Monday, March 31, 2008

Dolphins Receive Two Compensatory Picks

The NFL announced its compensatory picks today, and Miami has received two additional selections in this year's draft. They are a sixth (204 overall) and a seventh-round (245 overall) picks.

This is how Miami's stock of draft picks looks now:

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DAY ONE (Rounds 1 and 2)

Round 1 (1 overall)
Round 2 (32)
Round 2 (57, from San Diego)

DAY TWO (Rounds 3-7)

Round 3 (64)
Round 4 (99)
Round 6 (197, from Dallas)
Round 6 (204, compensatory)
Round 7 (209)
Round 7 (245, compensatory)

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It is excellent that the Dolphins have five selections in the top 100 overall. However, after their fourth round pick, the team has a gigantic gap (nearly 100 picks) before it gets to select again. It's never good to have such a tremendous gap in any part of the draft and it will be interesting to see how the team decides to approach this situation.

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In other news, Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga's sale of half the team to Stephen Ross has officially been approved by the NFL.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Chris Crocker signed

According to the Sun-Sentinel, the Dolphins reached an agreement with S Chris Crocker on a one-year contract worth $1.15 million, with $300,000 of that guaranteed as a signing bonus and workout money. The deal also includes incentives.

[Note: Just to calm everyone's fears, this is not the same Chris Crocker who gained his 15 minutes of fame shrieking for all of us to just "leave Britney alone!"]

This particular Chris Crocker (5'11", 192 lbs.) was a third-round draft choice of the Cleveland Browns in 2003. He is 28 years old.

He has significant starting experience, starting every game that he played in for the Falcons and Browns over the past three seasons. He has started in 52 games over his five year career. He is coming off a particularly solid season last year, in which he tallied a career-best 11 passes defensed and 3 INTs. He should challenge for one of the starting safety spots, or at least one of the top backup spots.

Here are his career stats:

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YEARTEAM G GS
TOT SOLO AST PD SACK FF FR
INT YDS TD
2003CLE16 1
35 28 7 2 0.0 0 0
0 0 0
2004CLE12 5
56 48 8 4 2.0 0 0
1 20 1
2005CLE16 16
82 51 31 4 2.0 2 1
2 35 0
2006ATL16 16
50 44 6 8 1.0 0 0
1 28 0
2007ATL14 14
55 51 4 11 1.0 0 1
3 40 0
Career 74 52
278 222 56 29 6.0 2 2
7 123 1
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Sunday, March 16, 2008

Tab Perry signed

According to the Sun-Sentinel, the Dolphins have signed WR Tab Perry to a one-year contract worth approximately $927,000. It is also being reported that LS John Denney signed a three-year contract extension.

Perry (6'3", 208 lbs.) was a sixth-round draft pick of the Bengals in 2005. He is 26 years old.

Perry set the Bengals' franchise record for kickoff return yardage in his rookie season, but a nagging hip injury has limited to only four games over the past two seasons. He also recorded 16 special teams tackles in his rookie season.

Because Perry was only signed to a one-year deal, there is very little risk involved. If he shows that he can't get healthy again, Miami will be free to cut him. Otherwise, they may have found their second returner to line up deep with Ted Ginn and another useful special teams coverage guy.

Here are Perry's career stats:

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Career Rushing/Receiving Stats
Year Team G Rush Yds Yd/Rush TDs Rec Yds Yd/Rec TDs
2005 Cin 16 3 9 3.0 1 4 21 5.3 1
2006 Cin 2 2 4 2.0 0 5 81 16.2 0
2007 Cin 2 1 9 9.0 0 1 7 7.0 0
Totals 20 6 22 3.7 1 10 109 10.9 1

Career Returning Stats
Year Team G Punt Returns Yds Avg TDs Kick Returns Yds Avg TDs
2005 Cin 16 0 0 - 0 64 1562 24.4 0
2006 Cin 2 0 0 - 0 4 69 17.3 0
2007 Cin 2 0 0 - 0 7 145 20.7 0
Totals 20 0 0 - 0 75 1776 23.7 0

Friday, March 14, 2008

Nathan Jones signed

The team's official site is reporting that CB Nathan Jones has been signed to a two-year contract.

Jones (5'10", 192 lbs.) was a seventh-round draft choice of the Cowboys in 2004. He is 25 years old. Jones has only started in one game during his career, but he played an important role on special teams for the Cowboys, tallying 26 special teams tackles in his four seasons there. He can play both cornerback and safety.

Used as a blitzer in the nickel package last season, Jones recorded five quarterback hurries.

Here's a look at his career stats:

Return Stats
YEARTEAM G PR YDS TD FC LNG KR YDS TD FC LNG
2004DAL1 0 0 0 0 0 2 43 0 0 25
2006DAL1 0 0 0 0 0 1 13 0 0 13
2007DAL4 0 0 0 0 0 6 122 0 0 27
Career 6 0 0 0 0 0 9 178 0 0 27
Defense Stats
YEARTEAM G TOT SOLO AST PD SACK FF REC INT YDS TD
2004DAL16 33 32 1 2 1.0 0 0 0 0 0
2005DAL16 14 8 6 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
2006DAL4 9 7 2 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
2007DAL15 23 19 4 0 1.0 1 0 0 0 0
Career 51 79 66 13 2 2.0 1 0 0 0 0

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Dave Rayner signed


According to the Sun-Sentinel, the Dolphins have signed K Dave Rayner.

Rayner (6'2", 210 lbs.) was a sixth-round draft pick of the Colts in 2005. He is 25 years old.

Rayner only has a 70.7% career field goal percentage, so it is highly unlikely that he will unseat Jay Feely (career 80.8% on FGs) as the team's kicker. However, Rayner is likely being brought in to compete with Brandon Fields for kickoff duties. Yet, while Feely struggled mightily on kickoffs last year, one look at his career stats will show that his average distance of 57.8 yards in 2007 is well below his career mark of 62.9 yards. I'm not doubting that Rayner is better than Feely on kickoffs, but why use up a valuable roster space on a third kicker if Fields can handle that role. Hopefully, he will prove in training camp that he can take over the kickoff duties, thus erasing the need to keep Rayner on the team.

Here is a look at Rayner's career stats:

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Career Kicking Stats
Year Team G FGM FGA Pct XPM XPA Pct Pts
2005 Ind 14 0 1 0.0 0 0 - 0
2006 GB 16 26 35 74.3 31 32 96.9 109
2007 KC 10 15 22 68.2 14 14 100.0 59
2007 SD 1 0 0 - 0 0 - 0

TOTAL 11 15 22 68.2 14 14 100.0 59
Totals 41 41 58 70.7 45 46 97.8 168

Career Kickoff Stats
Year Team G KO TB Pct Yds Avg
Ret Ret Yds Avg Start
2005 Ind 14 82 1 1.2 5046 61.5 81 1806 30.6
2006 GB 16 71 11 15.5 4686 66.0 60 1348 26.4
2007 KC 10 39 3 7.7 2662 68.3 34 747 23.8
2007 SD 1 7 0 0.0 447 63.9 7 190 33.3

TOTAL 11 46 3 6.5 3109 67.6 41 937 25.3
Totals 41 199 15 7.5 12841 64.5 182 4091 27.9
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Keith Davis signed

According to the Sun-Sentinel, the Dolphins have signed S Keith Davis.

Davis (5'11", 205 lbs.) was an undrafted college free agent of the Cowboys in 2002. He has since started 22 games for Dallas while showing his true value as a special teams ace. In fact, Davis was the Cowboys' special teams captain last season, finishing with 14 special teams stops.

Davis is 29 years old. He likely won't challenge for a starting position on defense, but he adds crucial depth to a severely banged up unit. Most importantly, he'll immediately become one of the best special teams coverage guys on the team, helping to improve a unit that was mostly terrible last year.

Here are Davis' career stats:

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YEARTEAM G GS
TKL SOLO AST PD SACK FF FR
INT YDS TD
2002DAL8 0
5 5 0 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
2004DAL15 0
19 15 4 0 0.0 2 0 0 0 0
2005DAL16 15
66 47 19 3 0.0 0 1
0 0 0
2006DAL15 6
26 17 9 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
2007DAL14 1
18 16 2 2 0.0 1 0 0 0 0
Career 68 22
134 100 34 5 0.0 3 0 0 0 0
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Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Boomer Grigsby signed

According to the Miami Herald, the Dolphins have reached an agreement with FB Boomer Grigsby.

Grigsby (5'11", 249 lbs.) was a fifth-round draft pick of the Kansas City Chiefs in 2005. He is 26 years old.

Grigsby spent his first two seasons in the NFL as a linebacker, but the Chiefs transitioned him to a fullback last season. He was an important part of the Chiefs special teams units, and that is the role he is most likely being brought in to play.

Here are his career stats:

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Receiving Stats
YEARTEAM G REC YDS AVG LNG TD FD FUM LOST
2007KAN13 2 14 7.0 9 0 0 0 0
Career 13 2 14 7.0 9 0 0 0 0
Defense Stats
YEARTEAM G TOT SOLO AST PD SACK FF REC INT YDS TD
2005KAN16 16 12 4 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
2006KAN15 14 14 0 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
2007KAN13 5 4 1 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Career 44 35 30 5 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0

Yeremiah Bell re-signed

The Dolphins have re-signed S Yeremiah Bell to a one-year, $1.4 million contract.

Bell had a break out season for the Dolphins in 2006, but suffered a season-ending injury to his Achilles' tendon in the first game on 2007. Injuries have plagued him throughout his career, and he will be 30 years old by the time the 2008 season begins.

I'm still glad that Miami brought Bell back, however, particularly since it is only a one-year deal. And a relatively cheap deal at that. This way, he can show the new staff if he still has game-changing potential or not, while at the same time the team isn't over-invested in a guy who may be past his prime and perpetually banged-up.

Since his injury happened so early in the season, I would predict that he'll be healthy by the beginning of next season. As it stands now, he has a pretty good shot to take a starting role at safety opposite Jason Allen.

The bottom line is that this is a low-risk, high-reward move - exactly the kind of move a rebuilding team should be making.