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http://www.miamiherald.com/616/story/525218.html

QB eager to compete to be Dolphins' starter

BY ARMANDO SALGUERO
Miami Herald

Josh McCown has been a nomad the past six years, searching for a home in three NFL towns but never finding that perfect place to settle down, never finding that starting quarterback job that would end his travels.
That is why his union with the Dolphins seems like a good fit.

The Dolphins also have been on a long and difficult search. They have gone through a dozen quarterbacks since Dan Marino retired, and, because they have yet to find consistency at the sport's most important position, they lost games and have lost their way.

So the quarterback in search of a starting job -- and the franchise in search of a starting quarterback -- are both hoping, praying, that finding each other ends this dual search.

''I'm excited about the fact it's an open competition, and so, in my mind, no, I don't think there's going to be anything that will stop me from becoming the starter here,'' McCown said Wednesday after spending another day working in Miami's offseason program.

He is working alongside John Beck. Soon, rookie Chad Henne also will be on the job. The three will engage in what promises to be the team's most scrutinized competition. But from McCown's perspective, this also will be the team's healthiest competition.

''I hope for the sake of our team and the quarterback position that in John Beck's mind he believes nothing is going to stop him, and in Chad Henne's mind there's nothing that's going to stop him from being the starter,'' McCown said. ``When you have guys competing as hard as we're going to compete, you're going to get the best out of us, and you'll get the best quarterback possible for this team.''

McCown is no stranger to quarterback competitions. He was the rookie in Arizona when veteran Jeff Blake was fading. But after disposing of one veteran he was, in turn, replaced by another veteran when the Cardinals turned to Kurt Warner.

McCown was brought to Detroit with Jon Kitna for an arms' race of aspiring starters. But having finished second in that two-man race, McCown requested a trade.

That trade landed McCown in Oakland, where he beat out Daunte Culpepper for the starting job. But on a team that also drafted JaMarcus Russell and gave the rookie $61 million in guaranteed money, there were

61 million reasons McCown wasn't going to start.

The three stops offered three different situations. But all three ended with McCown leaving town.

So why should Dolphins fans believe the next two years -- the length of McCown's contract -- will finish any differently?

`THE RIGHT PEOPLE'

''I think and feel I'm finally with the right people that will help me be successful,'' McCown said. ``Meeting with coach [Tony] Sparano during free agency was what hammered it home for me, because I felt like I walked around this building and it wasn't a 1-15 team.

``I mean, coach [Bill] Parcells, coach Sparano, [general manager] Jeff Ireland and a bunch of the coaches. These guys are all winners. I think more than anything that's why I expect things to be different for me here.''

McCown's 35 career touchdowns and 40 interceptions suggest he's only an adequate backup. But there have been players, Rich Gannon and Trent Green among them, who blossomed late in their careers after being only adequate backups.

McCown believes he can do the same.

''I wouldn't be here if I didn't,'' he said. ``I could have been very comfortable in Oakland knowing this is your spot [as a backup], and you'll make pretty good money there, and you'll stay there. But I'm a competitor, and I'm chasing that opportunity to live the dream and . . . solidify myself as a starter in the NFL. I definitely think I can do that.''

McCown's experience in 44 NFL games will give him an initial advantage over Beck and Henne. But experience buys only so much esteem from a coaching staff. Longevity has to be purchased with results.

So McCown is adjusting his release and tweaking his footwork to improve his accuracy -- and, by extension, his 57.9 percent career completion percentage.

He wants to maximize every chance he has.

FINE TUNING

''That's what Peyton Manning does, that's what [Tom] Brady and [Donovan] McNabb do. That's what the good quarterbacks do,'' McCown said.

``When you aspire to play at that level, that's how you have to walk away from a game, thinking, `I hit the throws I had an opportunity to make. I had a fair chance to deliver, and I didn't miss.'

``My approach this offseason is to fine tune my mechanics where I'm not going to miss when the opportunity presents itself. I'm going to be more accurate than I've been before.''

And if he finds the mark often enough, McCown no longer will have to worry about finding a home.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/dolphins/content/sports/epaper/2008/05/08/0508dolphins.html

Low-profile McCown hopes for high impact with Dolphins

By EDGAR THOMPSON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, May 08, 2008

DAVIE — During the last couple of weeks, Josh McCown has heard NFL experts from coast to coast debate whether the Dolphins were wise to draft Chad Henne, and whether the No. 57 pick will be able to unseat second-year quarterback John Beck.

McCown, who has played quarterback for six seasons in the NFL, might be tempted to say, "Don't forget about me."

McCown signed with the Dolphins on Feb. 29. But recently, even family and friends have called to ask if he remains in the team's plans.

"They say, 'Is it still wide open?'" McCown said of the quarterback competition.

Darn right, he tells them.

"As long as the guys in the building tell me it's an open competition, I could care less what fans or media say," McCown said Wednesday after a long day of work at Dolphins camp in Davie. "At the end of the day, from what I've been told and am experiencing at the facility, it's a three-man race."

All are hoping to become the long-term answer for a team that has started 12 quarterbacks since Dan Marino retired after the 1999 season.

McCown, who was drafted by Arizona in 2002 and bounced to Detroit in 2006 and Oakland last year, believes he can be more than a stop-gap solution while Beck and Henne mature.

McCown, 28, has made 31 NFL starts, or 27 more than Beck, the No. 40 pick in 2007 who flopped in four starts.

"I have a lot of experience to help me," McCown said. "But it also will help the whole group. I want to play and be the starter, but if someone ends up in front of me, then he'll be pretty good."

His experience also has taught him how decisions are made in the NFL. He knows that the Dolphins won't feel obligated to start Beck or Henne, since both were second-round picks.

"They're not financially invested to the point they can't make any one of us the long-term starter, McCown said.

That wasn't the case last season in Oakland, where McCown and veteran Daunte Culpepper started while a rookie with a $61 million contract learned the offense.

"No matter what I did in Oakland," McCown said, "JaMarcus Russell was going to be the starter this year."

That kind of frustration is nothing new for McCown.

In 2004 with Arizona, his record as a starter was 6-7, including a last-second, 24-23 victory in Dolphin Stadium.

The next season, coach Dennis Green replaced McCown with Kurt Warner, who started out 0-3 with one touchdown pass before he was injured.

The next season in Detroit, McCown couldn't beat out veteran Jon Kitna. McCown, a gifted natural athlete at 6-foot-4, 215 pounds, didn't get a chance to attempt a pass for the Lions, although he caught two.

McCown conceded that he had some trepidation as the draft approached April 26. He was glad when the Dolphins chose offensive tackle Jake Long with the No. 1 pick rather than quarterback Matt Ryan, who ended up in Atlanta as the No. 3 selection.

"I came in here rolling the dice a little bit," said McCown, who was heartened when new coach Tony Sparano assured him a real shot at the starting job.

"This is the last chance I'll get to compete like this," McCown said.

With that thought in mind, he has attacked the off-season like never before. He reported to work March 3, just three days after signing. Since then, McCown hasn't missed a chance to work with quarterbacks coach David Lee, who was pivotal in the development of Dallas Cowboys' Pro Bowler Tony Romo.

"I feel like I'm better than I've ever been at this time of year," McCown said. "I've gotten so much better."

McCown said he has tweaked his throwing mechanics and thrown thousands of passes.

But last month, General Manager Jeff Ireland mentioned Beck's arduous off-season, including 4,000 practice throws, without a mention of McCown.

McCown said he couldn't care less.

"These people don't get married to people. They want to win," McCown said of the Dolphins coaches, many of whom came from Dallas. "Otherwise, why would you bench Drew Bledsoe for Tony Romo?"

Bill Parcells, the Dolphins' head of football operations, Ireland, Sparano and Lee were in Dallas in 2006 when Romo replaced Bledsoe, whom Parcells drafted in New England with the top pick in 1993.

McCown, who has never played on a winning NFL team, said he'll be a good teammate no matter how the quarterback competition develops.

"Selfishly you want to play. Everyone wants to play," he said. "But I also want to win. If that means Dan coming out of retirement, Dan Marino, then I'll sit back and watch him.

"I don't want to lose anymore."

Is this desperation, merely faulty logic or the dumbest comment in the history of journalism?  "This guy has never been good enough to start anywhere else in the league so perhaps this team with a recent history of suck-ass QBs will take him."

Well, we do have a 10 year history of employing second and third rate Quarterbacks and anointing them saviors / starters, so I can follow the logic...

^ I agree.  I gotta say, I see Josh as our starter this year.  Only becaue Henne is the rook though.

If he wants to stay the starter, he'd better stop throwing interceptions.  Otherwise he's like AJ Feely Light.

All of the turnovers, without costing us a draft pick.

Unless Becks off-season training improved his ability and decision making I don't see him as the starter at the beginning of the season. I believe we will need to swallow the fact McCown will win the starting job, only to lose it in the season.

Exactly..... the second the staff believes either John Beck or Chad Henne are good to go, McCown is destined to hold the clipboard again.

I don't think it will be Henne, I honestly believe he will be number 3 and will not get on the field in season one. I think the fans will be more patient with Parcells then they were with Cameron, when Cameron was hired many fans were saying Cam who ? Now Baltimore is stuck with him.

It wouldn't hurt Henne to see some garbage time action this season, but he needs to be brought along slowly.  Would you agree?