Posts tagged AkinAyodele at FanHouse

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is a month off, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterbacks: The Brett Favre Fallout ended up with Chad Pennington coming to Miami. Good thing, because the Dolphins didn't have a quarterback on their roster. Well, technically they did ... but when you are having a three-man race to figure out who might be able to handle the job ... you have no QB. Pennington gives Miami what they need: an experienced, accurate passer. He's a winner, but not the kind of guy who makes those dynamic plays. Right now, they don't have great receivers, either, so a guy that can hit his target is key. Chad Henne may be the future ... but that's what we thought about John Beck last year. Heat Index: 4

Running backs: This is the biggest strength of this offense. During their 1-15 season last year, the fact that Ronnie Brown was having an outstanding season was lost on many people. Brown was worthy of a Pro Bowl spot before he tore his ACL in mid-season. All indications are that he's healed. Brown will share duties with Ricky Williams. Yep, he's back and he's bad! I can't believe I'm saying this, but Ricky has been a model teammate. He's basically lived at the Dolphins complex, is in supreme physical shape and could get back to his pre-retirement form. Of course, that is all the good. The bad is that your steadiest part of the team involves a guy with a major knee injury and another who is now 31, barely has played over the last several seasons, already has two strikes and is unreliable. At least he's not on the hippie lettuce anymore. Heat Index: 7

The day before the draft the Miami Dolphins sent their fourth-round pick to Dallas for linebacker Akin Ayodele and tight end Anthony Fasano. Ayodele's fate was sealed the minute the Cowboys signed Zach Thomas, and Fasano, the 2006 second-rounder, hadn't done much in limited playing time. A fourth-round pick hardly seems like fair compensation, although the Raiders might consider it a steal.

Still, Fasano is just 24 and has plenty of -- wait for it -- upside. Plus, Bill Parcells, who drafted him in Dallas, obviously has an affinity for former players, particularly those he still thinks can play. And unlike Dallas, where Jason Witten is firmly entrenched as the starter, Fasano has a good chance to win the job in Miami. From the Sun-Sentinel's Omar Kelly:

Fasano has started 11 games in his two seasons as a Cowboy, which gives him an experience edge over every tight end on the roster except David Martin, who contributed a career-high 34 receptions last season but was a suspect blocker. Fasano likely wins the spot if he can catch AND block effectively.

Of course, teams like to sometimes feature multiple tight ends, which makes it even more curious that Fasano couldn't get on the field in Dallas. But the Dolphins, fresh off a one-win effort in 2007, aren't the Cowboys, and that looks to be swell news for Fasano. Now the team just needs to decide on a quarterback.

One of the more quiet deals during Day 1 of the NFL Draft was Miami trading Lorenzo Booker to the Eagles for a fourth round pick. Booker was selected in the third round of last year's draft, played in just four games but showed he can be a nice third down back.

By the way, Miami used their original fourth round pick hin a deal with Dallas for TE Anthony Fasano and LB Akin Ayodele. Dealing Booker was mainly about the new regime:

"It was really more of a systematic decision," (GM) Ireland said. "I don't think he really fit our system that we're trying to put in place in here. We fielded a call pretty early in the process about him and he's a great kid, he's a playmaker, but at the end of the day he just didn't really the fit the system we're trying to put in place here. We're looking for guys that play a lot of plays, and if you're a third runner it's kind of hard to get that player on the field."

Does this mean that Ricky Williams is still very much in the plans for the Dolphins? Right now, the Phins have Ronnie Brown as the starter with Williams and Patrick Cobbs as the only backups.

Dolphins front office boss Bill Parcells has added two more of his former Cowboys players, shipping Miami's fourth-round pick in this weekend's draft for tight end Anthony Fasano and linebacker Akin Ayodele.

The trade, which was first reported by Adam Schefter of NFL Network, gives the Cowboys the first pick in the fourth round, 100th overall. In past years the first pick of the fourth round was often the subject of trades because it was the first pick of the second day of the draft, but this year the third round begins the second day. The Cowboys had previously traded away their own fourth-round pick, 126th overall, for Pacman Jones.

Parcells has been collecting people with ties to his tenure as the Cowboys' coach since the very beginning, starting with general manager Jeff Ireland and head coach Tony Sparano.

Fasano was the Cowboys' 2006 second-round pick but hasn't played much behind Jason Witten. Ayodele became expendable when the Cowboys acquired former Dolphins linebacker Zach Thomas.

It's been a whirlwind week for Zach Thomas -- three teams, three offers, one slightly embarrassing YouTube video -- but it ends where all began for the Dolphin's all-time leading tackler: his home state of Texas.

Thomas agreed to a one-year, $3 million deal with the Cowboys, who unlike the Patriots and the Saints, were actually right to believe they had the inside track on signing him. He gets what he wants -- a Super Bowl contender with a solid quarterback -- but he's going to have to fight for a starters job, which was supposedly very important in choosing his new team. To do so, Thomas will have to beat out Akin Ayodele. Either way, he'll play a lot.

Though it's believed he could have gotten that starter's job in New Orleans, and a lot more money, Thomas went with the infamous hometown discount. The Cowboys, in turn, get a good rotational linebacker who boasts quite the résumé and can still contribute, assuming he's healthy.

I wouldn't have expected quite the whirlwind for a 34-year-old linebacker coming off of major head and neck damage (despite his history), but there ya go. Now Drew Rosenhaus can focus on one of his other 3,109 clients.