FanHouse Itiswhatitis

People are coming out of the woodwork to offer their advice on how to fix the train wreck that is the 2007 Miami Dolphins. I'm sure Cam Cameron curses Chargers GM A.J. Smith daily for waiting so long to fire Marty Schottenheimer (I'm guessing San Diego fans have a similar routine). If Marty was canned in January, Cameron could be coachin' up the Chargers and he too could laugh at the debacle taking place in South Florida.

It is what it is, though, and now it's about fixing this mess. Jimmy Johnson took time out from fixing his hair to offer some pointers on how to get things turned around:

* Draft defense with your No. 1 pick, unless you don't believe John Beck is your long-term QB;
* Make cornerback a top priority;
* Don't spend on high-priced free agents next spring;
* Probably keep Jason Taylor, 33, and Zach Thomas, 34, because "you're not going to get a No. 1 or No. 2 pick for players at that age. If you're not going to get a value pick, build around them."

And don't even bring up GM Randy Mueller's recent personnel moves. That'll just make The Hair angry: ''Please, some of the decisions,'' he said. "Not tendering Wes Welker to at least get a No. 1 pick in return? They [give up] one of the best punters in the league [ Donnie Jones] for a seventh-rounder.

Last week, it was Dallas head coach Wade Phillips. Now it's Miami linebacker Jason Taylor. According to the Miami Herald, Taylor, through a team spokesman, said he never told Peter King that it would be best if he was traded to a contender during the off-season. Leading up to the Pats-Cowboys game, King reported on HBO's Inside the NFL that Phillips told him, "New England was caught cheating, and it is a black mark on their success." Except Phillips denied it.

Taylor was disputing comments King made on this week's Inside the NFL segment.

King said he asked Taylor on Wednesday if he's sorry that he wasn't dealt before Tuesday's trade deadline. 'He said, `You're putting me in a tough spot here,' '' King said. ' `I've had 10 great years here. I owe a lot to the Dolphins.' ''

But King also said, "Clearly, Jason Taylor thinks not only would it be in the team's best interests for him to go in the offseason, but it would be in his best interests to go to a contender in the offseason for the last couple of years of his career.''

New England Patriots defense, Patrick Crayton is not impressed with you. Following the Pats' 48-27 victory in Dallas last Sunday, Crayton, when asked if he woke up Monday morning thinking about how good New England was, offered this:

"No, why would I say something like that?" Crayton said. "Offensively, they are the real deal. I'm not going to lie about that. Definitely, I can tell you, no, [the defense is] not. The only time they stopped us is when we had penalties. If that's stopping us, it is what it is. But they're definitely not the real deal."

When New England cornerback Ellis Hobbs was asked about Crayton's comments, he busted out a "next question". And then answered before the next question could be asked:

"Same story, man. We've heard it before. Whatever. That's why we have 60 minutes. You have 60 minutes to prove what you got out there, and bottom line, we won the game. We're worried about Week 7. It's over with. All the hype and all the hoopla, but like I said, at the end of the day you have to play the game between the white lines. The results are in, let's move on."

Wow, that has to be a new record for the most clichés in one answer. That said, he's right. It it is what it is, blah blah blah. Or as linebacker Rosevelt Colvin pithily put it: "That game is last week. We don't play the Cowboys again. Move on." Clearly, Colvin doesn't think Dallas will make it to the Super Bowl. Or maybe he just meant the regular season. One or the other.

While it's easy (and, let's be honest, kinda lazy) to point fingers at the quarterback when a team struggles, Jay Cutler has so far avoided such scrutiny. Part of that has to do with the obvious: Cutler doesn't play on defense or special teams, two units that have a lot to do with the current predicament.

And then there's this: Cutler ain't Jake Plummer. And that's a good thing, apparently. I never got the anti-Snake sentiment, but Plummer never quarterbacked my team either. In any event, The formerly 2-0 Broncos have lost three straight and currently find themselves in last place in the division.

They also have a pretty big game Sunday night against the 4-1 Steelers, but none of this worries Mr. Cutler.

"We've had a lot of stuff happen so far, but it's football. It happens," Cutler said Wednesday ... "Some elite guys get injuries, we go through a lot of other stuff, and being a quarterback and hopefully one of the leaders on this team, I welcome the pressure."