SB Nation User Blog: Phintastic

Letter to Coach Sparano

Phintastic — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 01:29:04 -0000

Dear Coach,

I've been a Dolphin fan for almost 40 years and have gone through the good days (early 70s and the Marino days), but i just want to say thanks for the resurgence of the Miami Dolphin franchise. Of course the media wants to give all the credit to Bill Parcells, but i know the truth. I've watched most of your press briefings this year on www.miamidolphins.com and i just want to let you know you are one class act. Not since Shula left back in the mid 90s have i seen the dedication and the excitement that i see in the team these days and i can honestly say that it is you that brought that back to the team. If i could i would offer you a 20 year contract just to give Shula a run for the most wins in NFL history. So congrats on the coaching job last year and for all the future years coming up. You are building a winner. Also at the end of the season there are about 300 Phinsider fans that would like to buy you a beer, heck maybe even a house. Keep up the good work...

via z.about.com

2009 - Great Year

Phintastic — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:40:07 -0000

Of course we need Pennington to have great year for the Dolphins to get to the playoffs. Of the other Dolphin players who has to have a superb season for us to make it to the promised land. In my opinion, Brown didnt have a career last year, a good year coming off the injury, but i think this year with the teams we are playing Ronnie is one player that has to get it done(1300+ Yards). This will help us control time of possession and keep those other QBs off the field. My other 2 players that i feel we need to have great years this year are Crowder and Taylor. If these 2 guys step it up, i think the defense will feed off their emotions and step up their play. So what 3 players do you feel need to step it up for us to make it to the playoffs?

Ronnie, Ginn, Bess, Camarillo, Ricky, Taylor, Crowder, Porter, Ferguson, Davis, Smith, Allen, Roth, Merling etc....

Go Phins...

The Unsignings

Phintastic — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 23:46:19 -0000

Greetings from Japan or Konnichi wa as they say here. I was wondering if there any worries out there that our 2 top picks and Clemons havent signed as of today and we are only 1 week away from "real practices" starting up? I figure not having these 3 guys in training camp from day 1 could cost us a game down the road. I think all 3 of these guys will have some impact on the team before the years up and I'm really excited about Clemons, hopefully he gets some playing time. What say you about not having these guys in camp Day #1?

Poll

How do you feel about not having these guys(Davis, White and Clemons) in camp from Day 1?

These guys could provide the punch we need in many ways, we need them in camp Day 1

40 votes

Don't sweat it, they wont get much playing time anyways

3 votes

if they arent in camp Day 1, it could cost us down the road

8 votes

what the hell is a 5th rounder holding out for

31 votes

82 votes | Poll has closed

72 Dolphins

Phintastic — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:00:17 -0000

Great show on NFL network today showcasing the '72 Undefeated season. If you get a chance to watch it, it was pretty amusing to see Manny Fernandez( i knew there was a reason to pick him for the bar fight partner) wrestling alligators. Csonka also had alot of commentary during the show. Amazing how they all had one focus and that was to be a team and the win. Shula was definitely the key to driving them to the championship. Currently watching the 73 season. Should be just as fun.....

Best Of / Worst of 70’s Best Trades

Phintastic — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:03:12 -0000

Best Of / Worst of 70’s Best trades

Here we go on the second installment of Best of / Worst of. Since we have already looked at the Worst trades of the 70s, this poll will be looking at some of the better Trades during the 1970s. We had 2 pretty decent trades in 1969, so I’m going to throw those in there also to mull over.

1. Trade #1 – LB John Bramlett, QB Kim Hammond and 5th round pick in 1970 to Boston for LB Nick Buoniconti. Solidified the defense in the middle and part of the 72 team. HOF

2. Trade #2 – CB Mack Lamb to San Diego for G Larry Little. Jim Langer(C) and Larry Little(G), you couldnt get any better than this combo. HOF

3. Trade #3 - 1970 First round pick to Cleveland for Paul Warfield. HOF, but left the Dolphins for the WFL with Csonka and Kiick.

4. Trade #4 - 1971 2nd round pick for Bob Matheson. 53 defense was basically named because of him. Played for Miami for 9 years

5. Trade #5 - 1973 QB Jim Del Gaizo to Green Bay for 2nd round picks in 1974 and 1975, we ended up with Andre Tillman(TE) in ’74 and Freddie Solomon in ‘75.

6. Trade #6 - 1978 S Vern Roberson, WR Freddie Solomon and 1st and 5th round picks in 1978 to San Francisco for RB Delvin Williams. This was my hardest choice because this one could also be on the worst list also, depending on how you look at it. Williams played for Miami for 3 years. His first year he played great (1200+ yds) his last 2 years were mediocre. SF didn’t get too much out their picks, but Freddie had a decent career.

Poll

Which of these trades do you consider the best of the 70s.

1969 Nick Buoniconti trade

10 votes

1969 Larry Little trade

22 votes

Paul Warfield trade

6 votes

Bob Matheson trade

1 votes

Jim Del Gaizo trade

0 votes

Delvin Williams trade

0 votes

39 votes | Poll has closed

Best Of / Worst of

Phintastic — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:01:52 -0000

Hi Everyone,

Happy Fathers Day to all of you Fathers and future Fathers.

I figured since we have a lull in new activity, i would start a Best of / Worst of series for the next couple of weeks. This week we will do a Best/Worst Trade and Best/Worst draft pick of the 1970s. So moving forward today we will have (5) 1970s Worst trades for you to mull over. You can check all the players stats at http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/ for further info.

Trade #1 - 1st round pick in 1973 to Buffalo for WR Marlin Briscoe. This pick for Buffalo ended up being Joe DeLamielleure (26)(G). DeLamielleure played for 12 years and was inducted in the Hall of fame in 2003. Briscoe played for Miami for about 3 years and had ~860 yards receiving.

Trade #2 - 1974 QB Joe Theismann to Washington for 1st round pick in 1976. Not sure why pick was in 1976, but the Dolphins ended up picking Larry Gordon (17)LB in 1976.

Trade #3 - 1976 - S Jake Scott and 4th round pick in 1977 to Washington for S Bryant Salter. Jake Played for the Redskins for 3 years and had 14 INTs. Salter played in 12 games for the Dolphins w/ 1 INT

Trade #4- 1976 - RB Mercury Morris to San Diego for 4th round pick in 1977. We ended up trading this pick in the trade above.. Morris played for SD for 1 year and had ~250 yards

Trade #5 - 1978 TE Jim Mandich to Washington for 8th round picks in 1979 and 1980. With these picks we picked Jeff Groth (206) and David Woodley (214). Groth didnt make the team and I assume you most know what happened with Woodley. Not sure if this was too bad of a trade since Mandich played only one more year and didnt have any catches, but he was one of the 72 team. It was sad to see him get traded.

Poll

Which of these trades in 1970 was the worst of the worst?

Marlin Briscoe Trade -

14 votes

Joe Theisman Trade

9 votes

Jake Scott Trade

10 votes

Mercury Morris Trade

2 votes

Jim Mandich Trade

1 votes

36 votes | Poll has closed

The NFL Draft

Phintastic — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:20:57 -0000

Since things are a little slow with news (unless we get more intelligent info from Rex), I figured I would go back into the early days and discuss the changes in the draft from 1966 - 1993. In the early days of the NFL, when there were fewer teams, the draft had 17 rounds(1966-1976). From 1977 - 1993 the NFL draft had 12 rounds of player selection. In 1993, the NFL decided to reduce the number of rounds to 8 then the following year reduce it to 7 rounds. In Miami's history we have had some great players selected in the later rounds of the draft. See List below. I couldnt imagine not having Mark Clayton teamed up with Mark " Super" Duper, but if there was only 7 rounds in 1983 then he might not have been on the team.

via www.prosportsmemorabilia.com

Would you like the NFL to go back to 1993 when they had 12 rounds or even 1976 with 17 rounds? Poll below

Some players that may have never been on the Dolphins if we had 7 rounds back prior to 1993.

Year	Rd	Player Name	Pos	College

1966	12	Howard Twilley	WR	Tulsa
1969	16	Lloyd Mumphord	CB	Texas Southern
1970	12	Mike Kolen (289)	LB	Auburn
1971	9	Vern Den Herder (230)	DE	Central Iowa
1978	9	Bruce Hardy (247)	TE	Arizona St.
1978	10	Mark Dennard (274)	C	Texas A&M
1979	8b	Glenn Blackwood (215)	S	Texas
1979	10b	Mike Kozlowski (272)	S	Colorado
1980	8b	David Woodley (214)	QB	Louisiana St.
1981	8	William Judson (206)	CB	S. Carolina St.
1981	11	Jim Jensen (291)	QB	Boston Univ.
1983	8	Mark Clayton (223)	WR	Louisville
1983	9	Mark Brown (250)	LB	Purdue
1984	11	Bud Brown (305)	S	Southern Miss.
1988	8a	Harry Galbreath (212)	G	Tennessee
1988	9	Jeff Cross (239)	DE	Missouri
1988	12	Brian Kinchen (320)	TE	Louisiana St.
1989	8	Pete Stoyanovich (203)	K	Indiana
1989	11	Bert Weidner (288)	DT	Kent State
1989	12	*J.B. Brown (315)*	CB	*Maryland*

Poll

Would you like to see more than 7 rounds in the NFL draft?

yes, 12 rounds would be nice

4 votes

yes, 17 rounds like the old days (60s & 70s)

2 votes

No, 7 rounds is perfect, i like getting UDFA, allows teams to go out do good research and find those hidden gems

32 votes

other options would be nice, ~10 rounds

9 votes

47 votes | Poll has closed

Will Allen - Winning Attitude

Phintastic — Sat, 30 May 2009 04:22:08 -0000

I was looking at some of the player interviews on the Miami Dolphin web site and really enjoyed listening to Will Allen and his willingness to help out the new guys(Davis and Smith).

These are the types of veterans you need on the team. If one of the new guys needs some help, he's willing to help them out to get them up to speed, because it's not about being the starting CB, but helping the group get better so they can WIN. What a classy guy. Pretty funny when he mentions about coming into the league and asking questions to the guy he was to replace. The Veterans have to realize what ever knowledge they can disseminate to the newer players might actually help them get to the SB. The FO did a great job getting Will his 2 year extension.

And I know you all dont get tired of watching this!!!!

2008 AFC East Champions

2009 REPEAT!!!!!!

On the Bubble!!

Phintastic — Sat, 23 May 2009 11:05:54 -0000

Well I know they haven’t even put on the pads yet, but what the heck, we are here to speculate aren’t we? So going through the current roster, here is my list of players making the team, players on the bubble (step it up !!) and my Practice Squad. This is of course us not having any players making the PUP list (Camarillo / Thomas). Are there any players you feel that are going to step it up and make the team? Let me know where I have gone wrong. If we can’t find a replacement on the team to replace LS Denney then I think we lose N. Jones)

via i.dailyherald.com

Probably making the team (53 Players)

Offense-

QB – C. Pennington, C. Henne, P White

RB / FBs – R. Brown, R. Williams, Cobbs, Polite

WR - T. Ginn, G. Camarillo, D. Bess, P. Turner, Hartline, B. London

TE – A. Fasano, J. Haynos, J. Nalbone

Centers – J. Grove, J. Berger

Guards - Smiley, Thomas, Alleman, I. Ndukwe

Tackles – V. Carey, J. Long, Nate Garner, Brandon Frye

Defense-

CB – W. Allen, V. Davis, S. Smith, E. Green, Nathan Jones, Jason Allen

Safeties – Y. Bell, G. Wilson, C. Clemons, T. Culver

LB – J. Porter, M. Roth, C. Crowder, C. Wake, E. Walden, C. Anderson, A. Ayodele

DT – J. Ferguson, T. McDaniel, L. Ellis

DE – P. Merling, K Langford, R. Sparks, J. Taylor, L. Dotson

Specialists –

Punter – B. Fields

Kicker – D. Carpenter

On the Bubble ( Will they step it up and make the team?)

WR - Todd Lowber, E. Wilford, A. Armstrong, C Williams

RB / FB– Lex Hilliard, Chris Brown

TE – David Martin,

Guards – Shawn Murphy, JD Quinn, M. Lewis

Tackles – A. Gardner, S Rogers

CB – Joey Thomas, S. Babers, W. Billingsley,

S - E. Kilmer, B Courtney

LB – T. George, Reggie Torbor, W. Kershaw

DE – R Baker, M. Quentin, R. Wright

NT - J. Cohen, P. Soliai

LS – J. Denney

Punter – J. Bond

___________________________________________________________________________

Practice Squad – JD Folsom (LB), B. Marion(WR), A Kimble(RB), O. Martin (DE), J. Bronson(TE)

Those were the days!

Phintastic — Sat, 23 May 2009 09:05:10 -0000

via www.sportsattic2.com

Has anyone thrown more passes to so many different receivers than Dan the Man?

Will we ever see another QB like 13? Not in my lifetime unfortunately. This is for you Marino Virgins, Sundays were always exciting when Dan was at the helm.

Bad to the Bone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQOMCnKQ_x0

Have you seen the rain?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmUiqqoRQhM&NR=1

Duper and Clayton belong in the HOF!!!!

Jimmy Johnson + Wannstedt, screw you two, Dan could have played 1-2 more years. Wouldn’t have cost us anything.

Enjoy fellow Dolphin fans!!!