With a quarter of the season gone, it is time to throw out a few quotes. I have to admit, I have been a little overwhelmed at work starting off a particularly busy school year. That might be part of the reason I did not collect quotes from the Houston game. Plus, who was really in the mood to write anything after the Houston game? So let's just look at that as a rough start, where we actually showed some signs of the positive course we are now charting. Bottom line is, our team stuck together and clearly there is a real sense of locker room “buy in” to what Philbin is selling them. Encouraging from the start. So let's pick up some quotes from after the great Oakland win, where we got to witness some fun with a top shelf ground attack. Mike Sherman does a nice job of giving Reggie Bush credit for his quick instincts on the 23 yard run for a TD vs. Oakland. “If he did it exactly the way I wanted him to do it, it would have been a two yard gain probably,” It is worth noting that Sherman said this while laughing. I laughed when I read it, although after that nice offensive performance I was laughing at a lot of things. It is amazing what scoring some points will do for the mood.
However, some people were not in a good mood, even while at the stadium to enjoy a thorough and long overdue whooping by the Dolphins at home. While Ireland was greeting some spectators in the stadium during the game, one disgruntled fan told Jeff Ireland how poor of a job he feels Ireland has done. “The sum and substance of what I suggested is that he should fire himself,” Sean later said on a radio show. This story gained notoriety because Ireland apparently muttered and expletive under his breath as he walked away from Sean and his insult. Of course the knee jerk reaction here is to pile on Ireland, as is tradition when he says something newsworthy. But I think that if Sean wants Ireland to fire himself so badly, maybe Sean should do something to himself that also begins with the letter f.
Ah yes, the Oakland Game. That was a fun day. However, we lost to the Jets in overtime the next week and fun was not in the vocabulary of Dolphins fans, especially after Carpenter missed 2 field goals that we have grown accustomed to watching him make to win games for us. He also looked shaky on shorter kicks early this year so hopefully he will iron it out soon. JROB FIN FAN probably voiced his concern the loudest when he said “They should strip Carpenter naked and throw his inaccurate butt out of Florida!!!” Ouch. I am growing weary of the kicking struggles, but I think we would have trouble replacing Carpenter with another kicker as good as he is. I also think we would have trouble finding another kicker to come take Carpenter's place when word gets out about all the stripping inaccurate kickers naked. High stakes, indeed.
Dice nailed one of our continuing concerns on an otherwise dominant defensive effort against Arizona. We destroyed the Cards' offensive line for much of the second half and shut down to run early to allow our pass rush to do so.
Dice said, “On defense, when you have that many sacks and QB pressures and still give up well over 300 yards passing again, the team obviously can't cover. Major issues in the secondary.” I think we will see another corner picked early next year to pair with Sean Smith, who, by the way, played a great game in Arizona. Does he have the interception monkey off of his back now? Look for Smith, who used to play on offense, to start racking them up.
Keith, who cannot be accused of being negative, and is often accused of being positive, was equally unimpressed with Naanee, who has been, well...unimpressive. While talking about a call that could have gone either way on the Naanee fumble, Keith said, “Even though Nannee stinks and we should cut him, that was not a fumble!”. I think Keith is right on both counts. Congratulations Keith, you got your wish! Goodbye Naanee and hello Gaffney!
Ray (my 2 cents) is a former QB who watches a lot of film and often sees things beyond stats and big plays that many of us might miss. He looks for technique and execution from specific players as opposed to end results, especially right now during the rebuild. So when I hear something positive from Ray about our young QB, team, and coaching staff, I listen. After the Arizona game he said, “That was the most encouraging best game I have seen in a long time from this team....great offensive scheme, great defensive effort, good game from Tannehill with some real encouraging growth...”
After the Jets game, I was starting to worry as Ray said he did not see the improvement he had hoped for by then. But in the Arizona game, many of us noticed a difference in Tannehill and his pre snap awareness and accuracy. Also, we enjoyed some big results to the tune of 431 passing yards, which is cool too! By the way, Tannehill was one yard short of tying Cam Newton's performance last year, which is the current rookie record. He also finished top 8 in Dolphins history, which is generally a territory owned by Marino. However, the big thing is that we saw growth in Tanny's game, as well as many players on the team that day. Which brings us back to the Oakland game. I cannot say that I believe Philbin is the greatest “Hip hip Hooray!” type of speaker. He motivates his players with his own dedication and knowledge of what he is doing. Knowing he is taking the team in the right direction motivates many professionals. He also seems to be the type who can take players aside and tell them very simply what he expects and lets his actions speak louder than his words. Players know from earlier this year that if they are not going to do their job, they will be gone. That said, Philbin addressing the team after the Oakland game gave me chills. When you listen to him telling the players they played as a team, it is not the sort of thing that will make it on an NFL films special. He goes on to say they will be a lot of trouble for teams to play against this year and that has been true since week 2, when he said it. But that is not what gave me chills.
If you listen to the end, almost as an afterthought Philbin, dismissing the guys, slipped in a very low key and powerful quote:
“We've got something special going on here.”

Less than a month ago, not a soul in Miami could have told you anything about an NFL prospect named Les Brown; not even Coach Philbin or the rest of the staff. All of that abruptly changed, however, after BYU’s Pro Day where 24 year old Brown put up some truly mind boggling numbers in the 40 yard dash (4.43) and vertical leap (39 inches). The story gets even more bizarre though because this 6’ 4”, 238 pound athlete was not a senior at BYU or a football player from another college; Les hadn’t played a single down on the gridiron since high school.

In fact, he went to Westminster College on a basketball scholarship. With a sick mother and a dad who traveled extensively for work, Les decided to stay close to home allowing him to contribute around the house. In fact, sports were all but a faded dream until Les was introduced to Chad Ikei by two of his younger brothers. One thing eventually led to another and the next thing you know, Brown found himself glancing towards his brothers, both of whom were on the BYU football team and pushing him to not give up on his dream.
Even though Brown has seemingly defied all odds and signed a three year contract with the Miami Dolphins, he’s the first to admit that the real hard work hasn’t even begun yet. Phinzmania got a chance earlier this week to sit down and talk with Les Brown about his incredible journey over the past several months; here’s that interview in its entirety-

Hello Phinzmania, welcome to another edition of my fantasy football blog. Last week, I pieced together a trade value chart for quarterbacks. Originally there was a good description with the chart but somehow the blog didn't save right. It was brought to my attention the chart would require further explanation.

20 represents the highest value for the elite players at their position. 15 and up are the play-makers who should net good value. 10-15 are the decent players that still have some value. 5-9 are players who might be struggling a bit and still have some value. Below 5 are the players not worth trading for or players you should get at a bargain price. Now once I get the charts all together, you should be able to add up the numbers to see if you are getting fair value back in your trades. These are all based on the performance and fantasy numbers these players have produced thus far.

RB's:

Hey guys I decided to do something different this week other than the usual waiver wire pickups. Trade deadlines are coming soon so I decided to post a trade value chart. I plan to do some for receivers and runningbacks later.

Aaron-Rodgers-20

Tom Brady-20

If you, like most Americans, have been tuning into your directstarTV to keep tabs on the NFL so far, then you have been treated to a season full of early drama, surprise contenders, and standout performances. In fact, this season has already been overflowing with fantastic storylines. The Packers are looking dominant in their quest to repeat, with Aaron Rodgers putting up MVP numbers; Cam Newton may be the biggest rookie sensation in years, and has had the Panthers extremely competitive in every single game; The Lions finally seem to have completed their rebuilding efforts, and are off to a 5-1 start. There is simply a ton of intrigue so far this year. However, there are also negative storylines to follow, one of the most frustrating of which might be the play of the Miami Dolphins thus far.


The Dolphins entered Monday night’s game at the New York Jets with an 0-4 record and very little to be excited about. Granted, the schedule has already been difficult for Miami, and features losses to New England and Houston, as well as two road losses so far. However, this is also a team that is struggling to find any sort of identity upon which to build itself. Chad Henne has done most of the work at QB, but there doesn’t seem to be a rigid line between him and backup Matt Moore. Meanwhile, the running game has struggled, with neither Daniel Thomas nor Reggie Bush emerging as a reliable number one back.


Monday proved to provide little in the way of positives for Miami fans, as the Dolphins suffered their worst loss of the season, a 24-6 romp in favor of the Jets. Due to a few strange mistakes by wide receiver Brandon Marshall and a 100 yard interception return for TD by Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis early, it never really seemed like the Dolphins were in this one. Now, the Dolphins are sitting at 0-5 heading into a week 7 matchup with the Denver Broncos, which could provide a bit of a break.


The positive in all of this, for Miami fans, is Andrew Luck. While it is never fun to hope your team loses, and while Miami fans will have little else to focus on as long as the NBA lockout keeps the Heat off of the court, it is starting to look as if the Dolphins will be in the mix among teams with strong chances of landing the number one draft pick that will almost certainly turn into Stanford QB Andrew Luck. Few quarterback prospects, if any, in recent years have been as hyped as Luck, and particularly for a team like the Dolphins, without a strong quarterback situation, he could be an immediate game changer. So, if the team keeps losing – you may want to start keeping track of Stanford and hope for the best moving forward.