Dolphins News...

[08/24/10] -- Very Few Surprises
With training camp officially over and the third pre-season game just around the corner, there have been very few surprises for most Dolphins' fans this summer. The Dolphins' depth chart is shaping up just about as predicted, with Brandon Marshall providing the expected punch at receiver and Ronnie and Ricky maintaining their dominance in the backfield. On defense, the rookies have had a greater impact than expected, but not greater than hoped for and special teams remain a mystery shrouded in an enigma. This week, Phins.com Columnist Chris Shashaty gives us an update on the state of the team as we head into the dress rehearsal pre-season game with his article Team Shaping Up Mostly as Expected

[08/22/10] -- Dolphins Beat Jaguars 27-26 in Another Storm
The Dolphins' offense improved dramatically last night as Chad Henne threw for two touchdowns and Chad Pennington added another in the Dolphins' 2nd pre-season game of 2010 to lead the Dolphins to a 27-26 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Anthony Fasano was the target of both of Henne's touchdown passes and Brandon Marshall contributed 66 yards on 4 catches of his own, including a leaping grab where he took the ball away from a defensive back. Marshall also contributed a key block on one of Fasano's touchdown receptions, where he took out two defenders who might have stopped Fasano from getting to the endzone.

On the other side of the ball, the defense had a mixed night, holding Maurice Jones-Drew to -2 yards rushing and the Jaguars offense to 54 yards on the ground, but giving up 221 yards passing. The secondary still appears to be having problems, losing coverage on opposing receivers and periodically giving up big plays.

[08/16/10] -- Dolphins Beat Bucs 10-7 in Pre-Season Opener
The Dolphins delivered an uneven, lackluster performance on Saturday night, but still managed to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 10-7 at Sun Life Stadium. It was a fairly typical first pre-season game for both teams, with plenty of dropped passes, penalties, missed tackles and bad throws on both sides. And if first-game jitters weren't enough to make for an ugly contest, there was a downpour in Miami that started just prior to the game and turned the baseball diamond into a mud pit on the field. As a result, the ball and the field were very slippery and players were sliding all over the place.

Like most pre-season games, we saw the good, the bad and the ugly on Saturday. On the good side, the rookies fighting for starting jobs played well. G John Jerry, DE Jared Odrick and LB Koa Misi all got off to a decent start in their first game in the NFL. NT Paul Soliai had an excellent night, dominating in the center of the defensive line, picking up a tackle for a loss, a forced-fumble and a fumble-recovery. The surprise player of the game was CB Nate Ness, who lead the team with 4 tackles, had 2 forced fumbles and knocked two passes away from Tampa Bay receivers in the endzone to stop the Bucs' last scoring attempt.

On the bad side, the Dolphins' first string offense had trouble moving the ball, picking up less than 40 total yards on 4 offensive series. Henne had trouble holding on to the muddy ball, the offensive line couldn't maintain their footing and the receivers couldn't hold on to the ball. The most disappointing part of the game was Brandon Marshall's two dropped passes, followed closely by Brian Hartline's drop. Hartline and Marshall are supposed to give Miami an explosive offense this year, but on Saturday night, both players fizzled.

Curt's Comments: While it's important not to read too much into any pre-season game, the lack of production by the starting offense was very disappointing. And yes, you can cut them some slack because of the field conditions, but this was the Dolphins' home turf and they need to be able to play on it in all conditions. On the positive side, Paul Soliai looked like the kind of player we've all hoped he would be. If he can keep up this level of effort, he can dominate in the middle of the defensive line and give Miami an important alternative and backup to Randy Starks. While Nate Ness made the biggest flash of the game, it is way too early to annoint him the defensive rookie of the year - but I will be keeping a much closer eye on him from now on.

[08/09/10] -- Dolphins' Offense a Work In Progress
The Dolphin Defense easily got the best of the scrimmage on Saturday afternoon, as they usually do this early in training camp. Mike Nolan's updated blitz packages confused the offense's blockers and frustrated the quarterbacks while Brandon Marshall did not have the kind of day he had been having against Miami's DBs. Marshall ended the scrimmage with just two catches for 11 yards and a dropped pass. It was not an auspicious debut for Miami's 2010 offense.

But the offense is often behind the defense at this point in training camp and their struggles early this summer are not yet cause for worry. This week, Phins.com Columnist Chris Shashaty talks about the potential for this year's Dolphins' offense in his latest column "Offense Has Potential to be Explosive".

[08/07/10] -- Dolphins Conduct Scrimmage Today
The Dolphins will hold a 110 play scrimmage this afternoon at 2 PM at their training facility in Davie. This scrimmage will give us the closest look yet at how the team will perform this year, although it's important to remember that it is a very controlled scrimmage with a limited number of plays in closely controlled situations. Still, for many of these players, it will be the closest they've yet come to participating in an NFL game. All of the rookies will be looking to show that they belong on this team, but the coaches will be looking closest at the high-profile rookies who may be called upon to start at the beginning of the year. Players like Jared Odrick, Koa Misi, John Jerry and Nolan Carroll - who have impressed the coaches so far - will get their biggest test yet.

Also getting a close look today will be the veterans of the interior offensive line, which is far from settled, and the Dolphins' outside linebackers, who must provide a strong pass rush this season if the Dolphins' defense is to improve on their lackluster performance of last year, especially against the pass.

And while not fighting for a roster spot, you can expect Brandon Marshall to get a lot of attention today, to see if he can continue to dominate on the field the way he has dominated in practices so far this summer. Be sure to follow the News Wire today for near real-time updates from the best Dolphins' news sources.

[08/04/10] -- Dolphins Lose AJ Edds for the Year
The injury bug bit the Dolphins' defense hard yesterday, as Coach Sparano confirmed that rookie linebacker AJ Edds tore the ACL in his right knee on Monday. While the Dolphins have not officially placed him on the injured reserve list yet, he is out for the year. He was working with the second string inside linebackers during training camp and the team had hoped to use Edds in pass coverage situations this season. To fill his roster spot, the Dolphins have signed linebacker Micah Johnson, who is an undrafted rookie from Kentucky.

[07/30/10] -- Training Camp 2010 Opens
The Dolphins opened their 2010 training camp today with high hopes for the coming season but will many questions still waiting to be answered. A flurry of last-minute signings, both of rookies and of veterans, allowed the team to open training camp without any holdouts. This year, as always, we at Phins.com will do our best to keep you up-to-date with the latest news on the News Wire, as well as providing periodic training camp reports on the Phins.com 2010 Training Camp page.

To get you started for training camp this year, we have Bitchin Dave's newest "On Porpoise" podcast. In this episode - the last of the offseason - Dave reviews some pressing questions as we head into training camp and recaps some recent news. Plus, he takes a look back at the 1984 season and has an old interview he did with Jim Jensen and Mark Duper. To listen, Click Here for Dave's "On Porpoise" Podcast.

[07/23/10] -- Training Camp Almost Here
Training camp begins one week from today and while much is already known about the look of the team for the 2010 season, there are still quite a few questions that need to be answered before the first game. This week, Phins.com columnist Chris Shashaty talks about 10 of these questions in his latest column, 10 Questions Going in to Training Camp.

[07/12/10] -- South Florida Sports Shakeup
Last week, Lebron James shook up the basketball world by choosing to sign with the Miami Heat. While this does not effect the Dolphins directly, it does tilt the balance of public attention from the Dolphins to the Heat - at least, for the time being. Will this cause problems for Miami's dominant pro sports franchise in the future? Phins.com columnist Chris Shashaty talks about these developments in his latest column, Heat Will Challenge Dolphins for Top Billing.

Also, this week, Phins.com presents Bitchin' Dave's latest podcast. In this show, Dave's got news from around the world of sports, he takes a look at the NFL strike of 1987, he gives us an update on concussion research, he replays an interview he did with Tim Bowens in 1987 and he chats with "The Football Scientist", K.C. Joyner. So check out Dave's "On Porpose" podcast: Dolphins' recap for 7-6-2010.

[06/25/10] -- Some Offseason Observations
This is the time of the football season when there is nothing for us fans to do but wait and prognosticate. All the OTAs, mini-camps and “voluntary” team workouts are pretty much over. Before training camp starts, there might be a free agent signing or two and there is the relatively uninteresting supplemental draft. However, there is still much to talk about and this week, Phins.com columnist Chris Shashaty gives us his take on some of the more interesting stories from this off-season in his column “Offseason Observations”.