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Author Topic: Miami Dolphins: Rebuilding with experienced hands  (Read 1814 times)
DolFan619
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« on: July 26, 2008, 12:37:24 am »

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/football/pro/dolphins/sfl-flspdolphins26sbjul26,0,6433278.story

Miami Dolphins rebuilding with experienced hands: Only 36 players remain from '07 roster

By Omar Kelly
South Florida Sun-Sentinel


July 26, 2008

Jason Ferguson has been a part of two renovation projects Bill Parcells has engineered in the NFL, so the 11-year veteran knows how quickly those dilapidated teams get stripped down to their bare essence and how swiftly the foundation laying begins.

Ferguson also knows that Parcells, the Dolphins' vice president of football operations, needs a few good masons and a foreman or two to lead the crew of workers in the rebuilding efforts that continues today with the start of training camp. That's where Ferguson and many of the new veterans come in.

According to General Manager Jeff Ireland, the front office approached free agency and trades this offseason with the intention of acquiring not just good football players, but "good character guys who are winners."

That's why many of the new faces at Dolphins camp are coming from teams that made the playoffs in 2007.

Not surprisingly, Parcells and Ireland went to a familiar well, corralling Ferguson, Akin Ayodele, Anthony Fasano, Keith Davis and Nathan Jones from a Cowboys team they previously assembled into a contender.

Reggie Torbor finished 2007 as the starting outside linebacker for the Super Bowl-winning Giants before signing on to compete for a starting spot with the Dolphins.

Defensive tackle Randy Starks was a key reserve to a Tennessee team that also made the playoffs last year. And receiver Ernest Wilford was a starter for the Jaguars, who lost to New England in the second round of the AFC playoffs.

While all these veterans have their individual motivations for becoming Dolphins, each has welcomed the challenge of resurrecting this once proud franchise. And many don't believe it'll be as difficult a task as some think.

"If you're in this locker room and you're not saying our first goal is to win [the season opener] against the Jets, and our next goal is to win the division, and then you keep moving on, you're in the wrong locker room," said Ferguson, who was a rookie on the 1997 Jets team Parcells transformed from a 1-15 laughingstock the year before he arrived to a respectable 9-7 club.

"We all start off at the same point, so why can't it get done?" said Ferguson, who is projected as the starting nose tackle. "That was our philosophy with the Jets, and it was our philosophy when I got to the Cowboys. It's no different here."

Ayodele admits that going from a title contending team to a franchise that's rebuilding is bittersweet. But the linebacker is quick to point out that the joy that comes from being in on the ground floor of a renovation project is tremendously rewarding.

"You've got to love this game, love the challenge," said Ayodele, who was acquired from Dallas, along with Fasano, in a trade the night before the draft. "I don't care where you are, or what team you're on. Everyday you have to come to work and understand what your goal is. Come hungry. Come with 100 percent.

"The type of guys that we are, you can expect that," Ayodele said, speaking of his fellow former Cowboys, who were targeted by these former Cowboy coaches and front office officials.

Of the 80 players in training camp, only 36 can talk about the misery of going 1-15 last season, and many of those players will likely struggle to survive the first wave of cuts.

According to returning starters such as Vonnie Holliday and Will Allen, that's a good thing because it means the Dolphins are close to turning the page on last year's nightmare of a season.

"The main thing these guys are trying to get across is how players win games and how players lose games," Allen said. "The more guys you get on your team who understand that, the better chance you have on Sundays."

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