FanHouse YeremiahBell

With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all.

Meet The ...
Team who invented the Wildcat formation! Cue all sorts of zeal from the dramatic broadcasters. Of course, the formation has actually been around for decades, we just hadn't seen a ton of usage in the NFL until the Dolphins seemed to perfect it -- peaking with Ronnie Brown's ridiculous game against the Patriots.

The Dolphins have a careful quarterback, two solid runners, a good, young receiving corps, and have added a great all-around athlete via draft. It might be tough to predict who is going to consistency amass yardage, but we know one thing: They are going to be fun to watch.

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Well, that didn't take long. Just about a week after being released by the Oakland Raiders, it appears Gibril Wilson has already sewn up a new job. The safety signed a five-year contract with the Dolphins Thursday. After a one-year hiatus from the NFL, he's back in the league. Wilson had spent the first four years of his career with the Giants, garnering a Super Bowl ring in the process, but was exiled to Oakland last season.

The Raiders needed to slash payroll, and Wilson was one of the slashees -- despite racking up solid tackle totals and a couple picks along the way.

The Miami Dolphins prevented another of their key free agents from testing the market by signing linebacker Channing Crowder to a three-year contract extension on Wednesday.The move comes a week after the team re-signed starting offensive tackle Vernon Carey to a six-year deal.

According to Jeff Darlington of the Miami Herald, Crowder is "jacked up" about staying in Miami, even though he was searching for a longer contract.

The Miami Dolphins opted not to use their franchise tag on offensive tackle Vernon Carey, and as it turns out, they didn't need to. The team has signed the 27-year-old offensive tackle to a multi-year contract extension, as reported by Edgar Thompson of the Palm Beach Post.

Terms of the deal have not been disclosed at this point, but with Carey locked up long-term, the Dolphins will have a more-than-formidable duo on their offensive line with he and Jake Long, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 NFL draft.

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.

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer

When the New York Jets tossed Chad Pennington aside in favor of Brett Favre, the Miami Dolphins were happy to pick up the 32-year-old veteran and put him under center.

They were rewarded with a quarterback that finished second in the league's MVP voting, as the team completed one of the most improbable one-year turnarounds in NFL history, claiming the AFC East title one year after a forgettable 1-15 season.

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

I would love to meet these "Dolphins officials" to ask if they were drunk or high when they made these comments. Via the Miami Herald's Barry Jackson, anonymous source maestro:

Some Dolphins officials believe their safeties are better than Dallas'. Among the best battles in camp: Jason Allen (first-team snaps in May/June), Renaldo Hill (expects to be 100 percent after surgery to an anterior cruciate ligament) and former Falcons starter Chris Crocker vying to start opposite Yeremiah Bell. ''Jason has a lot of speed and I like what I see, as much as you can like in shorts and a T-shirt,'' secondary coach Todd Bowles said.

Also worth finding out: are these "officials" part of the coaching staff/scouting department, or do they work in the ticket office/accounting/anywhere but coaching staff or scouting department? I'm going with the latter.

In any event, assuming somebody actually believes this to be true, I suspect it all comes down to the Cowboys' Roy Williams. The guy has been crucified this offseason for, well, not being very good. Still, Ken Hamlin had an impressive season (so much so that Dallas wants to keep him around for a while), Pat Watkins continues to develop, and Anthony Henry could eventually move to safety, which would only upgrade the unit.

Despite some relatively good news, this has to be a bit worrisome:

Serious questions remain about first-rounder Jason Allen, who held out 10 days, didn't get defensive snaps until November and contributed modestly at safety (13 tackles, one interception). The hope is that his move to cornerback allows him to play more instinctively and not think as much. But he's behind Will Allen, Andre Goodman, Travis Daniels.

To be fair, Allen did have a lot thrown at him as a rookie. The Steelers' safety Troy Polamalu -- now considered one of the best in the league -- looked lost for most of his rookie season and he was learning only one position.

And Allen makes a similar admission: "''Last year, I was a little uncomfortable at safety having a holdout. I was playing catch-up the whole year. I feel a lot more comfortable now. This year, a lot of things are more simplified. It's time for me to bloom.''

That's good because after Will Allen, there wasn't much consistently at cornerback last season. And even if Jason succeeds, there's the question of who will play safety. According to SportingNews.com, "Yeremiah Bell appears to be a rising star, but the club fears he is injury-prone." They even go so far as to suggest the team should draft LaRon Landry if he's still on the board. I wouldn't suggest that (and neither would Armando Salguero), but there should be plenty of chances to find a safety later in the draft.