Wednesday's News & Notes
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins have some good news, some bad news, and some that is well…indifferent…to me anyways. Today is Wednesday and that means it’s time for some of the news and notes flipping around south Florida.
Practice or no practice?
The Dolphins Jason Taylor and Joey Porter both missed practice today. Porter with his flaring knee injury that he has played through most of the year with and Taylor with his shoulder injury that he suffered last weekend against the Patriots.
Nate Jones also missed practice today with an undisclosed injury that he too suffered on Sunday. He missed the 4th quarter and was replaced by Jason Allen.
Jake Grove returned to practice just in time as the Phins prepare what on paper looks to be the toughest stretch of any playoff contender. All 4 of the final opponents are in the chase for a Wild Card spot.
With Porter and Taylor ailing, look for the Phins to use Cameron Wake a lot this weekend. David Garrard, the Jax QB, is not a fast individual and constant pressure could net Wake some sacks.
Two for the Road:
The Dolphins head out on the road for consecutive games starting with upstate rival Jacksonville before heading out to Tennessee a week later. I have learned that the Nashville area could be expecting snow for that weekend.
The Dolphins as mentioned above will face a slower Garrard this week before facing a very speedy Vince Young a week later. The two games also will pit the Dolphins front defensive line against two of the leagues best running backs in Maurice Jones-Drew and Chris Johnson. Johnson is the league leader. A tough task for any team, a tougher task on the road.
Dan Carpenter:
It’s often easy to overlook a kicker but the Phins’ Dan Carpenter took home the NFL’s “Special Teams Player of the Week” honors for this 3-3 outing and clutch 41 yard game winner. He is currently 19 of 20 on the season and is tied with Minny K Ryan Longwell for the league lead in accuracy with a 95% rating.
Ted Ginn:
Ginn won the week 8 award for STPOTW and was awarded the same for the month of November. The honor was handed down last week but his dismal play against the Bills didn’t warrant a mention from me at that time.
ESPN:
Have you noticed that the content on ESPN.com is almost worthless? Aside from a few “headlines” that you can pull from anywhere most of the content is hidden in the “Insider” content that you have to pay for. It’s almost comical to a degree.
Miami Herald:
Like with ESPN I am amazed how the Herald has changed their online Dolphins coverage. What used to be coverage of the team from many different angles has basically turned into a one-story lead in a side bar of the latest Armando blog and then the rest of the NFL. Worse part is that the “iPhone” application that they charge you 3 bucks for is mostly NFL news and not Dolphins news. I wasted my money. I will say this though, for top content in my opinion, I still love the Sun-Sentinel. They actually still use journalists over there. Oh, and their “Dolphins” content is exactly that.
David Martin:
The Dolphins decided that with David Martin now healed from his pre-season injury that it was time to release the veteran who led all of the Phins TE’s last year in yards and catches. Martin is now a free agent and can sign with any NFL team for the final weeks of the season, except Miami. Is this a good move, bad move, or simply indifferent? I lean towards the latter. I have never been a big fan of Martin and while he did play well last season, his age and impending free agent status made him replaceable to me. The Phins don’t use their TE’s like they did last season and this years TE’s combined don’t equal Martin’s totals from last year. Still, both Fasano and Joey Haynos are far better blockers and both are starting to play better in the passing game.
Jason Taylor:
The magazine Sports Illustrated named their all-decade team this week and Jason Taylor is the only Dolphin player to make the list. Not surprising considering that the Dolphins themselves would just as soon forget the past the decade…at least their fans would like to.