Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Crocker released, Culver re-signed

The Dolphins released S Chris Crocker on Tuesday and re-signed S Tyrone Culver who had been released last week.

The coaching staff is clearly looking to improve the porous secondary in any way they can, and they surely realized that signing Crocker to a free agent deal and handing him so much responsibility immediately was a mistake. Crocker, who was known as a good deep center field type coverage safety, was a big disappointment for the Dolphins. He was routinely beat deep, and the secondary markedly improved when Renaldo Hill replaced him in the starting lineup.

Crocker was still seeing playing time in the dime formations, so that position will now need to be filled. It had better go to Jason Allen, who needs to see time on the field on defense, and not just special teams. It's ludicrous for coaching staff after coaching staff to be so cautious with Jason, while letting defensive back after defensive back fail on the field (think Cameron Worrell and Chris Crocker) with Jason on the bench. I guarantee Jason is no worse than those players, and his upside is tremendously higher.

This is like the Ted Ginn-as-returner situation. It is just so obvious that it blows my mind. Jason Allen needs to be seeing snaps on defense. He is simply too talented to waste away on the bench. He's also still young, and could potentially be a key part of this defense down the line, but only if the coaches give him the opportunity to succeed or fail on the field on game days.

If the staff can justify giving six weeks of extensive playing time (and below average performance) to Chris Crocker, they can afford to try out Jason Allen. With Crocker's release, there is no better time than now to start.

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