-by Brian Fein

It doesn’t get much worse than this. As a fan of a team that has tried and failed 13 straight times, it’s easy to get fired up emotionally, and lose sight of rational thinking. It’s important, as a Dolphins’ fan, not to lose touch with reality in the heat of the moment. We are all passionate fans, but it takes a level-headed person to keep things in perspective. The mentality employed by some fans is disturbing, and it’s a good thing these people don’t actually have a say in the franchise.

So consider this your installment of calm temperament. And every Dolphins’ fan needs this right now. When you look at the team without your orange and aqua glasses, you might find that it’s not all that bad.

• Building Blocks

It’s fairly obvious that this franchise is in rebuilding mode. I don’t think its any surprise that the Dolphins aren’t in the Super Bowl in 2007. Cam Cameron took over a team in shambles: a team which had not one player on its roster from its 1998-2002 drafts. Not one shadow of stability between Jason Taylor (1997) and Yeremiah Bell (2003). How does any team expect to reload its talent when the management continues to bring in stop-gap free agents and botch 5 continuous years worth of draft picks? It requires starting from scratch. That’s what we’re seeing this season.

• Adding Insult To Injury

At this point in the season, Cam Cameron is working with a team of players that is short 7 starters. At one point, when the Dolphins traveled to Buffalo, they had only 9 players out of the 22 starters that were playing in the game. Bruised egos, or bad fortune? With Trent Green and Ronnie Brown both on injured reserve, Chris Chambers enjoying his new southern-California home, the offense has been relegated to the Cleo Lemon or John Beck show, co-starring free-agent du jour toting the rock on the ground. Add to that injuries to Marty Booker and Jesse Chatman, and Ricky Williams on IR after only 6 carries, and the offense resembles that of the 4 th quarter of a preseason game.

The defense isn’t in much better shape, with kamikaze Patriots’ fans taking out Zach Thomas for the season on Florida’s Turnpike. But the secondary is in its worst shape ever. The top four safeties are all on injured reserve. You know it’s bad when you are worried about Michael Lehan and Cameron Worrell being hurt. Starting with the injury to Yeremiah Bell in training camp, it has only worsened for the Dolphins defense, leading to the 31 st-ranked defense in the league, giving up 27.3 points per game (Cleveland Browns are 32 nd with 27.4).

No team in the league can be successful with this level of concurrent decimation. It is impossible to expect a team to put second-string-level talent on the field against the best the league has to offer and be successful. Not in this NFL.

• Cam Calamity

Several Dolphins’ fans are not just hoping, but expecting that Cam Cameron will be fired at the end of 2007. Given the situation with injuries, the disadvantage inherited from ineptitude past, how can anyone expect Cameron to take the blame for what’s happening this season? Cameron stepped into a challenging position, looking at a 4-to-6-win season at best with all the starters healthy. Take away your starting QB, your top two or three RB’s, your top 2 WR’s, an all-pro linebacker and your top 4 safeties and suddenly things don’t look so bright. No coach in the NFL can win games in that situation.

This isn’t to say that Cameron is infallible. His clock management has been less than stellar in the beginning of the season but has improved somewhat since then. His play-calling is on the conservative side, but how much of that is an effect rather than a cause? It’s hard to pin 0-13 on Cam Cameron alone, because at the end of the day, the players have to execute on the field to win the battles.

Cam Cameron will be the coach of the Miami Dolphins in 2008. Take it to the bank: this is a franchise that has never fired a coach in its proud 40+ year history. It’s just not reasonable to have one man take the fall for the culmination of 10 years of accumulating mediocrity.

• Ginn To Win

“Ted Ginn is a bust!” Seriously? I realize many Dolphins’ fans are jaded because they had their sights set on Brady Quinn on draft day, but to call Ted Ginn a bust after 13 games is just ignorant. Ginn has returned 3 kicks (or punts) for a touchdown this season (two of them were called back on penalties). That’s 2 more than former-fan-favorite Wes Welker did in 3 seasons with the team. Ginn has also exhibited break-away speed to give this team the deep-threat at WR that we haven’t had since Charles Jordan in the late 90’s. Ginn, late this season, has 22 catches in 2007 for almost 15 yards per completion. Give this man a quarterback who can get the ball downfield and Ted Ginn Jr has the potential to be something special in the future.

• Train Wreck Beck

Like Ginn, John Beck wears the “bust” tag around his neck, dubbed by the fans as the latest 2 nd-round draft bust. John Beck is a rookie quarterback, albeit 26 years old, who has only seen 4 NFL starts. All three of these starts have come on the same team with the same injuries, no supporting running game, no wide receivers, and no NFL experience. Beck’s two first starts were very clean: no turnovers, but no offensive points scored, either. Peyton Manning, the best QB in the league today, threw 29 interceptions his first season. Good thing the Colts’ front office isn’t as fickle as Dolphins’ fans.

It’s too early to call John Beck a bust. He hasn’t had an opportunity to play on a “real” team yet. It becomes easy for defenses to key on a rookie QB, bringing blitz packages, stunts on the line, and general confusion, which manifested in continuous turnovers against the Jets and Bills. John Beck needs time to develop, and 2007 is not the time for development. With the team in the shambles it is, there’s little productivity having a rookie QB getting beat up on the field repeatedly. John Beck’s jury is still out. The kid will likely be the Miami Dolphins’ starting QB next season, and with a healthy supporting cast, expect him to develop into something good. He may not become Dan Marino, but we might have a Drew Brees on our hands.

The bottom line here is that the Dolphins are rebuilding - investing in the future to forget about the past. With the ineptitude of Dave Wannstedt and the arrogance of Nick Saban still looming in Davie’s training facility, Cam Cameron is ready, pooper-scooper in hand, attempting to do the impossible – to turn the league’s laughing stock into a contender. Dolphins’ fans need to exercise patience. With 3 games left, the 2007 season is a foregone conclusion. It’d be nice to squeeze out one win, just to feel good for a while. But, the team isn’t going to the playoffs next season, or probably the season after either. If the staff continues to do the right thing, the team will return to greatness. But it doesn’t happen overnight.

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