A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but a quarterback by any other name might break an NFL rule. The Eagles signed Michael Vick with the intention of using him creatively, at various times throughout their games. The Dolphins drafted Pat White with similar (read: "WILDCAT!") intentions. But the NFL's rules regarding weekly roster construction could create some issues for both teams and both QBs.
The league allows each team to have 45 active players each week. If no more than two of those players are quarterbacks, the team may designate a 46th player as its emergency third quarterback. If that player enters the game prior to the fourth quarter, then the first two quarterbacks on the roster are prohibited from returning to the game at any position at any time. So if the Eagles designate Vick as their third QB, they can't use him until the fourth quarter without losing Donovan McNabb and Kevin Kolb for the rest of the day.
My question is: who decides what a "bona fide quarterback" is? And the answer, apparently, is the NFL.
Quarterback Pat White was a second-round pick by the Miami Dolphins in April's NFL Draft. But he wasn't done being drafted. To White's surprise, he was selected in the 48th round of last week's baseball amateur draft by the New York Yankees.
White hasn't played baseball since high school, but he was pretty good back then -- good enough to get drafted in the fourth round of the 2004 MLB draft by Anaheim. He turned down the Angels and went on to have a stellar college career at West Virginia, presumably leaving baseball behind for good. But the Yankees like him enough as an athlete that they took a low-risk chance.
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- Look, the NFL offseason is freaking boring. I know, I know, if you're reading this, you're a die-hard and you can't get enough NFL news, even in June. But the fact is there's little-to-nothing going on this time of year. Which is why you've got to love Jets coach Rex Ryan and Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder for spicing things up the way they have the past couple of days.
Ryan and Crowder have been hooked up in a little war of words for the past week. And their dispute, rooted in Ryan's tough talk about not being intimidated by anybody else in the AFC East and Crowder's hurt feelings on behalf of a division-champion team that he feels isn't being given enough credit for its 2008 accomplishment, continued today.
I didn't go to Jets minicamp to listen to Rex Ryan Tuesday. Decided to go Wednesday instead. But it looks like I missed all the fun. During his news conference, the Jets' trash-talking head coach fired back at Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder for comments Crowder made last week about him.
"I don't know this Channing Crowder," Ryan said, unprompted, in the middle of his opening remarks to the media. "But all I know is that he's all tatted up so I need to be nervous about him. He's right about one thing. I am a first-time head coach. But I've been around the game all my life. I'm no different now than I've ever been. It's just that more people are listening."
The goofy NFL news of the day Saturday was the renaming of the home of the Miami Dolphins after Jimmy Buffett's beer company. "Land Shark Stadium" will be the fifth different name this building has had since it opened in 1987.
The stadium has an interesting history. Its $115 million construction cost was completely privately funded (imagine that!) with the help of season ticket holders who made long-term commitments in exchange for the promise of a state-of-the-art football facility. Joe Robbie, the owner of the Dolphins at the time, envisioned it as a stadium that could host baseball as well as football, and for that reason, the front-row seats are set back further from the sidelines than at traditional NFL venues.
Next February, Super Bowl XLIV will be the fifth Super Bowl this stadium has hosted -- under four of its five different names:
During an appearance at the NFL's scouting combine, Miami coach Tony Sparano revealed what we would all have found out soon enough: The Dolphins will not use the franchise-tag designation to secure any of their pending free agents.
The decision means that a couple of talented free agents will hit the market -- and, assuming that they do not re-sign with Miami, will leave the resurgent club with some major holes to fill. Amongst the group that had franchise-tag potential was linebacker Channing Crowder, whom the Dolphins basically forced out the door with a reportedly low extension offer.
There's a lot of football to be played in 2007 but with Lovie Smith finally pulling the plug on Rex Grossman in Chicago let's turn the clock forward to 2008 for a moment. Grossman's contract is up after this season and, unless he pulls a Lazarus, he won't be signing another one in Chicago. His career won't come to an end, though. From Jim Plunkett to Trent Dilfer to Vinny Testaverde, football history is laden with quarterbacks who failed at their first stop only to find success at a destination down the road. Some coach will look at Grossman's powerful arm and give him another chance to run an offense. Who might roll the dice on Rex? Tampa Bay - Jon Gruden always finds the grass greener on the other side of the quarterback fence, even if Jeff Garcia is off to a good start in pewter. Garcia has another year on his deal but is 38 and might not have a lot of football left in him. The con is that Gruden's offenses are predicated on accurate, efficient quarterback play and no one will ever mistake Grossman for one of those.
Joey Harrington's about to be cut by the Miami Dolphins, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Had they kept him around, they'd have owed Harrington a $1 million roster bonus ... and you can understand why the Dolphins wouldn't want to pay that, as they're already pretty well stocked at the position of Tragically Disappointing Quarterback.
So, the question becomes ... is this good news for Daunte Culpepper, or is this good news for Brady Quinn? I don't know what the Dolphins have planned for the quarterback position next year, but whoever it is, they'll have one less person to compete with next year.
Harrington replaced a quasi-injured Daunte Culpepper early last season, went 5-6 as a starter, and was then replaced himself by Cleo Lemon. Apparently, the Dolphins didn't feel like Harrington could give them anything that Lemon can't give them.
If I'm a team out there in need a quarterback, though, I don't think Harrington is a bad guy to look at. I know he doesn't have a great body of work, and I know he's never really been successful anywhere ... and sure, chances are, he's not going to turn into a legitimate starting quarterback. But he's too young to just completely discard. He should probably get another go-round before being shoved completely into the woodchipper.
Lions Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz recently interviewed for the Miami Dolphins vacant head coaching position. Martz, it would appear, isn't likely a good fit for the position. Martz places eminent priority upon the passing attack and the Dolphins personnel is built around a strong running attack that features RB Ronnie Brown and, if he returns and doesn't fail a league-administered drug test, Ricky Williams. The Dolphins, at least with their current personnel, do not have the type of quarterbacks who would likely be capable of flourishing under Martz's guidance. The chances of Martz and Joey Harrington ever being reunited on the same team are as close to impossible as you can possibly get. Many believe that Martz would not want to keep QB Daunte Culpepper as the team's starting QB, either. Culpepper is not an accurate enough passer, has too checkered of an injury history, and is viewed to have too much difficulty in reading pass coverage schemes.
Martz would be a more natural fit with the Oakland Raiders. The Raiders don't currently have a QB on their roster that Martz would be enamored with, but Andrew Walter could improve immensely with Martz's help. If the Raiders were to select LSU QB JaMarcus Russell, Martz could be employed to aid Russell's emergence as a top-flight, franchise QB. If Martz were able to reach troubled WR's Randy Moss or Jerry Porter, utilize Ronald Curry's speed, and find another receiver to flourish in the slot, the Raiders may be able to find some of the explosiveness on offense that owner Al Davis covets so greatly. Martz is a devotee of the "Air Coryell"/Ernie Zampese tree of coaches and would likely find common ground with Davis and could reinvigorate Oakland's missing renegade image.
Martz is purported to desire to more personnel input than what he possessed in St. Louis. With that in mind, one has to wonder, does Martz's connection with the Lions and their offensive struggles this season actually reduce the "juice" he once had in league circles? Are teams going to be willing to allow him to become a head coach, in spite if his eccentric image, and hand him the keys to the car, by allowing him to exercise his influence over personnel decisions, too? Martz's offense is incredibly innovative, but it has become apparent that the appropriate personnel needs to be in place for it to operate at optimum levels. The Raiders, who are in rebuild mode, probably have the time to accomodate the implementation of Martz's offense as opposed to the Dolphins, who possess several veteran players and are in more of a win-now type situation.
Well, Shanhan's already been busy this off-season. Following up on the earlier story about the firing of Larry Coyer, yesterday Shanahan also fired defensive line coach Andre Patterson, which I also think is a good move. The line was far in a way the weakest link in the Broncos defense. They were never able to rush four and get any pressure at all on quarterbacks, and Coyer was too predictable and wouldn't call a blitz to make up for it.
Mike Shanahan's new people have now moved in. Taking over as defensive coordinator is defensive back's coach Bob Slowik. I don't know a lot about Slowik, but I think promoting the person who runs one of the best parts of the defensive is, inherently, a pretty solid idea. However, Shanahan also brought in Jim Bates, a 14-year coach in the NFL, to be assistant coach of the defense, and word on the street is that he'll have most of the defensive control, just like Mike Heimerdinger, the assistant coach of the offense, has more control of the offense than the current offensive coordinator.
I don't honestly know a ton about Bates. He was the interim head coach during the 2004 Miami debacle, but his most recent stint was as Green Bay's defensive coordinator. Of course, it's hard to know how much his season at the Pack reflects how good he is, because that team's great defensive tradition has fallen on hard times recently. But what we do know is that Shanahan has been connected to Bates for some time. Bates' son works as an assistant for the Broncos, so it's plausible at least to think that Shanahan has been targeting him since earlier this year when the defense started its collapse.
The one thing I want address about this is that while I agree with the defensive shakeup in general, I don't think that's where the work needs to end. Larry Coyer and Andre Patterson weren't solely responsible for the lack of defense late in the season. I think Shanny's Cleveland experiment has failed. The Broncos need some new personnel on the offensive line, and Shanahan shouldn't stop overhauling the defense until we have the players and the coaches that can put the Broncos in a position to be successful rushing the quarterback.
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but a quarterback by any other name might break an NFL rule. The Eagles signed Michael Vick with the intention of using him creatively, at various times throughout their games. The Dolphins drafted Pat White with similar (read: "WILDCAT!") intentions. But the NFL's rules regarding weekly roster construction could create some issues for both teams and both QBs.
Quarterback 
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- Look, the NFL offseason is freaking boring. I know, I know, if you're reading this, you're a die-hard and you can't get enough NFL news, even in June. But the fact is there's little-to-nothing going on this time of year. Which is why you've got to love Jets coach 
The goofy NFL news of the day Saturday was the 
During an appearance at the NFL's scouting combine, Miami coach Tony Sparano revealed what we would all have found out soon enough: The Dolphins will not use the franchise-tag designation to secure any of their pending free agents.
There's a lot of football to be played in 2007 but with 
Well, Shanhan's already been busy this off-season. Following up on the earlier story about the 
