FanHouse Vontae Davis

As if blowing a 24-3 home lead and losing to the Saints wasn't bad enough, the Dolphins have lost Will Allen for the season to an ACL injury, the Miami Herald reported Sunday night.

Allen left Miami's 46-34 loss midway through the third quarter. He limped to the locker room, then returned to the sideline with a brace on his knee.

"Obviously, to lose Will in that situation. It's a close ball game; I thought Will was playing pretty well at the time," Miami head coach Tony Sparano said.

Allen, Miami's top cornerback, has missed just one game since coming to the Dolphins prior to the 2006 season, and just nine games total during a nine-year career that included a stay with the Giants. Sunday marked Allen's 43rd consecutive start -- a streak that will come to an end next week when Miami visits the Jets, if the early indications are accurate.

Training camps have wrapped up, the NFL season is right around the corner, and it's still hot as sin outside. But instead of cooling you off with a warm island song, FanHouse break out ye old heat check for our 2009 NFL Season Previews. We'll rate each club in 5 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

In 2007, the Miami Dolphins were one overtime loss against the Baltimore Ravens away from a winless season. Needless to say, expectations couldn't have been much lower heading into 2008. A new head coach, a new quarterback and 10 additional wins later, and the Miami Dolphins were one of the most unexpected playoff teams in recent memory. Can they do it again?

Offensive tackle Andre Smith became the 31st 2009 first-round draft pick to sign, coming to terms with Cincinnati. Find all the signed picks' contract details below:

The college football season is fast approaching, with many fall camps set to open this week. Thus it's time to lay aside our interregional bickering and turn our thoughts to, you know, what might actually happen on the field.

The big question in the Big Ten this season is whether Penn State's conference championship was just a momentary burp in the conference's Buckeye-dominated food chain, or whether things might actually be shifting just a bit in the conference. Do the Buckeyes claim the title again? Will the Nittany Lions defend last year's crown and make a run at the national title? Will there be some giant, world-rocking surprise team that comes in and knocks them both out of the BCS?

Make the jump and all shall be revealed.

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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A man claiming to be Miami Dolphins rookie cornerback Vontae Davis was arrested on June 9 in Champaign, Ill., where Davis played college football for the Fighting Illini. But Davis insists that he was nowhere near Champaign, and that someone stole his wallet and his identity.

The student newspaper at Illinois, the Daily Illini, reported on the arrest this week. It was only when the Daily Illini's report was picked up by news outlets in Florida that Davis learned the Champaign police were saying they had arrested him.

Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.

For the fourth straight year, the Miami Dolphins used a second-round pick on a quarterback, selecting West Virginia's Pat White with the 44th overall pick. White, a record-setting player in college, joined John Beck (recently released) and Chad Henne as recent selections, to go along with the trade that brought Daunte Culpepper to Miami prior to the 2006 season.

While there is still some debate as to what type of future White will have in the NFL, the Dolphins view him as a quarterback, while one scout recently told Omar Kelly of the Sun Sentinel that Miami is trying to "revolutionize pro football by bringing the spread to the NFL."

No one disputes that Vontae Davis has the athletic ability to be a great NFL cornerback. But some observers were surprised that the Miami Dolphins chose Davis in the first round of Saturday's draft, because there were concerns about Davis's attitude and work ethic, and because Dophins front office boss Bill Parcells has made clear that he values character in assembling a roster.

Davis's college coach, however, insists that there's absolutely no reason at all to be concerned about Davis -- and even compares his abilities to those of the Hall of Famer Rod Woodson.

Bill Parcells has a history of being aggressive, and the results suggest he knows what he's doing. He's taken five different teams to the playoffs as either a coach or front-office type, and is the NFL equivalent of Mr. White Winston Wolfe: he solves problems.

He took the Dolphins from a one-win outfit in 2007 to AFC East champs a year later. And if he thinks Pat White is a special player, I'm not going to argue with him.

On Day 1 of the Draft, the Dolphins selected Illinois cornerback Vontae Davis with the 25th pick, and double-downed with White a round later (44th overall). Davis has been described as a top-10 talent, but character issues saw him drop to the end of the first round. But if there's anybody who can keep Davis in check it's Parcells.

Although the Dolphins had a huge need in the secondary, White might be the best value pick in this draft.