Practice squad: Heerspink brought back, FB added

With LB Rob Ninkovich being poached by the Saints and RB Jalen Parmele by the Ravens (that's the risk you take when you stick your sixth-round draft pick on the practice squad), the Dolphins had two open spots on their practice squad.

To fill them, the team signed T Daren Heerspink and FB Chris Brown.

Heerspink, you'll remember, was with the Dolphins throughout training camp and the preseason. He's been out of football since then.

Brown (6'1", 249 lbs.) was an undrafted rookie out of Tennessee this year. He was picked up by Jacksonville and stayed on their practice squad until November 28th when he was released.

Here's an excerpt from Brown's NFL Draft Prospect page:

Listed as a tight end by Tennessee, and even lines up in a three-point stance at times, but his future in the NFL is as a fullback or H-back. In today's NFL, most fullbacks are not blow-'em-up pounders but athletic position blockers who can catch the ball and play special teams. That's why Brown, who had 41 catches for 282 yards and six touchdowns in 2007, will be more coveted by teams than many people expect.

Here is what the team's practice squad looks like now:

1. RB Lex Hilliard
2. WR Anthony Armstrong
3. LB Will Kershaw
4. WR Todd Lowber
5. DT Joe Cohen
6. CB Will Billingsley
7. T Daren Heerspink
8. FB Chris Brown
   

Thoughts on Bills game; Reader Mailbag

I'm going to use a reader's email as a jump-off point into talking a little bit about the Bills game:

The defense did a great job and the offense was a bit weak especially in the red zone never the less they got the job done. The receivers made plays to keep ahead of the Bills. Do you think the Dolphins currently have the receivers they need to be successful with in the future? How much of an effect overall do you think that Lou Polite has had since he has been with the team?

The number one thing that I took out of the Bills game was that the Dolphins truly put together a rare "complete game." By that, I mean that all phases of the game were perfectly complementing one another all game long.

Sure, the offense only had one TD, but the flow of this game dictated that long, time-consuming drives were more valuable than scoring TDs every time down the field. And as Vonnie Holliday said after the game, the best defense is the one on the sideline. The ability to take such a commanding lead in the time of possession battle played right into the defense's dominant performance.

Dan Carpenter's excellent job with his field goals ensured that Miami's clock-killing drives came away with some points and prevented Buffalo from getting the ball with a short field, if he were to have missed.

As far as the receivers are concerned, the short answer is "no" - the guys currently on the roster are not good enough to keep this team's progression going in the future. For the most part, they've done an admirable job this season, but the unit as a whole still needs a lot of work.

For starters, as I've mentioned several times here, Ted Ginn won't ever be able to truly live up to his potential until there is a stronger thrower at QB. That's not to say he can't be useful, he is and will be, but he won't be a No. 1 WR with Pennington here. And that's absolutely fine, as long as Miami can somehow find a No. 1 guy to play opposite him, but that's much easier said than done.

Greg Camarillo's injury is still a big question mark. He would make a fantastic third receiver, but he may not even be ready to go at the beginning of next season, and once he's fully healed he may not have the same quickness and speed that made him so adept at getting open.

Davone Bess has transferred into Camarillo's starting spot nicely thus far, but I don't think he's talented enough or big enough to be a starter. A starting duo of Ginn and Bess is just too small.

Brandon London is still very much a prospect. He has all the tools to be a top-3 WR guy but he still has a lot to show. And Ernest Wilford should probably be getting the boot next season.

So, I suppose it depends on what timeframe you are talking about when you say the future. Obviously, if you are talking about just the next three games (and possibly playoffs), then yes, the guys we have are good enough to be successful - heck, they have to be. But if you are talking about next year or the year after, then no, upgrades are needed, specifically that big, dominating No. 1 guy.

Now on to Lousake Polite. I absolutely love this guy. He has been lights-out for Miami in short-yardage situations and I don't think he's had an unproductive carry yet. With ten carries, Polite has converted 9 first downs. That kind of efficiency is amazing, and it has really helped this offense to have the ability to keep drives going rather than settling for a punt or FG attempt when all that's needed for the first down is a yard or so. He's also added another first down through the air for good measure. Obviously, Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams could probably have picked up some of these first downs as well, but having a guy like Polite in the backfield as well, stops the defense from keying in on either back. He also deserves praise for the solid blocking he's providing in the run game and in pass protection. The team just might have uncovered its fullback for the forseeable future when they signed Polite.

Wildcat By The Numbers Week 13

Here's my latest tables for tracking the success of the Wildcat formation.

Last week against the Rams, Miami used the formation only twice, its fewest attempts out of the Wildcat all season.

It will be interesting, going forward, to see how Justin Smiley's absence affects the usage and effectiveness of the Wildcat, given that he was one of the strongest pulling blockers from that formation.

	Plays	Run	Pass	Yards	Yds/Play	FDs	TDs
Week 3, @NE	6	5	1	119	19.8	1	4
Week 5, SD	10	9	1	48	4.8	3	1
Week 6, @HOU	7	6	1	77	11.0	0	1
Week 7, BAL	5	5	0	4	0.8	0	0
Week 8, BUF	7	7	0	34	4.9	3	0
Week 9, @ DEN	4	3	1	-5	-1.3	0	0
Week 10, SEA	6	6	0	80	13.3	0	2
Week 11, OAK	10	10	0	52	5.2	1	0
Week 12, NE	8	8	0	25	3.1	1	0
Week 13, @ STL	2	2	0	2	1	0	0
Total	65	61	4	436	6.7	9	8
Avg./Game	6.5	6.1	0.4	44	-	.9	.8

	Plays	FDs (non-penalty)	FD%	TDs	TD%	Run Avg
Non-WC Plays	659	216	33%	20	3%	3.9 yds
WC Plays	65	9	14%	8	12%	6.1 yds

	Runs	Yards	Avg	FDs	TDs
Ronnie Brown	38	226	5.9	5	5
Ricky Williams	22	143	6.5	4	1
Patrick Cobbs	1	3	3.0	0	0

WR Chris Hannon claimed

On Thursday, the Dolphins claimed WR Chris Hannon off waivers from the 49ers.

Hannon (6'3", 205 lbs.) takes the roster spot vacated by placing LG Justin Smiley on Injured Reserve. He is 24 years old, entering the league in 2006 as an undrafted free agent with the Kansas City Chiefs.

In 2006, he spent the first 15 games on the Chiefs' practice squad, before being promoted to the active roster for the final game. He was on the Panthers' practice squad for all of 2007. Hannon spent the first three months of this season on the 49ers practice squad, but he was promoted to the active roster on November 29 before being released on December 2.

Hannon is known primarily for his tremendous speed.

Reader Mailbag: Smiley and the secondary

Here's another email I received from a reader. (If you have any comments for me or questions you'd like me to answer, just send me an email.)

Well, that was a strange game. Ronnie threw another great pass.....too bad Martin fumbled the ball. The offense struggled a bit, however the receivers are starting to play better as a group. How big is the loss of Smiley? Do they have someone capable enough to replace him? The defense played better in the 2nd half and seemed to be the why the Dolphins came away with a win. Joey Thomas was more of a hindrance than a help in the secondary. What are your thoughts regarding him?

Ronnie did make a nice play on that throw, especially considering it was a broken play. You'll see when he was running outside he stopped and looked back at Pennington, which was where he intended to throw it. Pennington then would have looked to throw it downfield. However, I think it was Vernon Carey who couldn't hold his block long enough, and his defender broke free towards Chad. Ronnie did a great job realizing that throwing back to Chad would have been disastrous so he kept the ball, maneuvered around in some tight space and found a wide open David Martin. Martin simply can't fumble that ball, but I won't get on him too much since he has been a hugely pleasant surprise this season. He may be playing even better than Anthony Fasano (at least in the receiving department, not blocking).

The loss of Smiley is a big one. He's probably been the best offensive lineman this year, with Jake Long a close second. Having Smiley next to Long has clearly made Jake's job all the easier, but now Andy Alleman will have to step up.

Frankly, I'm not overly concerned about Alleman since I've been pretty high on him ever since we brought him in. He had a lot of upside coming out of college, and from the limited playing time he's seen here, it's easy to see why. I'm not saying he's going to be as good as Smiley, but he won't be a disaster, and he'll most likely be better than Ikechuku Ndukwe's been at right guard.

It'll also be interesting to see whether Shawn Murphy gets activated on game days now. He has been playing solely at left guard all year, but has never been activated for a game. Thus far, he has been a huge disapointment, considering the team traded up in the draft to choose him. The coaches obviously saw something they like a lot about him, now he may have an opportunity to show it.

As far as Joey Thomas is concerned, it was quite a surprise to find out that Jason Allen would be inactive and Thomas would be taking his spot. Jason Allen has been slowly progressing and he's clearly the team's third best corner, so we can't afford to have him out for too long. There's a huge drop-off from Jason Allen to Joey Thomas and Nate Jones.

Joey Thomas has bounced around this league for his whole career and never stuck in any one place, and he's been out of football for the past two years. It's pretty easy to see why now. The sad thing is, there probaly aren't any better options available right now, so we are going to have to deal with it. I'd like to see Nate Jones take more of Thomas' snaps, but in either case, both those guys will be targeted heavily if the opposing QB knows what's good for him.

The bottom line is Joey will be a liability as long as he's forced to play a lot of snaps. One way to cover up some of that weakness, however, will be to improve the pass rush, which has been really weak this past couple of weeks.

I also don't want to completely crush Joey. He was just brought back on to the team, and with time he should get a little better. Hopefully, Sunday's game was a wake-up call that will get him into gear.

Special Teams Coverage Review (2008 Third Quarter)

Continuing on with my series of periodic looks at the most active members of Miami's special teams coverage units, I have assembled this table compiling special teams tackles and forced fumbles:

	Tkl	Ast	Comb	FF
Jason Allen	11	2	13
Charlie Anderson	8	1	9
Akin Ayodele		1	1
Davone Bess	1		1
Courtney Bryan	2		2
Dan Carpenter	2		2
Patrick Cobbs	11	2	13
Brannon Condren	2	1	3
Casey Cramer	4	2	6
Chris Crocker	1		1
Tyrone Culver	3	5	8
John Denney	2	1	3
Boomer Grigsby	1		1
Renaldo Hill	2		2
Nathan Jones	6	2	8
Michael Lehan	2	1	3
Brandon London	3	1	4
David Martin	3	1	4	1
Quentin Moses	1		1
Lousaka Polite	1		1
Joey Thomas	1		1
Reggie Torbor	7	3	10
Erik Walden	2		2

As I wrote after the season's first quarter, here is what I think you can get out of this information and why I wanted to compile it:

I wanted to do this because special teams stats are generally under-discussed and not kept track of all that thoroughly. And yet, several players carve out their spots on this team precisely because of what they bring to these units.

This year, I thought I'd update you all on how the coverage units are playing out after each quarter of the season. Obviously, stats like these don't always tell you who exactly has been the most effective stoppers on special teams, but they do show who has been the most active and who is in position to make the most stops.

I've also included the forced fumbles category because that is an identifiable skill that can be the turning point in any given game. I don't include fumble recoveries because those are random and statistically insignificant.

Patrick Cobbs, in particular, has really turned it on in coverage over these past four games, catching up with Jason Allen as the most active tackler on special teams. Reggie Torbor is the only other player with double-digit tackles, although Erik Walden would have a dozen tackles if I was counting the stops he made while with the Chiefs. So far, he has proven to be a wise addition to this team.

Smiley lost for season

Miami's offensive line suffered a huge blow on Sunday when LG Justin Smiley broke his right leg.

The injury happened in the first quarter when a Rams defender rolled up on Smiley's leg. The break occurred near the ankle, and he'll likely need to have a pin inserted into the leg to allow the bone to heal properly. There is also some speculation that Smiley tore the ligaments in his ankle.

If that is the case, this injury becomes much more serious and would put his availability next season in question.

In any case, Smiley will soon be put on Injured Reserve. Andy Alleman filled in at LG after Smiley left the game.