FanHouse Vernon Carey

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.

With money to spend, the Vikings are expected to try to find a veteran quarterback, but it appears that the first priority is to acquire a right tackle.

While there aren't that many teams in the market for a starting quarterback, there are plenty of teams who could use an upgrade at tackle, so if the Vikings are looking to replace Ryan Cook/Artis Hicks, they will have to act quickly. ESPN.com's Kevin Seifert (who used to cover the Vikings) is reporting that the Vikings and the Bears are both targeting Dolphins tackle Vernon Carey.

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

NFL Network draft maestro Mike Mayock has been beating this drum for the last six months: former Michigan left tackle Jake Long would make a much better right tackle in the NFL, at least to start his career.

"He's got the talent, the toughness and the emotional stability to play left tackle at a high level, if he's transitioned over time ... I know he's a good athlete; I know he's left-handed and is used to playing the left side. With all those things, I think he could be inundated his first two seasons because I've seen tape when he goes up against defensive ends with NFL-type speed, and he struggles a little bit.

Jake doesn't have the rare feet of a Joe Thomas, who started at left tackle from Day 1."

Obviously, the Dolphins disagree, because Long, who signed with the team in the days leading up to the draft, will be the starting left tackle come Sept. 7. Mayock thinks it makes more sense to keep Vernon Carey on the left side, start Long on the right side and gradually transition him into the job. Unfortunately, the Dolphins won just once last year; they don't have the luxury to groom players.

As FanHouser Ryan Wilson told you last week, the Miami Dolphins kicked Keith Traylor off the team over a fight on the team plane. The fight led to an all-out argument with head coach Cam Cameron who then banished him from the team (he was on the roster for the last game of the season).

Now we know what the fight was all about: dominoes:

Last week's argument on the team plane that led to Keith Traylor's banishment began over a game of dominoes, with Vernon Carey and Rex Hadnot ribbing Traylor (and vice versa) before tempers flared. Carey and Hadnot sat down when Cameron asked them to, but Traylor initially refused. Some players were amused when they heard Traylor yelling and cursing in a meeting with Cameron the next day.

To steal a quote from Ryan: 'This seems like a fitting end to a one-win campaign." It was a game of dominoes that started this mess. Imagine if they were playing Hungry Hungry Hippos! It would've gotten out of hand!

Now, Traylor was probably done as a Dolphin anyways - Bill Parcells most likely would've purged him. But this looks bad for Cameron. Not only does he have to act like daddy on the team plane by telling the kids to sit down and shut up on a trip ... but the fact that the players were laughing about the whole thing doesn't say much for his credibility.

Cam. The Tuna needs to see you. And bring your playbook.

If you were one of the hundreds of millions who missed the Dolphins-Bills tilt yesterday, just know this: Miami might've played their worst game of the season. And at 0-13, that's no easy task. The team had five turnovers, rookie quarterback John Beck was benched after just two pass attempts, and backup Cleo Lemon got knocked down on roughly every other play.

By the way, I don't know if it was by design, or if the right side of Miami's offensive line was playing a lot of pass-blocking-optional schemes, but Bills backup defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove was crushing Lemon for most of the afternoon.

Unsurprisingly, some Dolphins' players aren't all that jazzed with how things are playing out this season:

Everything had happened so fast, Dolphins left tackle Vernon Carey didn't realize how bad it'd actually been. Going over his team's 38-17 loss Sunday in Buffalo, Carey couldn't believe some of the things he found out.

He did know the Dolphins had reached a new low, becoming the first team since the 1986 Colts to start 0-13. But ...

"Eight fumbles?" Carey said to the fellow tackle L.J. Shelton. "We're playing like a (expletive) high school team."

High school football teams everywhere would like to disagree.