The 2006 Super Bowl will be contested in Miami. The Dolphins apparently believe they will be there. As in, on the field, representing the AFC in the NFL title game.
"They play the Super Bowl here next year," wide receiver Chris Chambers told the Miami Herald in March. "And I'll be damned if we're not the ones playing in our own stadium."
Well, Chris, I hope you have a high tolerance for heat, because I hear it can get a little muggy down there in the seventh circle. While I agree that Nick Saban has already made a huge impact and has this franchise headed in the right direction, about 5,000 dominoes must fall right for Chambers' prediction to come true.
But I'll focus on just a single domino: The one, colossal, elephant-sized one in the room that nobody seems to want to talk much about.
If the season started today your starting quarterback for the Fish would be…drumroll please…Cleo Lemon! That's right, ladies and gentlemen! Leading the fierce Aquatic Mammals into battle is a third-year player from Arkansas State who's never thrown an NFL pass!
Okay, maybe that's a bit harsh, and the Dolphins should eventually end up landing Joey Harrington, but let's examine Miami's quarterback position in a little more detail.
The Dolphins acquired Daunte Culpepper from the Vikings in the offseason in exchange for a second round draft pick. While I applaud that decision in the long term and sincerely believe Daunte can once again be one of the most dominant players in the NFL eventually, it ain't happening this year.
I'm willing to overlook the horrendous season Culpepper was having before he blew out three knee ligaments in a fateful week eight clash with the Panthers. Really, I am. He was playing under an offensive line coach masquerading as an actual NFL offensive coordinator. He was playing behind an awful offensive line that had him scrambling for his life more often than not. And he was pressing to try to make up for a horrendous start by Mike Tice's minions.
But I'm not willing to overlook that pesky, surgically-repaired knee. Athletes who blow out just a single ligament – like, say, an ACL – generally take at least nine months to return to action, and up to a full 18 just to be 100 percent. As they (and their stats) can attest, players like Jamal Lewis, Edgerrin James, and others weren't themselves until the second year post-surgery.
We're dealing with a very limited sample size when talk turns to players who have come back from the triple-play. Like Daunte, Willis McGahee destroyed all three of the ligaments in one of his knees. That was in January of 2003. Nine months later, he sat on the sidelines as his Bills' teammates took the field for the 2003 season. Despite rumors that he might be able to play late in the 2003 campaign, he never saw one snap and there were still question marks about his knee the following season in training camp, and he hinted that he was at about 90 percent throughout most of the 2004 campaign. By my calculation, then, he still was slightly hobbled as many as 21 months after his surgery.
Daunte is a quarterback, not a running back, you say? True, but part of what makes him so dangerous is his ability to scramble out of the pocket and make plays with his legs. I'm no scientist, but it stands to reason a guy who will be just nine months removed from radical reconstructive surgery might have trouble escaping oncoming defensive ends and shrugging off linebackers on one leg.
In fact, I'll go ahead and predict Daunte doesn't play until after the Dolphins' week eight bye – about one full year after his injury. Actually, scratch that. Since the Fish play the Bears, who are liable to tear Daunte to shreds, in week 10, let's push his return back to the Kansas City game on November 12 (coincidentally, that would give him one game to kick the dirt off the tires and be ready for the Vikings visit to Miami on November 19).
At best, the Fish would be 5-3 at that point (assuming losses at Pittsburgh, at the Patriots, and at Chicago), and would need Daunte to step in and win, realistically, five games just to make the playoffs. Can they beat the Chiefs at home in Daunte's first start? The improved Vikings at home the next week? The Patriots in week 14? At Indy in week 17? All with Daunte playing at, say, 80 percent and in an offense that is somewhat unfamiliar to him? Was that a "niner" I heard in there?
I could be wrong and Culpepper could make the fastest recovery in the history of mankind and play like his old self right off the bat this season, ultimately leading the Dolphins to Super Bowl glory in his first year with the team.
But, you have to admit, I could be right. And if I am, you'll want to knock players like Chris Chambers, Randy McMichael, and Ronnie Brown down your fantasy draft boards a few notches. That is, unless you believe in the almighty powers of either Harrington or…what was his name? Cleo Lemon
Articles like this one make me nervous about my Phins chances this season. WHat do you guys think?
http://www.fanball.com/buzz/article.cfm?id=6156