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Dolphins Coach Brian Flores Still Not Ready to Name a QB for Week One

August 23rd, 2019

Ian Leslie

Posted in News

Dolphins head coach Brian Flores is still not ready to name a start quarterback for Week 1 of the regular season according to Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald.

Veteran QB Ryan Fitzpatrick started Thursday night’s Week 3 preseason game against the Jacksonville Jaguars-traditionally the dress rehearsal for starters-and turned in a dismal performance, completing 12-of-18 passes for 126 yards and a touchdown.

Fitz played into the second half but was being terrorized by Jags rookie DE Josh Allen. Last year’s No.10-overall pick Josh Rosen did not fare much better, completing 5-of-7 for 57 yards.

Speaking during the broadcast, FOX’s Troy Aikman spoke as if the Dolphins’ coaching staff had told him Fitzpatrick would be the guy for Week 1.

And it still seems to be a good bet that the veteran will be under center on September 8 against the Baltimore Ravens as Rosen seems far behind him on the depth chart for some explicable reason.

It is also likely that Fitz will have one of his patented meltdowns and be benched in favor of Rosen before the month is over.

Given the atrocious offensive line and general lack of talent on a rebuilding Dolphins team, it seems unlikely either QB will have much success.

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Dolphins QB Race Still Up for Grabs Between Fitzpatrick and Rosen

August 20th, 2019

Matt Loede

Posted in News

Dolphins head coach Brian Flores said Monday that veteran quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick is not a lock to start Week 1 according to Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald.

Speculation ran wild that Flores had decided on his 2019 starter when he announced that Fitzpatrick would start the Dolphins’ third preseason game, which is traditionally a dress rehearsal for starting offenses around the league.

And the nod to Fitzpatrick this week is probably an indicator that Fitz is still ahead of second-year QB Josh Rosen on the depth chart.

Rosen has been closing that gap in recent weeks and started last week’s preseason game but has been too inconsistent up to this point to be named the starter for Week 1. Even if Fitzpatrick holds off Rosen to start the season, his leash figures to be short.

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Sporting News Picks the NFL 2019 Division Winners – Where Do the Dolphins Fall?

August 9th, 2019

Matt Loede

Posted in Opinions, Picks

It’s that time of the year when national pundits start to look ahead and pick records for teams around the league, as well as pick the winners of the divisions.

Sporting News is out with their 2019 predictions, and they have their picks in for the AFC East.

As everyone would expect, the Super Bowl Champion Patriots are sitting at the top with a mark of 13-3, and once again are one of the top forces in the AFC.

Behind them are the New York Jets and new coach Adam Gase, who they say will be an over .500 team with a mark of 9-7.

The Bills and second-year QB Josh Allen will finish in third winning five games and going 5-11. Coming in last is the Miami Dolphins, who will have one of the toughest seasons in the league and will finish 2-14 according to the company.

Here’s the complete rundown of who Sporting News likes along with the Super Bowl teams.

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Dolphins Owner Stephen Ross Defends President Trump After Comments by WR Kenny Stills

August 7th, 2019

Jake Mendel

Posted in News

Politics are getting in the way of Dolphins training camp, as Fins owner Stephen Ross is defending his support of longtime friend Donald Trump after one of the players on the team spoke out against the President.

The Associated Press reports that Ross is coming to the President’s defense following comments by wide out Kenny Stills.

The comments Wednesday followed a report by the Washington Post that Ross plans to host a fundraiser for the president.

Stills tweeted a screen capture from Ross’ anti-racism RISE initiative’s website and wrote, “You can’t have a non profit with this mission statement then open your doors to Trump.”

The mission statement says RISE “educates and empowers the sports community to eliminate racial discrimination, champion social justice and improve race relations.”

Ross’ fundraiser is scheduled for Friday at his home on Long Island, the Post said.

“I always have been an active participant in the democratic process,” Ross said in a statement.

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Is Josh Rosen Ready to Assume the #1 QB Spot at Dolphins Camp?

August 4th, 2019

Cory Allen

Posted in News

Josh Rosen “might be the Dolphins QB1” when the team returns to practice on Monday according to Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald.

Rosen shined during Saturday’s intra-squad scrimmage, making what Beasley deemed as “remarkable throws,” while Ryan Fitzpatrick fared poorly, committing two interceptions while nearly throwing a third on an errant pass he forced into double coverage.

The veteran had been leading the quarterback competition all season but Beasley believes Saturday may have changed head coach Brian Flores’ mind. “Better footwork, better mechanics in the pocket, better decision-making” said Flores.

And Miami’s longterm future will likely be brighter as soon as Flores changes his mind.

The rookie head coach has claimed all spring and summer that the starting quarterback decision will be made strictly on merit but little would be accomplished by starting Fitzmagic on a rebuilding team expected to miss the playoffs regardless of who is under center.

The Dolphins have to thoroughly evaluate Rosen, the No.10-overall pick in last year’s draft, before the stacked QB draft coming up in 2020-and the only real way to do so is to start the 22-year-oldRosen all season. The QB imploded in 13 starts as a rookie last season in Arizona but was set up to fail with little surrounding talent and a terrible coaching staff.

The change of scenery from Arizona to Miami seems to have done him some good.

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Video: Remembering Former Dolphins HOF LB Nick Buoniconti

August 1st, 2019

Matt Loede

Posted in Video

Nick Buoniconti was taken in the 13th round by the Boston Patriots of the upstart AFL and played for them from 1962 to 1968. He made the AFL All-Star Game six times and had 24 career interceptions for the Patriots, including three in a single game in 1968.

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Dolphins Hall of Famer Nick Buoniconti Passes Away at 78

July 31st, 2019

Cory Allen

Posted in News

Dolphins Hall of Famer Nick Buoniconti passed away Wednesday at the age of 78, ending a years-long struggle with dementia.

There was also the likelihood that the Dolphins legend had CTE caused by an estimated half-billion hits to the head suffered during a football career that began at age 9 and continued until he retired from the Dolphins in 1976 at age 36.

Convinced that “CTE has taken my life away,” Buoniconti pledged his brain to science, a fitting final act for a man who dedicated half his life championing scientific research in his quest to cure for paralysis after son Marc was confined to a wheelchair, the result of a neck injury suffered on the football field.

After his final NFL game, Buoniconti dropped to his knees, kissed the ground, “And thanked God that I’d never gotten seriously hurt,” he once told Sports Illustrated. “Fourteen-year career? I could’ve been maimed.”

It would take decades before the true cost of those 14 years would reveal itself. With it, Buoniconti embarked on a rare public battle, including a deeply personal, 75-minute HBO documentary in which football fans saw this once-fiery Italian struggling with the simplest of tasks and, compounding matters, still cognizant that it wasn’t supposed to be that way.

Drawing parallels to his situation and Marc’s, Buoniconti said, “We’re both, in a way, paralyzed. I’m paralyzed because I can’t do the basic things in life. It’s not pleasant to think about where my life is going to take me.”

The man who once refused to blame football for his son’s condition had come full circle regarding his own, saying, “I’m positive of that … football caused this.”

Buoniconti recalled playing a significant portion of the Super Bowl following the 1971 season in a daze after getting knocked out, but who’s to say whether those seven seasons in Miami would have made a difference in what rightfully would have been his golden years?

“When we were growing up, football gave everything to us,” Marc told HBO. “And then look at what it did to me. And now look at what it’s doing to him.

“I mean, do you love the game? Hate the game? Do you love it and hate it?”

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