rush will mask some of the team's shortcomings in coverage, but there will still be times when the D-backs have to fend for themselves.

When that happens, don't be surprised to see the Dolphins on the wrong end of some big plays.

Running Backs

To field an effective offense in 2007, the Dolphins need to change one major facet of their ground game: They need to run the ball more!

What a complicated strategy, huh?

In the past, a pass-happy coaching staff and a tendency to fall behind early in games have limited Miami's rushing success.  

If the Dolphins are to compete this season, the offense must rely more on Ronnie Brown's legs than Trent Green's arm.

Under former offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey, Miami rushed the ball just 402 times last season—the fourth-lowest total in the NFL. Fortunately, new head coach Cam Cameron employs an offensive system that emphasizes the run.

Brown has yet to rush 250 times in a single season, a ridiculous fact given his supposed importance in the Miami offense. The Dolphins averaged 25.1 carries per game last year, with Ronnie getting 18.5 of them.  Look for that number to rise to 21 in 2007.

The Dolphins backs will succeed if they're given the opportunity. Brown and Lorenzo Booker are a perfect pairing of a workhorse and a finesse player. It will be key for the offense to establish the run early in games—and, even more importantly, to refrain from abandoning it when the team falls behind early.

Quarterbacks

The Miami passing game was an absolute mess in 2006...and still the Dolphins threw the ball  a whopping 591 times, fourth-most in the NFL.

There are two reasons for the inflated aerial numbers. First, as already noted, the 2006 Dolphins often fell behind early. Second, Mularkey was far too willing to put the team's fate in the hands of subpar quarterbacks.

For all their attempts, Miami QBs finished the 2006 season with just 16 passing TDs among them. An offense simply cannot succeed under those conditions.

The good news is that the Dolphins planned for the future by selecting John Beck in the 2007 Draft. The better news, for 2007 at least, is that the team also added Trent Green, a veteran signal caller who knows how to run an offense.

In 2006, Miami passers combined for a 57.9 percent completion percentage. In the past five seasons, Green has never completed less than 61 percent of his passes.

If nothing else, then, the QB play in Miami this season should be an improvement over last year. Whether that improvement will be enough to put the team in the playoff hunt is another question.

Offensive Line

In my opinion, the performance of the offensive line will be the biggest key to the Dolphins' fate in 2007.

With new starters at every position, it's hard to know what to expect from the unit. Even the returning faces have been shuffled to new spots.

One thing that seems certain is an inevitable adjustment period at the beginning of the season, during which the Dolphins may have to endure some devastatingly poor line play. The major question, of course, concerns just how long it will take for the big men to jell.

Will they find their stride quickly—by Week Five, say—or will the development process last much deeper into the year? Another valid question: Will the line come together at all?

No one can answer that at this point. In any event, the Miami line must be better than it was in 2006 if the offense is going to get anything accomplished.

For a team like the Dolphins, whose undoing in the recent past has always been a result of offensive ineptitude, there can be no progress without improvement up front.

Check out Samuel's site Phinaticism for much more positional analysis and all your Dolphins news and commentary.

 

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