Orange and Teal

Dave's Back

Hey guys. Sorry to be so out of it lately. Living out of a suitcase is getting to me and even though I’m at work an hour earlier than usual I have been backlogged with stuff. But now I’ve got an area for blogging games live which is nice. I also am commish of my fantasy league and we had our draft Sunday. So if any of you know the feeling I’m a bit wiped out.

As I mentioned before we have a keeper league and I used a blog on TypePad to do it with comments being the picks. It worked great! Went a little long, almost three hours but that was because of one newcomer and me having to update the blog and pick for two absent teams and myself. Crazy. Anyway click below for my draft. Non-bold players were kept. I picked 9th out of a 10 team league. We had two last day drop-outs too!

State of the Dolphins: Pre-Season Week 2.5

I’ll admit I’ve been spending more time organizing my fantasy league than I have here this past week between pacing and moving. But I still watched the game over the weekend and have some thoughts to match the recent depth chart analysis by Marvez.

Culpepper and the entire offense looks a half-step off. But to me the better teams, like Indianapolis, always seem rusty in pre-season. I’m not high on this offensive line protecting the pass but they seem to do a decent job on run protection. All the penalties were annoying and hopefully they can grow out of that. And the whole time I was thinking, “This isn’t even the real Bucs defense they’re playing!”

On the positive side I think Culpepper’s arm is there and it’s a cannon. His one scramble and sack was a bit scary though. He didn’t seem greatly mobile to me. Actually it kind of reminded me of Dan!

Dave Update

Hey everybody. Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I’ve been busy moving and have been without home Internet access since Sunday. It’s like living in the dark ages I tell you. I’ll try and post more from now on.

Otherwise quick thoughts on the first pre-season game:

Culpepper looked good…handing off. But seriously I don’t care how he looks in the first game of pre-season, I care how he looks the first week of the regular season. More important was Joey Harrington’s passing. He looked solid. If Culpepper wasn’t our starter I’d want Joey to get the chance to prove to Detroit it wasn’t all his fault.

My biggest rave goes to Will Allen. He was everywhere it seemed. Hopefully he too can redeem himself in the eyes of his NY Giant detractors. Jason Allen, he has a lot of work to do but what can you expect from him missing so much camp. Time for a rookie cap people!

Alright, back to getting my fantasy team together.

Fantasy Opinions: Help Dave pick his roster

OK Guys. I may not listen to you but I figured one way to keep our minds off the anticipation of tomorrow is to help me pick my roster for this year’s fantasy team. Yes, my league is called the War on Terrellism. I've had it for three years now and the name is still fitting, no?

I run a keeper league as you may know and I have to pick my keepers by next Friday. The list is below. I can keep any of the players listed but must give up the draft pick in the round mentioned. A Free Agent costs me the 17th/last pick but every free agent after that escalates a pick, so the second free agent costs a 16th pick and so on. No player picked in the first two rounds can be kept.

D. Bledsoe (Dal - QB) FA
L. Fitzgerald (Ari - WR) 6th Round
E. Wilford (Jac - WR) FA
C. Williams (TB - RB) 5th Round
A. Crumpler (Atl - TE) 3rd Round
Ji. Smith (Jac - WR)  6th Round
Ro. Williams (Det - WR) 7th Round
R. Brown (Mia - RB) 4th Round
A. Brooks (NO - QB)  FA
Ma. Jones (Jac - WR) FA
H. Miller (Pit - TE) 13th Round
C. Frye (Cle - QB)  FA
J. Scobee (Jac - K) 12th round
Miami (Mia - DEF) 11th Round
Dallas (Dal - DEF) 16th Round

Players I’m definitely keeping are Drew Bledsoe, Larry Fitzgerald, Cadillac Williams, Ronnie Brown, Roy Williams and Heath Miller. It is a tight end league.

I’m thinking of keeping Matt Jones and or Wilford. And Charlie Frye. So give me feedback. Who should I keep?

Yep, Wright Is A Head Case

Other teams get rosters of criminals, we seem to get the clinically insane. OK, Manny Wright is not insane, but he’s in a shrink’s office for depression. Mainly because he’s not starting for the Dolphins. And he wants to go to another team. But from the Palm Beach Post’s story (good reporting huh? The Sun-Sentinel was quoting his family who didn’t know anything) it sounds like Saban did everything he could for the kid. And to think we gave up a 5th round pick on him. We couldn’t of gotten a ton of talent but Omar Jacobs was available.

It’s a sad story in some ways. This kid is from Compton and is depressed he’s not starting at 22 in the NFL. Get used to it. Of course he’s not going to get us anything in a trade either. Who would want him?

In other news we picked up another DB Chris Thompson. He played a bit for the Bears last year, but even though I’m stuck watching that team every week here in Chicago I don’t remember him. But I was just bitching about our DB depth wasn’t I?

New Dolphins Website

I keep forgetting to blog about the new official Miami Dolphins website. Has everyone checked it out yet? If not, go now. My favorite feature as a blogger are the nice and large player mugshots that I can “borrow” when waxing philosophic about the lineup.

There’s also a cool interactive depth chart that works pretty well. What do you guys think? I’m impressed the Dolphins spent so much time on it.

Poole Gone, Injury Report

Former fourth round pick Will Poole was waived yesterday. Someone had to go to make room for this year’s first round pick Jason Allen. While it is a disappointment, Poole supposedly has a stress fracture and that led to his being booted from the roster. But I’m worried.

Our secondary doesn’t look particularly strong. Somehow Will Allen, who is above average but not stellar, is our best CB. Travis Daniels and Andre Goodman should be adequate. Then there’s Michael Lehan and Eddie Jackson as the backups. Eegads! Does Kansas City now have a better secondary than Miami?

Seth McKinney is also injured with a scary neck that is making his arm numb. That does not sound good. But at least we’re not Cleveland who just lost their second center for the year. 

Finally: Jason Allen Signs That 6-Year Deal

So this entire holdout and what happens? Jason Allen signs the six-year deal that he and his agent were so against at the beginning of this whole thing. According to the Miami Herald he gets around $9 million in guaranteed money and if he meets all the incentives in the contract he’d be one of the top paid safeties in the league. That’s a bit nuts. But I’m guessing those incentives include lots of INTs so who would complain?

Thanks to Tom in Nashville for the alert last night.

Weekend Recap: HOF, 1st Game, Welker Debate

I can’t believe we’re back to real football on TV. It was a year ago that I was in Canton to see Dan Marino inducted along with Steve Young and two posthumous inductees. That totaled four. This year there were six inductees and the only one not with us was the beloved Reggie White. The fans of Troy Aikman, John Madden, and the rest of the class didn’t fill every seat the way Dan’s fans did last year. On TV it looked half empty and I bet in person it was even worse. That’s pretty sad, but maybe last year was a rare occurrence.

The speeches were fine with Madden’s going way too long and Al Davis scaring children. Moon was a bit of a surprise though.

As for the game last night...

Will Vick Stay a Dolphin?

After reading day after day of reports from camp the only player with glowing reports day after day has been Marcus Vick. Now even Marvez at the Sentinel is saying “Converted QB Marcus Vick continues to catch everything thrown in his direction, working well with backup QB Joey Harrington, who was playing against the first-team defense.”

Could he be the next Randle El?  And even though Booker caught a TD pass yesterday he doesn't instill a sense of security in me.