Commentary: Will Dolphins' lineup cleaning reveal a new team?

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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/dolphins/content/sports/epaper/2008/08/31/a1c_stoda_0901.html

Commentary: Will Dolphins' lineup cleaning reveal a new team?

By GREG STODA
Palm Beach Post Staff Columnist

Sunday, August 31, 2008

The Dolphins are all but unrecognizable.

If they were a television show, they'd be Clean House, which, for the uninitiated, is a home-makeover production dealing with the removal of astonishing amounts of junk and clutter. The result, unfailingly, is the creation of a new place in an old space accompanied by a new hope.

That's not to how the NFL works, of course.

It's not in the business of neat-and-tidy refurbishing.

The quick fix isn't a solution for a mess as deep as the Dolphins have found themselves mired in for such a long time.

So it is that Miami's housecleaning is a long-term project. The requirements for improvement go beyond an interior decorator's imagination or a carpenter's handiwork or the negotiating abilities of a buyer/trader.

But the Dolphins, to their great credit, have done much heavy lifting while trying to find their way out of the rubble of last season's 1-15 record.

They have removed, under the direction of General Manager Jeff Ireland with Bill Parcells in the role of Mr. Wizard, astonishing amounts of junk and clutter from the roster.

The change, especially on offense, is remarkable.

It's possible, for example, Miami will feature exactly one player in Sunday afternoon's opening day starting offensive lineup at Dolphin Stadium against the New York Jets who started at the same position on opening day a year ago. That would be center Samson Satele.

Otherwise? The Dolphins might have Ted Ginn Jr. and Derek Hagan at wide receiver where they had Chris Chambers and Marty Booker a year ago.

They might have an offensive line of Jake Long at left tackle, Justin Smiley at left guard, Satele, Donald Thomas at right guard and Vernon Carey at right tackle. A year ago reading left to right it was Carey, Chris Liwienski, Satele, Rex Hadnot and L.J. Shelton.

They might have Ricky Williams instead of Ronnie Brown at running back.

They might have Anthony Fasano at tight end rather than David Martin and Justin Peelle (both started the first game in 2007).

They might have Boomer Grigsby at fullback in place of Reagan Mauia at fullback (the Dolphins had no fullback in the starting lineup in the opener a year ago).

And they will have Chad Pennington, not Trent Green, at quarterback this time around.

"We knew there was going to be a lot of turnover there," Ireland said Sunday afternoon.

"Did I know it was going to be only one left? Probably not at the time."

There have been multiple changes on defense, too, where the most notable differences are the tactical shift from a 4-3 to a 3-4 alignment and the absences of Jason Taylor and Zach Thomas.

All of that, plus the return of familiar defenders (some in new positions) - Vonnie Holliday and Channing Crowder and Matt Roth and Will Allen and Yeremiah Bell - makes the infusion of newcomers on defense less dramatic.

The salient point, though, is how the newness at the top - from Parcells to Ireland to head coach Tony Sparano - is reflected through roster composition.

The scrubbing has been thorough even by standards of typical annual NFL turnover, and good for the Dolphins in that regard.

There's a disinfectant smell to the team. There's also an indelible mark left from the 1-15 stain, but the stench is gone.

"We knew we needed to get younger," Ireland said. "Now, we have some guys we think we can grow with and develop the way we want."

The Dolphins almost certainly will improve their record from last season, because, really, it'd be next to impossible not to.

And that kind of empirical evidence of progress is important.

But the discovery of potential is the primary focus of this season's endeavor and will be more meaningful, for better or worse, than where Miami finishes in the AFC East standings.

The next task facing the Dolphins is to establish enough stability to build a foundation upon which a clean house can stand.