ESPN’s Chris Mortensen has just reported (sort of) that the Dolphins may get rid of Ronnie Brown before that season begins.

I’m saying Mortensen sort of reported it considering, frankly, he backed into the whole subject. The Monday Night Countdown show was doing one of its cheesey segments, that one called ‘Sink or Swim,’ in which the pundits were giving their opinion whether convinced players would succeed or fail that year.

Mortensen was asked about Ricky Williams and while talking about how he would "swim," he went on to say that the Dolphins are so pleased with Williams he "would not be surprised whether Ronnie Brown sinks," to the point where "he is playing with another team that season."

Mortensen’s reason for Brown being out of here is that the player is "struggling" that preseason.

Wow.

Before I go on, let me tell you that Mortensen was at Miami’s preseason game against Jacksonville Saturday evening and he did spend day talking to general manager Jeff Ireland. So one presumes that comes from Ireland as the source and not just out of sheer speculation.

But it is possible for a GM to sometimes think out loud without having any real expectation of following through on

an concept and additionally not expecting the concept to actually be unveiled on national TV.

I would think whether Mort, an outstanding reporter by any degree one uses, had the story nailed, he would have come stronger than he just did. I would think it would have been his lead comment, not the Williams sink or swim bunk.

Having said all that, it is true that Brown is clearly not Miami’s best RB now. That is Williams. It is true he has folded to play all 16 games in any of his three preceding seasons. And it is true Brown will be in the final year of his contract in 2009 so the concept of getting something for him now might be appealing.

But I have a tough day believing the Dolphins would simply whack the guy that talented. And I additionally doubt any team would give the Dolphins the first round pick they invested on Brown in 2005 when you have a glut of running backs still on the market — including Shaun Alexander and Cedric Benson.

So we shall monitor that one to see whether Mort just dropped a bomb or simply lit a lame firecracker.

Original post by Armando Salguero