Dolphins rebuilding
You won’t hear Stephen Ross admit the team he bought for $1.1 billion is rebuilding because that’s a mortal sin cited in the NFL owner’s handbook just ahead of selling an opposing team’s T-shirts in your pro shop. And Dolphins coach Joe Philbin also won’t be uttering the “R” word because he has a logical reason not to make such a declaration.
“It’s way too early to predict where we’re going to be in the win-loss column,” Philbin said Tuesday, “and it would be a disservice to the players to say we’re in a rebuilding mode.”
We get it on both counts.
But the fact the Dolphins decline to tell you they’re undergoing at least a partial rebuild doesn’t change the facts.
This team is rebuilding, and it has nothing to do with the million-dollar construction that will add a new player lounge and update the locker room and meeting rooms at the team’s Davie practice facility.
The Dolphins of 2012 will be different. They will have different coaches. They will have different players. They will line up differently. They will play differently (hopefully). And they probably won’t be a finished product even after free agency and next month’s draft are over.
Miami will have a new starting right tackle, a new starting right guard, at least one new starting receiver, a new starting strong safety, perhaps a new starting free safety, and change at linebacker and cornerback is also a possibility.
Add to that the fact the offense is new, the starting quarterback is undetermined and the defensive scheme Miami has been running since Nick Saban was coach has changed, and you have a new, different team.
A rebuilding team.
That’s not a bad thing, by the way.
The Dolphins were 6-10 last season. They were 7-9 the two years before that. If they want to contend they’re not rebuilding and they really mean it, then they have a bigger problem because folks like me will be forced to ask why not?
What kind of organization, after all, would have three consecutive losing years and want to stay the course and keep the same players?
Rebuilding this team is not only a good thing, it’s the right thing.
Of course, that’s not what you’re going to hear from the organization.
Ross will decline to announce a rebuild because doing so is universally accepted by public relations and marketing people as a great way to keep fans away in droves.
Getting in on the ground floor is a great pitch for a stock. It isn’t the best way to pitch a football team in the same town with the championship-caliber Heat and the suddenly relevant Marlins. It isn’t the way to excite fans that aren’t in such a good mood to begin with.
Rebuilding simply isn’t sexy.
Deflect and deny
And so when Ross was asked this week if his team is in the midst of a rebuild, the owner did what any bright man in his position might do — answer the question with words that more or less ignored the question and didn’t really provide an answer.
“We think we have a fine nucleus,” Ross said. “I think we’re excited about where we’re going. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
The Dolphins’ fine nucleus, by the way, consists of only a handful of players — Jake Long, Mike Pouncey, Cameron Wake and maybe Randy Starks, and just maybe Karlos Dansby. Dansby is a nice player, but he still has not played up to his salary.
Everyone else?
So far just a bunch of guys — some solid, many not yet at their potential, some playing frustratingly below expectations.
None of this applies to the team’s group of quarterbacks. Matt Moore, David Garrard and Pat Devlin are none of the above. Moore was a pleasant surprise who perhaps played over his head last season, Garrard is new, and Devlin is a developmental player.
One of them likely will be the club’s starter in 2012 unless general manager Jeff Ireland lands an amazing prize in the draft.
“I envision Matt Moore and David Garrard and Pat Devlin at this point in time getting a lot of repetitions in the minicamp and as things move forward, based on what happens, we’ll divide the reps from there,” Philbin said. “It’s going to be an open competition. We told both guys that. We’re very clear about that.
“I told David my only obligation to Matt Moore is he’s a member of the 2012 Dolphins. He’s under contract. He played well last year, and he deserves an opportunity to compete for the starting position just like David does because now he’s a member of the team.”
Auditioning
That’s it. Moore and Garrard have one year to show something because both have contracts that expire after the season. So for all we know, neither of them will be around after the coming season.
Let’s see … veterans who might or might not be around after the coming season man the most important position on the team.
The Dolphins are rebuilding.
This article was written by Armando Salguero and appeared in the Miami Herald. 
Posted by Necesitamos Mas Football
on 12:02 p. m..
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