Ronnie Brown is injured.

Again.

He's had one full year since his drafting by the Dolphins (previous) brass and he's been productive but has also struggled to stay healthy. His contract may or may not run out at the end of the season, depending on the outcome of the CBA talks. If next year is uncapped, the Dolphins have the option of placing a tender on him and teams will be open to match the tender. There are a few options of tenders I believe but the ones that stand out are the first & third tender as well as the second round tender, meaning we get those draft picks if a team is willing to take on Brown. 

If next year is capped, I believe Ronnie is a free agent and is available to sign with any team he wants. Will the Dolphins offer him a deal? Tough to say right now IMO. Several injuries, whether you call them unlucky or not, he's injured and it's often. He's going to be 28 next year and if you tie him up, you could potentially be locked up with him until he's cracked the 30 mark, that's something I don't think they want to do considering his injury history and his inability to handle a large work load. He's never had a large work load where ever he's been I believe. 

One of the options that the Dolphins have is to franchise tag him. Slap the tag on him and get everything you can get out of him for one year and then let him hit the market, where he'll be 29 and nearing the declining wall, the age of 30. 

Another option is letting him go and drafting a running back. There are several options out there for this management in the Draft and I'm sure they will explore all of them. The average weight of a running back drafted by this management is 218 pounds. Here's a list of 218 pound backs in the 2010 Draft.

Ryan Matthews - Fresno State

Anthony Dixon - Mississippi State
Toby Gerhart - Stanford
Ben Tate - Auburn Charles Scott - LSU

Brandon Minor - Michigan

Keiland Williams - LSU
James Starks - Buffalo
Lonyae Miller - Fresno State
LaGarette Blount - Oregon
Joseph Turner - TCU

The average round for this management is rounds four and five. Which of those guys are likely to be available in those rounds? It's early to say but if I had to take a stab at it, I'd say Minor, Scott, Tate (possibly), Williams, Miller, Blount, Starks (possibly) and Turner. So just about everyone except Dixon, Tate and Gerhart. Maybe Scott too. 

 Safe to say, this off-season is going to be very interesting with Ronnie coming off another injury, Cobbs coming off injury, Williams playing for one more year and the likely dismissal of Joey Porter from the team.