And now the fun starts…

Well, it might not be fun for some (like Cam or Randy), but the fact of the matter is that beginning right now Dolphin fans can put that awful season behind them and look towards the future. that coming offseason is potentially the most crucial offseason that franchise will go through in a expanded moment. So it will be closely monitored and, likely, scrutinized by all Dolphin fans. But before we start looking at the future, let’s quickly touch on Sunday’s season finale against the Bengals.

THOUGHTS ON GAME
Well obviously, the one player that stands out from today’s game is John Beck. Yes, he did fumble his first snap. What seemed to happen was John took his eyes off the ball for a moment. He was likely too concerned with the blitz that was coming and looking to see where he should go with the ball. It was a naughty first impression to give new boss Bill Parcells, that’s for certain. But John settled down after that. He moved around the pocket well, was decisive, and displayed that quick release of his. His stat line from the game, 13/21 for 135 and a landing (with a rushing TD as well) looked good. But when you consider that 2 of his pass attempts were spikes to stop the clock, his line of 13/19 looks even better. That’s a completion percentage of 68% and a YPA of 7.1. whether you do the QB rating for his stat line, it’s a 106.3. fairly impressive! I think his performance was a very good way to end the season for John and to give him some confidence to build on going into the offseason. I’ve been told that John looked fairly good in practices these past few weeks as well. So now we’ll just have to wait and see what Parcells thinks of him as we enter the offseason.

A couple of other quick hits about yesterday’s game:

-Ted Ginn continues to show very good hands. With a dependable QB under center, he could really blossom in 2008.

-Jason Allen stinks in pass coverage. That’s the bottom line. He looked lost on a few occasions in that past game.

-Lorenzo Booker continues to play well for that team, as he gained 87 more total yards. I can’t wait to see what his role might be next year.

-This secondary desperately needs some upgrades. I’m really hoping the Dolphins can land Asante Samuel or Marcus Trufant in free agency. I don’t care what the cost is. Landing one of them allows us to slide Will Allen down to the #2 corner, where he would excel as a compliment to a real shut-down corner.

THE FUTURES OF CAM AND RANDY
There are a lot of rumors flying around out there right now regarding the futures of both Cam Cameron and Randy Mueller. Regardless of their accuracy, that will likely be a engaged early part of 2008 for that franchise, just as it was back in early 2007.

Here are the most recent rumors making rounds, just to get everyone updated. First, regarding Randy Mueller:

On Friday, there was a post on ProFootballTalk entitled, “Sweeping changes coming in Miami.” Here’s the gist of that post:

A source with knowledge of the situation in South Florida tells us that “sweeping changes” are most likely coming for the Dolphins. And soon.

Coach Cam Cameron? Out. General Manager Randy Mueller? Out as soon as Monday, even though he’s been doing research all year for free agency and the draft.

We’re told that Parcells already has been working directly with the league office to obtain the appropriate permissions to hire Cowboys V.P. of college and pro scouting Jeff Ireland.

soon after yesterday, PFT posted an composition called, “No More Mueller.” That composition simply said, “A league source tells us that Dolphins G.M. Randy Mueller will definitely be fired by new football poobah Bill Parcells.”

Around 2:30 on Sunday, even the Sun-Sentinel reported Randy is likely to be fired:

Randy Mueller is expected to be fired as Dolphins general manager early that week, a source said.

And as whether to underscore that decision, new team decision-maker Bill Parcells sat at Sunday’s game at Dolphin Stadium with good friend and retired Green Bay Packers General Manager Ron Wolf.

Coach Cam Cameron’s

fate isn’t as clear, but the source said it would be “a big, big surprise” whether he’s kept.

Now, the absolute latest on Randy Mueller’s future comes from PFT. They are reporting that Jeff Ireland, the Cowboys VP of scouting, will “definitely” be getting the Dolphins job:

The same source that told us that Dolphins G.M. Randy Mueller “definitely” will be fired tells us that Cowboys V.P. of college and pro scouting Jeff Ireland “definitely” will be installed as the new General Manager in Miami.

Despite reports that the Cowboys might try to delay the move until after the 2008 draft, the reality is that, whether Ireland is getting final say by personnel, the Dolphins can immediately hire him.

It would be very odd to see Randy fired before the draft, though. That’s considering he’s been scouting the draft for the past 4 months or so. whether he gets axed, soon after all his scouting research leaves with him. However, considering Ireland’s main job in Dallas is college and pro scouting, the thinking is that he would be able to step right in with his knowledge and put together a plan with Parcells to start building that franchise back up again.

So what about Cam? That situation seems as cloudy as ever. We’ve all heard the Romeo Crennel rumors by now. The final I heard about Crennel came on Friday, courtesy of PFT:

As Bill Parcells officially takes the reins as the chief cook and butt kicker in Miami, rumors persist that he wants Browns coach Romeo Crennel to replace Cam Cameron.

“Believe the talk that Bill Parcells is interested in bringing in Cleveland coach Romeo Crennel to coach the Dolphins,” writes Bill Williamson of the Denver Post.

Crennel tried to dismiss the rumors on Wednesday, but never said unequivocally that he won’t be the coach of the Dolphins in 2008.

However, ProFootballTalk is reporting fairly a different story now. On Sunday around 9:15 pm EST, they posted a story that says the following:

Though everyone expects Fins coach Cam Cameron to be fired, a league source tells us that Cameron told the team after Sunday’s season-ending loss to the Bengals that he’ll return as the team’s coach in 2008.

So now we have to wonder whether that is report is accurate or not. And whether Cam did actually tell the team that, you’d have to start wondering when Cam was told he would be back. It couldn’t have been during the game. And whether it was in the day or two main up to Sunday’s game, you would have had to think that info would have leaked out prior to the game.

soon after that final bit of info comes from an scoop by Armando Salguero. Here’s what he says in his commentary:

Several low-rung Dolphins staffers have been told to show up early for work Monday to clean out other people’s offices all through the Dolphins’ facility.

Although no one has had the dignity to tell general manager Randy Mueller he is on the way out, the decision to fire him was made before the Dolphins lost their season finale 38-25 to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.


Some say that by Wednesday and likely no later than the end of that week, coach Cam Cameron will be fired as well. Parcells told Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga as much Sunday afternoon even as the Dolphins were playing every bit is badly as they have in any of their 15 losses that depressing season.

Parcells has been around the Dolphins less than a week. He has seen only two full practices, one walkthrough practice and one game in person. And he already knows Cameron is not the man he wants running his team.

Now that info is a bit different than what PFT reports in terms of Cam’s future. whether Parcells told Wayne that already, thereupon why would Cam tell his players he would be back? It’s very likely that PFT is “off” on their report. However, Mike Florio (PFT’s writer) is normally pretty solid with his info.

Really, that whole situation is fairly a mess. And I wouldn’t expect the situation to clear up any until after the New Year’s holiday. So for the next couple of days, we will likely be in limbo.

Original post by Matty I <info@thephinsider.com>

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