Dolphins Receive Two Compensatory Picks

The NFL announced its compensatory picks today, and Miami has received two additional selections in this year's draft. They are a sixth (204 overall) and a seventh-round (245 overall) picks.

This is how Miami's stock of draft picks looks now:

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DAY ONE (Rounds 1 and 2)

Round 1 (1 overall)
Round 2 (32)
Round 2 (57, from San Diego)

DAY TWO (Rounds 3-7)

Round 3 (64)
Round 4 (99)
Round 6 (197, from Dallas)
Round 6 (204, compensatory)
Round 7 (209)
Round 7 (245, compensatory)

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It is excellent that the Dolphins have five selections in the top 100 overall. However, after their fourth round pick, the team has a gigantic gap (nearly 100 picks) before it gets to select again. It's never good to have such a tremendous gap in any part of the draft and it will be interesting to see how the team decides to approach this situation.

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In other news, Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga's sale of half the team to Stephen Ross has officially been approved by the NFL.

Chris Crocker signed

According to the Sun-Sentinel, the Dolphins reached an agreement with S Chris Crocker on a one-year contract worth $1.15 million, with $300,000 of that guaranteed as a signing bonus and workout money. The deal also includes incentives.

[Note: Just to calm everyone's fears, this is not the same Chris Crocker who gained his 15 minutes of fame shrieking for all of us to just "leave Britney alone!"]

This particular Chris Crocker (5'11", 192 lbs.) was a third-round draft choice of the Cleveland Browns in 2003. He is 28 years old.

He has significant starting experience, starting every game that he played in for the Falcons and Browns over the past three seasons. He has started in 52 games over his five year career. He is coming off a particularly solid season last year, in which he tallied a career-best 11 passes defensed and 3 INTs. He should challenge for one of the starting safety spots, or at least one of the top backup spots.

Here are his career stats:

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YEAR	TEAM	G	GS	TOT	SOLO	AST	PD	SACK	FF	FR	INT	YDS	TD
2003	CLE	16	1	35	28	7	2	0.0	0	0	0	0	0
2004	CLE	12	5	56	48	8	4	2.0	0	0	1	20	1
2005	CLE	16	16	82	51	31	4	2.0	2	1	2	35	0
2006	ATL	16	16	50	44	6	8	1.0	0	0	1	28	0
2007	ATL	14	14	55	51	4	11	1.0	0	1	3	40	0
Career		74	52	278	222	56	29	6.0	2	2	7	123	1

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Tab Perry signed

According to the Sun-Sentinel, the Dolphins have signed WR Tab Perry to a one-year contract worth approximately $927,000. It is also being reported that LS John Denney signed a three-year contract extension.

Perry (6'3", 208 lbs.) was a sixth-round draft pick of the Bengals in 2005. He is 26 years old.

Perry set the Bengals' franchise record for kickoff return yardage in his rookie season, but a nagging hip injury has limited to only four games over the past two seasons. He also recorded 16 special teams tackles in his rookie season.

Because Perry was only signed to a one-year deal, there is very little risk involved. If he shows that he can't get healthy again, Miami will be free to cut him. Otherwise, they may have found their second returner to line up deep with Ted Ginn and another useful special teams coverage guy.

Here are Perry's career stats:

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Career Rushing/Receiving Stats
Year	Team	G	Rush	Yds	Yd/Rush	TDs	Rec	Yds	Yd/Rec	TDs
2005	Cin	16	3	9	3.0	1	4	21	5.3	1
2006	Cin	2	2	4	2.0	0	5	81	16.2	0
2007	Cin	2	1	9	9.0	0	1	7	7.0	0
Totals		20	6	22	3.7	1	10	109	10.9	1

Career Returning Stats
Year	Team	G	Punt Returns	Yds	Avg	TDs	Kick Returns	Yds	Avg	TDs
2005	Cin	16	0	0	-	0	64	1562	24.4	0
2006	Cin	2	0	0	-	0	4	69	17.3	0
2007	Cin	2	0	0	-	0	7	145	20.7	0
Totals		20	0	0	-	0	75	1776	23.7	0

Nathan Jones signed

The team's official site is reporting that CB Nathan Jones has been signed to a two-year contract.

Jones (5'10", 192 lbs.) was a seventh-round draft choice of the Cowboys in 2004. He is 25 years old. Jones has only started in one game during his career, but he played an important role on special teams for the Cowboys, tallying 26 special teams tackles in his four seasons there. He can play both cornerback and safety.

Used as a blitzer in the nickel package last season, Jones recorded five quarterback hurries.

Here's a look at his career stats:

Return Stats
YEAR	TEAM	G	PR	YDS	TD	FC	LNG	KR	YDS	TD	FC	LNG
2004	DAL	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	43	0	0	25
2006	DAL	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	13	0	0	13
2007	DAL	4	0	0	0	0	0	6	122	0	0	27
Career		6	0	0	0	0	0	9	178	0	0	27

Defense Stats
YEAR	TEAM	G	TOT	SOLO	AST	PD	SACK	FF	REC	INT	YDS	TD
2004	DAL	16	33	32	1	2	1.0	0	0	0	0	0
2005	DAL	16	14	8	6	0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0
2006	DAL	4	9	7	2	0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0
2007	DAL	15	23	19	4	0	1.0	1	0	0	0	0
Career		51	79	66	13	2	2.0	1	0	0	0	0

Dave Rayner signed

According to the Sun-Sentinel, the Dolphins have signed K Dave Rayner.

Rayner (6'2", 210 lbs.) was a sixth-round draft pick of the Colts in 2005. He is 25 years old.

Rayner only has a 70.7% career field goal percentage, so it is highly unlikely that he will unseat Jay Feely (career 80.8% on FGs) as the team's kicker. However, Rayner is likely being brought in to compete with Brandon Fields for kickoff duties. Yet, while Feely struggled mightily on kickoffs last year, one look at his career stats will show that his average distance of 57.8 yards in 2007 is well below his career mark of 62.9 yards. I'm not doubting that Rayner is better than Feely on kickoffs, but why use up a valuable roster space on a third kicker if Fields can handle that role. Hopefully, he will prove in training camp that he can take over the kickoff duties, thus erasing the need to keep Rayner on the team.

Here is a look at Rayner's career stats:

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Career Kicking Stats
Year	Team	G	FGM	FGA	Pct	XPM	XPA	Pct	Pts
2005	Ind	14	0	1	0.0	0	0	-	0
2006	GB	16	26	35	74.3	31	32	96.9	109
2007	KC	10	15	22	68.2	14	14	100.0	59
2007	SD	1	0	0	-	0	0	-	0
	TOTAL	11	15	22	68.2	14	14	100.0	59
Totals		41	41	58	70.7	45	46	97.8	168

Career Kickoff Stats
Year	Team	G	KO	TB	Pct	Yds	Avg	Ret	Ret Yds	Avg Start
2005	Ind	14	82	1	1.2	5046	61.5	81	1806	30.6
2006	GB	16	71	11	15.5	4686	66.0	60	1348	26.4
2007	KC	10	39	3	7.7	2662	68.3	34	747	23.8
2007	SD	1	7	0	0.0	447	63.9	7	190	33.3
	TOTAL	11	46	3	6.5	3109	67.6	41	937	25.3
Totals		41	199	15	7.5	12841	64.5	182	4091	27.9

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Keith Davis signed

According to the Sun-Sentinel, the Dolphins have signed S Keith Davis.

Davis (5'11", 205 lbs.) was an undrafted college free agent of the Cowboys in 2002. He has since started 22 games for Dallas while showing his true value as a special teams ace. In fact, Davis was the Cowboys' special teams captain last season, finishing with 14 special teams stops.

Davis is 29 years old. He likely won't challenge for a starting position on defense, but he adds crucial depth to a severely banged up unit. Most importantly, he'll immediately become one of the best special teams coverage guys on the team, helping to improve a unit that was mostly terrible last year.

Here are Davis' career stats:

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YEAR	TEAM	G	GS	TKL	SOLO	AST	PD	SACK	FF	FR	INT	YDS	TD
2002	DAL	8	0	5	5	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0
2004	DAL	15	0	19	15	4	0	0.0	2	0	0	0	0
2005	DAL	16	15	66	47	19	3	0.0	0	1	0	0	0
2006	DAL	15	6	26	17	9	0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0
2007	DAL	14	1	18	16	2	2	0.0	1	0	0	0	0
Career		68	22	134	100	34	5	0.0	3	0	0	0	0

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Boomer Grigsby signed

According to the Miami Herald, the Dolphins have reached an agreement with FB Boomer Grigsby.

Grigsby (5'11", 249 lbs.) was a fifth-round draft pick of the Kansas City Chiefs in 2005. He is 26 years old.

Grigsby spent his first two seasons in the NFL as a linebacker, but the Chiefs transitioned him to a fullback last season. He was an important part of the Chiefs special teams units, and that is the role he is most likely being brought in to play.

Here are his career stats:

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Receiving Stats
YEAR	TEAM	G	REC	YDS	AVG	LNG	TD	FD	FUM	LOST
2007	KAN	13	2	14	7.0	9	0	0	0	0
Career		13	2	14	7.0	9	0	0	0	0

Defense Stats
YEAR	TEAM	G	TOT	SOLO	AST	PD	SACK	FF	REC	INT	YDS	TD
2005	KAN	16	16	12	4	0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0
2006	KAN	15	14	14	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0
2007	KAN	13	5	4	1	0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0
Career		44	35	30	5	0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0

Yeremiah Bell re-signed

The Dolphins have re-signed S Yeremiah Bell to a one-year, $1.4 million contract.

Bell had a break out season for the Dolphins in 2006, but suffered a season-ending injury to his Achilles' tendon in the first game on 2007. Injuries have plagued him throughout his career, and he will be 30 years old by the time the 2008 season begins.

I'm still glad that Miami brought Bell back, however, particularly since it is only a one-year deal. And a relatively cheap deal at that. This way, he can show the new staff if he still has game-changing potential or not, while at the same time the team isn't over-invested in a guy who may be past his prime and perpetually banged-up.

Since his injury happened so early in the season, I would predict that he'll be healthy by the beginning of next season. As it stands now, he has a pretty good shot to take a starting role at safety opposite Jason Allen.

The bottom line is that this is a low-risk, high-reward move - exactly the kind of move a rebuilding team should be making.