Can't the Dolphins catch the ball?

DolFan619
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« on: August 10, 2008, 03:58:47 am »

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/football/miami-dolphins/story/635958.html

Can't the Dolphins catch the ball?

By ARMANDO SALGUERO
Miami Herald

As surely as the Dolphins addressed half of their passing game the past few days by finding a proven NFL quarterback, now they have to do one other thing to breath life into a comatose passing game.

They have the passer. Now they have to find the pass-catchers.

The team's ongoing search for a player who might separate from defenders, or catch the football, or perhaps shock the world and do both on the same play has yielded precious little return so far.

The first few weeks of training camp have brought more excuses than big catches for the receivers.

Coach Tony Sparano said last week the receivers lacked concentration during that practice in which they dropped 10 passes. Others within the organization rationalize

there hasn't been much timing and chemistry between quarterbacks and receivers, so one cannot

single out the receivers for blame.

It is a wonder no one has mentioned that catching a humid ball in South Florida's sweltering summer also is too much to ask of any world-class athlete and that things will improve when it is cooler.

But although no one doubts Miami's receivers can still improve and make what we have seen of no effect,

I can't stop believing my eyes.

WILFORD WILTS

The Dolphins cannot deny that offseason acquisition Ernest Wilford has been disappointing the first two weeks of training camp -- and was again in Saturday's game.

Wilford, handed a starting job based on his $13 million contract, which included a whopping $6 million in guaranteed money, was practically invisible the first week of camp, when he didn't make many plays in practice.

Then he regressed. He began dropping passes. He lost his starting job to Derek Hagan.

And Saturday night, he dropped two passes, which was double the number of catches he contributed.

''It's part of the game,'' Wilford said. ``You know you don't want to do that, but sometimes it happens. We all have a lot of room for improvement.''

It says something, by the way, when a less-accomplished player replaces a veteran receiver in the lineup and the less-accomplished player also fails. That is what happened to the Dolphins.

Hagan, who has a reputation for practicing well but not having it translate to games, had one catch, one drop and one holding penalty Saturday.

With those results and his past, it was ironic to hear him talk of his first conversation with newly signed quarterback Chad Pennington.

''I told him to put the ball in the air, and I'll go get it,'' Hagan said he told Pennington.

At least Hagan can stretch credibility, if not the field.

GINN: ONE RECEPTION

That, of course, says nothing of Miami's other receivers. Ted Ginn Jr. caught one pass Saturday -- and, yes, it was a completion, and, yes, it delivered a first down. But it hardly was the downfield, big-play kind of return the Dolphins expect from their first-round investment.

So the Dolphins have an issue at receiver.

Anyone not buying that should remember that not long ago the team seriously flirted with signing veteran receiver Terry Glenn.

Glenn, by the way, was not allowed to step onto the practice field by the Cowboys because they feared he wouldn't last even one workout without blowing out his knee. Again.

At 34, Glenn needs micro-fracture surgery or major rehabilitation -- or a tent-revival healing -- to pass an NFL physical now.

Yet he was, for a couple of days at least, the Dolphins' best hope of improving their receiving corps. Scary.

It is possible rookies Davone Bess and Jayson Foster or journeyman David Kircus might help. But, so far, none of them can be confused as potential saviors for the passing game.

And in today's NFL, a team with no passing game gets no big plays.

No big plays? No big victories.

So what can the Dolphins do? The answer is not on this roster.

Perhaps a team with a deep corps of deep threats will cut somebody. Perhaps the Dolphins can abandon their aversion to problem players and give suspended receiver Chris Henry consideration.

Or perhaps the Dolphins can hope they find big plays elsewhere on the roster -- because right now, the big plays are not coming from these receivers.


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