Will Miami Dolphins' Ronnie Brown ever be himself again?

[DolFan619]

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/football/miami-dolphins/story/648928.html

Will Miami Dolphins' Ronnie Brown ever be himself again?

By GREG COTE
Miami Herald

The season starts in a short 18 days, and the Dolphins' offense is in mad flux.

Coach Tony Sparano said Tuesday that rookie quarterback Chad Henne still is hunting to win the starting job over veteran Chad Pennington.

Rookie Donald Thomas has claimed the unoccupied right guard position until which time he might start playing like the sixth-round pick he is.

Veteran receiver Joe Horn, newly unemployed, has joined Terry Glenn among geezer wideouts hoping to resuscitate fading careers in the Miami sun.

Yet the most intriguing story is what is going on with Ronnie Brown.

Sparano could not have been more unequivocal Tuesday in aiming to shoot down the speculation that Miami was planning a Brown-out.

''No chance that we're trading Ronnie,'' he said flatly.

It was the predictable, prudent salvo. It might even have been the truth, at least for now. But beware to trust in absolutes, and be sure about this:

The Dolphins are not absolutely certain when or if Brown will again be the running back he was before his major, season-ending knee injury last October. Clearly he isn't now, and clearly they doubt he will be by the start of the NFL regular season.

The question, then, isn't whether Brown might be traded. The real question is whether Brown will ever be the same.

You think about the foundation of this offense, the guys to build around who will be leading the way when (presumably) the good times start rolling in two or three years. You start with Henne, left tackle Jake Long, maybe receiver Ted Ginn Jr.

Brown should be high on that short list. But will he be?

NOT READY YET

Miami has been wishing Brown to be 100 percent by playing him at all in the preseason, but his nine total plays in two games -- including five carries for 6 yards and one catch for 3 -- says more about his readiness. It isn't there.

Now they say a thumb injury will keep Brown from playing in Saturday's fake game against Kansas City, but that is a convenience. Otherwise-healthy players play with this kind of thumb injury. Brown is out mainly to continue trying to get his knee right.

''He will have some time now to strengthen that knee and do some work with it,'' Sparano admitted.

The Dolphins have offered mixed signals on Brown's knee. Early in training camp, Sparano admitted the rehabilitation was a ''work in progress.'' But Tuesday he said, ''I've seen him progress very well'' over 30-plus offseason and camp practices, adding, ``As we started to get into this I started to see no signs [of the injury] at all.''

Hmm. Really? No signs? So why has he only five carries in two exhibition games? Why this week off to tend to the knee as much as the thumb?

Speculation about Brown's Miami future blossomed Monday, when ESPN's Chris Mortensen, in a ''Sink or Swim'' segment, remarked that Ricky Williams has looked so good, ''I would not be surprised if Ronnie Brown sinks.'' The reputable ''Mort'' added he would not be surprised if Brown ``ended up with another team this season.''

Mortensen, a reliable football journalist, had spoken at length during the previous game with Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland. It would be at odds with Mortensen's reputation to speculate about Brown so casually without legitimate cause.

The thing is, trading Brown seems unlikely for reasons at either extreme of the spectrum, which Sparano perhaps is acknowledging in saying ``no chance.''

At one extreme, if you believe Brown is close to an inevitable 100 percent recovery, why would you trade him?

At 26, Brown (not Williams) would be the back who would be here as a main cog through the rebuilding. Brown, the 2005 draft's No. 2 overall pick, has been anything but a bust, averaging a solid 4.4 yards a carry behind ordinary lines. Last year, he led the NFL in yards from scrimmage before his injury.

A healthy Brown and Williams give Miami one of the NFL's best tandems.

But at the other extreme, if the club gives up on Brown ever being the same, he would be yoked with a ''damaged goods'' collar and likely won't bring much in trade anyway.

Tunaologists who have followed Bill Parcells' career know he prefers durable, workhorse backs and disdains guys with a proneness to injury.

Brown then would not seem to qualify as a ''Parcells guy,'' having fewer games with 20-plus carries in three years (10) than games missed while injured (12).

MONEY MATTERS

Money also factors, with Brown making five times Williams' bargain-bin $730,000 this season, and with Brown's contract expiring in 2009.

Brown is worth keeping, worth re-signing, if he will be who he was preinjury, but, again, that ''if'' looms tall as a redwood at the moment.

So Miami hedges in what has become a delicate situation. Brown obviously should be the No. 1 back when healthy, but that has turned into such a pulsing ''if'' that an open competition is advertised.

''Ronnie is no different than anybody else,'' Sparano said. ``They're competing. And right now Ronnie is not out there.''

Brown's questionable status makes Miami the epicenter of one of the stunning realities in the league -- that the Dolphins' great safety net now, the man being relied upon, the veritable font of dependability -- is Ricky Williams!

As for Brown, all the Dolphins can do is what they are doing:

Say publicly there is ''no chance'' he will be traded. And hope privately that a complete recovery yet unseen will make them mean it for real.

[Tenshot13]

All of this talk about Brown is utterly ridiculous.  He has been our number one offensive weapon since we drafted him.  Yes he has been injured in the past, but when you workhorse a running back like we have him, behind o-lines that weren't that good what do you expect?  He is coming of of major knee surgery.  Before training camp even started there was talk that he might not be ready by the season opener and it might be a few games into the season before he's ready.  He WILL be ready by mid-season and until then, Ricky can carry the load.  Ronnie has done nothing but play fantastic on crappy teams since we drafted him.  He will be fine and the phins will have a one two punch that the rest of the league will be envious of.

[YoFuggedaboutit]

All of this talk about Brown is utterly ridiculous.  He has been our number one offensive weapon since we drafted him.  Yes he has been injured in the past, but when you workhorse a running back like we have him, behind o-lines that weren't that good what do you expect?  He is coming of of major knee surgery.  Before training camp even started there was talk that he might not be ready by the season opener and it might be a few games into the season before he's ready.  He WILL be ready by mid-season and until then, Ricky can carry the load.  Ronnie has done nothing but play fantastic on crappy teams since we drafted him.  He will be fine and the phins will have a one two punch that the rest of the league will be envious of.

He never really has been workhorsed, until the first half of last season.  Three years and he has yet to play a full 16 game schedule.  He wasn't even the feature back on his college team.  Cadillac Williams was, but the two split carries so often that they're not used to the intensity of the NFL..... look where they both are now. 

[Tenshot13]

I watched Ronnie and Carnel when they played for Auburn.  I've always thought Cadillac was over-rated, and when I say workhorse I'm not just talking about having 25+ carries per game.  How many 3 yd passes did Ronnie catch under the Nick Sellout and Cam regimes where he would get lit up right when he caught the ball?  Not only has he been our #1 running back but he's been up there in receptions as well.  That means more hits he takes.  Regardless my whole point was that he is the most talented offensive player on our roster and he will be back to form eventually, and with Ricky taking some of the load, we should have a dominant running game.

[fyo]

The original question: Will Brown ever be the same again?

Ronnie's injury (ACL rupture, no other damage) is not uncommon in the NFL and the way back is relatively well-defined. He'll be "100%" by the season opener, but won't look it until next year. The missing components are "confidence" and proprioception. The latter is a real bitch. It's exceptionally difficult to speed up the recovery and for some people, it never fully returns. Proprioception is the body's sense of what the rotation of a joint is. Without it, athletes don't have the "confidence" to make cuts and often speak of things like "having to think about it".

His knee is just fine now and the risk of injuring it again is only marginally increased. If he followed his rehab, his leg strength should be quite good as well. What's left now is "just" the proprioception. That could easily take many more months.

Looking at other running backs with a similar injury: Expect his production to be affected this year and rebound to "normal" next year.  "Power" backs tend to be less affected, since proprioception is not nearly as critical for just powering straight ahead.

[DZA]

It usually takes 2 season to recover from somethin like that.   I think onlt Edge and Jamaal Anderson recoverd quickly  and  had a productive season    I do however feel ronnie is comin back too soon.  Hope he takes it easy !

[YoFuggedaboutit]

It usually takes 2 season to recover from somethin like that.   I think onlt Edge and Jamal Anderson recoverd quickly  and  had a productive season    I do however feel ronnie is comin back too soon.  Hope he takes it easy !

Actually Jamal Anderson was never the same again.  He came down with that knee injury early in 1999, and although he rushed for over 1000 yards in 2000, he averaged a tepid 3.6 yards per carry.  He reinjured the same knee in 2001 and that ended his career.

[Tenshot13]

You can't compare edge and jamal in the same category as ronnie....they are both in their 30s when they had their injuries while ronnie is still in his "prime"...ronnie has promise to recover and while it was a great story that the other two had recovered "temporarily" Roninie still has time to recover AND still be a dominant RB...only time will tell if glass ronnie can be super RB ronnie.  Me being an optimistic phin fan I say Brown is the greatest thing since sliced bread buuuuut.......(insert negative dolphin comment here).

[fyo]

You can't compare edge and jamal in the same category as ronnie....they are both in their 30s when they had their injuries while ronnie is still in his "prime"...

I don't think I've agreed with Tommy on anything substantive in a long time, but his point here is valid. The risk of injury actually doesn't increase with age (in the NFL... footballoutsiders.com did some statistics on it a while back). Recovery does take longer as players get older (which make it SEEM like they're more often injured).

Anyway, the problem with Jamal Anderson was that he was killed by Atlanta. Ever hear of "the curse of 370"? Running backs who carry the ball >370 times in a single season almost always see a SIGNIFICANT drop in production (and a huge increase in injury risk) from which they never recover. Anderson carried the ball 410 times in 98. Career over. Simple as that.

So, in a round-a-bout way, I agree with you that you cannot compare Anderson and Brown, but for completely different reasons

Ronnie will be just fine... next season. This season, he'll be great for catching passes in the flat and spelling Ricky. In terms of runs, I see Ricky getting something like twice as many attempts as Ronnie.