Bleacher Report - Articles by Enlai Pensado

Miami Dolphins: What To See on Preseason Final Games

Enlai Pensado — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:16:23 -0400

One year ago Miami Dolphins were facing a huge restructure and nobody would predict a 11-5 record coming from 1-15 and facing twice New England and Brett Favre. But Bill Parcells cleared the house and using Tony Sparano's analytical style and a very creative crew, they developed one of the most spectacular offense in years, including the famous Wildcat offense. That and the fact they enjoyed one the easiest NFL schedule (on paper), allowed this team to move from laughingstock to brave contender. This was in part a result of many lucky moments, starting with the acquisition of Chad Pennington, a healthy roster for most of the season and not giving turnovers. But this year Miami Dolphins have the hardest schedule (according to last season records) and Wildcat lose its surprise factor. So this team must be better than last season in order to keep growing. Preseason games are used to test players, adjust schemes and position battles, holes to fill and strategic experiments that may setup a competitive team entering the season. So halfway in preseason allows to figure out the big picture of a team, but also there are important facts to watch on two final games before season starts.

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Miami Dolphins-Jacksonville Jaguars: Preseason Week One

Enlai Pensado — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 05:54:17 -0400

After months waiting for pro football, tonight the Miami Dolphins started preseason by defeating the Jacksonville Jaguars at their once-again renamed home field, Land Shark Stadium.

August Means Test Time

Under rainy conditions and having several red zone penalties that derailed both teams from scoring, this was a poor game ending in a 12-9 victory for Miami.

But the game was expected to be like that, as the weather was typical for South Florida at this time of the year. And as with almost everyone in this league, both teams were erratic and testing all their pieces, so solid starters played few minutes as both teams have position battles everywhere.

The Dolphins were trying to solve several questions: Is Chad Henne a safe option for the future? How effective can this defensive backfield be after adding two high profile rookies? Is the offensive line tuned to help a questionable running attack?

There were mixed answers as Henne was OK, having substantial playing time during the second and third quarters. His arm power was confirmed and he handled the offense very well, throwing for a TD but intercepted while pressured.

Third string QB rookie Pat White made a weak debut, being intercepted, but showed his skills in the last seconds to preserve the victory with elusive runs and a pair of fine passes.

Even with the return of Donald Thomas, the offensive line was pathetic with poor execution from Shawn Murphy and a costly penalty from center Jake Grove on 3rd-and-goal that destroyed a very fine attack.

The receiving corps worked fine, with promising action by rookies and Ted Ginn, who looks more committed to play inside, not just close to the sideline. His quality came out as he had the biggest run for the Dolphins starting offense and helped with good catches.

Ernest Wilford (last season’s fraud of free agency), now converted into TE, got the only touchdown of the game, after catching a good pass from Henne and showing great skills by breaking a tackle.

The rushing attack was very limited, especially up the middle. Even with that, Ricky Williams proved he's still a good running back.

At the same time on defense, unlikely for his first game at NFL, Sean Smith was phenomenal, making his first INT and avoiding a TD. Meanwhile, rookie first-rounder Vontae Davis looked like a normal first-timer, allowing several passes to his assignments.

Pass pressure seems solved as Jason Taylor is back and within a few minutes of playing time he caused a fumble while Joey Porter added pressure on the other side. Also, Jason Ferguson got a sack. Cameron Wake looks powerful but needs more time to adapt.

On special teams, Chris Williams showed pretty good moves as a returner and is fighting for a roster spot.

Jacksonville was searching for answers on offense, and all I can say is they finished with more doubts as they got more than five penalties in the red zone that crashed well-conformed possessions.

This is where Dolfans might start worrying as the starting defense was pretty solid but reserves were fragile as glass.

Second Year Hope

This is Chad Pennington's team, but Henne looks like a good option for the future. And this is going to be a hard decision for the coaching staff as Pennington is in the final year of his two-season contract and Henne wants to start.

So in just his second season, Tony Sparano looks like a longtime NFL head coach and it's obvious he's a perfectionist. As the right guard position remains open, Coach Sparano will have a lot of work with his offensive line on weekdays.

With Ginn showing progress and Chris Williams working fine with special teams, this is going to be a great battle for the rest of the receivers.

The 2009 schedule is the hardest according to last season's records, but there's hope if defense can be as solid as the upper part of the depth chart showed tonight.

How Important Is Nose Tackle at NFL? Miami Dolphins' Draft Preview

Enlai Pensado — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:10:26 -0400

I have been an observer of defensive schemes since Dan Marino lost his only Super Bowl against a well-trained 49ers' defense.

So I got astonished of the level of defensive units like 2000 Baltimore Ravens, followed shortly by 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Washington Redskins and Pittsburgh Steelers have tradition of building great defenses too.

But my hopes still reside on having such kind of defense in my beloved Miami Dolphins. Zach Thomas, Jason Taylor, Sam Madison, Patrick Surtain were part of one of the biggest defenses that I could remember.

Those days were hard to see in the complete absence of any offensive support, and after a year of new philosophies, showing offensive creativity and rebuilding a team coming from disaster, there is time to analyze if this team is ready to repeat winning the AFC East title or how much of a step back 2009 will be.

So trying to understand the reality of our offense, I found our o-line is upgraded, the receiving corps are young and need to prove their worth and we can add a tested WR after draft, in case we can't get a taller, faster rookie receiver.

That must give us some extra points during 2009, expecting Chad Pennington won't play the way he did vs. Baltimore.

Then I focused on defense and saw fragile areas everywhere. Secondary is the most obvious, with a complete lack of quality and facing two times each AFC East superstar receivers Randy Moss and T.O.

This looks more dangerous than handling nitroglycerin. The current argument from the coaching staff is that an effective pass rush may ease coverage task.

Then I hear alarms and noticed how fragile we are on pass rush with an upcoming schedule including: Atlanta Falcons, Buffalo Bills (twice), Carolina Panthers, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, New England Patriots (twice), New York Jets (twice), New Orleans Saints, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Diego Chargers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tennessee Titans.

On 2008, Joey Porter was a defensive monster with 17.5 sacks, but after him Matt Roth added five sacks as second QB hunter, and the rest put very discrete numbers, so adding a stronger, faster OLB can help a lot, and there are several options for addressing the spot.

Recently added Cameron Wake was a CFL superstar who may become the next big thing. Also there can be excellent options at the 25th pick on draft like USC's Rey Maualuga, Brian Cushing, Clay Matthews or Ohio State's James Laurinaitis, whoever can serve as pass rusher featuring Joey Porter.

Our last option is to add former Dolphin star Jason Taylor, who at 34 may help for a year or two as a 3-4 OLB. The side effect can be slowing the development of younger players.

But returning to the point of a 2009 schedule including almost every serious contender, being deep is a must. So trying to understand draft priorities, here's a quick list of the state of Miami's roster.

QB has a fine starter in Chad Pennington and a future leader and current backup in Chad Henne, who is more than anxious to start. After the Chads, John Beck is a non-favorite of Sparano but he may do the job.
K & P are well addressed.
C was upgraded, but there are backup concerns and a draft gem can be included to complete.
OL is younger and retooled. A late round or undrafted free agent may enter as part of the rotation.
RB is more than decent, especially with three guys rotation, but young blood won't hurt.
TE is acceptable but with most starters finishing their contracts in 2009, adding young options can avoid future holes.
Special teams were better in 2008 but surely can be upgraded.
WR corps are filled with excellent slot receivers but lack a go-to receiver. As told before, we can address this with a tested veteran, in case we can't get a taller, faster rookie.
FB is a little discrete but can wait a year.
NT is pretty fragile, as Jason Ferguson is 34 and got several injuries on 2008 and Paul Soliai has shown poor development, struggling at training and acting like an overweight baby. NT has become too expensive in free agency and won't be easy to find on draft day.
DL needs fresh talent, as both starters are more run stoppers than pass rushers. One more guy may fit.
S have decent starters but could have finer backups, also as TE, some contracts will expire next year. Dealing everybody is unlikely, as they command more money and look overpaid.
LB is fine but could be upgraded as mentioned by Ireland, adding a OLB pass rusher. Another upgradable spot is ILB, where we may add a quality guy able to compete with Crowder.
CB is the weakest part of the roster. We must add a starter and a backup as there's another place that will have contract issues after 2009.

So that means the draft list includes: Two CB, one DT, one or two LB, one NT, one C/G, one OT, one RB, one S, one TE and one WR.

That's as much as 2+1+2+1+1+1+1+1+1+1= 12 players. As of today, the Miami Dolphins only have nine draft picks, which leads to focus on the most imperative needs.

Center and Running Back only need bodies, so unrestricted free agents may fit.

Interior Linebacker is a matter of quality so unless some cool option is available after the first day, this can be fitted the same way.

Wide Receiver is first day or nothing, so having the bunch of holes to fill, this can wait a year and may be repaired by signing a veteran after the draft.

Unlike those positions, Cornerback is a huge need so we're looking for instant starters, both spots must be addressed on first day. That doesn't necessarily means first round as this class is deep on CB.

Outside linebacker is on the same page, while Defensive Tackle and Tight End can wait until later rounds.

But things seem blurry on NT. Why? Because Nose Tackle is an ambiguous term.

Even most of us understand a NT is a big mammoth placed in the center of a defensive line, there are different ways to see a Nose Tackle.

The main role for such guy is to stop the running game, but also must try to break the center of the offensive line and hunt for the passer.

So he must be big, heavy, and have some speed, but not the kind of North-South speed he may expect on WR, but lateral speed and agility to lose two or even three men covering him. What? That sounds like looking for a dancing hippopotamus!

It's a matter of physics, where a normal difference of DT and NT, is a lower center of gravity that allows the NT to be almost immovable. But that's not a rule, as handwork may vary the effect, allowing teams to use taller guys on center.

Weight can work favorably or unfavorably on each case, because a bulky 6'4", 355 guy like Soliai can't break his blocker as fast as desired, while a 6'5", 305 player like Kevin Vickerson can't compete with two bodyguards like those in our starting o-line because his center is mass is too high.

As dancing hippos are rare specimens, teams have been creative finding new ways to create an immovable center of the defense, using two men in 4-3 schemes, where one guy is the NT and the other is a little lighter as he needs to move faster.

Other variations of NT is the unbalanced d-line used by Jacksonville, where they use bigger DE which normally shortens the protection pocket and allows pass rush from both sides. But the key for such scheme is that center battle can be well managed for a rotating crew of DT, variating the pass rush schemes each play. So NT doesn't play on center each time.

Tennessee Titans used a variation of 4-3 defense but will have to think twice as they won't have Albert Haynesworth anymore, after he moved to Washington, placing Redskins defensive line into top of the league.

Masters of the 3-4 defense like Patriots, Steelers, Cowboys and Ravens got NFL's best Nose Tackles. Names like Vince Wilfork, Casey Hampton, Jay Ratliff and Haloti Ngata prove NT is the key piece of 3-4 defense as much as QB is to offense.

A talented nose guard may allow the rest of the defense on helping him, focusing on pass rush and easing backfield coverage. So Miami defense is in trouble if Jason Ferguson gets injured because Paul Soliai has the size to become the next NT superstar but needs a lot of work and he hasn't shown any commitment.

So with a 2009 class including Boston College mega monsters: B.J. Rají and Ron Brace as best choices at NT, but several teams needing to address the spot (Oakland, Green Bay, Denver, Kansas City, Tennessee), and other willing to upgrade/refresh the position (Chicago, Minnesota, San Diego, New England, Miami, NY Giants) NT is priority in terms that there may be raw quality available after 25th pick.

Name	Height	Weight	40 yard dash	Bench press	Vertical jump	College
Raji, B.J.	6'2"	337	5.23	33	32	Boston College
Brace, Ron	6'3"	330	5.5	32	28	Boston College
Hill, Sammie Lee	6'4"	329	5.17	27	28	Stillman
Knighton, Terrance	6'3"	321	5.33		28	Temple
Pryor, Myron	6'0"	319	5.13		30	Kentucky
Favorite, Marlon	6'1"	314		26		LSU
Scott, Dorell	6'3"	312	4.97	29	30.5	Clemson
Miller, Roy	6'1"	310	5.09	36	36	Texas
Marks, Sen'Derrick	6'2"	306	5.08		33	Auburn
Taylor, Terrance	6'0"	306	5.39	37	30	Michigan
Moala, Fili	6'4"	305	5.16	25	30.5	Southern Cal
Walker, Vance	6'2"	304	5.44	29	33	Georgia Tech
Richard, Darryl	6'3"	303		17	25.5	Georgia Tech

Finally I tried to resume my analysis with a table showing every NFL starting NT or variation.

Let´s start with AFC East, where fine players like Wilfork, Ferguson and Jenkins can demolish offensive lines every single day when healthy.

Name	Team	Height	Weigth	Age
Kyle Williams	Buffalo Bills	6'1"	306	25
Jason Ferguson	Miami Dolphins	6'3"	305	34
Paul Soliai	Miami Dolphins	6'4"	355	25
Vince Wilfork	New England Patriots	6'2"	325	27
Kris Jenkins	NY Jets	6'4"	349	29

Now check AFC North, where Baltimore and Pittsburgh have the biggest 2008 defensive battle with Ngata and Hampton as central piece of each team.

Name	Team	Height	Weigth	Age
Haloti Ngata	Baltimore Ravens	6'4"	355	25
Tank Johnson	Cincinnati Bengals	6'3"	305	27
Ahtyba Rubin	Cleveland Browns	6'2"	330

A Modern Approach for NFL Drafting: Principles for Better Mocking

Enlai Pensado — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:36:53 -0400

On crisis times, the financial risks are more luxurious than ever, so every NFL front office is more pressed to make the right selection on draft day.

But as in any optimization task, that goal may move between distinct points of view. The rare part of this is football as sport, not necessarily represents the most important aspect; There are other key factors:

Any franchise is trying to keep in business, so they need a face to sell tickets, jerseys, helmets, mugs and almost any thinkable item. So they need to maintain happy their fan base, and if there's no way to move soon your team into playoff, you must give them some hope and that may come from the coolest pick available, one projected to make tons of points, normally a talented QB, WR or RB. Use as example any of both Mannings.
Drafting is a task that needs a lot of brain and any involved guy must show there's some additional benefit within the selection process. So in order to prove the worth of the scouting crew, several front offices take surprise picks or trades that nobody understands. Picking the unexpected guy, or one projected for later rounds, trading up to draft someone, those are (normally wrong) calculated risks that may help or sabotage the franchise. Do you remember any of this draft cases: Ted Ginn Jr.? Troy Williamson? Shawn Andrews?
Other face of the business is to maintain sanity among salaries and potential value of the player. Trading up may require more millions for contracts, while trading down may put some gems out of your hands. So front officers must keep in mind their salary cap. Having first overall is a great responsibility in terms of money, but allows you to deal with several guys in order to lower their demands, as shown by Texans some years ago with Super Mario.
Trading an expensive veteran for draft picks, typically represents obtaining players with smaller contracts and less risk of injuries. But on football that can translate into a very different tale: you are exchanging a well trained guy, one ready to play under your schemes, for guys that will require a lot of guidance. So you trade draft picks if you're one guy away of being a serious contender and you trade players if your team is under rebuilding, because you have different requirements and approaches for drafting. Look at Cowboys trading with Detroit for Williams last season.
Front office also must try to anticipate what other teams are trying to do and deal with that. One way to be better is to lower the power of my conference rivals, so picking their needs may be a smart move. The other side of that is to recognize player that won't be part of other team but fill a hole in mine, if I know that a team will cut a player I need i don't trade for him, but make sure to be ready to deal with him as soon as possible. The same goes for picking a guy that is followed by other teams as trade bait. This approach is valid only for draft gems and those are pretty rare, Eli Manning being the last one.
Finally, all mocks are contextual to the moment when they were created. Every week we read a lot of information about the free agency, injury recovery, and voices of coaches and team representatives. This data must be used carefully because this guys try to hide or distract the opinion. I remember Nick Saban trying to put smoke before picking Ronnie Brown.
The safe pick is a general concept of using a high pick in a guy that won't impact too wrong when playing wrong, and can impact more than fine when playing well. There are three normal safe picks: OT, DE, and RB. Both lines need a lot of bodies to resist a season and all of them can help. Young running back come in different flavors but it's easy to use them a lot to carry the load while they're young. If you have no great depth for passer role, QB can count as safe pick, because you may declare open the position, and if given the case that veteran wins, there's no big problem about it. Jake Long was a safe pick last season.
Best available player is a nice formula, but every draft board has different position for the same player, because draft board contain aspects of the team as schemes, needs, and scouting staff opinion. Vince Young was down on several boards than Leinart but was picked before.

This draft is particularly hard to pick because there's no obvious superior talent in the class, so picking first is more linked to the first three factors.

As homework, check any mock draft and analyze if they are picking just to put a name in the list or following the recipe.

Mark Sanchez Could Become the No. 1 Pick

Enlai Pensado — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:46:59 -0500

It's too early to place accurate mock drafts, but it's the first time I hear a Mexican boy will hear his name on the draft.

I understand Mark is American, but as much as I know, Mark Sanchez has right to double nationality since he's son of a Mexican and under Mexican laws, that makes him a Mexican. He can't pretend to be President of Mexico, because he's born in the USA, but he's as Mexican as tequila itself.

But that's a mere formalism, the kid's proud of his origin as shown when he uses a Mexican flag on his mouthpiece. In fact, he's trying to better his Spanish pronunciation in order to become a role model for US latin community, and for a large NFL Mexican fan base.

He declared for NFL Draft after having an amazing Rose Bowl and knowing Tim Tebow, Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford are returning for their senior seasons. As today, some analysts like scout.com's Chris Steuber are picking him as the best QB in this draft, and given the current situation of Detroit that means he would be selected first overall.

On my Mexican ears that sounded too good to believe, but then I started a small research to try to find some valid arguments about it.

Obviously, his performance at the Rose Bowl was like a dream come true, whose stats are astonishing, by completing 28 of 35 passes, meaning 80 percent of completions, consolidating four passing TD without INT and a 216.83 of QB rating. Also he added 16 yards and a running TD.

By comparing Mark Sanchez with previous USC stars, there's a high expectation for such a high pick for Mark. Why? Starting with Matt Leinart whose record in his final season was the same at 12-1 (bowl included) with very similar percentage of completion, but unlike Leinart, Sanchez won the bowl game.

Matt Leinart and Carlson Palmer got Heisman on their resume, but Mark Sanchez set a new school record of 34 TD in a season. Another way to compare these players is by their percentage of completions, where Mark Sanchez leads with 65.8, over 63.2 of Carlson Palmer, 65.7 of Matt Leinart and 63.2 of John David Booty.

Mark's best single season QB rating is 164.64 versus 157.74 of Leinart (during Sr season in 2005), 144.01 of John David Booty (during JR season in 2006). There's no QB rating for Palmer because this stat wasn't calculated during his college years.

Unlike Leinart and Booty, there hasn't been any argument of Mark's success being product of the system, something that analyst said caused them to fall deeper in the draft.

With a team coming from 0-16, there´s a big chance that Detroit will fill holes on defense since they never stopped anyone during 2008, but after watching Joe Flacco and Mat Ryan having very satisfying rookie seasons, the hype is on QB.

Mark Sanchez isn't alone as talented passer entering NFL, and Mattew Stafford is tagged as the best for many scouts, so there seems it will be a close race for the top position.

Thus said, I see a brilliant future for Mark, who must prepare a hell to show his worth and keep a high stock for draft day.

Baltimore Ravens Have Been the Best and Worst for Miami Dolphins. What now?

Enlai Pensado — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:30:58 -0500

Miami Dolphins are writing an almost unbelievable story, from being a joke and transforming themselves into contenders. In numbers, this seems to be a typo, because they jumped from 1-15 into 11-5 in a matter of one single season, matching 1999 Colts' 10-game transition from 3-13 into 13-3.

In fact, that lone win came late last season in Week 15, when the game hero was Greg Camarillo, an underrated player who caught an overtime pass that settled that game, a play that was celebrated like winning the Super Bowl.

Definitely a year to forget, one where fans used paper bags on their heads. The 2007 Dolphins were that bad, and gained their only win playing at home versus their next opponent: the Baltimore Ravens.

So the Ravens were responsible for the few highlights to be included on the 2007 Dolphins video. But Baltimore also has the 2001 playoff win at the very same location. This puts a very important question in the air: Will Dolphins stop Ravens this time?

It's not easy to pick one team or the other, mostly because they are too different. Both enjoy of good defensive units and decent offenses. Both QBs avoid turnovers, and their teams tend to avoid penalties.

By the way, the race for Coach of the Year has a lot of candidates for different reasons, starting with Tom Coughlin for his great job on keeping the G-Men among the elite of NFL.

Other cases are related, with three rookie head coaches whose teams are in the playoffs: Mike Smith of Atlanta, John Harbaugh of Baltimore, and of course Tony Sparano of Miami. Among them, Smith seems to be favored mostly because Sparano has been a product of Bill Parcells' tutoring, while Harbaugh worked with a pretty good team lacking a quality QB.

But let's put aside the COY tag for now. Sunday's game is going to pit two brilliant minds against each other for a chance to advance.

The Ravens caged the Wildcat last time they met in Miami, so unless Miami can add another wrinkle into their offensive scheme, it's going to be the same story.

The defensive side of Miami should have the biggest impact, mostly because the pass rush must improve, and stopping the running game is going to be the real key for this Wild Card game.

For the Ravens, they must focus on avoiding offensive mistakes and let their defense carry the load. For the Dolphins, they must be more effective on special teams, because field position can change everything.

The biggest difference from Week Seven is the fact that no matter what, it's a sell-out crowd filled with a lot of passion and hope for this Dolphins team.

My Projection: Baltimore 10 - Miami 20.

2008: A Hard Year For NFL Referees

Enlai Pensado — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:51:31 -0500

This season has been terrible for NFL officials.

That started during Denver Broncos at San Diego Chargers game Week Two, when with 1:17 left in the game and being deep on red zone, football slipped out of the throwing hand of Jay Cutler and was recovered by San Diego linebacker Tim Dobbins.

But stellar referee Ed Hochuli called it as incomplete pass allowing Denver to keep the ball and few instants later Broncos scored, winning that game.

The real problem is that Hochuli blew his whistle during the play, signaling that the play was dead, so there was no way to reverse the call. Hochuli admitted his mistake and spotted the ball at the point of the fumble, but could not award possession to San Diego.

It's the start of November and mid season leader in the AFC West are the Broncos (4-4) followed by the Chargers (3-5), which shows that Hochuli's call may be bugging too much in the next few months.

Because of that, Hochuli has been the focus of all eyes, and unfortunately his performance has been mediocre. The worse part is it's branching out to every referee in the league, introducing a new situation for NFL standards: we're somehow trusting less on referees' calls.

Fortunately, as of today, that doesn't look like the product of some corruption, but just honest mistakes. But that doesn't eliminate the fact that such mistakes are affecting their image as judges.

As a clear example of that during last weekend in Miami Dolphins at Denver Broncos game there was some signals of frustration. The only time WR Brandon Marshall was able to beat his marker and go for a TD, an offensive interference call reversed the play. This was a strict call that defined everything, especially because the score was very close and Miami's offense wasn't working too well.

At any other time that could be ignored but given the critic environment we're having, even when the call was right because Marshall touched the defensive back's shoulder, Denver coaches overreacted against referees.

I'm trying to avoid being paranoid, but this must be fixed as soon as possible, because the NFL's success has been based on its refereeing. It's no secret that NFL refereeing serves as a model for several other team sports with aspects like instant repetition and the model of multiple referees on and off the field.

Dolphins' Strike Back: Chads Add Winds Of Hope For The Future!

Enlai Pensado — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:09:06 -0400

August is the time of the year when everybody claims it's gonna be their season.

Of course that after having the worst season in franchise history, Miami Dolphins should improve this season.

But "improve" is too ambiguous and may lead us to expect just some more wins. No! Miami is in serious rebuild and may transform into contenders within three seasons.

With football czar Bill Parcells named "Executive Vice President of Football Operations", he's managing every football related aspect of the Dolphins, so there's a lot to expect.

He started by hiring his kind of men. Starting with Jeff Ireland, who's an expert on scouting and knows every aspect of NFL transactions. They waited a little, but enrolled as new head coach Tony Sparano, a strange, introvert, ordered guy, who worked with Parcells in Dallas his primary role is to transform this team into a though one.

Obviously a 1-15 record means there's room for improvement everywhere, starting by clearing the house and Parcells and Co. have restructured the payroll.

They started by cutting several players including Zack Thomas, who appeared to be one hit away from retiring. Even the movement was heart breaker for most fans, his contract was too high for trading and by cutting him, Dolphins allowed other team (Dallas) to give ZT a final shot for championship.

April's draft showed Parcells' style, adding power into both lines. The cherry on the pie was a very good passer from Michigan called Chad Henne. He and his millionaire bodyguard, Jake Long, were becoming the new face of this team.

Jason Taylor was tired of losing in Miami. Even we wont' hear from him, his actions showed no big commitment for the game anymore. When Washington's DE got injured, Bill traded dancing Taylor to Washington, winning a very welcomed draft pick for next year.

After very disappointing training camps, that showed not so good results in terms of offensive potential, just when every dol-fan was concluding that with John Beck's development slower than expected, McCown as below average NFL and Henne lacking of experience, there was no more than a 5-11 optimistic projection.

But the most lucky moment of this offseason came when Favre's soap opera finished, landing Brett in NY and throwing Chad Pennington to Miami, thus bringing a new dimension into AFC East, one where Miami Dolphins has a better passer than expected and a true mentor for younger members.

Today's Chad and future Chad (read as Pennington and Henne) look as a solid formula for the biggest problem in this team: replace Dan Marino. OK, i admit it's insane to replace him, but QB has been the weakest aspect of this team since Marino left and even 3-1 in preseason means nothing.

There has been a very nice passing game and execution. Also on one hand, running power has been present with a new version of the two headed monster with Ricky and Ronnie, while on the other hand defense is younger and solid.

Also Pennington adds hunger for proving Jets wrong, while knowing Bills and Pats. So it's a severe change for projections and the best scenario for Henne's development. The unluckiest guy is John Beck, who is out of plans in Miami. Meanwhile McCown, a born-to-be-backup represents a safety net in case of injuries.