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.

Wildcat By The Numbers Week 12

Here's my latest tables for tracking the success of the Wildcat 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
Total	63	59	4	434	6.9	9	8
Avg./Game	7	6.6	0.4	48	-	1	.9

	Plays	FDs (non-penalty)	FD%	TDs	TD%	Run Avg
Non-WC Plays	603	201	33%	19	3%	3.8 yds
WC Plays	63	9	14%	8	13%	6.3 yds

	Runs	Yards	Avg	FDs	TDs
Ronnie Brown	37	224	6.1	5	5
Ricky Williams	21	143	6.8	4	1
Patrick Cobbs	1	3	3.0	0	0

Soliai suspended again; Al Johnson signed

DT Paul Soliai has been suspended for the second time this season for violating team rules. He did not make the trip with the team to St. Louis.

This is very disappointing and it's probably time to forget about Soliai having a future with the Dolphins. And that pains me to say that since I was so high on him coming out of the draft and thought he'd make a solid nose tackle for this team. Unfortunately, his poor attitude and work ethic once again leaves Miami with no apparent replacement in position to take over for Jason Ferguson in a few years.

*****

To take Greg Camarillo's vacated spot on the roster, the team signed C Al Johnson. Johnson (6'5", 305 lbs.) had tried out for the team on Friday.

Johnson began his career as a second-round draft pick of the Cowboys in 2003. He is 29 years old. In three seasons in Dallas, he played in all 48 games, starting 31 of them.

He signed as a free agent with the Cardinals in 2007, and started 14 games that season. He underwent two knee operations this off-season and was placed on Injured Reserve before the season began. He was then waived by the Cardinals in October.

Johnson has allowed only 2 sacks in 45 starts which is quite amazing.

I looked at the Football Outsiders stats (Adjusted Line Yards) for run-blocking to see how Johnson has fared in that regard. The following stats are for runs up the middle only:

• 2007 Arizona Cardinals: 4.29 ALY (10th in NFL)
• 2005 Dallas Cowboys: 4.34 ALY (11th)
• 2004 Dallas Cowboys: 3.59 ALY (31st)
  

It seems from those numbers that Johnson really struggled run-blocking his rookie year, but since then he developed into an above-average player in that phase. Of course, having endured 2 knee operations, it will be interesting to see how effective he still can be.

Practice squad: Barton out, Billingsley in

CB Will Billingsley, who is seemingly cut every other week from the practice squad only to be brought back, was indeed brought back once more.

T Kirk Barton was released to make room.

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

1. RB Lex Hilliard
2. WR Anthony Armstrong
3. RB Jalen Parmele
4. LB Will Kershaw
5. WR Todd Lowber
6. DT Joe Cohen
7. LB Rob Ninkovich
8. CB Will Billingsley