FanHouse Jeff Ireland

Now that Drew Brees has revealed he would have joined the Miami Dolphins back in 2006 as a free agent had they trusted his throwing shoulder was healed, had they believed in him, here comes Brees for an encore visit on Sunday to Miami.

I think the Dolphins and quarterback Chad Henne know the score.

They know that Henne will enter into a scrap with Brees where Henne had better light it up or be lit up.

The Dolphins selected Pat White in the second round of the April draft, and immediately, the league's best Wildcat team got better. But in the weeks following the pick, general manager Jeff Ireland hinted that White, a former quarterback at West Virginia, could challenge for the gig in Miami.

Whether wishful thinking or strategic PR spin, now, a week into training camp, the depth chart at quarterback is pretty much set. The Miami Herald's Armando Salguero writes that not only is White penciled in for the backup-to-the-backup gig, but Chad Henne isn't close to unseating Chad Pennington.

Heading into the 2009 season, we know this much about the Miami Dolphins quarterback situation: Chad Pennington is going to be the starter, and for good reason. After 2009? Well, that's anybody's guess. Miami seems to be quite high on 2008 second-round pick Chad Henne, which played a role in the front office's decision to not offer Pennington a long-term contract extension after he helped guide the Dolphins to an AFC East title.

On Saturday, the Dolphins raised a few eyebrows when they used the 44th overall pick on West Virginia quarterback Pat White ... the third straight year they've selected a quarterback in the second round.

With Tuesday's sale of the Miami Dolphins to Stephen Ross, giving him control of 95 percent of the franchise, team vice president Bill Parcells now has a 30-day window to cash in the remainder of his $16 million contract and bolt to another team (or the nearest beach and/or golf course). That is, if he wants to.

Parcells is spending this week, along with Dolphins head coach Tony Sparano and general manager Jeff Ireland, at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, scouting the NFL's stars of tomorrow. On Tuesday afternoon he addressed the window of opportunity he has to exit Miami with a truck full of cash.

Two years ago, Todd Haley was the Cowboys' wide receivers coach. In addition to his traditional job responsibilities (breaking down film, helping craft the game plan), he also had to make sure Terrell Owens was happy in his new home.

Haley was pretty good at the former but failed miserably at the latter. In fact, owner Jerry Jones contemplated disciplinary action against him. Welcome to Dallas, Todd! Where the inmates have been running the asylum since 1989. (Actually, Haley had berated T.O. for being tardy, and the news somehow made its way to the media, which is what bothered Jones. That's the story, anyway.)

On Friday, the Dolphins sent quarterback Josh McCown to the Panthers, presumably to provide depth behind Jake Delhomme after Matt Moore suffered what looked to be a serious injury during the preseason finale against the Steelers (turns out, Moore will be okay and, like the rest of us, is day to day).

Prior to moving McCown, there was some speculation that Miami would either trade or release John Beck, the team's 2007 second-round pick. After all, Beck was drafted by the previous regime, and Bill Parcells himself had green-lighted the McCown signing, which included $2.5 million in up-front loot.

Funny story. According to the Palm Beach Post's Edgar Thompson, general manager Jeff Ireland has a perfectly rational explanation for keeping Beck and jettisoning McCown.

Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland had hoped to have all the 2008 draft picks under contract by July 1. Obviously, that didn't happen, but to be honest, it was an ambitious undertaking. Training camp is still some three weeks off, and there's plenty of time to ink second-rounders Phillip Merling and Chad Henne, and third-rounder Kendall Langford.

Yesterday, Ireland appeared on WQAM's Dolphins Tonight to discuss the state of negotiations, scouting the Arena leagues and the CFL, and the risks that go along with paying unproven players obscene amounts of money. I'm guessing owners love his plan to restructure NFL salaries, but the union might feel differently:

"You just wish you could pay them five or six thousand dollars and say, Go earn it, but it's not the same anymore," Ireland said. "But really it comes down to what we're trying to accomplish from a culture standpoint. You want guys that when you do pay them the big contract, they're going to go on and do the same thing they've done..."

Ireland's exaggerating to make a point, but the bottom line -- one that most people seem to support -- is that the rookie-wage scale is out of whack. Ireland, who worked for the Cowboys before taking the Miami job earlier this year, identified Jason Witten and Marion Barber as players teams "don't ... ever have to worry about" because:

Things are looking up in Miami, which is welcome news for an outfit that went 1-15 last season. Randy Mueller and Cam Cameron are out, replaced by Bill Parcells, Jeff Ireland and Tony Sparano; the Dolphins have a franchise left tackle (although some are skeptical); Ricky Williams is again excited to be playing football; Jason Taylor has decided to put off his Hollywood dreamz for another season; and Ronnnie Brown, the team's 2005 first-round pick, expects to be completely healthy by the start of the season.

Brown, who's coming back from a torn ACL, thinks he can return to the form that saw him average 5.1 yards per carry through Week 7 of the '07 season.

Are those expectations too high? Based on other backs returning from ACL injuries, the results are mixed:

[Edgerrin] James averaged 4.4 yards per carry the year before (2000), 3.6 the year after (2002) but 4.1 and 4.6 in '03 and '04. Terry Allen (4.5 year before, 4.0 year after) and Jamal Anderson (4.5, 3.6) also fell off initially but still topped 1,000 yards in their first year back. (Anderson tore his other ACL a year later.)

But Jamal Lewis, who tore his ACL in 2001 training camp, had virtually no fall-off (4.4 in 2000, 4.3 in '02, 5.3 in '03). Ex-UM star Willis McGahee, who sat out his rookie NFL season (2003) after tearing his ACL and two other knee ligaments in the Fiesta Bowl, averaged 4.0 in 2004, the second-best of his career.

This certainly seems ambitious, but Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland is new to the job and he probably wants to impress his boss, Bill Parcells: Ireland wants to sign the team's final three 2008 draft picks by July 1.

Actually, it's imminently doable -- the first-overall selection, Jake Long, was signed before the draft, and only second-rounders Phillip Merling and Chad Henne, and third-rounder Kendall Langford are currently without contracts. Add in the fact that Henne plans to show up for training camp (something about wanting to win a starting job). Whatever, Ireland doesn't seem too concerned:

He believes that just because Merling was 32nd and in years past that would've been the last pick of the first round but not this year because the Patriots forfeited their pick due to Spygate that won't have a bearing on getting him locked up. It doesn't hurt that Merling's agent is Jimmy Sexton, who happens to be the agent for coach Tony Sparano and team czar Bill Parcells. Come to think of it, he was the Nicktator's agent, too.

(Ah, yes, no post-apocalyptic Dolphins post would be complete without a mention of Nick Saban.)

Ireland is also familiar with Henne's agent, which should only help facilitate the process. Ideally, Miami would have everybody in training camp from Day 1, but even if it doesn't happen, the 2008 team is already more cohesive than last year's version. Now if this Dolphins team can just find a way to win more than one game.

Now that everybody in the Dolphins organization is on the same page, feeling great about Jason Taylor's return, and what it might mean for the 2008 season, the Dancing With the Stars, um, star kept his word and skipped Miami's mandatory minicamp. Apparently, Bill Parcells didn't bring it up last night when he spoke to Taylor for more than an hour.

Today, the Palm Beach Post's Tim Graham writes that head coach Tony Sparano "begrudgingly gave some indication as to whether defensive end Jason Taylor is being fined for missing this weekend's mandatory minicamp."

Sparano was asked if Taylor and defensive lineman Randy Starks - the only missing players - had excused absences. Sparano said Starks was excused, but Taylor wasn't.

The Dolphins can fine Taylor $8,638 for each unexcused minicamp absence and $15,116 for each unexcused training camp absence. ...

So nothing definitive on whether Taylor will be out roughly the price of a 2008 Kia Rio every day he misses a mandatory workout, but no worries: he's promised to show up for training camp.

With all the back-and-forth recently, I suspect Taylor reiterated his plans to Parcells, Sparano and general manager Jeff Ireland that he had no intentions of showing up for practice in June. Sparano hardly seemed surprised by the absence, no doubt because he's wisely heeding the advice of life coach Lawrence Taylor.