Sparano: Taylor not attending training camp

[simeon]

I may be wrong but I don't think JT wants to play for New England, I have a feeling he would love to reunite with his brother in law in Dallas.

[bsfins]

In fairness to the Dolphin's management that trade would be harder than it looks.  JT wasn't willing to go just anywhere.  If Dolphins traded him to the Ravens he wouldn't have showed up there either.  And the other teams knew it. 

The only potential trading partners are teams that made the playoffs or came close last year.  JT has high price tag salary-wise and many of those teams have cap issues.  Some of those teams might have said, we will give you a 5th round as is but we will go as high as a second round if JT agrees to a restructured 3 year deal for half the money.   So now you have a three way negotiation.  With the Dolphins and JT having totally conflicting goals. 

JT would be a great fit on the Pats. JT probably would even take a pay cut for that deal.  But Dolphins might be a bit leery of having two games where all the highlights are plays made by Wes, Sammy and Jason trouncing their former team.   

However, while Jason has played the off-season as professionally as one can while being a hold out.  The Dolphin management has not.  The coach could have said, "Jason is perusing other avenues during the off-season and has choose not to attend the off-season voluntary camps, as his right.  He continues to work out on a daily basis and his dancing is keeping him limber and sharp.  He is a seasoned veteran who is familiar with our play book and although his absence is missed, of all our players he is the only one for whom this learning would be a rehash of material he has already mastered.  We look forward to his return, but are also entertaining offers for a potential trade.  We are confident that whether he plays for the Dolphins or another team next year he will be a leader and huge contributor to his team." This would have kept his trade value up.   

I agree with the top part,the Part about what Sparano could have said..Yeah..maybe but there has been enough Rumors of Jason saying he didn't want to be a Dolphin and requested a trade (before this week)..It just sounds like Coach speak...

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I may be wrong but I don't think JT wants to play for New England, I have a feeling he would love to reunite with his brother in law in Dallas.

That would be a good, fit.  Gets the family back together, Dallas has a real shot at a title, and Dolphins aren't playing them for the next three years.  I suspect that Dallas would want a pay cut also. 

[DolFan619]

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/football/story/542538.html

Nothing has changed since news that Taylor won't be in camp

BY ARMANDO SALGUERO
Miami Herald

The initial reaction is to believe the Dolphins are in chaos and that the circus we have come to expect in recent years is still in town because a couple of deliberate sentences from the team have rolled back the curtain on the estrangement with Jason Taylor.

Relax.

Things are going to be just fine.

The only thing that has changed since coach Tony Sparano announced Wednesday that Taylor is not reporting for the start of training camp is that we actually know what we suspected all along.

That is interesting because it makes for good gossip. But it doesn't really change anything.

Taylor is still a Dolphins defensive end today. The team is still trying to trade him, even as you read this. And barring a trade that doesn't give him away cheaply, Taylor will either have to play for Miami or retire.

Didn't Bill Parcells already say that, or at least part of that, about two months ago?

Sparano spoke out Wednesday, most assuredly with Parcells' agreement because he wanted to eliminate a distraction, not incite one. Sparano understood that Taylor's absence at every ensuing conditioning session from now to July would draw attention to, well, Taylor.

SHARING NEWS

So Sparano shared what the team knows, what Taylor's representatives have told Parcells and general manager Jeff Ireland -- that Taylor wants to be traded and will not report to training camp if he is not.

And now the Dolphins will shut up and not address the issue anymore.

The next you hear from the Dolphins about Taylor is when he either reports to training camp or is traded.

On the delicious subject of that trade, you should know every player on the Dolphins' roster, save Jake Long, is on the trading block.

Taylor is not unique. But Miami isn't going to give Taylor away.

So this might take a little while to get resolved, likely into the middle part of training camp. And what if there is no palatable deal available for Taylor by then?

The team believes, as most teams rightfully do, that when the regular season and its mammoth-size paychecks beckon, Taylor will report.

Of course, that is not Taylor's view of things. He is spending the coming holiday weekend with his Los Angeles agent, and they will plan a strategy during that time. Afterward, you might see a series of interviews in which Miami's best player suggests he is ready to retire if he doesn't get a trade.

Taylor, after all, considered the retirement possibility in February, when he didn't know if Hollywood thought him employable. It is definitely an option now that he has a talent agent to go along with his football agent -- and both are fielding show business offers.

But let's be real here. All coming retirement bluster aside, Taylor doesn't really want to retire. He very much wants to play in 2008. He has told teammates that. He has told friends that.

Despite his Hollywood lunches with Denzel and Pacino and Twentieth Century Fox executives, Taylor still considers himself a football player.

There is, of course, no arguing that the rift between Taylor and the Dolphins didn't have to get this ugly. If the Dolphins had jettisoned him before or during the last draft, the issue would be resolved.

But it is wrong to think the failure to trade Taylor was a mistake.

We should applaud the team for trying to maximize its return for a great player. It is a sign the Dolphins are in control rather than spinning out of it.

NO GOOD OFFERS

It also is not the Dolphins' fault that -- despite published and Internet reports -- Miami got no better than a fourth-round offer for Taylor in April.

The Cowboys gave a fourth-round pick for Adam ''Pacman'' Jones, and he's on suspension, so the Dolphins weren't about to settle for that price, even though Taylor is playing only one more season.

So where does that leave us today?

The blaring headlines and screaming radio shows will have you believe chaos is indeed the order of the day at the training facility. The Dolphins have heightened their disrespect of Jason Taylor. Taylor is threatening to retire. Cats and dogs are living together.

Relax.

Taylor will be traded. Or he will play for the Dolphins. Or he will retire.

But what happened Wednesday didn't make any one of those possibilities more or less likely.

[Philly Fin Fan]

Maybe I missed it, but I never heard JT say in an interview, directly, that he wants out.  I think he had every intention to return to the team in 08, but Parcells was a dick to him and JT doesn't want to play for another a-hole.  I don't blame him.

Apparently it was all over a blog he does for ESPN that he doesn't want to play in Miami and wasn't going to attend any camps before Sparano had the press conference saying it.

[gocowboys31]

So after ALL of the shit I got on this very forum 4 years ago for destroying Ricky Williams AND Jason Taylor (for blatantly calling out Ricky Williams and telling Taylor to shut the F up), I'm finally being "proved right" about this character (or, lack thereof). JT, as I've said FOR YEARS, has always been a big mouth, know-it-all, pompous ass clown, and when the going got tough and a new regime came into town, he didn't want to give up his comfort zone of being a high-paid primadonna on a 1-15 garbage squad where you don't work hard and you coast through the NFL season making millions. Now that Bill Parcells and company - you know, a system that actually WINS (hint Taylor, they've WON, what have YOU won?), JT packs his gear and moves to LA and now holds out. 

You can't compare Ricky to taylor. Wiliams quit on the team 4 days before training camp. He gave the dolphins zero opportunity to prepare for exit, meanwhile they missed out on eddie george and were so desperate for a running back they traded a 3rd round pick for Lamar Gordon. When has anyone questioned JT's dedication to the game.

What has Bill Parcells actually "WON" since leaving the Giants, NOTHING!!! How did it work out in dallas with any owner who supplied him with everything a coach could want. How was his coaching in 06 when dallas was 7-3 and missed the playoffs, how about 08....8-4 with 3 of the last for games at home....9-7 first round playoff exit. Ethurst is right he's overrated.

Don't let me start on his spectacular drafting

05- Passes up Steven Jackson to draft julius jones. Jackson is a pro bowler and jones was beaten out by barber. Anyone seen those two great offensive lineman he drafted the same year Jacob Rogers and Steven Peterman.

06- He wanted to draft Marcus Spears over Demarcus Ware, but was overruled by jerry.

07- The grandaddy of them all. He drafts a backup linebacker in the first round of the draft in bobby carpenter, because he coached his fuckin dad, meanwhile Antonio Cromartie a top flight corner was sitting there and was selected one pick later by the chargers. Cromartie is a pro bowler and Carpenter can't get on the god damn field.

He gets all the credit for discovering Romo when he should get zero. Sean Payton should be receiving the credit for discovering him. Also he didnt bring in T.O. , Leonard Davis or Ken Hamlin.

He's an upgrade over what miami had 3-4 years ago, but elmo the clown is an upgrade over Wannstedt and Speilman.

Taylor owes nothing to parcells. What has he done in Miami? How many games has Sparano won here. He's not proven.

Ethurst is right, he'll stay 3 years and be gone. We ran his old ass out of town in dallas. We got sick of his conservative style. He's talked a big game for many years, but hasn't delivered a damn thing.

Bill Parcells has never done anything without thinking about his own best intrest......I bet Arthur Blank would beg to differ. Anyone sending Arthur blank any sympathy cards after he was left hanging by parcells..........ohh yeah i forgot it's a buisness. It works both ways fat tuna.

[Guru-In-Vegas]

^ Such animosity towards the man who made your team respectable again.  Mark my words, your team will be back into middle of the pack status by next year. 

[YoFuggedaboutit]

Sounds like Jason maybe changed his mind...... or maybe he wasn't planning on holding out all along. 

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/football/pro/dolphins/sfl-0528jasontaylornew,0,989322.story

[simeon]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=AkR3gS9pv8i4Mf.tcRe03i9DubYF?slug=ap-dolphins-taylor&prov=ap&type=lgns



WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)—Jason Taylor is headed back to South Florida after three months away from home. But the six-time Pro Bowl defensive end doesn’t sound like he’s in any rush to settle his stalemate with the Dolphins.

“I’m under contract with the Dolphins. So again, I’m looking forward to playing some golf. Football doesn’t start until July and training camp, so I’ll be all right,” Taylor said Wednesday after playing in a pro-am for the Principal Charity Classic, a Champions Tour event in Iowa. “I’ve been in L.A. and so far removed from it. Like I said, I’ll deal with that when I get there.”

Taylor will return home to host a charity golf tournament this weekend. The Dolphins, who are upset that Taylor spent the offseason on the hit TV show “Dancing With the Stars” rather than in South Florida working out with teammates, likely won’t have Taylor on hand when they hold a mandatory minicamp June 6-8.

Miami coach Tony Sparano said last week that Taylor isn’t expected to take part in any team activities through training camp.

Taylor avoided questions about whether he plans to meet with Dolphins executive vice president of football operations Bill Parcells when he gets back. Taylor says his immediate plans are to work out, play golf and relax at home.

“We’ll work with football here in the near future,” Taylor said.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Sounds like Jason maybe changed his mind...... or maybe he wasn't planning on holding out all along. 

Possibly neither.  JT has never said he wasn't going to report to camp.  He did say that he wants a trade and he did say he was not going to attend the OTAs.

The day before the Dolphins said that JT wasn't going to be at camp JT posted on his blog his plan was not to attend the OTAs, but would be attending camp.

Two possibilities:  What JT is saying to the Dolphins and what he is saying publicly are not the same or the Dolphins are going too far in demanding players attend the OTAs. 

Teams can not require players to attend the optional OTAs.  Nevertheless, most players attend.  A player can not be cut for not attending the OTAs, but if the player doesn't attend and anther does he could lose his job because the other player is now in better shape or knows this years play book better.  For most players it could be the difference between making the team or not, or starting vs. being a back up.  And there is that wink wink nod nod, it goes to the character of the player.

For the few whose skills are so good that is not a risk such as Peyton or Cromartie the coach telling them that their presence at the OTA is import for the team being prepared for the season is enough, less they be responsible for the team losing a shot at the playoffs because of them. 

JT's situation is different, he neither needs the OTAs to earn the starter role, nor does he believe his absence will lower the Dolphins chances at a Lombardi, as it is nil either way. 

Still most teams typically have a few players miss the OTAs.  The Dolphins only had one.  It is quite possible that the Dolphins laid down the law with miss the OTAs, don't bother showing up to camp we won't have a place for you.   If that is what they did they might be in a bit of trouble.

(lets stay on topic, no need to do a comparison between this possible rule violations and other rule violations) Simply pointing out that BP may have gone a little over board. 

[Brian Fein]

Like I said - I saw the interview on the news this morning, he had no knowledge of "holding out"

Reporter: "They say you have threatened to hold out of training camp..."
Jason: "Who said that??"
Reporter: "Coach Sparano"
Jason: “I’ve been in L.A. and so far removed from it. Like I said, I’ll deal with that when I get there.”

Its BS - I am very confident that this was a one-sided threat to lock him out, while making him look like the bad guy, rather than have the fans pissed that they're dismissing the last fan favorite on the squad.

JT will be in aqua and orange in '08

[gocowboys31]

Its BS - I am very confident that this was a one-sided threat to lock him out, while making him look like the bad guy, rather than have the fans pissed that they're dismissing the last fan favorite on the squad.

JT will be in aqua and orange in '08

point number #1 i agree with, point #2 i disagree. Taylor never said in his interview that he wanted to play for the dolphins, he said he'll worry about football in July. Transalation, the dolphins still have time to trade me before i retire in july.