Ronnie Brown: No Longer Needed in Miami?

(Photo by Paul Spinelli/Getty Images)

The Dolphins surprised a lot of teams last year when they went 11-5 one year after finishing 1-15. There were a lot of key factors to last season's turnaround.

One of those was Ronnie Brown. Brown scored 10 rushing touchdowns, four of which came in the Dolphins first win of the season.

But does Miami really need him anymore?

I don't think so. It's true that without him the Dolphins probably wouldn't have won as many games last year, but that doesn't mean the Dolphins need him to win this year.

If you don't count his game in Week Three, where he got all of his touchdowns off of trick plays, then he really had a bad season. He would have had only six touchdowns, 803 rushing yards, while averaging four yards per carry, the lowest of his career.

The addition of Pat White might be a hint that the Dolphins are planning on using Brown less and less this season. White was an incredible running quarterback for West Virginia in college, and his passing abilities far exceed Brown's.

Defenses used to cheat toward the run when Brown lined up as the quarterback in Wildcat. With White they can't cheat, or he could burn them with a long pass.

Miami's running game won't suffer much either with Ricky Williams still around. Williams was one of the best running backs in the league before he left for a year in 2006. He is faster and more experienced than Brown.

The Dolphins running game would probably be better without having to share the carries between backs.

Brown also has a very high salary worth a little less than $10 million a year.

The Dolphins could either release him and sign a couple of good players, trade him to a team that needs a running back and has a player they're willing to give up, or release him just to save some cap room in case it's needed in the future.

I have been 100 percent behind Ronnie Brown since he came to the Dolphins, so it isn't easy for me to say that the squad doesn't need him anymore.

But I've come to realize that Miami would do just fine without him.

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